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  1. #1
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    Question What is health insurance?

    I have no idea what health insurance is but it's been all over the news recently.

    What is it?

    What happens if i don't have health insurance? Is it illegal?

    If i am in a car crash and i have brain damage and i call 911, will the ambulance come and take me to hospital, and will the hospital treat me even though I don't have health insurance? Will they just bill me later?

  2. #2
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  3. #3
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    Hospital will have to treat you since it's an emergency, and hospital is reimbursed by other tax-payers. But you will only get emergency care. If you have health-insurance you can be covered by preventive care, like cancer, diabetes.

  4. #4
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    I'm not sure what this health insurance thing is either. I live in Canada so I just sort of show up and they take care of me. When I leave I just leave there is no bill to pay.
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  5. #5
    I think its illegal not to pay. The collection agency or company can take you to court. The hospital can not deny you from service. You just have to pay eventually. You can not run up a $10,000 bill without paying or it will ruin your credit as well.

    We think that we are a world power but we can not provide adequate health insurance.

    We are behind in broadband, schooling, health care, and many other things.

    The public is probably mad due to the fact that the government in the U.S. does not provide adequate services in no shape or form.

    Not even 50% of citizens vote. I said something about voting for obama last year and this old guy said really bad things about this country. I forgot what he said.

    Our prison systems are full and if you get a felony you can not vote, own a handgun, or even get a decent job for a few years. You have a record as well. No wonder most felons go back.

    I do not see a reason for having a IRS either. I do think that the IRS could track quite a bit of what people do a lot better and have no reason for a IRS.

    I do not see a United States of America period. Our government is divided by political parties that get paid to ruin our country. The political parties are ran by rich citizens that do not know what the real world in our country is. A decent political representative would be somebody that is not rich and actually cares to see what real life is.

    The Veterans Affairs Hospital gave bonuses to its employees but was requesting donations for some sort of machines by a near by Dollar General Store.

    In our state, I have known a infant that got a $70,000 bill from the hospital but requests donations when they still give out those kind of bills.

    I would never give donations to any service that I thought that could get money for themselves.

    The U.S. Government could be making money themselves but chooses to tax the U.S. Population.

    Cigarettes get taxed 100% or more in a few states but it never prevented them from buying it. It makes the general public even more miserable by taxing them.

    Each state, town, and federal part of the U.S. government has different laws making things more difficult than it needs to be.

    I do not completely hate my country. It needs to be a better country as a whole.

  6. #6

    Health Insurance

    People like me who live in the United States that dont have good Health Insurance end up paying off medical debt tell the day we die lol.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by ryan14 View Post
    If i am in a car crash and i have brain damage and i call 911, will the ambulance come and take me to hospital, and will the hospital treat me even though I don't have health insurance? Will they just bill me later?
    If you're in a car crash and you have brain damage, I'm not sure that you would be able to call 911 in the first place. Anyways, hospitals have to accept you, regardless of your health insurance status.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyB View Post
    I'm not sure what this health insurance thing is either. I live in Canada so I just sort of show up and they take care of me. When I leave I just leave there is no bill to pay.
    Well Canada has the best health care system in the world as far as I heard.

  9. #9
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    I dont "need" health insurance, good old NHS
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by rlshosting View Post
    I think its illegal not to pay. The collection agency or company can take you to court. The hospital can not deny you from service. You just have to pay eventually. You can not run up a $10,000 bill without paying or it will ruin your credit as well.

    Its not illegal not to pay health related bills. It can screw up your credit, but its not really suppose to.

    If you go to the hospital and rack up $20,000 in bills (Not uncommon) The hospital and any collection agency is going to hound you really bad, but they can not take you to court.

    You have no legal obligation to pay medical bills. It even gets better when you go to a county hospital.
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by dlewis23 View Post
    Its not illegal not to pay health related bills. It can screw up your credit, but its not really suppose to.
    More often than not, other creditors ignore medical staements that are on your credit. The credit system is as bad as everything else. Many places report bad credit if you DONT pay, but dont report what you DO pay. They should fix this so that ALL credit is reported, not just the bad. Then if a company is reporting too much bad credit and not enough good on their customers, then the law can look into why. Most people pay, so a company should generally always be reporting good credit as a majority.

  12. #12
    Health insurance is insurance that pays for medical expenses. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program or from private insurance companies.
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  13. #13
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    In some countries they have a national insurance that is paid to the government, I think Poland have it where you have an insurance card but if your a student or you're unemployed you get it free of charge.

