The Many Faces of US Politics...

[muppet]

Big difference, in the States you get an enormous bill that you can't get rid of with a nod and wink.

And you would know that how cause funny I live here and work with lots of Illegals who actually laugh at us idiots
for actually trying to make payments.....

I sat in St Vincents Manhattan for 3 hours without being seen and they wouldn't touch me or anyone else that didn't have insurance.

And you knew all the other peoples financial situations how.... complete strangers had no problem divulging personal stuff while in severe pain to another complete stranger 

All others were seen as I was when I arranged a call from home.

So let me see if I have this right.....you simply arranged a call and everything was sorted fcuk it's Donald Trump

Like I said one person doesn't prove a case but I suspect this is pretty widespread.

No shit.... it's actually called spectacular sensationalism!

First because I've been to fundraisers for guys seriously hurt in the States who were left with massive bills.

Second one, this will be incomprehensible to but in an A&E for hours (with 2 mates) we spoke to some of those around us. Imagine that! Complete strangers had no problem explaining why they were sitting with nothing happening for hours.

Finally sadly I'm not Donald Trump. But imagine getting hurt away from home in a country that won't treat you without proof of ability to pay. If you are a normal person you are going to make phone calls. One of my mates got my boss in the wee hours and he sent some communication to the hospital that was accepted as a guarantee of payment. Wow....no Donald Trumps involved either.

For the benefit of any Irish based person who may visit, the States VHI provide coverage in the States. Just phone +1-800-364-9022 (toll free) unless you are Tyrone's Own and you object to sorting things out on the phone.

[Hardy]

Muppet, it's your business, but why are you according this clown any credibility by engaging with him? He's a busted flush. I skip his posts as, I suspect, do most people since his exposure as a liar and a chancer.

[muppet]

Muppet, it's your business, but why are you according this clown any credibility by engaging with him? He's a busted flush. I skip his posts as, I suspect, do most people since his exposure as a liar and a chancer.

I agree I should know better but then I don't learn from any of my other mistakes either.....

[magickingdom]

Muppet, it's your business, but why are you according this clown any credibility by engaging with him? He's a busted flush. I skip his posts as, I suspect, do most people since his exposure as a liar and a chancer.

muppet is on here peddling rubbish hardy, his whole health care argument is based on 3 hours in st vincents hospital ny and a few people he talked to (try getting out of an a&e in ireland in that time). obviously if the hospital believe a person can pay they will ask for it and if your a tourist skipping off to ireland the next week they would like to think you were smart enough to get insurance and to provide that insurance and not burden them. i was born in the states, have lived half my life there where i worked as an accountant dealing with people at work who did NOT have health care cover. you would simply write to the hospital confirming their salary and that they had no health cover and could not pay. end of story. yet muppet will no doubt continue to argue with this post rather than admit hes wrong but then again he thinks there is universal health care everywhere in the western world except the US. go figure that one out

[Hardy]

Muppet, it's your business, but why are you according this clown any credibility by engaging with him? He's a busted flush. I skip his posts as, I suspect, do most people since his exposure as a liar and a chancer.

muppet is on here peddling rubbish hardy, his whole health care argument is based on 3 hours in st vincents hospital ny and a few people he talked to (try getting out of an a&e in ireland in that time). obviously if the hospital believe a person can pay they will ask for it and if your a tourist skipping off to ireland the next week they would like to think you were smart enough to get insurance and to provide that insurance and not burden them. i was born in the states, have lived half my life there where i worked as an accountant dealing with people at work who did NOT have health care cover. you would simply write to the hospital confirming their salary and that they had no health cover and could not pay. end of story. yet muppet will no doubt continue to argue with this post rather than admit hes wrong but then again he thinks there is universal health care everywhere in the western world except the US. go figure that one out

That's all fair enough as your opinion, mk, and legitimate debate between you and Muppet, unless you're accusing him of lying. My reference was to that other chancer, who has been exposed as a fraud but hasn't even the decency to remove himself from view around here.

[magickingdom]

Muppet, it's your business, but why are you according this clown any credibility by engaging with him? He's a busted flush. I skip his posts as, I suspect, do most people since his exposure as a liar and a chancer.

muppet is on here peddling rubbish hardy, his whole health care argument is based on 3 hours in st vincents hospital ny and a few people he talked to (try getting out of an a&e in ireland in that time). obviously if the hospital believe a person can pay they will ask for it and if your a tourist skipping off to ireland the next week they would like to think you were smart enough to get insurance and to provide that insurance and not burden them. i was born in the states, have lived half my life there where i worked as an accountant dealing with people at work who did NOT have health care cover. you would simply write to the hospital confirming their salary and that they had no health cover and could not pay. end of story. yet muppet will no doubt continue to argue with this post rather than admit hes wrong but then again he thinks there is universal health care everywhere in the western world except the US. go figure that one out

That's all fair enough as your opinion, mk, and legitimate debate between you and Muppet, unless you're accusing him of lying. My reference was to that other chancer, who has been exposed as a fraud but hasn't even the decency to remove himself from view around here.

not implying that at all, i like muppet.... on other threads he just has a big blind spot (with plenty others on here) when it comes to the USA

[FL/MAYO]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

[pintsofguinness]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of how either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

What happens after that though, if you have no insurance, do you get a bill? and what if you can't pay it?

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

[J70]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of how either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

What happens after that though, if you have no insurance, do you get a bill? and what if you can't pay it?

