House crams healthcare bill down the countries throat.

[sd_matt]

[quote=fishsticks][quote=sd_matt]What’s the middle ground between the WP survey and Becks? That is probably the most accurate thing we have since all sides are spun.[/quote]

Yes, clearly reality lies somewhere between ABC/Washington Post (professional news organizations who employ professional statisticians) and Glenn Beck (a race-baiting, hyper nationalist, man-child who, like Father Coughlin and other fascists during the 1930s, makes up convenient facts on the fly intended to stir his followers into a furor).[/quote]

Ok and Fox, CNN, NBC, ABC, NPR ect all employ professionals yet come up with different stories. Ya got any ideas?

[Anonymous]

I am 53 and self employed. I am very healthy and only carry catastrophic health insurance. My Aetna plan offered a “free” physical at 50. At that time I had not seen a doctor in almost a decade so I found one on the approved list and took advantage of the “free” service. All went well. The doc told me I was in perfect health.

The trouble started a month later when I got a bill in the mail, then another and then another. All for different amounts and each very cryptic. I called Aetna (they refuse to answer e-mails) and got put on hold and transferred around and disconnected and was generally treated rudely. The first bill we were finally able to figure out. During the physical the doctor had frozen off a small spot on my arm he thought may have been skin cancer and charged me $70. It took him two minutes and he did not order a biopsy. Aetna said this was part of my deductible so I ended up paying that bill directly to the doctor. No problem so far.

The other bills were for “non routine” lab work associated with the “free” physical. I was told (after more phone transfers and waiting) to talk to the lab or my doctor for an explanation. I called the doctor’s office (hold, transfer, wait, we’ll call you back) and by the end of what seemed like a long day, they reconfirmed that my diagnosis was routine. The next day I called the lab and, surprisingly, quickly got to someone who told me my blood test indicated anemia.

Well it would take more space than I have here to detail what followed. Basically months of getting the run around while the bills for lab work kept piling up with late charges added. At no point could I get the three entities (Aetna, lab and doctor) to get together on a conference call and figure this out. Meanwhile I am wondering if I do have anemia. My doctor says no but the lab says yes.

I finally filed a formal grievance with Aetna. After a month or so their investigator’s finding was that I was diagnosed as anemic and that lab charge was not covered by the “free” physical. It was not until I went through a state (California) agency that investigates insurance abuse that I was able to get Aetna to relent and stop the flow of bills. To this day I do not know if that investigator ever spoke with my doctor.

We hear of the large percentage of our health costs being due to various entities arguing over who pays what. I can tell you from experience it is true. Add to that the opportunity cost of the numerous hours I spent on this fiasco

I am healthy and have the flexibility to arrange my work schedule around being available during the hours the various offices involved are open. What about someone who is weakened by cancer and gets piled on by ineptitude like I did? What about the person working in a sweatshop who buys their own coverage but does not have time during the day to conduct personal business over the phone?

Canada, much of Europe and Australia have shown there is a lot of merit and cost savings to a single payer system. After my experience I am all for it.

[Anonymous]

I am 53 and self employed. I am very healthy and only carry catastrophic health insurance. My Aetna plan offered a “free” physical at 50. At that time I had not seen a doctor in almost a decade so I found one on the approved list and took advantage of the “free” service. All went well. The doc told me I was in perfect health.

The trouble started a month later when I got a bill in the mail, then another and then another. All for different amounts and each very cryptic. I called Aetna (they refuse to answer e-mails) and got put on hold and transferred around and disconnected and was generally treated rudely. The first bill we were finally able to figure out. During the physical the doctor had frozen off a small spot on my arm he thought may have been skin cancer and charged me $70. It took him two minutes and he did not order a biopsy. Aetna said this was part of my deductible so I ended up paying that bill directly to the doctor. No problem so far.

The other bills were for “non routine” lab work associated with the “free” physical. I was told (after more phone transfers and waiting) to talk to the lab or my doctor for an explanation. I called the doctor’s office (hold, transfer, wait, we’ll call you back) and by the end of what seemed like a long day, they reconfirmed that my diagnosis was routine. The next day I called the lab and, surprisingly, quickly got to someone who told me my blood test indicated anemia.

