Healthcare: For Profit Or For All?

[clockworkgirl21]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/04/14/healthcare-for-profit-or-for-all-or-how-my-insurance-company-tried-to-kill-my-wife/

I know most of us here are already sold on socialized healthcare, but I wanted to share this because it's so maddening.

[kefkaownsall]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/04/14/healthcare-for-profit-or-for-all-or-how-my-insurance-company-tried-to-kill-my-wife/

I know most of us here are already sold on socialized healthcare, but I wanted to share this because it's so maddening.

I read this and the rage is dangerous especially since I dunno my brother's insurance quality but he's a law student about to graduate and his wife is pregnant so yeah.  Also might want to put miscarriage trigger warning since it is disturbing

[agentCDE]

Insurance is the only US industry that can only turn a profit by doing everything within its power to not provide services to its "customers". It's absurd, really.

[MadCatTLX]

The article asks, "how is this moral? It's not." Yes it is, it's biblical morality.

Insurance is the only US industry that can only turn a profit by doing everything within its power to not provide services to its "customers". It's absurd, really.

You ever see the movie The Incredibles? Remember the beginning when Mr. Incredible is fired from his job at an insurance company for trying to help people instead of finding ways to fuck them over? Long ago I might have thought that a comical exaggeration, now not so much. Having been in a mental hospital for six months for severe depression and having the insurance company trying to find anyway to not pay for the meds that make me sane makes me hate them. Once they refused to pay for the new medication a doctor added because the other weren't working well enough, causing me to go back to the hell that is the juvenile mental health hospital. That place is more like a prison than anything, with most kids there because they committed a crime.

[N. De Plume]

Insurance is the only US industry that can only turn a profit by doing everything within its power to not provide services to its "customers". It's absurd, really.

Indeed.

And you can’t fucking get along without it.

[StallChaser]

Insurance is the only US industry that can only turn a profit by doing everything within its power to not provide services to its "customers". It's absurd, really.

Indeed.

And you can’t fucking get along without it.

Mainly true because hospitals charge individuals grossly inflated bills when compared to what they charge insurance companies.  When my mom was hospitalized, they charged the insurance company $12000, but they would have charged her $60000 if she had no insurance.

[Vypernight]

You ever see the movie The Incredibles? Remember the beginning when Mr. Incredible is fired from his job at an insurance company for trying to help people instead of finding ways to fuck them over?

Actually, he was fired for grabbing his boss by the throat and sending him through several walls, but yeah, the idea is there.  Same with Saw VI.  You give them thousands of dollars, but when you need them, they **** you over.

A few years ago, I went into the ER with stomach pains.  Before this, I had been paying my insurance for over a decade and never used it (I paid my own bill for doctor visits).  My insurance company ended up refusing half the services, and I ended up paying about $600 for a three hour ER visit in which I was misdignosed.  If I had just saved my money instead of paying them, I could've completely covered my bill!

[Witchyjoshy]

^
Does an insurance CEO get put into a SAW trap in SAW VI, Vyper?

[erictheblue]

From Saw VI Wikipedia:

William Easton, a health insurance executive, talks with his company's attorney, Debbie, about Harold Abbott, who died from an illness after his insurance policy was revoked due to an application discrepancy. He is kidnapped from his office that night and brought to an abandoned zoo, and awakens in a vise designed to tighten around his torso each time he breathes into an oxygen respirator. Hank, his janitor and a smoker, is in the same trap across from him. A videotape of John tells William that he has one hour to undergo four tests to remove bombs from his limbs, or he will lose his family. He is able to hold his breath longer than Hank, who is killed by the vise. In his second test, he must choose to save either Allen, his healthy but orphaned file clerk, or Addy, his sickly secretary who is surrounded by family. His policy favors Allen, but he saves Addy and Allen is hanged when his platform retracts. In his third test, William is able to guide Debbie through a boiler room maze, only to learn through X-rays that the key to her device is stitched into his side. She attacks him with a saw, but is killed when the device fires a spear through her head. In his fourth test, William finds his six staff members chained to a spinning carousel. A shotgun is set to fire at them one by one, but he can save two by driving spikes into his hand to divert the shotgun, and he chooses to save Emily and Shelby.

[Witchyjoshy]

Ah yes, now I remember why I don't like the SAW movies.

[Meshakhad]

The article asks, "how is this moral? It's not." Yes it is, it's biblical morality.

I dispute that. Under halachic law, almost anything is legal in order to save a life. Under halachic law, this sort of problem would have a very simple solution: you rob the insurance company to pay for the procedure. And I don't mean "rip them off". I mean "break into their local offices and grab everything that isn't nailed down". And you'd get off scot-free. Unless you happen to be Scottish.

[Vypernight]

Ah yes, now I remember why I don't like the SAW movies.

It was actually a good movie, and since it happened not long after my incident, I enjoyed watching the asshole disintegrate.

Granted I was also rooting for Hoffman, the main antagonist to the point where I embarrassed my wife by yelling at the screen in the theater at the end.

[MrsYoungie]

Canadian here.  We are so used to our medicare that we totally take it for granted.  True, we hear a lot of horror stories like this from below the border, but we don't have to experience it ourselves.  At least I didn't - until this February.
We went on holiday to Mexico.  Being good planners, we bought out-of-country health coverage through CAA and away we went.  Three days into the vacation I fell and shattered my wrist.  Trip to emergency in Cancun, anaesthetic while they set the arm - cost $2,800.00.
Fine, except I'm still waiting for the insurance company to pay me back.  They are demanding 5 years worth of my medical history from my doctor.  He says they are most likely looking for a loop-hole so they don't have to pay me.
All of a sudden I feel what it would really be like to live under the U.S. system.  Would it be like this every time something happened?  Would I be afraid to be tested for something in case it became a "pre-existing condition" that nullified my insurance.
You guys all have my deepest sympathy with this.  Obamacare may not be perfect (it should be single payer) but it's better than nothing!

[Witchyjoshy]

Ah yes, now I remember why I don't like the SAW movies.

It was actually a good movie, and since it happened not long after my incident, I enjoyed watching the asshole disintegrate.

Granted I was also rooting for Hoffman, the main antagonist to the point where I embarrassed my wife by yelling at the screen in the theater at the end.

Oh, it's not what was done to the asshole that I dislike.

It was what it was done to the people around him.

[Vypernight]

True, but it was one of Jigsaw's final wishes, and the man was never all there.