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I had a massive heart attack back in June and spent FOUR days in the hospital.....FOUR. (I later had open heart surgery in August, but that's not part of the rant ....yet) So, FOUR days in the hospital??? $131,000.....ONE HUNDRED THIRTY ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! That doesn't include the Dr's fees..... I have insurance and my share is very small....but seriously...$131,000??????? They did save my life....but eek gad!! I haven't looked at the bills yet for the open heart surgery and 6 day stay at the hospital....but I am guessing that the whole nut is around $400k!!!! While I am thankful for the excellent care and to still be fogging the mirror.....the cost seems obnoxiously high. Just saying....

Calm down... I think many medical bills are rubbery and phony. I ran into a metal fence post on my bike as a kid and broke my nose. The bridge of my nose got so wide that I couldn't even wear glasses... they rode up so high that my eyebrows were in the middle of the lenses and looked really weird. As soon as I got out of college and paid off my debts, I saved up for a nose job. The surgeon normally did bust enlargements, but I had heard he was very good and he agreed to take a crack at my nose. But because it was totally cosmetic I had to pay everything myself. I think it was $2000 in 1989, which would be about $3800 in 2014 dollars. Anyway, after the surgery (which was a total success) the hospital messed up my paperwork and sent me a bill under the assumption that my insurance would pay it. It was around $5000 and contained all kinds of scandalous itemizations. I clearly recall they charged me $12 for each aspirin pill they gave me. The next day I happened to bump into my nose surgeon at Wendy's, and I asked him what I should do. He told me to bring the bill to the hospital with a copy of my cancelled check and to tell them it was a total self-pay surgery. I got all my documents and paperwork together and girded myself for battle (I felt like the Armor of God from Ephesians 6) and marched into the hospital... I had barely got the words "self pay" out of my mouth and the administrator snatched my bill from my hands, rolled his eyes, reached into his desk, took out the biggest rubber stamp I have ever seen in my life, and stamped "Paid in Full" on my bill. I also had a friend who worked in the collections department of a hospital. His job was to call people at night and demand payment for hospital bills that they had not paid. I was utterly astonished at my friend's power. He would wheedle and haggle and nag and negotiate and could chop mountain-sized chunks out of a patient's bill if the patient agreed to pay something. (If a hospital ever calls you nagging about a bill, always start the conversation with "Gee, I maybe can pay 10%, will 10% work for you?") And finally, about 10 years ago I was bitten by a cat and had a monster allergic reaction to something in the cat's saliva and was in the hospital for a week. On my last day they told me at breakfast that I'd be discharged right away, so I dressed and packed... and then waited 4 hours for them to finish the paperwork. I was discharged at around 12:10pm. Later a nurse friend of mine told me the hospital wanted to keep me past noon so they could charge my insurance company for another day. I trust the U.S. medical system about as far as I can throw a grand piano.

You obviously know very little about the tax known as Obama Care....

I'm desperately looking for other couples in a marriage where one spouse has turned away from the church and having a huge faith crisis, but you are both trying to keep your marriage together, I love my husband. We have been married for 18 years and have three kids. We were both raised in the church, he served a mission, married in the temple. Recently, my spouse told me he no longer believes in the church, that there are too many things that are inconsistent with it for him to continue believing. He hardly comes to church right now. He doesn't have hatred for the church, just really confused, depressed, and distant from the gospel. We both have talked a lot and are committed to our marriage vows and our family. As this is so new, ward members/bishop are unaware, our kids don't know yet, and our parents/siblings do not either. He is troubled with me continuing to take the kids to church because he really feels we are teaching them a false religion, but so far respects my desire to do so. I feel so alone with no one to talk to in my situation. How do we tell our kids? How can I keep raising them in the church and help them get their own testimonies while their father does not? How can we have a good marriage when we are on such different faith spectrums now? My heart is so heavy. I do not want to end my marriage--he is a good man and wonderful father. I don't want my kids to ever doubt that. He has also told me he doesn't want us to leave and that he loves me...that is one of his biggest fears and why he didn't tell me his feelings for so long. I hope someday his views will again soften for the church, but I know they may never as well. I just know I am not going to abandon our marriage. We really want to make our marriage continue, but don't know how to navigate these uncharted waters. I would really like to hear from other men and women in this situation and what they have done. Thank you for listening.

I took the survey... I didn't have a problem with it because I just clicked No Response if I didn't feel answering. But, I only did that on 2 or 3 questions. None of their business how much money I earn or my personal info. B)

I just took the survey. It seems a little odd. I don't know who it is doing the survey really, and not much time to investigate it, but it appears to try to force someone to say something needs to change in the church. The group who created it has either an education in psychology or is full of psychologists. Some of the questions are just like poking a lion to have a response.

Friend, what denies us our exaltation isn't what we do; it's what those actions lead us to become. We should be becoming the kind of person who wouldn't look; and if we find we're having trouble in that quest--well, that's exactly what the bishop is for. Not to give us absolution; but to coach us in becoming what God wants us to become. Adultery and fornication are definitely so destructive to that quest and hostile to the Spirit, that we need to get help ASAP. Ditto for masturbation and for flat-out pornography. R-rated movies and incidental nudity in popular media is perhaps more of a gray area; but IMHO the fact that you're even asking about this suggests that in your case the Spirit has been sufficiently grieved that a chat with your bishop would be appropriate.

