Yeah. Say what you want about Obamacare but that is the stuff he is trying to fix. His plan may not be the best but that is his intent.
If you allow health care to stay free market that situation is here to stay.

 

I don't think he cares one ioda about 'fixing' anything. In this case the government just wants in on the loot.

 

I choked on a piece of steak taco and had to receive the Heimlick, long story short the steak cut it's ways up and down my esophagus, an ear nose and throat guy put a scope down my nose into my airway, it was considered a "surgery" and the trip costed just over $1400. It only took about 15 minutes. Today I swallowed a staple and I was considering going in but then I googled it an it'll pass on it own...hopefully.

 

Today I swallowed a staple...

How does that happen?

 

That is one reason I like living in Mexico! CHEAP! $20 to fix cavities....$110 to whiten teeth.

 

Umm..How exactly do you swallow a staple?

 

think i got you beat, not that it is a contest. i went in for an eye exam on march 1st to get new prescription for glasses, and when they came in they had ordered me trifocals, WHICH I DO NOT NEED, and charged me $509.00 just for the lenses. the frames and the exam were $257.00 plus $100.00 for "office equipment." the total visit turned out to be $866.00 for glasses that i can not wear. and they argueing with me about weather i need them or not. they keep saying that headaches are normal with trifocals. all i need is something to help me see things a distance. i did not catch it at first, but i remember them being excited about my insurance having a $600.00 limit.

 

When I go to a dentist since I don't go to doctors anymore, had enough of the VA trying to kill me let alone any private doctor or hospital, I just say can you fix my tooth for under $200 bucks and if not, don't waste my time or yours because you won't get anymore than that. Works every time, tooth is fixed for under $200 dollars.

As for the Obama care comments, those who want it don't know anything about it and it goes like this under Obama care:

You see a doctor and tell him your problems or if you end up in an emergency room they figure it out for you. They type the prognosis into the Computer and it gets sent to Washington DC where a team of doctors will decide what the cure will be if there is any or whether or not the cost of the surgery will be reasonable. Your age is taken into consideration, if you are an elder person and they have a scale to figure out how much time you have left to live if you are repaired and the cost of repairing you and then they decide if you either live or die, get the surgery or not or if it just costs to much and you have a chronic illness problem you will be denied treatment. In the mean time while they are deciding the cases you have to wait weeks or months.

Now this is from a doctors own words you can find on youtube who is being appointed as one of the leading doctors on team in Washington DC. Too horrible to be true? Welcome to socialism if they get their way.

If you want that kind of service, go to China. They will figure out if you have any organs worth selling and just take your organs instead of repairing you.

I for one like my options free and clear, even if I have to pay for it out of my own pocket to see a doctor and not have my life in the hands of a team of doctors 2000 miles away looking at a computer to see if I am worthy.

Research it.

 

OK, here's one. Around 10 years ago, I was iin the hospital for 2 days. Cost of the 1/2 room, not including the ER costs, any Dr. charges, or any test, just the 1/2 room and to lay in the bed, with 6 total hospital meals===$11,800!!!!!!!!!!

On another note, my Mother's Dr. books 4 people every 15 minutes, at $106 each for the visit.

 

My second daughter was born 7 weeks early. She stayed in the NICU for 4 weeks. After the helicopter ride for my wife and the doctors that brought her back to life and saved both of them, the bill showed up. $140,000.

Worth every penny.

 

My first-born was 8 weeks early and stayed in hospital for almost 6 weeks. No charge

I see my g.p. every Thursday so she can check my b.p. and monitor heart rate. No charge

I spent almost 24 hours in emergency a week ago. No charge

I have an appt. on April 12 to see my cardiologist, a bi-monthly visit, btw. No Charge

There are advantages to living in the cold, cruel north.*


* And yes, I do know that it is taxpayers' $$ that pays for these things, but I am a taxpayer and I'd still rather it got paid that way than a whopping big bill.

 

I'm glad I have Romney care !!!!
3 things I don't like about Romney care - 1] everyone has to buy insurance or they get fined = unconstitutional . 2] When you have the basic , low end plan [like the one I have] you get the low end doctors - no choice . 3] Illegals can get the subsidized insurance .
In Romney's defence , he had to work with the liberal Massachusetts democrats to get the health care bill passed .
One of the many differences between Romney care and Obama care is that there are no government beaurocrats deciding your fate .
You can say it's socialism or entitelment but if it wasn't for Romney care I'd be screwed !

 

I'm glad I have Romney care !!!!
3 things I don't like about Romney care - 1] everyone has to buy insurance or they get fined = unconstitutional . 2] When you have the basic , low end plan [like the one I have] you get the low end doctors . 3] Illegals can get the subsidized insurance .
In Romney's defence , he had to work with the liberal Massachusetts democrats to get the health care bill passed .
One of the many differences between Romney care and Obama care is that there are no government beaurocrats deciding your fate .
You can say it's socialism or entitelment but if it wasn't for Romney care I'd be screwed !

