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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Terry Maloney who wrote (417588)	9/13/2011 5:51:25 PM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Funny you should mention that... about four weeks ago my niece's husband, who also "opted out" and recently discovered some serious chit going on with his liver etc. has racked up enormous bills. The solution which is heavily supported by the hospital in the absence of sticking it to the state is to support him in setting up a fundraising page (carebridge, I think it's called) to help him siphon off what he can from the extended family. If my own daughter's experience recently is any guide, he's being billed between 100% and 800% more than somebody with insurance. I would think his bills are at least $100k, perhaps double that, and I know his family has no savings to speak of and only minimal income. It's like they've acquired another mortgage in the past month, and he's no longer working (for another few weeks anyway). Kind of a nasty situation... I'm all for personal responsibility, though. Build in a flood plain and get flooded, too bad -- you better have your own insurance, etc. Nobody is stopping me from buying earthquake insurance. I don't have it, and I accept the risk at this point in time. The sticky part of this all is that a person on minimum wage will, in a couple years, need to pay at least 50% of their gross income to be covered by health insurance. This clearly is not sustainable.