Your health care stories - From the News blog

This is more of a heathcare situation. Current one.

Today... I pay for my "government healthcare" But it's the law that I use it. I pay about $260/mo plus about 80-220 per month on doctor/specialist co-pays depending on what is wrong. Then to maintain my medicines, it's over 200 per month at least. I don't go out of network. And this isn't bad, I have had worse, and much better. But with my income level, it's more than half of my income some months. Just above half on months I am really lucky.

The only problem is that on the HR3200 they will reduce services to the handicapped (that's me!) I

And I can't just hit the ER when my lymphatic system fails, or another common occurrence... that I need medical treatment for.
I avoid emergency rooms, I get sick extremely easily and what is easy for the normal person ravishes my system. There are times when my lymphatic system is bad that I just stay at home mostly to avoid getting really sick.

So how do I feel about the cutbacks hr3200 has to the handicapped? BAD. Will they sill mandate that I use medicare? Most likely, it's the LAW. I can't use a normal insurance.

Do I think health care needs a reform? YES, do I think they have it in the ball park now with HR3200? NO.

hurt my back while working for Circuit city. manager f-ed me in the A by not telling me what i had to do to properly file a claim to recieve company benifits, i was 18 never had to deal with workers comp before, i assumed my boss would be on my side and help me out. i was jerked around there and had to seek immediate care.

i signed a form granting me acess to my own doctor, saw him, he sent me to physical theorapy. theorapy end-ed up being a bad idea, when workers comp refused to cover the 5000 dollar charge saying that it was unessasary and that they never approved it. the company handling the claim is METRO RISK MANAGEMENT!

and they blow. they managed to cover my medication for a while and doctors appointments but refuse to pay my physical therapy costs. now i am 5000 dollars in debt, and out of a job.

this would be fixed if we all just had good healthcare covereage in the firstplace with no red tape and paperwork loops to jump through.

I posted this on an article a while ago, but it's still relevant.

I have a job that requires me to work with insurance companies to sort out what kind of benefits clients are eligible for (I work at a substance abuse and mental health counseling clinic). I see the horrible injustice of the system every damned day.

I call in with the client's information and am given many, many things to go over.

There's the deductible; the huge lump of money that must be paid every year in order for you to be able to start using your insurance in the first place. The average is $500 and if you paid off the deductible in December of 2008, started treatment that same month, you would still have to pay an additional $500 in January.

Co-pays (the small amount of money you pay for each appointment) is usually very reasonable, but if you already paid a huge sum for a deductible, why should you have to pay a co-pay?

Most companies have a limit on how many office visits you can have in one year, which is extremely difficult for someone with serious mental health issues who needs regular help.

One of the things that makes me sick to my stomach is the difference in treatment between biologically and non-biologically based ailments. Have bipolar disorder, a hormone problem, or something else that you can't control? Greenlight for treatment. Are you chronically depressed, suicidal, addicted, abusive? You're not covered.

Most clients realize that they'll be paying hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets on top of their monthly payment (not to mention jumping through flaming hoops to get it), so opt to ignore their insurance and pay with our discounted self-pay rate. So the company still wins by getting a monthly check without having to pay for any medical services.

The insurance companies are only interested in your wallet and how much they can wring out of it.

Here's my personal experience with this subject! Last year I was working a great job with pretty decent pay & I had health care & didn't have to fear weather or not I could get medications like an asthma control medication ,which anyone with asthma can say is something you should always have around! The economy,already in bad shape, due to the poor decision making of now former president George W Bush, got worse & I was laid off my job & lost my health care coverage ! & now I have to be really careful with just about everything I do! If you have ever had health issues & had to pay full cost for what you needed, you'd know prices on medications & other care is very high! Not everyone is rich!!! For people to say heath care policies don't need to be changed, is like saying "I don't care if people die or suffer!" Because that's pretty much what you're saying!!! & Yeah, it's very clear ANY sort of changes to health care would cost money to set up & Yeah, the US is like nearly five trillion dollars in debt,due to stuff that was just simply dumb on all accounts! But if we don't fix health care now, do you even realize how many people might actually die because they don't have health care? I know all you right wing republicans out there will write me a bunch of nasty little messages over this,trying as hard as you can to say things like "Giving everyone health care takes away from freedom of choice" & all your other nonsensical crap! I am sorry you can't see past your own nose,but it's 100% clear some thing NEEDs changing with health care! We have people with serious injuries having to wait twice as long at hospitals simply because they have to fill out additional paperwork, due to there lack of health care! Maybe that doesn't happen at every hospital,but there are pretty well documented cases of people dieing in waiting rooms because they were not given proper care & attention! Do we really want people to die simply because they are poor?

My family is on my husband's health insurance through his company (we have a 2 year old son). It's an HRA (Health Reimbursement Accout) plan with a deductible of $2000. His company does provide us with $1500 in an account we can draw from, and to get the money we have to submit our EOBs (Explanation of Benefits) or receipts for medical services. There is a company that handles the reimbursement and they have denied us several times because we don't have the "right" paperwork sent to them, so we have to go back and resubmit. It's a time consuming process and I'm sure many people give up and never get their reimbursements.

After you use up the $1500, then we have to pay out of pocket until we have spent $4000! This year, our son had to have surgery for a hernia, and like many young children, has had ear infections, and other trips to the doctor and ER. Right now I would say we owe approximately $3000 in medical bills, which we cannot afford to pay in full. I sent $20 to each every month, which ends up to be about $100. Last week, a water service pipe broke under our foundation and we had to have our yard dug up to replace it - all to the tune of about $2000, which sets us back even more. I have no idea how we are going to pay that at this point.

We are hard working people. We live in a moderately priced house ($150,000) and have student loans as well as other normal household bills, plus day care. Our emergency funds were used up to fix our car. Now we are looking at credit card debt, because I don't know how else to pay for the water line. It is ridiculous that our debt is adding up like this for medical bills. Health care is a scam. The insurance companies only care about their bottom line.

By the way, almost $500 is deducted from my husband's paycheck so we can be on this stupid plan. The other option is a plan that is nearly $600 a month!

How do people think this is OK for people to have medical debt?

Due to the lack of response on this intelligent and popular website, it appears that the general populace is more concerned with the welfare of others instead of their own. Oh, how I love America. I think I'm going to the gun range for my self-defense training.