Monday, May 11, 2009

CURRENT STATISTICS
  • 45 Million uninsured Americans
  • 80% of them working family
  • Last decade Premium increased 119% while worker earnings increased only 34%
IMPACT OF UNINSURED
  • With out access to regular primary care the uninsured are less likely stay healthy
  • uninsured suffer disability over the time or even die earlier
  • uninsured are more likely hospitalized unnecessarily
SOLUTION
  • First Check here to see if you qualify for Low Income Health Plans. More than 20 private companies participate.
  • Contact your congressman to let them know that you are uninsured and need solution
  • Stay healthy meanwhile and do not hesitate to visit Emergency Room in case you need medical care
  • If you are disabled, 65+ years of age or a woman and pregnant you may qualify for Medicaid. Contact Medicaid at cms.hhs.gov
  • If you need drugs and cannot afford please contact the pharmaceutical company and they may help you.
By improving access to Health Insurance is fundamentally important to better health care outcomes.

If you have any suggestion or solution for Uninsured PLEASE post it in the comments section below.

22 comments:

  1. I have several, !st cover all people with for prexisting conditions and do not allow riders placed on people for other such acute conditions.
    2nd make it a felony on any insurance underwriter to deny coverage for prexisting conditions on federal level by facing jail time up to 25 yrs in federal prison for deny and financial punishing those with prexisting conditions and do not allow underwriters any voice in peoples ability to pay

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  2. I agree with the first comment. My husband lost his job due to the company filing bankruptcy. Therefore we don't have a option for COBRA. We have applied to 3 different private ins. carriers and have been denied coverage due to prexisting conditions. We are in our 50's. Work out, not overweight, eat right and are probably in better shape than most 40 year old. Do we get a Golden Ticket to go pass GO and get some type of health ins. from somewhere???? Someone????? What does it take??????

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  3. Appropriate and necessary health care should be considered to be a right, not merely a privilege based on one's ability to pay. Therefore, the insurance model should be eliminated altogether, because the primary way insurance companies maximize profit is to deny their customer's health care. What we should have is a single payer system, with either the federal government paying for all citizen's health care from the taxes we pay. We could also establish multiple non-profit corporations, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, with would compete against one another in providing necessary and proper health care at the lowest cost, with each of their subscribers receiving a rebate of their share of tax savings and with the managers of the non-profit corporation receiving bonuses proportional to the tax savings.

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  4. And what doctors are going to work for you proposed "government run health care program"? I am a doctor and will not accept that you want to significantly cut my wages and make me work harder just because you think that everyone has a right to health care coverage. Who's going to pay for my expensive schooling? Are you? Health care is not free. Doctors will have no incentive to learn more and gain more knowlege in their respective fields, they will just be forced to see more people in less time. Great idea!

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  5. I am very sympathetic to Dr. Smith's comment. The irony is that health care in the United States is very expensive. If doctors are treated as employees and not as professionals, that is because our health policy is determined not by health professionals, but by insurance and drug companies and by a legal system that encourages frivolous litigation. I am a middle-class, fully insured individual and my doctor has very little time to see me or even to review my charts in detail, and virtually no time to answer any questions I might have.

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  6. "First, do no harm...." is the primary moral and/or ethical imperative of the medical profession. It means that the interests and needs of the patient are to be placed above the interests and needs of the physician or caregiver. Profit driven corporate medicine has taken over American medical practice. Corporate models and methods of industrial competition have eliminated clinical expertise and the notion of care in the delivery of medical services. The result is that corporate profits are more important than patient prognosis. This is not only tragic and mistaken, but also unethical and immoral.
    Take profit and the profit motive out of health care.

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  7. BCBS should be stripped of it's Non-Profit Status & Executives Charged with Crimes Against Humanity. All Insurance Companies should Only be allowed to Cover Insurable events (Health Maintenance is not an insurable event). Such as AFLAC does. Allow single payer system with the expansion of a Medicare type system for all paid for by an increase of 7.5% in medicare taxes and the elimination of employer provided health care. This would work. see a blog on health insurance at http://WhatIsHealthCare.brighterplanet.org and by the way - covertheuninsured.org is a good start, but you've got to stop taking money from the insurance companies. All these adds to stop reform are making premiums go up and, oh yeah, the money they spend lobbying congress and politicians and more adds, videos etc... are Killing us. They care more for their High Salaries than the ever did about Human Beings. "CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY".