The World Heath Organisation produced a report back in 2000 that rated the quality of health care in each country and placed them into ranking order from highest to lowest. The UK was placed at 18, higher than the USA's 37. That said, the WHO no longer do the report, because a lot of people complained that the report was unfair and they decided it was actually far too complex to fairly create a report like this. I lived in the UK for the first 28 years of my life. I know public health care - I've lived with it for a long time, and I trust it immensely. Most people living in the UK would fight to keep it. But now I live in the USA, where a lot of people would fight to keep public health care away. I can't help but think in both cases, many of those people just want what they are used to and know works, being scared of change in case it goes wrong. However once I've lived here for an equally substantial period of time and therefore personally will have experienced both, I'll feel I'm actually able to give a valid opinion.

I know you guys spit every time you hear the phrase 'public health care', but illness hit me when I least expected it, in a way I least expected it. 3 hospital stays of around 3 weeks, medication for life, cost to me at point of need? zilch. nada. nothing. I may have paid out in taxes over the years I was employed, but the peace of mind and quality of care it bought was absolutely worth it. And the idea that I might have overpaid, and bought someone else's peace of mind, as well? That's good, too. Best wishes, 2RM.

I have to confess, that expression is not original to me. I remember it from high school, when some U.S. politician (Henry "Scoop" Jackson, perhaps) claimed he trusted the Soviet Union about as far as he could throw a grand piano. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the U.S. medical system. Let's change it to a spinet instead.

I would love to see the youtube video of a literal demonstration of how far you trust the USA medical system. Just to make sure I have the right idea in my head.

capitalism will work better somewhat longer than socialism will, but without restraint it too will fail- when you set it up so that it will be a dog eat dog world eventually there will be those who will combine to totally upset the balance… and eventually morph it away from being an equal capitalist opportunity. and will likely morph into some other way further from that.

Look at the bright side . . . another heart attack like that, plus a couple of rounding errors, and you'll be a million dollar man!

I'm not entirely persuaded. There are nations, particularly in South and Central America, and in Asia, where capitalism has been allowed to run riot, with no benefit to the poor whatsoever. They still work in dangerous sectors like mining, or in garment sweat shops, for next to no pay and with working conditions best described as inhuman. On the other hand, the US and Europe are comparatively wealthy nations with plenty of opportunity, a history of social activism, and a philosophical conviction that all humanity is created equal. It is not surprising that here, the poor might be less poor in relative terms. Best wishes, 2RM.

Hmmm, I have always been taught the same thing, TheFolkProphet. That whatever knowledge we acquire here we will take with us into the next life. In fact, there is even a scripture somewhere that is directed at women....I cannot for the life of me remember where it is, but it is a very lengthy list of topics and things that a woman should be proficient in, including science, math, geology, economy, geography, sociology, and I can't remember what all else....but these things will be required for us to know at exaltation. For how can we create worlds without having some practical knowledge of the workings of science and weather, math, etc...sounds far fetched perhaps, but I heard this in a Relief Society lesson on the topic many years ago. I'll do some research and see if I can find the scripture. I remember thinking at the time that if this was the case, I would find myself up the creek without a paddle, because I've never been to college. And I think math is Of the Devil

I believe President Young was voicing the same sentiment taught by the ancient Nephite prophet Jacob: And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. This looks to me like it's saying that if we walk up to our covenants and desire riches in order to perform good works (and not to buy nice cars or live luxuriously), we will be given riches. Just now, for the first time in my life, it occurs to me that both Jacob and President Young use the plural form, "ye" (or "you"), and not the singular "thou". I had never noticed that before. It makes me think that, perhaps, this is a societal covenant and reward, and not a personal one. We as a people will obtain riches if we live up to our covenants and seek those riches to bless others. I am not and never have been a man of great wealth. I have sometimes wondered if this is a de facto commentary on my state before Christ. Taking at face value the truthfulness of these teachings, I see four possible reasons why I and others like me don't have these riches: We have not yet obtained the requisite hope in Christ. We do not seek riches, either for ourselves or to bless others. As I just now realized, this is perhaps not an individual promise, but a collective promise to the people of God as a whole. The fourth is a personal reason. When I was younger and quite sure that I would make lots of money in my life, I prayed very fervently to God for many years that, if lots of money would harm my children or my marriage, that I not be cursed with it.Now, I personally suspect that my lack of financial success is due to my not playing the game -- or in LDS terminology, not following the laws upon which making lots of money is predicated. It's not one of my gifts, and the ability to make scads of money has never been something I've sought to develop. So I've always sort of defaulted to Reason #2, but a sneaking suspicion that Reason #1 has something to do with it, too. But I grant that it is possible that God heard and answered my prayers as a young husband and father (prayers which I still hold in my heart, even if I never bother to vocalize them any more, given that being a rich man is not a burden I carry). And if that is the case, my heart swells in gratitude to my Father for loving me and my family enough to keep us from the harm and destruction that would otherwise await us.