OMG! 17% of our net income went to medical expenses in 2004!

[Cuban_Liberal]

Our CPA just finished our income taxes, and un-reimbursed medical expenses counted for 17% of Paddy and my combined net incomes! We're fortunate enough to have major-medical and a decent enough income to take care of what's not covered, but how in the heck do other people not as fortunate manage? Bankruptcy? Suffer? Not eat? Die?

And people wonder why we need single-source national health care?

:wow::wtf:

[NewJeffCT]

1. medical bankruptcy is very common

Numbers are in the millions...

[brainshrub]

2. You got it right. We suffer or die.

And most of the uninsured have jobs.

American health plan: Don't get sick.

[sniffa]

3. either

we wait in Long Lines, or hope our bodies can heaL themseLves. :D

[amazona]

4. bankruptcy

That's how my friends with huge medical bills handled it if they had a home, it's the only way to keep your home.

Renters and homeless, alas, who can't really be helped by bankruptcy do stop getting care and, yes, sometimes they die. I know of a girl dead in her 30s from pneumonia because she had no money for care. I'm sure we all know similar stories.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Lorien]

5. Suffer, in my case

my credit rating is destroyed from several large bills that my insurance REFUSED to cover (even though one was for a life saving surgery). I can't afford to pay them. I'm in debt over my neck-and I once had a six figure income and $80,000 in savings! The GOP bullshit about "picking yourself up by your bootstraps" doesn't figure in healthcare costs. The message is; if you're sick, then just die, dammit!

I would have gone bankrupt if I hadn't had so much in the bank to begin with. Now I have a much smaller income, and if something else goes wrong, I'm done.

[movie_girl99]

6. welcome to my world

my daughter was hospitalized 2 years ago for 5 days and because my ex is self employed and not affiliated with a big company his BCBS plan requires a $1000 deductible and $12,000 out of pocket cap. So we split the cost and while he paid his half in full, I'm on a payment plan with the hospital i have 3 more years. Now she scheduled for brain surgery in June so I'll have to add that to my balance and continue to make monthly payments for 5 years. Thank god there is no interest applied or I'd be f**ked.I'm not complaining about the surgery i would pay whatever i need to for her to be healthy but its sad that my situation is so commonplace now days.

[Bouncy Ball]

7. I forget, what percentage does it need to be to claim it

on itemized deductions? I'm thinking 20%. If that's true that SUCKS since you were THAT close. But maybe it's 10 or 15%. If so I hope you are itemizing your deductions and include that. We've never had our high enough, even the year I had two emergency surgeries two weeks apart and one of them alone was $65,000 (before insurance).

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. And you are both young....

It gets far worse when you are older.

We DO need single-source national healthcare.

[Cuban_Liberal]

9. Paddy's skeletal system is 65, even though the rest of him is 21.

That's what his orthopedic surgeon says, because of his arthritis...

:shrug:

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. Lord, he's young to have arthritis that bad.

It's no wonder your expenses were so high.

[sniffa]

11. does he

have that 'chiLdhood arthritis' (sorry, don't know if there's a specific name for it)

[Cuban_Liberal]

12. Yes, he has a degenerative osteoarthritis.

I can't remember the formal name, but yes, that's what he has.

[sniffa]

14. my heart goes out to both you and paddy

i hope he has a good doctor and be watchfuL of his eyes - friend suffers from same affLixion; she's 27 now (and not doing weLL) and she's starting to go bLind. i don't understand what the reLationship is between the eyesight and her arthritis (apparentLy it's a common occurance) but the bLindness can be prevented if caught earLy enough.

[Cuban_Liberal]

15. Thank you.

It's an auto-immune problem, they theorize, and fortuantely for us, his rheumatoloist made a timely referral to an opthamologist early on, so his eyes are OK. By the time he's 30, he's going to be the Bionic Man, with all the artificial joints he'll have.

;)

[Glenda]

13. Mine was 12% n/t

[ThorsHammer]

16. Yikes; something has to be done about national health care

[movie_girl99]

17. you are so preaching to the choir n/t