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

If you can't pay, you'll go bankrupt. Otherwise skip the country (I lived with an Irish lad for a couple of months who did exactly that because he was billed 30K for treatment after a car accident).

In 2007, more than 60% of bankruptcies in the US resulted from medical bills, with a large majority of those people actually having insurance.

[Tyrones own]

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

Pint's I've set on committees of fundraisers in the past and can honestly report that precious little of what money was raised
ever found it's way to the hospital, it went solely to personal expenses of that person, loss of earnings, mortgage, day care etc
but hey don't let me stomp on muppets dramatization of how terrible it is for us here

Bite me Hardly

[FL/MAYO]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of how either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

What happens after that though, if you have no insurance, do you get a bill? and what if you can't pay it?

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

This is what happened a friend of mine last year that had no insurance. The hospital sent him a bill for $50,000. He told them he could not afford that amount so both the hospital and himself negotiated the final bill down by 66% of the original amount. They then arranged a payment plan so that he could pay back the bill over an arranged period of time.

The insurance companies never pay the hospitals or doctors the amount they are billed either. When I receive statements from my insurance company I notice that they only reimburse the doctors or hospitals  for about one-third the billed amount. It seems that everything is negotiable.

The real problem with healthcare in the U.S is the cost, where I work a family plan is $650 a month. The upside of course  is that when you need a procedure like a hip or knee replacement it will be done in a matter of weeks, you do not have the long waits for elective surgeries like you do in Ireland.

[pintsofguinness]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of how either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

What happens after that though, if you have no insurance, do you get a bill? and what if you can't pay it?

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

This is what happened a friend of mine last year that had no insurance. The hospital sent him a bill for $50,000. He told them he could not afford that amount so both the hospital and himself negotiated the final bill down by 66% of the original amount. They then arranged a payment plan so that he could pay back the bill over an arranged period of time.

The insurance companies never pay the hospitals or doctors the amount they are billed either. When I receive statements from my insurance company I notice that they only reimburse the doctors or hospitals  for about one-third the billed amount. It seems that everything is negotiable.

The real problem with healthcare in the U.S is the cost, where I work a family plan is $650 a month. The upside of course  is that when you need a procedure like a hip or knee replacement it will be done in a matter of weeks, you do not have the long waits for elective surgeries like you do in Ireland.

That's still 17 grand he's left to pay and what if he couldn't  he'd go bankrupt - like J70 points out

So the new health care plan will mean almost everyone will be covered by insruance? and insurance companies can't f**k around - surely that's only a good thing.

Imagine getting sick and being hit with a massive bill you couldn't pay and then facing bankruptcy - you wouldn't wish that on anyone.

[muppet]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of how either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

What happens after that though, if you have no insurance, do you get a bill? and what if you can't pay it?

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

This is what happened a friend of mine last year that had no insurance. The hospital sent him a bill for $50,000. He told them he could not afford that amount so both the hospital and himself negotiated the final bill down by 66% of the original amount. They then arranged a payment plan so that he could pay back the bill over an arranged period of time.

The insurance companies never pay the hospitals or doctors the amount they are billed either. When I receive statements from my insurance company I notice that they only reimburse the doctors or hospitals  for about one-third the billed amount. It seems that everything is negotiable.

The real problem with healthcare in the U.S is the cost, where I work a family plan is $650 a month. The upside of course  is that when you need a procedure like a hip or knee replacement it will be done in a matter of weeks, you do not have the long waits for elective surgeries like you do in Ireland.

Ireland's problem is that it is completely inefficient. But getting sick in Ireland doesn't mean you risk bankruptcy.

[J70]

I work in the fire service here in the states so I am usually in the E.R a few times a week with patients. This is how it works, when you come into the E.R the nursing staff will triage you, after their assessment they will figure out how critical your complaint is, if it is life threatening you will be seen right away by a doctor (insurance or no insurance) if not life threatening you will be seen in accordance of how either when you showed up in the E.R or how serious you complaint is, everyone gets seen insurance or no insurance.

What happens after that though, if you have no insurance, do you get a bill? and what if you can't pay it?

I don't know much about it at all but there was a big fund rasier in our club a couple of years ago because a local man who moved to the states years before had cancer and had to pay his medical bills.  If memory serves I think his insurance would only cover part of it...

This is what happened a friend of mine last year that had no insurance. The hospital sent him a bill for $50,000. He told them he could not afford that amount so both the hospital and himself negotiated the final bill down by 66% of the original amount. They then arranged a payment plan so that he could pay back the bill over an arranged period of time.

The insurance companies never pay the hospitals or doctors the amount they are billed either. When I receive statements from my insurance company I notice that they only reimburse the doctors or hospitals  for about one-third the billed amount. It seems that everything is negotiable.

The real problem with healthcare in the U.S is the cost, where I work a family plan is $650 a month. The upside of course  is that when you need a procedure like a hip or knee replacement it will be done in a matter of weeks, you do not have the long waits for elective surgeries like you do in Ireland.

What happens to someone in the US who is in that hole between medicaid/medicare and being able to afford to pay for health insurance? Do they have any way of getting something like a hip or knee replacement? Or is it tough shit, live with it?

[FL/MAYO]

J70, not sure on this but you will probably end up as my friend mentioned above had to do,  he negotiated with the hospital. As I said the cost is where the problem lies over here, the care itself is very good.
What I forgot to add when referring to the cost here is that $650 a month was in addition to what the employer has to pay so you are close to $1500 for the month for health insurance, the cost is crippling families and employers alike.