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  8. Every unemployed American should either be eligble for the 65% payment by the Government towards COBRA payments (How was September 1, 2008 date arrived at), or they should be eligble to medical assistance through their state. What do they do if they have a pre-existing condition and have to go their doctors on a regular basis and/or be hospitalized? These people have worked all of their life and get nothing. However, if you are a young unwed girl and have baby after baby, you get medical assistance istantly. I am 61 years old, I lost my job on August 31, 2008 and I cannot afford the $500.00 COBRA payment any more, even though I have been put on a liver transplant list. I have non-alcholic cherosis of the liver and must see doctors on a regular basis, currently take nine (9) medications a day and have routine bloodwork and tests. I have depleted all of my savings and 401K funds (after losing thousands and thousands of dollars because of the current economy. Kindly tell me what I am to do, lay down and die? We need to stop sending money to foreign nations and currently stop spending money on the space program, when there are millons of people without jobs and the unemployment marker is only going to get worse. I can work and was a paralegal for 30+ years and this is what I have to look forward to.

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  9. Well if we make it so the only choice that doctors have is to work for a "government run health care program" then they won't have a choice. What kind of doctor are you? You treat people ONLY if you get paid enough?? What happened to the Hippocratic Oath? MOST doctors became doctors to HELP people, not to make a lot of money! HOW DARE people say that America is a "Christian Nation" while you profit off of people's health & well being! HYPOCRITES! HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN BUT WON'T HELP SOMEONE UNLESS THEY CAN PAY YOU! HYPOCRITE! It's because of "Christians" & "People" like YOU Dr. Smith that America got STUCK with an IGNORANT, WAR MONGERING President for 8 years causing this country to go to hell! HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT! NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR HEALTH CARE, NOT EVEN THE RICH! The government should also help or even pay for all of medical school for new doctors. But if all countries have a government run health care system then "Doctors" that do not want to work for a government health care system because they aren't paid as much as before can just piss off because there would only be government run health care! YOU DR. SMITH ARE ONE PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A TRUE, CARING DOCTOR! A TRUE DOCTOR HELPS ANYONE THAT NEEDS IT, NOT JUST PEOPLE WITH MONEY! HYPOCRITE!

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  10. I have read all your posts and I am shocked and appalled at the Dr.s post, (that is if he is really a dr.!) I grew up in a Big Family, six kids, my dad was a member of the teamster's union, so we all had insurance until we were 21. I know many of you might not approve of the unions because of the mobster affiliation, but I will have to say that they take care of their own, and the benefits are nothing short of excellent. I think a Union of the uninsured should be formed, where dues are paid in every paycheck, and have the insurance companies bid for the contracts. That way everyone wins, and no one has to compromise. I haven't had any health insurance in a long time, and I miss being able to go to the docter if I get sick. This is supposed to be the greatest nation on earth, but you wouldn't know it in this day and age.

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  11. Many doctors graduate from med school and finish residency a quarter of a million dollars or so in debt (not including getting a home at that point, a car, supporting a family...). I think that doctors who are willing to work within a salary cap system should be forgiven x amount of student loans for each year worked there (in essence, in addition to their accepted salary, the government forgives their student loan). It IS unfair to expect someone who has put so much money into their education to live below poverty level after they are finished paying for it.

    THAT BEING SAID, I was recently referred to a specialist (still looking for a different one) who had a thousand dollars in mandatory tests before he would even look at my chart, REGARDLESS OF THE FACT that I had already had at least one of them, and much of what the other tests would determine was also just as easily determined by listening carefully to my symptoms and performing a simple examination. If I refuse the tests, he won't treat me.

    The honest truth? The doctor has built an extensive and complicated practice, and insisting every patient who sees him gets test on every bit of his equipment pays for it, and the further expansion of his business. It's profiteering and exploitation, plain and simple.

    I haven't had health insurance since losing my last job, and my fiance's company does not provide any. We actually cancelled our wedding plans when I got sick, because I do not want to worry about him being responsible for tens of thousands of medical debt if something were to happen to me. Medical insurance (or lack thereof) has cost us that much...

    I can recommend that an uninsured person apply at their local hospital - frequently there are programs in place for the uninsured and poor outside of Medicaid. Our local hospital has me on a sliding scale, and it has at least allowed me to get a diagnosis, even if I cannot afford treatment...