Well it would take more space than I have here to detail what followed. Basically months of getting the run around while the bills for lab work kept piling up with late charges added. At no point could I get the three entities (Aetna, lab and doctor) to get together on a conference call and figure this out. Meanwhile I am wondering if I do have anemia. My doctor says no but the lab says yes.

I finally filed a formal grievance with Aetna. After a month or so their investigator’s finding was that I was diagnosed as anemic and that lab charge was not covered by the “free” physical. It was not until I went through a state (California) agency that investigates insurance abuse that I was able to get Aetna to relent and stop the flow of bills. To this day I do not know if that investigator ever spoke with my doctor.

We hear of the large percentage of our health costs being due to various entities arguing over who pays what. I can tell you from experience it is true. Add to that the opportunity cost of the numerous hours I spent on this fiasco

I am healthy and have the flexibility to arrange my work schedule around being available during the hours the various offices involved are open. What about someone who is weakened by cancer and gets piled on by ineptitude like I did? What about the person working in a sweatshop who buys their own coverage but does not have time during the day to conduct personal business over the phone?

Canada, much of Europe and Australia have shown there is a lot of merit and cost savings to a single payer system. After my experience I am all for it.

[Anonymous]

I am 53 and self employed. I am very healthy and only carry catastrophic health insurance. My Aetna plan offered a “free” physical at 50. At that time I had not seen a doctor in almost a decade so I found one on the approved list and took advantage of the “free” service. All went well. The doc told me I was in perfect health.

The trouble started a month later when I got a bill in the mail, then another and then another. All for different amounts and each very cryptic. I called Aetna (they refuse to answer e-mails) and got put on hold and transferred around and disconnected and was generally treated rudely. The first bill we were finally able to figure out. During the physical the doctor had frozen off a small spot on my arm he thought may have been skin cancer and charged me $70. It took him two minutes and he did not order a biopsy. Aetna said this was part of my deductible so I ended up paying that bill directly to the doctor. No problem so far.

The other bills were for “non routine” lab work associated with the “free” physical. I was told (after more phone transfers and waiting) to talk to the lab or my doctor for an explanation. I called the doctor’s office (hold, transfer, wait, we’ll call you back) and by the end of what seemed like a long day, they reconfirmed that my diagnosis was routine. The next day I called the lab and, surprisingly, quickly got to someone who told me my blood test indicated anemia.

Well it would take more space than I have here to detail what followed. Basically months of getting the run around while the bills for lab work kept piling up with late charges added. At no point could I get the three entities (Aetna, lab and doctor) to get together on a conference call and figure this out. Meanwhile I am wondering if I do have anemia. My doctor says no but the lab says yes.

I finally filed a formal grievance with Aetna. After a month or so their investigator’s finding was that I was diagnosed as anemic and that lab charge was not covered by the “free” physical. It was not until I went through a state (California) agency that investigates insurance abuse that I was able to get Aetna to relent and stop the flow of bills. To this day I do not know if that investigator ever spoke with my doctor.

We hear of the large percentage of our health costs being due to various entities arguing over who pays what. I can tell you from experience it is true. Add to that the opportunity cost of the numerous hours I spent on this fiasco

I am healthy and have the flexibility to arrange my work schedule around being available during the hours the various offices involved are open. What about someone who is weakened by cancer and gets piled on by ineptitude like I did? What about the person working in a sweatshop who buys their own coverage but does not have time during the day to conduct personal business over the phone?

Canada, much of Europe and Australia have shown there is a lot of merit and cost savings to a single payer system. After my experience I am all for it.

[Anonymous]

I am 53 and self employed. I am very healthy and only carry catastrophic health insurance. My Aetna plan offered a “free” physical at 50. At that time I had not seen a doctor in almost a decade so I found one on the approved list and took advantage of the “free” service. All went well. The doc told me I was in perfect health.

The trouble started a month later when I got a bill in the mail, then another and then another. All for different amounts and each very cryptic. I called Aetna (they refuse to answer e-mails) and got put on hold and transferred around and disconnected and was generally treated rudely. The first bill we were finally able to figure out. During the physical the doctor had frozen off a small spot on my arm he thought may have been skin cancer and charged me $70. It took him two minutes and he did not order a biopsy. Aetna said this was part of my deductible so I ended up paying that bill directly to the doctor. No problem so far.

