Availing medicaid

[Old Dominion 26]

Your rant is justified, from your perspective. You must present a high risk situation. I assume you have tried the Blue Cross-Blue Shield agents? To my knowledge, no licensed hospital in the U.S. can refuse treatment for you on the basis of inability to pay the costs. That is the safety net we have. The nonpaying patients are paid for in part by government assistance, and in part by higher fees charged to those who DO have insurance.

The U.S. Constitution did not anticipate that the government would be responsible and accountable for the health of the population. If the government had the authority to regulate individual health, and punish us for unhealthy lifestyles, then universal health care might work.

[T and M 1]

Your rant is justified, from your perspective. You must present a high risk situation. I assume you have tried the Blue Cross-Blue Shield agents? To my knowledge, no licensed hospital in the U.S. can refuse treatment for you on the basis of inability to pay the costs. That is the safety net we have. The nonpaying patients are paid for in part by government assistance, and in part by higher fees charged to those who DO have insurance.

The U.S. Constitution did not anticipate that the government would be responsible and accountable for the health of the population. If the government had the authority to regulate individual health, and punish us for unhealthy lifestyles, then universal health care might work.

You are correct that the hospital cannot refuse to stabilize a patient per federal law EMTALA. But that doesn't mean the patient won't get a bill. Often times these bills are not paid, which means we all pay higher fees, but I would argue that it's not much of a safety net when you have to declare bankruptcy. I have avoided this, but millions of Americans haven't.

I would recommend that you take a quick look at these two articles, and maybe you will better understand why some of us apply for and enroll in programs like Medicaid or S-CHIP. We don't want to become a statistics.

"Medical bills leading cause of bankruptcy: study finds most bankruptcy filers had health insurance"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/

"When staying alive means going bankrupt"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/

[T and M 1]

Your rant is justified, from your perspective. You must present a high risk situation. I assume you have tried the Blue Cross-Blue Shield agents? To my knowledge, no licensed hospital in the U.S. can refuse treatment for you on the basis of inability to pay the costs. That is the safety net we have. The nonpaying patients are paid for in part by government assistance, and in part by higher fees charged to those who DO have insurance.

The U.S. Constitution did not anticipate that the government would be responsible and accountable for the health of the population. If the government had the authority to regulate individual health, and punish us for unhealthy lifestyles, then universal health care might work.

Sorry to barrage you with information, but the regulation of behavior is interesting. The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain actually has invested millions into anti-smoking campaigns, and fully covers counseling and stop-smoking treatments. It has had remarkable results, and the NHS will see savings down the line since it is the single payer of health care services in the UK.

Here is the NHS's stop-smoking site. It is very interesting stuff, and it just makes one wish we had things like this in the US....aggressive campaigns to convince people to eat better and live healthier. Private insurance companies would never invest this kind of money in stop-smoking campaigns, b/c they wouldn't save money down the line...they only insure an individual for an average of a few years, and then there is another "payer." Cost-shifting is a huge problem in our system, and there is no incentive for health care payers (insurance companies) to encourage healthy living.

http://smokefree.nhs.uk/