    Might be way off.

    In the UK you can get private health care, the only real advantage is that you don't really need to wait for anything. For example a couple of years ago I had to wait 5months for (non-urgent) surgery where as if I was with private healthcare it would have been within a couple of weeks.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by rlshosting View Post
    We think that we are a world power but we can not provide adequate health insurance.
    You're thinking backwards. We shouldn't need health insurance. Health insurance itself is a scam and a racket, nothing more. Basically, it's the old protection scheme, like "you pay us, we'll make sure you're safe". Well, without the protectors in place, people wouldn't have to pay such high costs, because enough outcry would be placed over the actual cost of healthcare.

    The problem is just that simple. There are two tiers of healthcare costs in the U.S., which prove the point very simply.

    One tier is for the "insured", those with insurance, those who basically will pay anything and everything for service. Prices for this tier are marked up drastically, because the hospitals and doctors can get away with doing so.

    The other tier is for the "uninsured", people who have no insurance. This tier is severely marked DOWN, because that's the only way they'd ever get paid. They don't WANT the customer seeing the high bills they pass on to the insurance racketeers so they mark it down to make minimalprofit.


    Quote Originally Posted by dlewis23 View Post
    Its not illegal not to pay health related bills. It can screw up your credit, but its not really suppose to.
    Oh, it most certainly is, and they most definitely can take you to court for it. You won't win that battle by any means. Whomever told you this "It's not illegal to avoid healthcare bills" is 100% mistaken. The hospital provided a service, you are obligated to pay for it, end of story.

    Insurance is the problem. Getting rid of the problem is the solution. Unfortunately, not going to happen in the U.S. I'd love to say it WILL, but the government always goes for the solution that makes THEM the most money, not the right, or workable one.
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  15. #15
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    In my opinion people have improperly merged the concept of health insurance with health coverage (aka health payment plan). At heart insurance is designed to pay for and hedge against the risk of catastrophic loss, see fire, flood, auto insurance. Once a condition is known there is nothing to hedge against, hence insurance is pointless. This is where we delve in to health coverage where the costs are known, the event has happened and now you should be working out a payment plan for service received.

    Common examples would be a doctors appointment:

    You know when you scheduled it (will occur), there is a known cost, you should foot the entire bill as neogotiated with the health care provider.

    A pre-existing medical condition:

    It's already happened, we know roughly what the cost to treat it is, once again you should be footing the bill for this one based on a payment plan hammered out by the healthcare provider (e.g. your local hospital, private clinic etc . . .)
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  16. #16
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    At heart insurance is designed to pay for and hedge against the risk of catastrophic loss, see fire, flood, auto insurance.
    That's what insurance is for yes, and in those cases, it is right on the money. Auto, home, etc, all perfect examples of this. Heal care in any way is not so much.

    Should someone be covered against eventualities? Absolutely, yes.
    However, that someone shouldn't have to pay $100s a month to have it done. There's the difference. Nor, for that matter, should individuals have to pay $100s for a < 2 hour trip to the hospital, which is typical.

    Like I said, the problem in this case is that the insurance providers encourage this racket. They don't care about paying the bills, they'll toss 'em around a bit and take care of 'em.
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  17. #17
    linux-tech,

    Your right. Health insurance should not be in the "system". Health coverage only needs to be in the "system".

  18. #18
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    I found my answer guys:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergen...tive_Labor_Act

    This act means all hospitals are Legally required to treat Uninsured people in emergencys.

    This says Hospitals can bill patients but most customers just seek bankruptcy protection:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninsur...t_.28EMTALA.29

  19. #19
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    I don't know... I have to pay a $1600 deductible before I can use mine, so I just don't. But luckily my company pays my monthly premium 100% (so I'm out nothing monthly), and if I did manage to pay off the deductible out of pocket, my benefits would be quite nice with great coverage. The problem is, by the time I pay it off.... it'll be about a year, and it will start anew with the deductible all over again.

  20. #20
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    While I can agree that we shouldn't need health insurance to receive care at an affordable cost, I am kind of glad some of the movements Obama has taken with this.

    I was laid off back in November of 08, and was offered Cobra (I was under Blue Cross Blue Shield) but never accepted it. I had one last enrollment offer in April with 90 days to respond. Well, during the 90 days I was in a major car accident that sent me in the hospital for 32 days.

    You know what sucks? Lying in a hospital bed asking for pain meds knowing each pill is probably going to cost you $200'ish, and then wishing you never asked for any.