If you didn't have to pay all of the accumulated taxes that you pay, you might have enough money to afford doctors without using insurance.

 

What kills me is our state has mandatory car insurance. No problem I still have choices. Walk, bus, cab, catch a ride from someone, bike, etc.

I have NO choice at all with the new healthcare.

I always thought that being American was about freedom of choice. O will go down as the man that took that away.

 

Too eliminate the high costs of medical care or even the need for Obamacare.

Eliminate the ability to sue the medical field, thus reducing malpratice insurance.

People in this country are always looking for a quick lotto fix through the courts costing the taxpayers more everyday.

Tort reform will reshape this country and make people relize that things do just happen without intent to harm.

We need to relearn to take responsibilty for ourselves and stop blaming others for a problem or situation.

 

You are correct. Just watch TV and count the number of lawyers that are advertising for you to sue someone. "Your Dr. coughed in your exam room, call me and I'll get you money. Free money".

 

I live in Bulgaria. 3 years ago I got really ill and had to be taken to hospital. first hospital was crap, and very cold. Then I got taken to private hospital where I stayed in a private room for three days and they fixed me. I had some kind of pneumonia (I thought really I was going to die). I had to come back over the next two weeks once a day to get injections. The total cost was about 500 leva (about $348.00) My boyfriend had to bring my food tho. they didn't serve food there.

That included all the top end medication I needed.

Dental work is also very reasonable. I had a root canal done just before christmas, had to come back twice. cost about $100.00

The doctors here also tend to use not only drugs, but tell you to have certain kinds of tea or eat a certain kind of food for different conditions.

I can't complain so far.

 

Hey, doctors have a skill that people are willing to pay. Becoming a doctor isnt about helping people anymore its a buisness. Yeah yeah there are a few honest good doctors out there but the majority are in it for the money. Free enterprise.
The insurance companies should be able to genetic test and offer rates based on their findings. All these regulations to protect the weak is no different than the unions protecting weak employees or the big oil charging whatever they want for gasoline. Smoke, drink, over weight, drug addict, mental fruit loop the insurance companies should be able to charge what the market can bare. Im all for deregulation if it is across the board and fair not just to slam one group.

 

I spend a lot of time in India and the health care system there is very good. There is no such thing as health insurance, you pay cash on the spot, however it is like anothers post here about Bulgaria, the cost is cheap and except for the poor, most people can afford pretty good care.

 

I'm just wondering if all this government "taking care of us" is worth it.

I wonder if in some or even many ways, we would be better off if we never counted on things like insurance and pensions and such other benefits.

If you know you have to take care of yourself, you approach life differently, more responsibly, and you also deal with others differently. You start to pay attention to your relationships with others and realize the value of those relationships.

You maybe take care of yourself a bit better so you WON'T get sick and have to go to the doctor, and you save for your future.

I'm sure there's other's that might disagree, but right now, I do not count on pensions or any other handouts. I am going to have to make it on my own, and it actually feels much more satisfying and safe.

 

Obama has LOTS of "good" intentions. iirc the road to hell is paved with good intentions and barry is building us a superhighway.

 

btw the staple is no longer in me, a relief for me..too much information for you my buddy stapled my bag of Cheese It's closed and a staple got into them, I guess I swallowed one of them.

 

I'm really sick of giving my hard earned money to the government so they can dole it out to whoever they want.Mostly it is given as a way to increase their voting bloc. The more dependent people become on Big Brother to help them through life, the more difficult life becomes for all of us, and it becomes impossible to get the welfare class to vote away the entitlements.I don't know of any solution for this short term, other than the collapse of our economy hopefully slapping some sense into these people. Unfortunately a collapse might swing things the other way. With about 50% of the population not paying any taxes there could be a huge outcry for more help. More, more, more.

Long term the solution I see is to raise our children right,to stand up against evil, and to speak out publicly, every chance we get, against the continual stripping of our Freedoms and the stealing of our wealth.

It's time the government stops rewarding the people that do nothing to make our country strong. It's time they stop punishing those that work and strive and wish to be left alone .

Struggling through life can be hard enough.

 

I have to wonder if it actually is the doctors. My fraternal grandfather was a medical doctor in the 1900s-1940s. Back then , there was a relationship between the doctor and patient. After WWII, slowly evolving over the decades, the insurance companies consolidated their control. Now, the doctor is a business owner. Now , it is very crowded in that examination room. So much so , the doctor has trouble seeing the patient for all the unwanted "business partners" he's saddled with. Crowded around the patient are federal, state, county , and municipal policrats and unelected bureaucrats, salesmen from the pharmaceutical industry, parasitic lawyers, and the ever present, all seeing , insurance industry octopus ( malpractice insurance based on years of experience, liability insurance for his office, ever rising vehicle insurance). Couple that with all the student loans the doctor incurred in training, the rent or mortgage on his building/ office, his employees he has to pay a "competitive" wage, or they won't speak English, and all the other headaches associated with being a business owner, he has a lot on his mind. He seldom has any control on what a lab charges him for their services, they are in the same boat , with the same "partners" the doctor is chained to. It's no secret, medical technology has and is saving lives that not too long ago would have perished or taken longer to treat. That technology costs money. Don't think me unsympathetic to the patients plight. I laid a motorcycle down in my youth. I ruptured my liver, damaged a kidney, jacked up my pelvis,ect., ect.,. I was essentially on the fast track to the morgue. The highly skilled firefighters/paramedics,ER teams,CCU, ICU teams, physical therapy personnel put humpty dumpty back together again. The damage to the bike? $ 750.00 . Damage to the rider? $ 15,900. Btw, I didn't have insurance back then. But I am alive. My point is, it's not simply "the greedy doctors" that make health care cost so much. TP

