wow - nice find

Maybe it's just me - and although I am not a big fan of insurance, how is it gambling? I mean to gamble is to place a bet on the unknown outcome of something - but to buy insurance is to make sure you are covered in the event of some sort of accident/incident, its more protection money than gambling surely? It's not like you place insurance to take a chance on claiming or not claiming lol...

Here in Australia, we have had Medicare for many years. We pay 1.5% of our pay each payday to it...regardless of whether we have private medical insurance or not. So for me who has no medical insurance, it costs around $1000 per year and all hospital bills are paid for when you go to a public hospital. As an incentive to get private hospital insurance, the Government slug anyone whose single salary is over $70000 and husband/wife salaries combined over $100,000 an extra 1% making it 2.5% just to Medicare. That is a lot of money paid and you still have to line up with the crowd to be seen in a public hospital. So even if you pay the $2500 for minimum private hospital cover, you still pay the Medicare levy on top, to end up paying $3500 per year. There has always been the scream that if you have Private cover then you should not have to pay the Medicare levy at all but the Gov are making too much money to not allow this.
just an aside...great post Bitnet regarding jpelham. Regards to all...DD56

Why is health insurance in the USA so costly?

I attribute its high cost to corporate greed. For example, a Tylenol tablet which might cost as much as US$2 at the drug store actually cost me US$25 when I was in the hospital for triple bypass surgery a couple of years ago. I was charged $250 for a doctor's visit that consisted of nothing more than the good doctor leaning ever so slightly into the room to ask if I was feeling okay.

Ridiculous!

So, I say, corral the corporations and the cost of healthcare should go down. None of this has anything to do with Life With Father, but I like the discussion anyway.

High cost could use some regulating, yes, maybe, but what we've got here, as far as healthcare, is the best in the world.

The "cost" of healthcare is just that. A Cost. It takes money. All of this dreaming of free this and free that is what it is..just a dream. It's going to cost a whole lot more to fund the bureaucracies that will be put in place. Nothing is Free. oy.

A good reason for the High Cost is that we, here in America, DO give FREE healthcare to millions of people who are not even citizens, etc, etc.
We fund 'health care' all over the planet, and most of us don't even know about it. Most of the citizens here don't know much about anything when it comes to what the federal gov't spends money on...and this is not even to mention the millions spent by the 'private' sector..churches and charities, corporations, etc...

Hey, I am all about helping the poor, but there are reasons for high costs. Any idea that this pathetic bill passed by Obama and friends will help people is sadly mistaken.
Besides, It doesn't matter if it takes me 20 years to pay a medical bill. Why? Because, by law, most medical bills cannot be reflected in one's credit score.....we are already allowed to take forEVER to pay for these things. About 8 years ago, I was in a bad place financially, got some dental work done...about 6,000 dollars worth...and I just last year paid it off....sometimes I sent them 2 dollars a month..sometimes nothing. It didn't matter, because the law was Already on the books to help people like me.

Oh, and by the way....skip the tylenol, have some water or tea...in the time it takes that pill to do it's work within you, your body is capable of doing it all by itself. :)
I never take an aspirin, an advil, not anything...and my headaches and such last just as long as the person sitting next to me who just took some pills. Just try it. I bet you'll like it....and hey...your liver will like u for it.

:)

If you have a beef, don't take it up with the insurance companies....start with the drug companies.....and find natural, easy ways to remove a headache...Don't take a pill......drink some tea, water, whatever.....it will pass....I'm just sayin'..

Oh! and, P.S. Muslims will NOT be exempt from anything...if they are citizens. We are ALL screwed. :)