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I am a lab tech and have worked in the medical field for almost 17 years now. I have become so desensitized its sad. The ppl I help to abuse our tax dollars is sickening. They come in with this federally funded debit card...err medical card...and the ER docs stumble over themselves like Chevy Chase when he imitated President Ford on SNL. They get admitted and get treated like royalty.
I work there and have a copay of $100 if I visit the ER. Back in June, I almost cut the tip off my left thumb off and after three xrays and 8 stitches, I am still having to pay over $500 after my insurance paid their part. Someone said medicare wasn't going to pay for certain MRI's and CT's.
There is ZERO incentive to work now. We get punished for working.
True story. This happened before my wife and I started dating. My father-in-law was once off work with heart issues. He had a temporary defibillator on his neck and my mother-in-law called to see if they could get food stamps. They asked her if they owned their home. She said yes, and they told her to sell it and live off that $ and after its gone, talk to them about getting food stamps. She said, "where are we going to live if we sell our house?!?!"
No incentive to work. Be a bum and you can live like royalty. Also, you can have a prescription card with a $1-$2 dollar copay on the meds you can then sell to neer-do-wells.
I work there and have a copay of $100 if I visit the ER. Back in June, I almost cut the tip off my left thumb off and after three xrays and 8 stitches, I am still having to pay over $500 after my insurance paid their part. Someone said medicare wasn't going to pay for certain MRI's and CT's.
There is ZERO incentive to work now. We get punished for working.
True story. This happened before my wife and I started dating. My father-in-law was once off work with heart issues. He had a temporary defibillator on his neck and my mother-in-law called to see if they could get food stamps. They asked her if they owned their home. She said yes, and they told her to sell it and live off that $ and after its gone, talk to them about getting food stamps. She said, "where are we going to live if we sell our house?!?!"
No incentive to work. Be a bum and you can live like royalty. Also, you can have a prescription card with a $1-$2 dollar copay on the meds you can then sell to neer-do-wells.
The VA hospital didn't have the set up to give him stents. He was in the middle of his heart attack, so he really really needed stents NOW. So they sent him to the university hospital. (Pennsylvania.) AND they promised me everything that hospital did for him would be paid by the VA. All worked fine (financially anyway) for a month or two, then suddenly his bills were coming here. Who pays what is determined by who you consider your primary insurance and your secondary. For hubby, primary was the VA. Secondary was Medicare. Somewhere in the course of billing, (and not at the beginning thankfully, or I would have been freaking even more when it hit. And I had no more freak left in me at that time), they swapped them out. Sure enough, Medicare doesn't pay the bill. They pay a portion of the bill. Let's just say, I could buy three more homes near me for the amount of money that hospital wanted, but Medicare wasn't going to pay.
I did get it resolved, but I had to make a lot of calls and then some visits to get it settled.
Meanwhile, the SWs at the university hospital were telling me about this wonderful step-down unit hubby would be going to when he got out of ICU. It was better than a typical hospital ward, but not as all encompassing as a ICU. Guess what happened once I got that billing mess halfway resolved. No more step-down unit. He wasn't worth it, since they discovered our wallets are thin.
As for me? My goal is to never go into a hospital no matter what. Why? I want those $1-$2 copays for prescriptions. I have four prescriptions and my co-pay is $20 a month! Thank God for the medigap, or that turns into $90 a month. (Full price.) My copays for silly things like ultrasounds and biopsies on my goiter were $400... EACH! I peed in a cup for my pain doctor. $444! He sent it to the wrong lab. (One was acceptable to my medigap insurance, but not the other, so they sent it to the wrong lab.) Just had my goiter shrunken. $400! Don't know about you, but $400 is a little under half what SSDI gives me each month.
Got a shot for pain in my back a couple of years ago. The person checking me in, (the woman who had to make sure the procedure would be paid for -- and apparently the people you don't meet in your line of work, because billing tells a different story than the one you tell), told me the copay was $400. I got up and started walking out, because I can't afford it. She told me, "Don't worry about it. We will never turn you down simply because you can't afford it."
Honest answer. Sure enough, the $400 bill came to my house. Apparently she thought I couldn't afford it that day. NO! I can't afford it PERIOD!
Live like royalty? I can't even afford to get sick -- ever! Which kind of sucks, because I'm disabled already!
As for Welfare demanding you sell your house first? Funny, we were on Welfare living in this house. It's cheaper than getting a one-bedroom apartment nowadays. How long ago was that story?
It truly amazes me how much Christianity looks like what everyone dreams about for "middle-class America." The concept has nothing to do with the Bible or God. It's all based on political beliefs and what you'd prefer America to look like.