[facedown]

VDH bump.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Still, the cryptic answers I sort of got from one or two of the guarded staff could perhaps be summed up that a lot of people just liked going to doctors, whether out of loneliness or in need of conversation and attention.

Yep. I would say a good third of the people who go to the doctor fall in that category. Higher for the elderly.

[cwb]

Yep...and as was noted, "some" of these people who complain about not having health insurance do have a choice. They can get rid of the cell phone, the walkman, the cable and the $150 dollar sneakers. While times may be tough for some people, many people don't know what tought times, are. We have become such an over-indulgent society, that too many people look at their luxuries as neccessities...and choose not to protect themselves. The "M.E." virus has obviously spread from the '60s to the new century...with no cure in sight.

[Trillian]

It's so bad that people all over the world come here for it.

[TheSpottedOwl]

What I want to know is how much that hospital visit cost him?

I developed health problems last year, around this time. I finally went to county to get checked out. I don't have insurance. At the time I was a community college student, however the campus health clinic had been shut down for budget reasons.

I went to the doctor, and after an EKG, they perscribed medication to try and regulate my heart. I was worried about how much this was going to cost, and how I could pay for it.

As I am a divorced mother with 2 children still at home, I was advised that I qualified for MediCal. I explained that the children were already insured through their father, but that didn't seem to be a problem.

I was told that I had a share of cost of 560 dollars. Fine. I saved it up, and then couldn't find anyone to tell me who to send it to. At my last appointment, the woman told me that I wasn't elligible for MediCal, then came back with a different card, after I asked her where I should pay this share of cost.

I have 7 bills from county sitting on my dining room table, totalling up to almost 4k. I can't pay it. I ran out of meds, but unfortunately I see now that I need to get them refilled. What a load. I should have spoken broken English and passed myself off as Hispanic :-(

Btw....both kids got MediCal ID's immediately. I never got one....

[omegatoo]

our government at great cost and in the hallowed traditions of American humanity and magnanimity is offering hourly excellent medical care to literally anyone who walks through the emergency room door, whether they have a broken arm or a sprained ankle

Actually, the government is requiring that hospitals provide excellent medical care at great cost to the hospitals. Many patients are not covered by government programs, and medicaid pays only a small percentage of the actual cost of the care. That's why health care costs are rising out of control.

O2

[PAR35]

My 1999 Mazda

Some of us would consider THAT a new car.

[Missouri]

Interesting read from FAIR.

Link to FAIR's data on immigrants and sky-rocketing medical cost

[ReagansShinyHair]

When we lived in Riverside, the ER was so crowded with illegals and non-sick people that they sent me home four times with a leaking appendix. I almost died. I lasted almost a week without eating anything before my husband finally called an ambulance for our final trip to the ER.

One woman in the ER waiting room the first trip stands out in my memory. She kept saying she was worried about how sick her daughter was, as she was feeding the kid McDonald's and the kid was laughing and playing around. ER-level-of-sickness-kids don't eat McDonald's. I watched the obviously healthy kid from a fetal position on the dirty waiting-room carpet. I'm sure she had a very low ER copay if she took her kid to the ER for basically nothing.

BTW, my monthly contribution to my job health insurance just went up to $800/month for a family (I thought it was $600, but I just checked again on the notice and it's $800!). $200 just for myself. Luckily, we can get insurance through my husband's job much cheaper. Otherwise, we would seek an alternative outside of job-insurance. We would not go without, even if it means a high deductible.

[Go Gordon]

I guess putting an INS agent in every hospital wouldn't stem them activities? Heck, if illegals are afraid to look for work because they are here illegally, logically it would follow that treatment followed by deportation would cut down on the abuse of the healthcare system. Would it make some illegals forego necessary medical treatment? Maybe. But unless it were life-threatening, I don't think most Americans would give two sh.....aving creams.

[Dad was my hero]

Bump.

[dogbyte12]

The system genuinely is a mess though. My wife and I both have insurance. We however are not allowed to mix and match our programs for the cheapest price. For example, it is still just $15 for drugs under my plan, however, for her to be eligible to use it, she would have to quit her job. Then she would be covered under it.

This week, she was prescribed two medications. One of them, her insurance refused to cover. The other, they covered, yet by "covering", it was a $35 deductable. We ended up paying $78, when we should have been able to pay $30.

It drives me nuts to no end that we aren't able to opt out of a system if we are double insured. I have checked though, and it can't be done. I can not go to my employer and say, I am covered under my wife, how about you stop paying $6,000 a year to cover me, and instead, keep $3k, and give me the other $3k.

The HMO's refuse to do this, because a chunk of their profit margin comes from people who don't end up using their coverage.

[dennisw]

Stellar! But else can one expect from Victor Davis Hanson?

[dennisw]

Still, the cryptic answers I sort of got from one or two of the guarded staff could perhaps be summed up that a lot of people just liked going to doctors, whether out of loneliness or in need of conversation and attention.  

My thoughts too even before I got to this sentence

[Capriole]

As ever, Hanson is right. I spend my days analyzing medical and billing records from hospitals all over the United States and determining what sort of care people receive. Many of the people whose records I examine (with their permission) don't have a social security number, if you know what I mean. Still, they come in and get a $125,000 quintuple bypass, are seen by numerous fine cardiologists, receive the most elaborate rehab, and don't pay a dime. If Medi-Cal won't shell out, no problem; the patient walks away from the bill. Nobody who wants health care in this country is denied it, and the quality is generally superb. (Of course, if people choose to live in an area where there is no nearby health care, that's their prerogative.) What's wrong with health care in this country is not that we don't offer it to enough people but that we are trying to fund the health needs of everyone in Central America, too. We can't afford it, and it has to stop. It has to.