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  12. After losing my job in Oct of 07, I found out just weeks later I was pregnant. So, I applied for COBRA and paid $1200 for retroactive money owed (with no services), and my next payment I mailed in. On my first appointment with the perinatal specialist, somehow I was supposedly never covered because did not receive payment. The end. Nothing I could do to remedy, although I am still almost certain they did get payment but knew I was pregnant (I told them on phone more than once) and decided to conveniently say I didn't send payment. I was shocked to learn there was no Insurance company that would insure me- pregnancy being a preexisting condition. I was on suicide watch. It wasn't until the month before i had my daughter that I applied and was eligible for Medicaid. The process went smoothly. The physician's office treated me poorly, and the insurance benefit manager said Dr doesn't accept too many medicaid patients. Really embarrassing to be in my situation in the first place. It worked out in the end, however, the fact that a pregnant woman can not find a private insurer is a disgrace. I am still unemployed, my credit went from A paper to the worst imaginable, and I am poor. POOR. Was making a nice living in the pharma industry- to Medicaid recipient. I laugh when I think about how colleagues would speak to the poor, medicaid handouts. Huh, glad I had compassion then even before it happened to me. Otherwise I would surely believe Karma kicked me where the sun doesn't shine. Insurance should not be for profit. It is counter to what it's business is supposed to be designed to provide. Very sad indeed.

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  13. Love the last comment -- complaining that no private insurer would "insure" her against her existing pregnancy. You buy insurance to deal with contingencies, not certainties. What this poster wanted was to pay $100 and get $10,000 back. That's not insurance -- that's a handout. That being said, the problem this person had is that (1) insurance being offered via employers makes portability difficult and (2) clearly this poster screwed up her COBRA payment. Really love the lack of concern over whether her provider actually got paid. Also, digged the complaint about the service she got -- of course you got lousy service. You were on medicaid which undercompensates providers. So providers don't like treating you. Btw, this is precisely where a single-payer system leads. To all of us being on a medicare like system where the providers are underpaid, overworked and hate their patients. Heathcare is not a right -- it is a service, and like any service it must be paid for. People who receive services without paying for them will overuse such services. The secret to healthcare reform is to stop providing insurance through employers, but let individuals buy it themselves. And make the policies HIGH DEDUCTIBLE with the INSURED paying a share of all fees over the deductible up to a fairly high cap, so that the insurance really just protects against catastrophic illness. Everything below the deductible is paid out of pocket by the patient -- no insurance company involvement (just imagine how wonderful this will be) -- and everything over the deductible is shared by insurer and patient until you hit the overall cap. This policy will be cheap, will result in patients actually taking an interest in the cost of their care, will remove third parties from the patient-doctor relationship. Costs for medicines and procedures will come down as patients shop around for best value and prices charged actually reflect what is paid. Oh, and poor people who can't afford these basic policies can receive care at public clinics and/or receive aid to purchase policies.

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  14. America got in trouble by turning the Health Care System on its head. And, by the way, it wasn't George Bush's fault! Long before that, back in the 50's, people were used to paying for their routine care out of their pockets. Health insurance was only for catastrophic issues. That's what it should be now.

    But, no, enter the union model and over time people began to think they were entitled to free or almost free care for anything medical. Corporations began to match the union model.

    Next came medical advancements. For all of you that like to smear profit making corporations, think about this. If if weren't for them, companies like Lilly, there would not be the advancements we have seen. All of these factors have attributed to cost increases.

    Then come the insurance companies that are trying to stay profitable with more costs due to medical advancements and they begin to create ways to deny claims or limit payments. Some ligit, much not.

    Then come the lawmakers that never should have meddled in the first place that create opportunities for lawyers to sue medical companies and insurance companies. More cost increases.

    Then come the big corporate grabs. Have you been to a hospital lately? For any reason, perhaps even to visit? Do they not all look like Taj Mahals? And whom do you suppose pays for it?

    And some of you want them to be taxed more. Watch the costs go up again. Some of you say they are criminal. Well, just remember, if it weren't for the doctors, insurers and medical companies, we would have nothing.

    And some of you say health care is a right??? Show me that one in the constitution. We all have the right to take care of ourselves, anything else is a privilage. Get it?

    Enter the government - it will all come tumbling down into a socialistic morass that will make the mess we have worse and at a greater expense.

