Good Grief - rant

[Jennarator]

No one here is getting any sympathy from me. Just got a $17,000 bill from my dentist, which is the last third of the $50,000 worth of work my wife needs. My insurance paid $1,500.

Had to hit the 401k plan to pay for it. Retirement postponed..................................

I don't get the whining of not being able to afford health insurance. That's the one thing that I looked for in every job I ever took: being able to get coverage for my family. And if the coverage was not good enough or affordable, I tried other options or other jobs. This really should be a priority in anyone's life, and I consider it a major lack of personal responsibility not to do this for oneself or loved ones. BTW my health insurance costs $2,452 per month.

Anyone who thinks that the "obamacare" here in the US will be cheaper or "better" than what is happening now is deluding themselves. Many taxes etc. are being raised to pay for this plan. Even tanning booths are being taxed 10% to pay for it! I personally know several doctors that will not practice if this system survives the court challenges.

When one thinks about it there's something fundamentally wrong with compelling everyone to buy something "for their own good". Sounds like another plan that was proposed millenia ago..........................

I don't think anyone agrees with Obamacare. All the posts, here, have been against it.

You are also in a posistion where you can, apparently, be choosie about your job, and afford the costly insurance. I don't think people that can't afford it are people that don't care about thier families. I know I care about mmine and I am doing my best to provide for them. I am trying to find a feesable solution to my dilema. (As are so many others out there!)

I am a bit insulted that you would say that just because some people don't have money for something, that "it a major lack of personal responsibility not to do this for oneself or loved ones"

[Bini]

^ Yeh. Wow, just wow.

[Iggy]

The conversation has stayed friendly, so I don't understand the problem?

:)

AHEM

The problem, Eowyn is that the subject aka topic as strayed from my rant about the Oral Surgeon making a tooth extraction into a two trip affair. Thus he is charging for not only the extraction but also for two visits.

This is not about insurance coverage- at least not my intent. My husband and I have wonderful insurance coverage. It was the sole reason he went to work for ASU- the pay was the pits but the insurance coverage was and is the best! While he was employed with ASU we paid $75.00 a month for this excellant and amazing coverage. Now that he is retired, his pension minus $92.00 a month pays for our insurance, plus he also gets Medicare/caid.

My insulin for one box of 5 pens cost the uninsured nearly $200.00- I only pay $40.00 for that box. When I get it through the mail- I get 3 months for the price of two.

If I have to go to Urgent Care, my out of pocket cost is $75.00. No matter what they do or don't do. If I go to ER my out of pocket cost is $175.00, no matter what they do/give me or don't give me.

To keep from paying the $175.00 at the hospital, they must admit me for a minimum of three days/nights. Then the insurance pays 100% of the bill.

When we got our hearing aids, mine cost over $3,000 for two- I paid out of pocket $85.00. Husbands aids cost over $5,500- we paid out of pocket, $132.00.

Because Husband is now on Medicare/caid, we aren't sure what the out of pocket expenses will be- they pay first, then our private insurance pays, then the balance we pay. There is NO deductible.

Also, anyone who has $5,000 dedictible has been screwed. Check on the group plan and see about getting that deductible lowered.

We are still hunting down Dentist's- I will be going to a new one, not the one my husband went to. I too have two teeth (partial teeth, as the crowns have shattered and the roots are left in my gums) that have to be removed. I do NOT want just novacaine. I want to be put under via IV to have them removed. At 58 years of age, wetting myself from the imagined terror I have as the Dr rocks and yanks the teeth out is beyond what I can endure. Put my under, then do what has to be done!

To get back on topic with MY original post- it is about Doctors who think they are so clever in getting more money by forcing the patient to make more visits to them, thus charging them for the repeated visits.

Back in AZ, we found Dr's who didn't do this. If a follow-up visit was required, like to remove stitches, or to check on blood glucose levels in a week, we were not charged an additional office call, or lab fee.

John Doe, perhaps if you talked louder, others would have heard you.

Pam, it is not John Doe who needs to have speakers turned up, it is everyone else so they can hear him.

After the tooth is pulled, we shall see if Husband keeps going to this Dentist. It will depend on the after care he recieves.

[Guest]

AHEM

To get back on topic with MY original post- it is about Doctors who think they are so clever in getting more money by forcing the patient to make more visits to them, thus charging them for the repeated visits.

Back in AZ, we found Dr's who didn't do this. If a follow-up visit was required, like to remove stitches, or to check on blood glucose levels in a week, we were not charged an additional office call, or lab fee.

Nobody that I know of in Florida does this. It sounds like it is not the dentist that is the problem but his super inefficient office staff.

And here's the other problem:

There is a giant, glaring problem when the only way you can get affordable insurance is if you have a decent job!

Insurance should not be tied to jobs.

[Guest]

So is there a rule against threads flowing from one topic to another, related topic (as conversations tend to do)? I see it happen all the time, here and elsewhere, so I guess I'm wondering why this thread of all of them must stay exactly on topic? I'm also on the grumpy side today and should probably turn my computer off altogether.

And things WERE friendly up until a few posts ago.