    My hospital bill was $237,000. That was just my hospital bills. Not my pathology lab bills, surgery bills, ambulance, and various other equipment I had to have. All in all about $300,000 worth of bills.

    Being uninsured makes you **** your pants. BUT I lucked out severely. I ended up receiving another letter from Cobra/BCBS saying that under Obama's stimulus plan, I was eligible for Cobra again pending my being laid off happened after September 08 - December 09.

    Rather then paying a $214 premium, I was able to receive 35% off and could get my premium at $74 a month. So I sent off my forms, contacted my previous employer and cut them a check to cover March-September of 09. I was approved, and now I'm insured and can finally give all of my bills my insurance information.

    I was getting 10+ calls a day for unpaid bills, so this is a blessing.

    The best part was finally receiving another letter last week that now I'm eligible for a $26/month premium for September 09 until September 10. Hell yes.

    Nothing better then logging into bcbsil.com and seeing some of your medical claims marked as "completed" and my cost as $0 for some of them.

  21. #21
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    Health insurance is an absolutely necessary component of life in America.

    What's more fair? Spending $75 a month on premiums for health insurance with a $1500 deductible or not spending that money and getting hit with a $5000 emergency room bill (which is common) when you get a concussion?

    If the $75 isn't worth it and you can't pay the $5000 who is supposed to pick up the bill? Everyone else that uses the hospital and emergency room responsibly? By not carrying health insurance and not paying your bill, that's exactly what you are saying.

    I don't buy for half a second that people can't afford health insurance because I sell it all day, every day and I sell it to folks from all walks of life. Rich, poor, on a fixed income, middle class, etc. There is affordable health insurance but you're not going to get your cadillac plan with copays for every thing so you can run to the doctor and pay $30 every time you get a cough.

    The problem isn't health insurance. The problem is irresponsible people who depend on everyone else to take care of them when they become sick or injured. The problem is people who run to the emergency room for a sinus infection. The problem is people who think that just because they can't have the greatest plan for $20 a month that there's no point in carrying health insurance at all. The problem is fat, lazy Americans who sit around and let their kids eat chocostix all day long then are surprised when their kid turns up with diabetes or the guy who eats fast food all of his life and is surprised he gets high cholesterol or the kid who never has a yearly physical and finally goes in after he develops a health condition - after it's too late.

    Americans are responsible for the health care crisis because we are, by and large, lazy and complacent and expect someone else to take care of us when the bottom finally falls out. If they took more responsibility for their own health care then we wouldn't be in the situation we're in and Obama wouldn't be trying to shove this bs health care bill that's going to put more people out of a job and cost all Americans more in the end.

    Health insurance is there to protect you, not cater to every little sniffle and sneeze you have. Once people learn that and learn to take care of themselves, the problem will eventually shrink.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by db09 View Post
    What's more fair? Spending $75 a month on premiums for health insurance with a $1500 deductible or not spending that money and getting hit with a $5000 emergency room bill (which is common) when you get a concussion?
    Surely you're kidding
    $75 is at the low end of the spectrum. For me, for example, I'm looking at $200+ every month, just a single individual w/ dental and vision.

    Now, take that and compare it to the fact that I go years without doing anything, having any work done, seeing any doctors. Why should I pay thousands of $$$ a year for nothing. It's a scam, nothing more.

    The problem, as I have said over and over again, is the insurance companies. They don't care what they pay, it's a protection racket to them. most people in their "group" are like me, not going to the doctor/hospital/etc so it's a win/win for them. They'll pay ANYTHING, including unreasonable prices to the hospital/doctor/etc, and the doctor/hospital/etc knows that so they mark the prices up to unbelievable amounts just for that.

    Get rid of the insurance companies and you see reasonable prices. Problem solved.
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  23. #23
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    I pay more than $1000/mo for my family's health insurance, and they just raised it 10%. Our only larger expense is housing.
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  24. #24
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    Ouch, I'm sorry. That's way, way too much!!!
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  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by linux-tech View Post
    Ouch, I'm sorry. That's way, way too much!!!
    It is.. well, I should say my company pays it, but we're small and I own all the stock in our company so it feels like it's coming out of my pocket. Our company pays 100% of the health insurance for all our employees.. will do it as long as I can, but its getting tough.

    What we need is real competition, like they have with Lasik eye surgery.. prices have come down and quality has gone up.

    Anyway.. I digress.
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