    Congess gets nothing right. They have destroyed public education with such programs as "No Child Left Behind". They have not protected our borders and left us at risk. They have destroyed the banking system and now they are becoming the ruination of corporate America. Watch what happens to GM and Chrysler. It's time to throw them all out!

    God help us........

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  15. The key, my friends, is the free market. I am incredulous that so many of us, in America, don't see that.

    There seems to be two issues: we need to control costs and we need to make it easier for uninsured people to protect themselves from catstrophic health problems.

    We can do that without sacrificing our current health care system to the gods of big government.

    Keep the government out of it. Let insurance companies and doctors compete against each other for the consumer's money. Let the consumer pay some deductible so that he/she knows how much things cost. We'll use less and cost will go DOWN.

    Use "Angie's List" to see comments on doctors and clinics and health care companies - and then make your choice.

    Competition breeds innovation and efficiency and lowers cost.

    Government single-payer breeds status-quo, bloats the system and raises costs.

    (If you like the DMV, you'll LOVE government-run health care.)

    To the gentleman who thinks that doctors should be doctors for the sake of humanity and not money...riddle me this. When the time comes and you are faced with a life-saving operation, who do you want cracking open your chest?

    The doctor who is a product of a system that rewards compliance.....or the doctor who is a product of a system that rewards excellence?

    Skiritae

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  16. so you just decide to spam people on forums rather then advertise the good old fashion way. simply stupid and annoying, thx for the input.

    Your request could not be processed. Please try again.

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  17. Jim...are you serious? Really? Having to have people pay for everything out of pocket unless its some catostrophic illness, and then you STILL have to pay?

    Sorry...I wasn't aware just how much of this country is run by rich bastards like you.

    Im 22 and have had MULTIPLE surgeries between my stomach and my knee. So while almost half my check gets deducted for my medical insurance leaving me with barely 300 dollars a week to pay bills (car insurance, gas, electric, phone, cable, internet, food, etc.) and my rent..which is not cheap considering I live in NY....I still get bills from my doctors from anywhere between 100 - 1000...and this is AFTER my deductible has been met...this is AFTER my copays and this is AFTER my insurance has paid and negotiated the bills with the doctors.

    But I dont qualify for a secondary coverage through the city or the government because I make "too much money."

    Meanwhile there are weeks when I live on nothing but bagels because I cannot afford anything else.

    And when I was hospitalized for a week? And the insurance I was under through my step dad lapsed because they didn't consider me a dependant even though I was too sick to work or go to school? Close to 20k in medical bills from the hospital and the "doctors" who claim to have seen me in the hospital.

    My gastronologist billed me thousands of dollars..and $700 of it was for a "phone consult that took 80 minutes" when I was in the E.R...meanwhile my mother nor my boyfriend could get in touch with him or any of his nurses.

    Yet...im 22. Where the hell am I expected to get all this money from?

    So your ideas of low cost insurance with high deductables may work for you but it sure as hell does not work for me. What I pay out of pocket ...after my deductible of 550 was met..which by the way was the lowest I could get... is high enough already...medical bills have RUINED my credit now matter how much I try to pay them down.

    Thats another point Id like to make... Medical Bills and Credit should have NOTHING to do with each other. Every single one of my bills has always been paid on time with the exception of those because I just DO NOT have the kind of money they are asking me for...and trying to work out a payment plan with the local hospitals is a joke. (They want $100 a week or they wont talk to me...)

    So this is how I am supposed to live my life? Riddled with medical bills due to crappy genetics? Its not my fault my gallbladder failed. Its not my fault I have GERD. Its not my fault I have a hiatial hernia. And I KNOW its not my fault because I always lived a very healthy lifestyle. Dont smoke, rarely drink, exercise, and I eat as healthy as possible on limited income.

    Healthcare IS a right. A SERVICE is a luxury. And with the unemployment rates right now..Im pretty sure most people cannot afford that kind of luxury right now. But they SHOULD be able to afford the RIGHT to be seen by a doctor when they are sick!

    And Dr. Smith... maybe you should watch "Sicko" by Michael Moore. The doctors in other countries are employed by the government and dont exactly complain about the salaries that they make. They drive luxury cars and have beautiful homes. So dont you go worrying your little head if our government decideds to take a step in the right direction for ONCE and installing some kind of NHS system... you will still be able to afford your yacht and your villa in cannes.... only your money will come from our so called government instead of our pockets.

