The FashionGrinder Forum

[ludo]

Not many people would have that much cash just lying around. Fortunately, about 85% of Americans are entirely covered when it comes to health care, and for the 15% that are not, we have medicare and medicaid. The number of people who are literally just left there to die with no help whatsoever is so minuscule. We find a way to help those who need it. I know many doctors who treat patients for free when they truly need it and can't afford it (my uncle is one of them), and we have free health clinics available to those people as well.

I understand that certian circumstances come up (like the one you mentioned, although somewhat unlikely) and people need help, and for those people, help SHOULD be available. I believe that the health care system needs at least SOME reform to help those in need who are actually working and trying their best to pay their own way. But Obama's proposed plan is not the way to go about that. Not in a country this heavily populated, and not in a capitalist nation. Sure, we can help that small percentage of people who don't have insurance right now, but the quality of medical care will go down substantially for EVERYONE. I feel like more harm would be done than good. But hey, if you get cancer one day and end up with some mediocre doctor who doesn't give a care about you, and you're treated in the hospital hallway with hundreds of other people because there simply isn't the space or the resources for you, then I guess that's what you asked for. Bahhh I don't know. This whole healthcare reform business has more than one side. Of course I feel bad for those who are without help (those who are doing their best to work and pay their own way, that is) but if we look at this situation with our heads instead of just our hearts, it simply will not work.

Anyone in the US can buy their own health insurance for a reasonable cost, whether it is covered by their job or not. If you're working a minimum wage job, there IS a way to get out of that situation. It involves hard work and perseverance. Those of us who have career benefits or can afford the monthly bill for health insurance have been working all our lives for it. And now, my tax dollars are going to help people who have messed around and not taken education seriously.

[stock]

If I were 40 years old, had no health insurance because my job didn't offer me any, and I went and paid cash for a doctors visit only to find out that I had cancer that would cost hundreds of thousands to treat?

Well for starters, I'd probably look back at all of the things I foolishly spent my money on each month instead of medical insurance. Wondering if maybe I should have invested into my health and that of my family instead of trading in a prefectly good automobile for a brand new car under the cash for clunkers program and signing on for an extra $500 per month in payments for the next 48 months!

[avigdor]

There's a simple reason the prices have escalated so badly:
Democrat-written law. It's a PREDICTED consequence of what 100% of elected Democrats demand be so.

"Those who say that it was better in the 1950s" simply REMEMBER when no one had any complaints with a "system" where you went to the doctor of your choice at will, got his bill, paid it and could afford it - when actual insurance was readily available and easily affordable but going without was O.K. too because you could afford the hospital's payment plan if you went in uninsured. That so many people now OPPOSE returning to that "system" is a testament to liberal propaganda.

Whether they realize it or not, "those who say that it was better in the 1950s" actually mean, "it was better before Democrats got their way."

[eachann]

Would you rather go back to the type of medicine that was practiced back in the '50s. I was born in '54. There was a benign tumor on my leg that was removed in '59, it was not laparoscopic nor outpatient surgery. I was put out with ether, I was 5 and I can remember how terrible it was.
Until this economic breakdown it was easy to get a good job, if you went to college, and with all the available avenues to obtain money for a college degree, the only excuse is lack of motivation.
My husband's father were sharecroppers (father-in-law) when he was a little boy. My father-in-law quit school when he was in the 6th grade to help the family, Coming from this type of background my husband managed to go to college and be the 1st in his family to do that, excuses just don't get it, because that's all they are is excuses. Besides that so many people come to the US, with little more than the shirts on their backs and make it big, with hard work and perseverance, until recently, the ability to make big in this country was easy provided you worked hard.

[cuddle]

I pay cash and am happy with it.
I went to the DR in 2001 I think.
I doubt I ever go back unless its for stitches or broken bones.
I am getting old and have no use for Drs.

[shanley]

So this scenario never happens to liberals?

[isidoro]

I would guess that they do the same thing the liberals do to pay for their insurance. Some of the people who are uninsured are young people doing the min.wage jobs and they aren't worried about insurance(some but not all). Why couldn't people in that situation band together form a group and negotiate with the insurance companies the way a business would do. The insurance co. wouldn't be looking at a customer they would be looking at a lot of customers coming on at one time.

[derward]

Finding a job with benefits is not luck, it is earned by graduating from high school and by not doing drugs, and by working every day.

Now if you make poor decisions in life, you have a tougher life.

Republicans like Health Savings Accounts, with Catastrophic Health Insurance for the big stuff.

Now look even if you had no health insurance and you got cancer, you would still get world class treatment, at tax payer expense.

No one in the USA is left to die in the street because they do not have healthcare.

[tavey89]

I don't know anybody of any party that has 1/100th of that cash lying around, do you??
Catastrophic things happen to people every day. You deal with it.
My brother had no insurance of any kind when he was in a fire and ran up a $180,000 burn unit bill in the early 80's. He's still paying it off $25 at a time. That's what you do.
People find ways to pay for hybrid cars, 60" TV's, and 8 person hot tubs, but they won't buy insurance.
Their choices are not my responsibility, neither morally nor certainly financially.

[elmoor]

I pay money, cashola, greenbacks, etc....

We use the payment plan.