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rhondabrwn -> RE: NORAD tracks Santa.... (12/31/2009 4:36:45 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: 06 Maestro
quote:
ORIGINAL: rhondabrwn
I've got health insurance through my school, but with a $1,000 deductible, $75 co-pay for doctor visits, and a 70% co-pay on the major medical. If I get hositalized for anything, it's going to be ruinous. They just raised our drug co-pay this year so I've quit taking all my drugs and am relying on diet and exercise to manage my diabetes. Fortunately for me, I'm so far away from a hospital that I don't worry about hospital bills - if anything serious happens, I'll be dead before an ambulance can get out here anyway. With luck, I might make it to 65 and medicare (3 more years) and I probably won't see a doctor again till then.
That is one lousy medical plan-better off just stashing cash-for after a bankruptcy.
Rhonda, I do admire the work you are doing. I am sort of familiar with the area there. A long time friend is a native of Gallup, NM. I have been on the Reservation multiple times (years ago)-a different world; some good and some bad, but quite backward. For better or worse, you chose that route yourself. No one made you go there.
True and I have no regrets about leaving business, becoming a teacher, and coming out to an isolated area. I quite deliberately wish to die before I can become a burden to my three grown children so this is a perfect place for me to accomplish that. I've had a good life.
I am addressing the idea that just because you have health insurance in this country it is not necessarily adequate to insure proper care. The IHS (Indian Health Service) provides free care to the Native Americans, but I hear complaints all the time about the quality of care being provided and it is really sad to have a student tell me that his parent's couldn't afford to expend the gasoline to drive to a clinic so they just stayed at home sick for two weeks. If I had this Health Insurance in Phoenix it wouldn't make any difference - high deductibles and co-pays discourage getting proper health care wherever you are living. When I came to Pinon the deductible was $350 and doctor visits were $35... in two years we've doubled our costs. This is also what is happening all across this country and this trend is going to continue and accelerate. If you are happy with what you have now, just hope that you will have it next year.
But I can attest that I survived for years with no health insurance (or care) at all until I hit the Emergency Room and got hospitalized twice with the Public picking up the tab because I was technically indigent. It was a public hospital so I was able to file a hardship claim and they waived over $50,000 in charges. I qualified despite working two jobs while going to school for my MA in Secondary Education. Both hospitalizations could have been prevented if I had been able to see a doctor before things went critical. People tend to discount just how much of this goes on and how much could be saved if everyone had access to timely medical care (yes, and that includes "illegal aliens" unless you want to let them die on the sidewalks in front of the Emergency Room).
I think it quite humorous that people are so intent on keeping "illegals" out of any health care reform option when we are all paying for their expensive Emergency Room medical care already. We should be demanding that they be included - it would save a lot of money if we could avoid the Emergency Room as their principal caregiver.
I guess it's like the blind men and the elephant - everyone sees what they want to see and everyone ends up with their own version of the "Obvious Truth". I'm sure everyone is quite sincere in their opinions based on their viewpoint and life experiences. I'm not surprised to see so much disagreement, though I am saddened by it because I can only see things getting worse.
I'm sorry to see this thread turn into the usual free for all with personal insults being thrown about. I guess that's why we can't have a political forum on Matrix to allow serious discussion of social and political issues. Perhaps if the Administrators would just step in and DELETE all posts with personal attacks as soon as they see them instead of just locking some interesting threads while leaving those offensive posts up for anyone to view. Better to deprive them of their audience and eliminate the imperative for offended parties to rebut the insults and keep the whole furball going for another round.
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