Could anyone confirm...?

Question

I've seen the claim made on their board that everyone has access to medical care because ER's cannot turn people away. Ok fair enough, but that is really only access to acute care and doesn't include follow-up care.

Does everyone have access to long-term care for chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, mental illness, AIDS, or the like? What about dental?

I really don't know one way or the other. Can people offer insight, preferably with sources?

edit - claim made on THIS board sorry for the typo.

Answer 1

before big government, we used to have faith based charity hospitals. imagine that!!!

Answer 2

First off, to Silver, you're on the right track, it IS corporate welfare, but you're wrong when you say that medicaid always picks up the bill sooner or later. Medicaid DOES NOT always pick up the bill sooner or later. If you have no insurance, hospitals usually write off the bill but your credit can still be affected.

Secondly, people with a long term illness and access to medicaid or SSI usually have second rate doctors and second rate access to treatment. There aren't that many doctors out there willing to take on medicaid patients as the reimbursement may be something ridiculous like $7 for an office visit. Many just refuse to see SSI or welfare patients for that reasons.

Some would say that there is health care available for everyone through the hospital clinics for long term illnesses if you don't have insurance. Those clinics are bursting at the seams with patients who need to be seen. People with diabetes, mental illness and other illnesses are simply not seen to properly.

I have someone in my life who worked hard his whole life. Through no fault of his own, the company he worked for couldn't make the payments for insurance for the employees. When he didn't have insurance, he was diagnosed with a long term illness that required specialists. In the hospital medical clinics he saw neurosurgical residents and was not offered any kind of treatment plan for this life changing illness. He went from one hospital clinic to another for help, each time receiving different medical advice, none of which helped him. He is now paralyzed and unable to work and finally qualified for SSI. This is a former taxpayer who, if he had received the correct treatment instead of the Curly Shuffle from hospital clinics, would today be able to work.

This can happen to any one of us. If you have health insurance through your employer, hooray for you. But hopefully you'll not have a loved one get sick and have to worry about second rate treatment. It's only the wealthy and privileged of this country who get the best treatment. ANd if youve been diagnosed with an illness, your medical history follows you everywhere, and you might not be able to get medical coverage for yourself or someone you love.

A really good source was "Uninsured In America - life and death in the Land of Opportunity" by Susan Stared.

Good question, a star for you.

Answer 3

Let's say you're critically injured in a car accident. You will be taken to the hospital, even if you're unconscious, and will be treated. You may then be transfered to the wards, for an overnight stay.

If you have no insurance, you receive a bill. If you cannot pay that bill, then ultimately it will be picked up by Medicaid.

If you are utterly indigent, or a poor working person, it's not that bad. What is bad is if you have money in the bank, real assets, and no insurance. In that case, Medicaid will pay, but not until they have put liens on your property and taken a certain amount from your bank account.

The prevalence of the corporate hospital, by the way, is a legacy of the Reagan Administration.

Your bill will be paid by Medicaid, sooner or later, if you cannot pay it.

Believe me, the hospitals do not get stiffed.

This is why it is such a travesty for large corporations to employ people at low wages, and insist they work part-time, or simply refuse to pay benefits.

This is corporate welfare.

P.S. BTW, here's another corporate scam. A company pays $6.25 an hour, for labor that can result in the dismemberment of the employee. They offer "health insurance" at the rate of 25 cents an hour, with an additional 25 cents deducted for each insured person.

Guess how many people with large families choose to be insured? Guess who pays when they get sick?

And here's the ultimate catch. In America today, it is still true, believe it or not, that you will not be left to die in the gutter. You will be picked up, you will be hospitalized, if necessary, and somebody pays.

You prefer the alternative? You want to step over the rotting bodies of homeless people?

What is being discussed below is a situation in which a working person, insured or not, is hit with a bill that they ignore. In the case of an insured, working person, this can be huge.

This often happens when it seems that people can or should pay. In reality, people often freak out and ignore hospital bills for $20,000, which is what they may get hit with, even if they have insurance.

Note that "we pay 80%" jazz on your policy.

Do you know how much 20% of a long-term IC stay is?

It's pretty scary.

Answer 4

I have seen that claim to, but I seriously doubt it. Once when I did not have insurance, I cut my hand, and had to go to the emergency room. They sent me a bill of over $125, and that was in 86. I got sick with a kidney stone, coupled with a kidney infection, and was hospitalized twice for the same thing. My insurance at the time didn't pay for all of it, and I ended up owing over $5000, and I ended up filing bankruptcy. They will continue to send you bills, and they will even threaten to sue. As far as long term care is concerned, if you have insurance through your job, and you get cancer or something that makes it impossible to continue working....if you cannot pay for your share of the insurance premiums you lose your insurance. I have known people with terminal cancer who could still not get social security disability. And if you get laid off from your job, you can get cobra, but cobra is a joke, because it is not affordable even if you are working, unless you are making more than $45,000 a year! *sm*

Answer 5

One of the more tragic side effects of all these corporate bankruptcies, mergers, leveraged buyouts, and downsizing is that thousands of workers and retirees have had their benefits stripped. I personally know several who have had their medical coverage terminated by a former employer after they retired. Companies are allowed to just abandon these people, who are often too old to return to the workforce, who worked to retirement age with the understanding that they would have insurance benefits when they retired, and who simply cannot have the years back that they invested in making their company a success. All due to some legal technicality, which unscrupulous businesses are exploiting to reduce their overhead. The good Republicans, who have always been first to argue for hard work and dedication to one's employer, now see nothing wrong with shafting the working people as a cost-saving accounting maneuver, just to add to a CEO's bonus.

Answer 6

I don't have long term care.

All people have access to publicly funded hospitals, but you will probably lose your house if you have no health insurance. It's not free. It's only a good deal if you never plan on owning anything in your life. It is a good deal for illegal aliens, not American citizens. A one week hospital stay can cost $200,000. The bill will follow you all your life.

Silver - Medicaid will not pay your bill if you're not entitled to Medicaid..

Answer 7

you are required to get an extra insurance policy for long term hospital stays or care....ie: Aflac and such... but as usual, you never know if you will ever need it...so...you pay anyway..

for most people, that is impossible, they hardly can afford the standard "group" rates at work....

we need a reform, even if it means National Health Care or Social Health Care, that is for sure!

Answer 8

Your question would have be here for hours researching the fine details, but I think in general, in a privatized health care system, the individual hospitals/clinics have the right to refuse treatment for any reason.

Answer 9

For the indigent, it's medical care lite. They only get the attention they need for life threatening problems. If a diabetic goes into diabetic shock, they will treatment good enough to get them ambulatory and that's it. They get no help getting insulin. Good thing insulin is cheap, tho.

Answer 10

Only third world countries and Middle east countries don't have Universal Health Care. A persons health is the most important thing to him.

Answer 11

The only people that have long term medical care are on medicare or SSI...That's it. Anyone else can pay for their own healthcare as far as George Bush is concerned. If you're in the top 2/3 of America, you can. If you earn less than 80,000 a year with 2 kids, you may not be able to. But the entire government doesn't seem to care, much less GWB.