I read blogs from other countries where there is some sort of socialized medicine and think that if only we could call it something other than 'socialized' it would be a big hit here in the U.S. Unfortunately that particular word is misunderstood in this country. I blame it on the abysmal job done by our education mafia but I digress. I got a letter from my doctor's office yesterday containing a bill for an x-ray I had done.
First of all, we have health insurance that is associated with my wife's retirement. It basically does nothing and costs us about $10K a year. However, if either of us ever had something desperately wrong, it would pay for itself in moments. BTW, my wife, being the inquiring sort, has figured out that even
though we are pretty healthy, we are actually getting our $10K a year
back based on accounting such as I shall relate. Now, back to my doctor's bill.
On 16 May I had my x-ray. The statement is dated 16 August; how it only got here on 23 August (from Las Vegas) is between the doctor's office, the Post Office and God. I was billed $282.00 for my x-ray. The insurance company paid $79.34 for the x-ray. The contract between the insurance company and the doctor's office obligated the doctor to 'adjust' the bill by $182.82. So my bill is $19.84. Now what kind of screwed up mess is that! If you walk in without insurance you pay almost $300; with this 'insurance', you pay $20. Huh???
So folks, if you don't think the medical situation in this country is AFU, think again!
On a completely different subject, I normally use Firefox for a browser. Yesterday I discovered that trying to view a video on YouTube (a Google company) gave me a message: "An error occurred. Please try again later." Remember I was getting messages from Blogger( another Google company) about using Firefox; well, I fired up Chrome, Google's browser, and was able to view the video perfectly. Anyone want to guess what's going on? I'm not paranoid but I could learn to be.
Have a good one!
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2 comments:
I think you are right about the word. People hear "Socialized" and do not hear anything past that word. "Liberal" is another. In the USA it is almost a swear word while here in Canada a Liberal is a member of the second most right wing party.
I refer to myself as a "Socialist" but other members of my New Democratic Party (NDP) prefer the watered down term "Social Democrat" or Democratic Socialist".
We see that insurance thing on statements - dental cleaning $150, insurance pays $12, we pay $10 copay. Doctor treatment, $250, insurance pays $16, copay $20, office adjusts out the rest.
Pay cash and you are presented the entire bill. No fair
Yes, 'single payer' is the term sometimes used for a system similar to Medicare.
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