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To: yard_man who wrote (243707)	6/3/2003 12:54:31 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

I had this discussion with a friend over the weekend. She was strongly in favor of nationalized healthcare insurance. I told her she was willing to pay 6k in taxes to pay for what should cost 2k in the free market just because she'd have the illusion that it was "free", it just didn't make sense. I buy my own health insurance and the IRS even makes it 100% deductible. But even insurance is something of a trap. I know so many people who won't avail themselves of a particular treatment or preventative action because their insurance won't cover it when they could easily afford it. They'll wait until the condition requires a drug or surgery rather than get preventative care that they'd have to pay for themselves. They pay with their lives.

To: yard_man who wrote (243707)	6/3/2003 1:27:52 PM
From: benwood	Respond to of 436258

Healthcare is really going ballistic, though... I had two trips to the ER recently for what I believed and told them was a kidney stone. They did tests (CAT & KUB) to make sure, and gave me pain medication & IV's for hydration. The bills totaled over $6000. I didn't even spend the night. Nine years ago I had essentially the same experience, except I spent three nights at the hospital. My total bills in that incident were about $3500. That just blows my mind that an ER could cost that much. I would like to see hospital costs put up in public, like on web sites, so you can see them and decide in advance where you'd want to go. But for things like a heart attack, you would of course be taken to the closest place and if they charge $10000 a "CLEAR" then that's what you'll be billed. Kind of insane.