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  18. JIM,
    YOU are a pathetic person who makes more assumptions than sense.

    I PAID COBRA ON TIME AND THEY FUCKED UP!!! I WAS SENT A REIMBURSEMENT CHECK # MONTHS LATER. But when a company makes an oops, we, the consumers are the ones who get FUCKED! So, JIM dear I did not handle my payment in a manner that lead to them dropping me without any recourse. They did send me my next statement which made me think they did finally listen after all the calls and faxes, etc. So, I overnighted payment 2 weeks early, and they cashed a check for $1000.00, but sent a letter and a dispute form saying I had no insurance and I could dispute. They would look it over and make decision- THEY are the same people who fucked up. Right, I wont hold my breath.

    I had exceptional care from my dr...I was treated like shit by the girl who handled insurance info and probably made less than half of what I made in my previous job---she said she would ask Dr if he'd do me a favor and accept medicaid (HE WAS THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED IT JIM!)

    So, I was treated like a queen once I had medicaid- if i wanted a handout I would never attempted to hand over thousands to COBRA! FUCK THAT!

    You are a man without a clue. Really! And, I shop around for RXs and know all about how buying at the lowest cost will help lessen healthcare costs. Tell anyone who has the big doughnut hole they will meet up with on medicare...shop the cheapest so your dollars will stretch the furthest and they can avoid the HOle for more days, weeks and months.

    JIM, go fly your american flag! Get a life, and get over yourself. YOU ARE aN ignorant twit!

    Sincerely and with much love and affection!
    Sandra
    If you want to try again and make a point, make sure you realize I am well informed on the whole healthcare/insurance circus!

    Nora, good luck to you! Men make me laugh! To get angry is a waste of my energy...they can't help but be pompous and its because they feel threatened. I just hope they remember their fine ideas when they are facing possible death and costs that they had underestimated in regards to how it would effect their livelihood. Perhaps Kevorkian would be a sound fiscal option. CAPITALISM at its best!

    I'm a socialism btw....just giving you fodder for another dumb JIM harangue that will make me laugh...XOXOXO

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  19. I worked in the medical center in houston, tx, and I knew many fine doctors who hate insurance companies, but put their patients first. They spent time with them regardless of the 15 min. insurance pay per visit.

    I know drs who take only medicaid patients, and i always made certain to overstock their sample cabinets.

    There are lots of inflated costs that occur because of all the unnecessary tests some not so ethical CAPITALIST pig docs perform to make up for their lost profits.

    Why not deny insurance and run a boutique healthcare practice, instead of passing the cost onto the taxpayers and insurers who will raise their premiums in response to padded procedures, etc....as they drive off in their 100k luxury car to the next pharma sponsored dinner program so they can grab a free meal from one of the most expensive restaurants in town.

    I would happily pay higher taxes that go towards a healthier America. Then perhaps medicaid won't have to be utilized by so many hardworking people that fall on hard times. Why do people need to have first hand experience to realize our healthcare system is a joke for the majority of patients and providers.

    Do not underestimate the intelligence of people and use this assumption as part of the big problem. GOOD GRIEF! Cognitive dissonance is rampant ...check yourself- you know who you are!

    LOVE TO YOU!

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  20. Jim - good move on not responding to Sandra's rants. She seems a little unstable and probably not real clear on the facts of her unfortunate situation.
    I'm not sure if she eats with that mouth but I feel sorry for her child.
    Steve

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  21. Is healthcare a right or a privilege?

    What we are arguing is whether humans are susceptible to the "survival of the fittest" principle, or do we all comprise one Earth. This hearkens to Nazi schemes to create a perfect race through Eugenics, and the philosophical question of whether there is an "ideal kind" of person. Certainly it is not ideal to have many medical conditions that require treatment. Nor is it ideal to be in a lot of debt. Both types of conditions are inheritable.
    Is competition inevitable or can we coexist? Capitalists believe the former and they have spun such a convincing narrative through numbers that they have derailed probably more than a few low-income healthcare patrons with the threat of "debt." This stuff is dizzying for us poor people who don't necessarily agree with the principles of the "free market" but have realized few means of escaping it. Now, globally, blood, sweat and tears smatter the dying Earth as we play out competition on a grand scale.

    Can we coexist?

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