The other bills were for “non routine” lab work associated with the “free” physical. I was told (after more phone transfers and waiting) to talk to the lab or my doctor for an explanation. I called the doctor’s office (hold, transfer, wait, we’ll call you back) and by the end of what seemed like a long day, they reconfirmed that my diagnosis was routine. The next day I called the lab and, surprisingly, quickly got to someone who told me my blood test indicated anemia.

Well it would take more space than I have here to detail what followed. Basically months of getting the run around while the bills for lab work kept piling up with late charges added. At no point could I get the three entities (Aetna, lab and doctor) to get together on a conference call and figure this out. Meanwhile I am wondering if I do have anemia. My doctor says no but the lab says yes.

I finally filed a formal grievance with Aetna. After a month or so their investigator’s finding was that I was diagnosed as anemic and that lab charge was not covered by the “free” physical. It was not until I went through a state (California) agency that investigates insurance abuse that I was able to get Aetna to relent and stop the flow of bills. To this day I do not know if that investigator ever spoke with my doctor.

We hear of the large percentage of our health costs being due to various entities arguing over who pays what. I can tell you from experience it is true. Add to that the opportunity cost of the numerous hours I spent on this fiasco

I am healthy and have the flexibility to arrange my work schedule around being available during the hours the various offices involved are open. What about someone who is weakened by cancer and gets piled on by ineptitude like I did? What about the person working in a sweatshop who buys their own coverage but does not have time during the day to conduct personal business over the phone?

Canada, much of Europe and Australia have shown there is a lot of merit and cost savings to a single payer system. After my experience I am all for it.

[Anonymous]

I am 53 and self employed. I am very healthy and only carry catastrophic health insurance. My Aetna plan offered a “free” physical at 50. At that time I had not seen a doctor in almost a decade so I found one on the approved list and took advantage of the “free” service. All went well. The doc told me I was in perfect health.

The trouble started a month later when I got a bill in the mail, then another and then another. All for different amounts and each very cryptic. I called Aetna (they refuse to answer e-mails) and got put on hold and transferred around and disconnected and was generally treated rudely. The first bill we were finally able to figure out. During the physical the doctor had frozen off a small spot on my arm he thought may have been skin cancer and charged me $70. It took him two minutes and he did not order a biopsy. Aetna said this was part of my deductible so I ended up paying that bill directly to the doctor. No problem so far.

The other bills were for “non routine” lab work associated with the “free” physical. I was told (after more phone transfers and waiting) to talk to the lab or my doctor for an explanation. I called the doctor’s office (hold, transfer, wait, we’ll call you back) and by the end of what seemed like a long day, they reconfirmed that my diagnosis was routine. The next day I called the lab and, surprisingly, quickly got to someone who told me my blood test indicated anemia.

Well it would take more space than I have here to detail what followed. Basically months of getting the run around while the bills for lab work kept piling up with late charges added. At no point could I get the three entities (Aetna, lab and doctor) to get together on a conference call and figure this out. Meanwhile I am wondering if I do have anemia. My doctor says no but the lab says yes.

I finally filed a formal grievance with Aetna. After a month or so their investigator’s finding was that I was diagnosed as anemic and that lab charge was not covered by the “free” physical. It was not until I went through a state (California) agency that investigates insurance abuse that I was able to get Aetna to relent and stop the flow of bills. To this day I do not know if that investigator ever spoke with my doctor.

We hear of the large percentage of our health costs being due to various entities arguing over who pays what. I can tell you from experience it is true. Add to that the opportunity cost of the numerous hours I spent on this fiasco

I am healthy and have the flexibility to arrange my work schedule around being available during the hours the various offices involved are open. What about someone who is weakened by cancer and gets piled on by ineptitude like I did? What about the person working in a sweatshop who buys their own coverage but does not have time during the day to conduct personal business over the phone?

Canada, much of Europe and Australia have shown there is a lot of merit and cost savings to a single payer system. After my experience I am all for it.

[sd_matt]

[quote=briansd1]I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

I think that universal health insurance is good. Everybody should have it.

This should be a first step in getting health-care under control.

Rationing is necessary. Everyone should have basic government guaranteed health coverage. The private sector should pickup the cost beyond basic.

Over time, health care spending should be cut back to take up a much lower portion of GDP.[/quote]

I too love the idea of everyone being covered for cheap.

