Really Scary - medical Insurance

[TrudyRN]

A nurse friend has been dx'd with a serious disease. She's been out of work for several months and is nearly out of vacation, holiday, and sick time. She can probably go back at least part-time, which is good, because she will lose her med coverage is she doesn't work enough hours each month.

Without working, she won't be able to afford to pay the premiums herself via COBRA and disability takes sooo long to kick in.

Here's someone who has worked all her life, raised a family, been a responsible and hard worker, taking care of other people, who stands a terrifyingly good chance of becoming insurance-less. Yes, I guess she has some savings but not all that much.

What is a person in this spot supposed to do?

She already lives with her grown child, who has been helping her while she's been convalescing. She pays the child rent and has some other ongoing expenses, such as food and car upkeep, maybe helps with utilities - but no debt, thank God.

If she had kidney failure, she could get Medicaid or Medicare. If she were a veteran, she could go to the VA. But because she doesn't have the "right" illness and because she was not in the military, she could, potentially, be thrown out in the dust, I guess.

Seriously, what happens to people who face this terrible situation? I am so angry about it, so frustrated, very scared. I guess it happens to crime and accident victims, too - they are hurt by someone else then left to just fend for themselves as best they can?

Please share any words of wisdom.:angryfire:uhoh3::uhoh21:

[ShaunES]

I'm glad I live in a country where that sort of thing does not happen.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I'm glad I live in a country where that sort of thing does not happen.

I wish we all did!

I know an RN who works agency, no insurance. She was bitten by a mosquito last year & developed viral encephalopathy. She was in ICU for 3 days, in med/surg for two days. The bill is over $20,000.

It would have been more, but the hospital knocked $3,000. off, because she does 40 hrs a week for them through agency.

I had a dialysis pt-a young married woman with a child. Very sick. She had private insurance through her husband's employer, but when the costs reached $800,000. they dropped her. She and her husband loved each other and had a good marriage, but they had to get divorced so she could qualify for Medicaide. I especially felt bad for her son.

What we are doing to our own is tragic.

Canadians, Aussies and UK citizens are very fortunate.

[PRESLA]

]:angryfire Not fair what more can be said. This will take yrs to fix, but the one who makes the money will make the rules. Land of the free, but if you are sick or hurt then you are in prison if you are not covered and even they you are on probation till your bills are paid for. Being in the medical field we need to remember that we are paid well because of the medical costs.

Lisa :trout:

[leslymill]

So are the French, Fenish, German...etc.

We are just plan uncivilized.

[EmmaG, RN]

She verified that I only had Medicare. And since I was on a day visit, hadn't purchased any insurance for outside the US. They told me they would write me off my bill.

Plattsburg, N.Y. was only 50 miles down the highway. They could have shipped me to the border and asked our customs agents to call 911 for me. But they didn't. Apparently they don't think the same way some of us do.

Does Canada have a reciprocal healthcare agreement with the US for non-military ? I can't seem to find the answer to this...

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

....but if you are sick or hurt then you are in prison if you are not covered ......

Lisa :trout:

Except that actual prisoners are fortunate, in that they get free health care- plus three hots and a cot!

[Jolie, BSN]

I was visiting Montreal in 2001. I had a very severe asthma attack and had to go to a Canadian ER. Unfortunately, not only did I have an asthma attack but also pneumonia. I was admitted to their respiratory ICU. The only insurance I had was Medicare. Funny thing about Medicare, they don't apply one single red cent for any hospitalization outside our country. And I wasn't eligible for Canadian health care coverage. Just before I was discharge, after having spent ten days in their very nice hospital, I meet with a business office representative and explained my fixed income and lack of insurance. She verified that I only had Medicare. And since I was on a day visit, hadn't purchased any insurance for outside the US. They told me they would write me off my bill.

Plattsburg, N.Y. was only 50 miles down the highway. They could have shipped me to the border and asked our customs agents to call 911 for me. But they didn't. Apparently they don't think the same way some of us do. Like me, they apparently believe health care is a right, not a privilege. I am sure that some would feel the same way about those nasty U.S. homeless people, who clog up our ER's and ICU's and don't pay one single dime toward their bills. Maybe we should just dump them back where they belong, on the street. Wait a minute, wasn't there several hospitals in L.A. that did just that?

Woody:balloons:

Woody,

I am grateful that you were well cared for, and not bankrupted by your need for medical care in a foreign country. But I don't see how the Canadian response was any different than how our hositals treat uninsured foreigners in our country.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Woody,

I am grateful that you were well cared for, and not bankrupted by your need for medical care in a foreign country. But I don't see how the Canadian response was any different than how our hositals treat uninsured foreigners in our country.

Really? We sue them.

[Jolie, BSN]

Really? We sue them.

We sue illegal aliens? If so, I can guarantee that we don't collect. The end result is that the cost of care is written off.

[lvnandmomx3]

I'm from California Woody and I can tell you that illegals are eligible for state Medicaid here. They make up a good 80% of the state Medicaid and aid system. I know this because before becoming an LVN I worked hospital admitting for 5 yrs.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I have a friend who works acute, inpt dialysis in CO. Here's how it works there-

Illegals are not elligable for Medicaide/Medicare. Chronic ESRD pts who are illegal cannot be treated at outpt clinics for chronics.

So.... all the chronic illegal pts are triaged through the ER. If stat lab levels reach certain numbers, they are admitted as inpts, and dialyzed as acute pts.

So, instead of outpt tx, they get "free" inpt tx, meals, 24 hr nursing and everything else that goes with being an inpt. Plus, because they don't want to be admitted as inpts twice a week, many of the pts skip tx, and do not come in until they are deathly ill. Of course, this ends up costing even more money, time, and resources.

This is the most horrible misuse of our tax dollars I've heard of as far as health care. If our gov't would pay for their tx as chronic pts, it would cost a lot less.

Better yet, if we could fly them back to their own countries, secure our borders, and quit spending so much money on wars that we shouldn't even be involved in, we could pay for all of our own citizens to have health ins.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

We sue illegal aliens? If so, I can guarantee that we don't collect. The end result is that the cost of care is written off.

I didn't mention anything about people here illegally. We were talking about foreigners, many of whom have legitimate visas. As did Woody in Canada - well, she didn't need a visa, bUT SHE WAS THERE LEGALLY.

Of course hospitals sue and have judgments entered, even if they're uncollectable. How much less civilized that is than what happened to Woody.

I live in a place that's all white and poor and generations-long American, many of whm start breeding as unmarried teenagers and have more children than they can afford. Medicaid, in this county of NYS, is close to 80% of the budget. http://www.wnbz.com/October%202006/100306.htm

This is a lousy system and, if a few Jamaican apple pickers sneak into this budget, I don't begrudge them. I also don't resent the poor, hapless saps who are non-productive citizens getting help. The vast majority are children, and the rest of the MediCARE recipients are old.