[Jennarator]

My appologies, Iggy. When reading the OP I got something completetly different out of it. (I am sure it was due to the fact that insurence was on my mind.) What I got out of it was that insurence and co-pays were annoying and you had to pay and go to two appointments when you expected one. I blame the system and how dentist and doctors can "milk the system" to get more and rip off the coomon man. (Or woman) That made me think of what a rip off insurence is all together. To me it seemed still (kinda) on topic.

Again, I am sorry. No more posts on this thread for me. I hope the dentist issue gets better.

[Guest]

No more posts on this thread for me.

I was liking our talk, Jenn.

[RMGuy]

Insurance should not be tied to jobs.

Perhaps we should each take self responsibility.

-RM

[mnn727]

I wish I could get health insurance for $600 a month - Gosh that's cheap! try $1400 a month.

[mrmarklin]

. . . and if there are no jobs with a livable wage that offer healthcare, then what, mmarklin? It's not like jobs are in free supply, and many are offering little to no benefit package. My husband's only option has been to take work as an hourly-waged contractor with no benefits. Next month we'll finally be able to afford catastrophe insurance.

I hear this sort of thing all the time, and I'm glad your husband will finally be able to afford at least catastrophic insurance.

I don't know your situation---

But a lot of this revolves around the fact that people are not willing to move to get a better job, unwilling to take anything "beneath" them, or not directly in their "field" etc etc. I know several people who are underemployed in another state here in the US who could do a lot more for themselves here in PRK. They sacrifice for their "lifestyle", but gripe about financial problems. I get tired of hearing it.

There just seems to be a lot of people who won't do what it takes to better themselves.

(PRK= People's Republik of Kalifornia)

[Guest]

Perhaps we should each take self responsibility.

-RM

I'm not sure what you envision as the application for self-reliance... If you mean like a Health Savings Account then yes, it's great.

The problem is, we currently have Federal Regulations that make it very difficult for individuals to apply personal responsibility outside of their jobs.

[Guest]

I hear this sort of thing all the time, and I'm glad your husband will finally be able to afford at least catastrophic insurance.

I don't know your situation---

But a lot of this revolves around the fact that people are not willing to move to get a better job, unwilling to take anything "beneath" them, or not directly in their "field" etc etc. I know several people who are underemployed in another state here in the US who could do a lot more for themselves here in PRK. They sacrifice for their "lifestyle", but gripe about financial problems. I get tired of hearing it.

There just seems to be a lot of people who won't do what it takes to better themselves.

(PRK= People's Republik of Kalifornia)

Mmarklin, I understand what you're saying but I believe it is a narrow point of view. "Better" is a very relative term. For example, I gripe a lot about the stupidity of Florida medical regulations but I'm not going to move to PRK to better myself (even if I can make more money there) because family is more important to me than what PRK can offer. Make sense?

[Vort]

(PRK= People's Republik of Kalifornia)

That makes more sense. I thought you were talking about photorefractive keratectomy, and did not realize there was an entire discrete community of people who had undergone corneal laser surgery.

[john doe]

So is there a rule against threads flowing from one topic to another, related topic (as conversations tend to do)? I see it happen all the time, here and elsewhere, so I guess I'm wondering why this thread of all of them must stay exactly on topic? I'm also on the grumpy side today and should probably turn my computer off altogether.

And things WERE friendly up until a few posts ago.

It's not so much a rule as it is 'netiquette. It's like if someone were to say they went for a walk and saw a cute puppy dog and the response to that was "I hate green carrots" and took it in another direction entirely. Yes, sometimes threads do take on a life of their own and wander from their original thought. Sometimes we even do it on purpose. But having hung out around here for a while, and seen Iggy post for a couple years, I knew that where she started the thread and where it has ended up is not what she wanted to discuss. I knew she would want the thread to not take a left turn as this one did. That is why I have repeatedly requested that people start a new thread if they wanted to talk about the other stuff. Some people don't mind the shotgun approach, some people prefer threads they start to stay somewhat close to the topic that started. I think Iggy prefers to keep things on point. If you guys want to discuss the other topic, please start a new thread.

[Guest]

It's not so much a rule as it is 'netiquette. It's like if someone were to say they went for a walk and saw a cute puppy dog and the response to that was "I hate green carrots" and took it in another direction entirely. Yes, sometimes threads do take on a life of their own and wander from their original thought. Sometimes we even do it on purpose. But having hung out around here for a while, and seen Iggy post for a couple years, I knew that where she started the thread and where it has ended up is not what she wanted to discuss. I knew she would want the thread to not take a left turn as this one did. That is why I have repeatedly requested that people start a new thread if they wanted to talk about the other stuff. Some people don't mind the shotgun approach, some people prefer threads they start to stay somewhat close to the topic that started. I think Iggy prefers to keep things on point. If you guys want to discuss the other topic, please start a new thread.

There were so many things we posted on the left-turn topic that we didn't realize was a left-turn topic that it would be very cool if you can move all those posts to a new thread for us... there were like 4 pages of them or something.

Or, we can just let it die.

[annewandering]

edited t conform with topic.

Edited December 15, 2011 by annewandering

[Iggy]

John - Pam

Could the insurance part that derailed my thread be moved to its own thread? Or you could just close this thread? Whichever is the easiest and less painfull.

Thanks,

Iggy

[pam]

Thread closed.