Do you think the people currently in Congress are anywhere within a light year of being able to actually accomplish this?

Personally I think our first order of business should be to fire a lot of Congress and then move onto health care.

Obama said he could pull all kinds of $$ from Medicare by cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse. I sincerely hope he can. In fact wouldn’t it be better that he actually demonstrate this before moving onto reforming one sixth of our economy. That’s a pretty big chunk of change to possibly gamble away.

Doesn’t the current process bother you at least a little with it’s lack of transparency?

[sd_matt]

[quote=briansd1]I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

I think that universal health insurance is good. Everybody should have it.

This should be a first step in getting health-care under control.

Rationing is necessary. Everyone should have basic government guaranteed health coverage. The private sector should pickup the cost beyond basic.

Over time, health care spending should be cut back to take up a much lower portion of GDP.[/quote]

I too love the idea of everyone being covered for cheap.

Do you think the people currently in Congress are anywhere within a light year of being able to actually accomplish this?

Personally I think our first order of business should be to fire a lot of Congress and then move onto health care.

Obama said he could pull all kinds of $$ from Medicare by cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse. I sincerely hope he can. In fact wouldn’t it be better that he actually demonstrate this before moving onto reforming one sixth of our economy. That’s a pretty big chunk of change to possibly gamble away.

Doesn’t the current process bother you at least a little with it’s lack of transparency?

[sd_matt]

[quote=briansd1]I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

I think that universal health insurance is good. Everybody should have it.

This should be a first step in getting health-care under control.

Rationing is necessary. Everyone should have basic government guaranteed health coverage. The private sector should pickup the cost beyond basic.

Over time, health care spending should be cut back to take up a much lower portion of GDP.[/quote]

I too love the idea of everyone being covered for cheap.

Do you think the people currently in Congress are anywhere within a light year of being able to actually accomplish this?

Personally I think our first order of business should be to fire a lot of Congress and then move onto health care.

Obama said he could pull all kinds of $$ from Medicare by cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse. I sincerely hope he can. In fact wouldn’t it be better that he actually demonstrate this before moving onto reforming one sixth of our economy. That’s a pretty big chunk of change to possibly gamble away.

Doesn’t the current process bother you at least a little with it’s lack of transparency?

[sd_matt]

[quote=briansd1]I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

I think that universal health insurance is good. Everybody should have it.

This should be a first step in getting health-care under control.

Rationing is necessary. Everyone should have basic government guaranteed health coverage. The private sector should pickup the cost beyond basic.

Over time, health care spending should be cut back to take up a much lower portion of GDP.[/quote]

I too love the idea of everyone being covered for cheap.

Do you think the people currently in Congress are anywhere within a light year of being able to actually accomplish this?

Personally I think our first order of business should be to fire a lot of Congress and then move onto health care.

Obama said he could pull all kinds of $$ from Medicare by cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse. I sincerely hope he can. In fact wouldn’t it be better that he actually demonstrate this before moving onto reforming one sixth of our economy. That’s a pretty big chunk of change to possibly gamble away.

Doesn’t the current process bother you at least a little with it’s lack of transparency?

[sd_matt]

[quote=briansd1]I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

I think that universal health insurance is good. Everybody should have it.

This should be a first step in getting health-care under control.

Rationing is necessary. Everyone should have basic government guaranteed health coverage. The private sector should pickup the cost beyond basic.

Over time, health care spending should be cut back to take up a much lower portion of GDP.[/quote]

I too love the idea of everyone being covered for cheap.

Do you think the people currently in Congress are anywhere within a light year of being able to actually accomplish this?

Personally I think our first order of business should be to fire a lot of Congress and then move onto health care.

Obama said he could pull all kinds of $$ from Medicare by cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse. I sincerely hope he can. In fact wouldn’t it be better that he actually demonstrate this before moving onto reforming one sixth of our economy. That’s a pretty big chunk of change to possibly gamble away.

Doesn’t the current process bother you at least a little with it’s lack of transparency?

[gandalf]

>> I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

Ha,ha… This cracked me up.

[gandalf]

>> I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

Ha,ha… This cracked me up.

[gandalf]

>> I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

Ha,ha… This cracked me up.

[gandalf]

>> I didn’t know there were Republicans in North Park 92104. 😉

Ha,ha… This cracked me up.

[Author]

Posts