alice said:
Mahoney-Pursley Ranch said:
alice said:
Four hour waits in the emergency room are not unheard of here, Tam. In fact, it is becoming more and more frequent. One reason: Because more and more families can't afford health insurance and the only way they can be seen by a doctor anymore is to go to the emergency room which causes some people to wait longer than 4 hours. Our health care system is broken, plain and simple.
Alice
They go to the ER knowing they will be seen and knowing they will never pay the bill because they will not be seen at a Doctors office.
It's become standard practice, around here anyway, that the doctor's office visit must be paid up front...before you see the doctor, whether you have insurance or not. In emergency rooms, that is not the case. Our emergency rooms have become clinics.
And insurance is not covering what it used to. You see a doctor, provide your insurance, then get a whoppin' big bill for what the insurance won't cover. People with insurance are getting strangled by the health care system here and health insurance companies. People with insurance that need to go to the doctor don't...because they can't afford it. Yeah, they can afford the copay, but it's the bills that start coming in after that they can't afford.
Alice
We've always paid our bills. Even when they were outrageous and we were dead broke, we paid it off.
I have been to the emergency room because someone had a real emergency. It is indeed cluttered with people wanting a free ride.
What bothers me the most Alice is to see these people have money for cigarettes, beer and lotto tickets. Lotto tickets make buying gas almost as bad as the emergency room. Especially if you have to get the to turn the pump on and then do a final pay-out once you are filled. That is two trips through that line.
Why should we pass laws that make it more easy for people to get a free ride?
It is not only the medical fields, but everything else too. Food costs more because we have to compensate for shop lifters.
The biggest medical cost is mal-practice insurance. Doctors have left the profession. I can give you a doctor's name right there in your community who no longer has a private practice because of mal-practice insurance cost and he has never been sued.
So when you see the price of canned food in the store, think about that lady who received 4 million dollars for that can of soup hitting her toe.
When you get the doctor bill, think of those folks who got a million dollars for a hang nail. Also remember all those who don't pay.
When your family doctor moves to Stephenville and gets out of practice, know he did it because he no longer made a decent living for his family.