Thread: Fire victim medical bills

Originally Posted by miguelina

In light of this, I see no reason why Americans can't just say they have no insurance. If a hospital has to treat you regardless of pay, then why are we being discriminated against?

Everyone should be treated equally or it becomes racism, no?

Actually that is a very good idea, if it could be done all around the country then the problem would have to be dealt with.
Just look at the floor and say "no papers" when you show up at the hospital ER.

Major illnes for most Americans can ruin their credit take away all their assets and put them in the street .

HALF OF ALL BANKRUPTCIES CAUSED BY MEDICAL COSTS

In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them.

About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9-2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs average $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick. [/size]
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/co ... haff.w5.63

The thought occurred to me, after last night's earthquake (which was kind of fun, actually), that I should pick a plausible country to be from illegally so I don't have to pay any hospital bills. Of course I would never rip anyone off, it's not moral, so it doesn't matter; I'm just jealous of the illegals that would get it for free. There are ALOT of them around here. They thoughtfully "decorated" my mailbox and several local churches during the last Cinco de Mayo in appreciation for us shutting down the downtown streets so they could party. (They use to use a fairground but the gang fights, stabbings and security costs got out of hand. Now they only overturn newstands or break the occassional store-front window and tag churches. It's much better now.)

Originally Posted by Nicole

Burn care requires ventilators, multiple surgeries, round-the-clock intensive care and grafts from human cadaveric skin. McAfee said grafts can be grown from patients' own skin to minimize tissue rejection at $500,000 per patient.

My husband and I both work. We pay a lot of $$ for our insurance and have a high deductible/co insurance and he works for a major insurance company. The coverage is simply horrible. I know there is no way we would get a $500,000 skin graft. They would deny it-I have no doubt.
It is nice to know that the sky is the limit and no expense is spared when it comes to illegal lawbreakers. So glad that I am not only paying for my health insurance but contributing to theirs as well.

They get anything-no questions asked. Our insurance-practically everything needs to be preapproved or you are out of luck and you don't get the procedure.

I guess this is the American way.

That is absolutely true. For those of who are insured, we know that the super expensive treatments are often denied. Once denied, do you think our doctors or the hospitals would treat us anyway? NO WAY!! The big lie is that American citizen, tax-paying and INSURED patients are refused life-saving treatments every day. I've only been to the emergency room twice in my life, and both times the one thing they were most interested in was getting my insurance information and my co-pay. I wonder what would have happened if I'd been able to produce neither?

I read about a woman a few years ago who couldn't afford breast cancer treatment, and she died. This happens all the time, believe me.

The fact that these illegals get the royal treatment totally boggles me. It's insane.

This "free" emergency health care to illegal patients is being paid by you and me. To cover losses caused by their "free" care, hospitals, the paying customer must pay the higher cost. I don't begrudge giving free emergency care to those in need. But as soon as their injury is no longer life threatening, the illegals should be sent back home to where they came from.

We can continue being door mats for the illegals, or make it more difficult for them to stay. How about enforcing our current laws and make it undesirable to come and/or stay here? Gee, isn't that a novel idea, or am I unreasonable as well as being a door mat? America, Wake Up!

This quote is very telling:


"Many times, however, the patient remains at UCSD, cared for with funding supplemented by other government sources such as Medicare, or payments from other patients covered by private insurance.
[size=150]“We are all bearing the cost,â€

Perhaps this article needs to be put on the homepage.

I posted two local news reports on this topic in the first post.
The first thing I noticed is the hospital representative states that the hospital will be paying the bills for these burn victims! We all know who is paying for this and it happens everyday.
We do need to follow this and see if the hospital can get the Mexican government to provide any help to their citizens.

This will cost us millions. Did the idiots walk into the fire or what? That's like, if I were to break into someone's house and slip on the floor and expecting the homeowner to foot the medical bill. How much do wanna bet that they try to sue the U.S. over this?

Originally Posted by sgt_shlitz

This will cost us millions. Did the idiots walk into the fire or what? That's like, if I were to break into someone's house and slip on the floor and expecting the homeowner to foot the medical bill. How much do wanna bet that they try to sue the U.S. over this?

I was wondering the same thing. Could they not see the fire and skies full of smoke from a distance? Personally, if I see smoke I'll go the opposite direction.