"obvious ... that they were only interested in finding a way to avoid paying for my care"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3295849&mesg_id=3295849

DUer Clixtox posted this in my OP of the New York Times article from Sunday, "Even the Insured Feel Strain of Health Costs," and I felt it deserved to be seen by a wider audience:

clixtox (303 posts) Sun May-04-08 08:54 PM
Response to Original message

31.

I am in Vietnam...

Three weeks ago I couldn't urinate (I am 61) so I went to the ER at the Franco/Vietnamese Hospital (FVH) in Ho Chi Minh City. After getting a catheter and returning home I fainted and cracked my head on my bathroom sink, so back to the ER for stitches and three days in a private room to observe and diagnose why I was feeling woozy... I wrote the following paragraph to my family and friends back in Amerikkka...

I am back home today (4/18/08) and I am very happy about that! I enjoyed the quality
of care I received and the price was amazingly reasonable. The whole hospitalization,
over 3 days and nights, cost just over $1000 TOTAL, including meds, stitches (3 over my
eye), a cot for JOY! (my girlfriend) to sleep on (she was so sweet and helpful, and made sure I was
comfortable, feeding me fresh fruit she brought, and fetching stuff from home, like a laptop,
toothbrush, tweezers, nail file,etc., when we knew that I would be staying there for awhile), and consultations
with two urologists, an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor(about my fainting three times),
and the doc who sewed me up in the emergency room and checked in on me during the hospitalization .

I am feeling much better now. I have Blue Cross of California health insurance and I have been with them since about 1984. The hospital contacted Blue Cross but it was obvious from their correspondence that hey were only interested in finding a way to avoid paying for my care. Since I took a taxi to the hospital both times and not an ambulance they probably won't pay.

My total bill from FVH would have been much less if I hadn't divulged that I have(supposedly?) health Insurance coverage. Vietnamese patients without insurance also pay much less than the very reasonable amount that I paid.

I realize now that I actually, realistically, probably don't have real health insurance, the way the health insurance system in the USA works. The insurance industries only goal is to increase their own profits while making policy holders fight for the coverage they believed they were paying (a lot) for. The insurance companies subvert the system by bribing politicians, both state and federal, to allow them to easily weasel out of their responsibilities to their policy holders. This bribery is what allows the corrupt system to continue and this corruption is why single-payer, universal health care is "off the table".

Sound familiar?

[Greyhound]

1. K & R,

:kick: for follow up after I get home from my "new economy" McJob.

[Richard Steele]

2. Yup, that's US health insurance circa 2008 all right. K&R

[Lasher]

3. Claim Denied!

Wonder how many times a year an insurance claim is denied in the US?

[Hissyspit]

4. .

[VotesForWomen]

5. exactamundo; many people who think they have health insurance, don't really. nt

[Jim__]

6. How the hell did the insurance industry ever get to be in charge of the health care system in the US

Oh that's right - like the OP says - bribery!

[Samurai_Writer]

7. You can thank Richard Nixon for that.

From Michael Moore's SICKO:

As Nixon counsel, John Erlichman explains to the then-President,

"Edgar Kaiser is running this Permanente deal for profit. And the reason he can do it ... is all the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less care they give 'em, the more money they make. ... The incentives run the right way."

Nixon: "Not bad."

The next day, Nixon announces the establishment of HMOs, saying, "I want America to have the finest health care in the world. And I want every American to have that care when he needs it."

[Hissyspit]

8. .

[Brigid]

9. This is exactly why . . .

the average claim costs $25 in administrative costs: insurance companies spend a great deal of their resources in fighting claims.

K & R. :kick:

[Hissyspit]

10. .