Wordsmoker

@Perverseus Actually it takes nothing more than passing legislation which begins to regulate the insurance industry.

As a lawyer, I’ve learned to spot dirt kicking, but you coming in with the friggin 17th Amendment brings things to a whole new level. Oh, and the 10th?! Really. Might want to talk to the SCOTUS about that one, especially after Bush v. Gore. Say it with me hypocrisy.

@Chilly The propaganda didn’t come from government. It was devised, executed and paid for by the insurance lobby with the help of GOP wingnuts. Government regulating an out of control industry which is killing people isn’t “taking over healthcare”. It’s doing its job. The rope is in the difference between regulating insurance abuses, aka government’s job, and this crack idea that all doctors visits are now going to be like trips to the DMV. The propaganda is brilliantly evil in that respect. It harnesses the rage people feel about red tape and applies it to something that is completely unrelated and actually against the voters best interest. Hence the term propaganda. What the GOP has done is get working class Americans to vote against their own interest and for the super rich by selling them a bill of goods based on fear. As FDR once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That is appropos of everything here. What this is all about is nothing but fear, smoke and mirrors fear, disguised to make us support the current system which is killing us and stealing from us and destroying our middle class. We’re not ever going to have change in Washington unless we as voters take responsibility for our own stupid, sheep-like decisions to be led by nonsense, fear and propaganda.

*anti-reform that is

@ Chilly, you’re already paying for someone else’s bad habits, the filthy rich insurance execs. You’re making them fatter, and whiter and richer.

@Chilly, unfortunately, there is just liability and collision coverage for motorcycle and automobile collisions in all but the handfull of no fault insurance states. Liability covers the other vehicle which is not at fault. Collision covers property damage regardless of fault. Neither covers ones own medical bills when not at fault, especially when the at fault driver is not found. Further, even in no fault states like Florida, PIP (personal injury protection) is only $15,000 minimum state requirement. That doesn’t buy a night in the ER, much less three weeks in ICU, two years of rehab and a lifetime of follow-up care. That is what health insurance is for. And even if the at fault driver had stopped, in Texas, the minimum liability limits are $20,000. So, he may have received $20,000, again, not enough for even one surgery, much less 8 in 3 weeks. If someone like me, who is over insured would have hit him and say I was at fault, he may have received the maximum my insurance would pay per person/per accident, $250,000/$500,000. He could have only received $250,000 maximum, and I’m over insured. There aren’t a lot of drivers on the road with the kind of insurance I have, and the negligent ones are often uninsured or underinsured. I’m cautious, and I know the risks because it’s what I do for a living. I’m not very likely, God forbid, to be the kind of driver to run someone off the road and not stop as he bleeds out in the dark on the side of the road in the hill country of Texas. But, we’re talking about civil torts here, not healthcare. Even if it were me and all my auto insurance were available, it doesn’t pay as you go, you often have to hire a lawyer and sue me, prove your damages through medical bills after the fact and possibly receive a settlement years later after you reached MMI (maximum medical improvement). In the meantime, you’re left with the same problem all over again. How are you going to pay for your medical care? Hospitals and doctors require payment up front if you are uninsured.

My brother is a perfect example of how the system which privately enriches a select few is broken. As a result, he was taken out of the work force for awhile. Now, how is he meant to work in order to keep healthcare if he had it at that point? Society is then meant to step in and pay the costs, at an extreme rate because there isn’t competition, so the rates are inflated. What you don’t want happening, society being billed, is actually what is happening. Preventative care and emergency medical care for everyone actually reduces healthcare costs, returns the patient back to the work force faster and healthier. It’s actually the opposite of what you are arguing, but it’s more complex than a 30 second Fox News soundbite.

@MP, maybe you should read my 20 Questions, it may give you some idea of what my 7 siblings bring to bear in society. My brother received no insurance settlement. There was no driver to pursue. He didn’t stop. One’s own insurance doesn’t pay for medical bills even if you have collision coverage above liability. My brother was found by two girls driving by at night and saw the light of his motorcycle shining up from a ditch. They pulled over and found him bleeding out. He was lifeflighted from the scene. The sheriff’s dept, deviated from standard protocol, however, and left without finding his missing limb. His leg was found later in a tree nearby. His traumatic amputation was only a couple inches below the knee. As a result, the teaching hospital resident came out and tried to convince my sister to allow him to take Tom’s knee. My sister knowing that below the knee amputees have a much better chance at returning to a normal life refused. They saved the knee, but he has a very short ambulation, about 2 inches. Therefore, he really needs a c-leg (computerized) which reads the location of the knee several times a second and readjusts. Amputees expend 40% more energy just walking across a room than we do. But, a c-leg costs too much money. In fact, Tom wasn’t even fitted for a leg by the hospital because he didn’t have insurance. He was working as a waiter/part-time model at the time. A prosthetic isn’t considered emergency medicine. Neither is the surgery he needs to remove the nerve cluster which has developed under his knee and often brings him to tears. Instead, Tom applied to a charity for a prosthetic and received one a year and a half later. It was the most basic type, though, and wore out within 3 years because Tom works on his feet in the service industry. He didn’t have necessary medical care to adjust the leg, tend to his back fractures, much less replace the leg. The charity which gave it to him wouldn’t replace it because they only provide the first prosthetic, not follow-ups. Most amputees need a new one every four years. My brother can’t use a crutch because he broke his right arm in 8 places and has very little arm strength as a result. He also fractured his femur and has a rod inserted with bolts and screws. The nerve cluster has grown over the end of the bolts and screws. The original leg inside cup completely wore-away, so my brother bought used wet-suits and cut them up and sewed them together to fit the inside of the plastic leg which rubbed against his knee until it bled within a few hours. I remember Tom coming home and his knee being swollen twice it’s size and all the skin on the botton worn off. Tom didn’t have the money to get treatment much less the medication he needed for pain. See, Tom was living with me at the time. He’d just come back from Mexico where Tom went to try and find care and work. While there, he tried making his own prosthetic with pvc piping. It was heartbraking. Tom would come home at the end of the day in Florida take off his leg and soak in ice. He couldn’t put it back on once he took it off because of the swelling. So, instead, he would hop/crawl around our apartment. Here I was a single mother and lawyer and I was powerless to help my brother from crawling around on the floor half the day. It was easier for Tom to crawl than to try and get the leg back on until the swelling went down. On weekends or when Tom didn’t have to work, he’d just leave the leg off.

I went to work trying to find a foundation to help Tom when he first came to live with me. It took six months, and I finally found one. They agreed to supply Tom with new leg. Tom got his leg before I moved from Florida. You should have seen him. He was jumping and exclaming, “Look at me. I’m jumping. I’m me, again.” But, the new leg didn’t come with medical care. Tom still needs surgery. He needs orthopaedic care. He needs pain meds. He needs psychological counseling. He needs job training. And in 2-3 years, he’ll be crawling, again, when this leg gives out if our system doesn’t change. Also, because Tom is a single man, he doesn’t qualify for Medicaid and he was also turned down for social security disability. I tried to help him appeal, but even my skill as a lawyer failed. We provide prosthetics to developing countries, but when our own citizens need them, we turn our backs and talk of drug addicts and the undeserving and lastly, we doubt that this could even happen. But, it did. I am the survivor in my family. My 7 siblings weren’t as lucky.