 

Sheesh give him a break. He is just trying to build his nest egg as he will be retiring in 2014 along with a lot of other doctors.

 

OK back to the OP and a bit of humor, I think I copied this from the jokes section here at the boards:

Colonoscopy Be prepared


For anyone who has been through this procedure you will understand this email
.....

For those of you that have not been through the procedure, this will give you
an idea of what you have to look forward to.


Colonoscopy Journal:

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment
for a colonoscopy.
A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon,
a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing
briefly through Minneapolis ..Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure
to me in a thorough, reassuring and pati manner.

I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my
brain was shrieking, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'


I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a
product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a
microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it
to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's
enemies.


>I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.

Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance
with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was
chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.


Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder
together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water.
(For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons).
Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because
MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and
urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.


The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense
of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may
result.'


This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may
experience contact with the ground.


MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but,
have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the
MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish
the
commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the
bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when
you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of
MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the
future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.


After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.


The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not
only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing
occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I
spurt on
Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers
would not be enough.


At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and
totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to
a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little
curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital
garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on,
makes you
feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.


Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand.
Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already
lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.
At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I
pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the
bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would
have
no choice but to burn your house.


When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where
Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the
17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I
was seriously nervous at this point.

Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began
hooking something up to the needle in my hand.


There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was
'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that
could
be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the
least appropriate.


'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.


'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for
more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am
going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.


I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling
'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was
back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood.


Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I
felt even more excellent when Andy told me that IT was all over, and that
my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an
internal organ.


On the subject of Colonoscopies...
Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during the exam were quite
humorous.... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments made
by his patients (predominately male) while he was performing their
colonoscopies:


1. 'Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!'


2. 'Find Amelia Earhart yet?'


3. 'Can you hear me NOW?'


4. 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'


5. 'You know, in Arkansas , we're now legally married.'


6. 'Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'


7. 'You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...'


8. 'Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!'


9. 'If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!'


10. 'Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.'


11. 'You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?'


12. 'God, now I know why I am not gay.'


And the best one of all:
13.. 'Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is not up
there?

 

That was funny. Thanks. I needed that.:

 

Folks seem to forget what drives EVERYTHING in this country today - GREED.

Most doctors no longer care about patients and lack focus on educating them and seeing to the patients best interests

drug companies pump out meds that treat symptoms rather than cures.

Doctors are the middle men in that cycle.

Everyone in that loop makes a ton of money out of people STAYING ill and only making the symptoms more bearable.

I firmly believe there are cures out there for things, but there is too much money at stake to release them.

As long as medicine is a BUSINESS, it will be like any other corporation where the execs want to bleed every penny and turn workers aka patients into commodity units.

There is merit to alternative medicines and treatments, and when surgery or a procedure is needed, like a few said, Mexico - a plane ticket and room stay is cheaper than dealer with the MediCorps here in the US.

 

I think I just figured out how to get insanely rich! Forget real estate. I'm going to open a medical insurance business. I mean, the insurance rats are the oly ones who are going to benefit from the Obammy care! TP

 

And if you fail and go broke, you have a good shot of getting 'bailed out'. :thumb:

Need a partner?

 

Having been drafted during the supremely stupid Vietnam engagement makes me consider the real power that government has over life and death. An idea I have is... not even a mandatory draft, but a voluntary one... Instead of enlisting people against their will... enlist with benefits... young people with more brains than money. Train them to be doctors at the govt expense... 6 yrs of schooling for 10 yrs of moderately priced wages, treating low income and medicare patients, or whomever (of course the Medical Boards would be krapping bricks, kinda like me when they jerked me up to go to the other side of the world for some stupid political krappy war). Take the scientists studying minnows in Tennessee or the rocks on Mars and have them devote their time to keeping any hazards to US citizens at bay. More people die from infections they get in hospitals than die from traffic accidents (50K+). Doctors and hospitals suck, and the price we citizens pay is an outrage. There's got to be a better way. (This assumes we have more than a few years left). I'm new here and this website rocks!

 

Hello and welcome. Thank you for your service.

 

There are other alternatives. Like these folks. http://acchealth.com/ I did a rotation with them for my NP. This is the ideal in my opinion. Is it the ultimate answer, no. But it is a step in the right direction. BTW, they post their prices in the waiting room.