Comments on: Requiem for a Terminally Ill Health Care System

By: A

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 03:52:03 +0000

I’m really glad I found your website. I love reading your columns. Keep up the good work!

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:12:52 +0000

It’s good to see you still going strong, fighting the good fight. I like the web site and personally believe that New Media is truly where it’s at. Keep it coming!

By: M.

M. — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:13:13 +0000

Welcome back.

By: Grady Coker

Grady Coker — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:30:14 +0000

Health Care article-As a retired medical doctor I have seen both sides of the problem. Looking at the various charges one has to note that the doctor or hospital can charge what they want but if they accept Medicare then they are going to get what Medicare pays–plus the gap payed by another insurance carrier. A $1000.00 emergency room charge ends up as a $180.00 Medicare approved and a less than $160.00 Medicare paid.Two big new expensive hospitals are being built in the Colorado Springs area projecting that medicine must be a money making business. just think when I went into practice in 1958 I delivered someone’s baby for a measly $75.00!

By: Wildflower

Wildflower — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:30:40 +0000

wow Grady, you were an absolute bargain! My ob charged $150 for my 1st child in 1961, incld. prenatal. The hospital for 5 and 1/2 da. was in the neighborhood of $200. In the 60’s and early 70’s our insurance didn’t cover routine dr.visits. I just took the kids to the pediatrician when necessary, he sent the bill at the end of the month and I paid it. Very simple, no co-pay, no proof-of-insurance before you can be seen by a doctor, no papers for the doctor to fill out, and very reasonable fees. On my husband’s last 2 heat attack visits to the hospital, (requiring stents) we never even received a hospital bill. When patients don’t receive their bill, there is no way of knowing if the bill is legimate or if services not received were added on, etc. before the insurance company got it. Or if they got charged $100 for an aspirin. lol On a different subject, re Colo. Springs, a friend of a friend who lives there told me recently that 2 psyche hospitals there (private ?) were full of soldiers..

By: Elaine Amond

Elaine Amond — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:32:01 +0000

â€œSickoâ€ was probably Michael Mooreâ€™s best film yet. With great sensitivity to those who are suffering, he laid the cards on the table. Every day, every single day there are people sick, suffering and dying because they cannot go to the doctor for fear of the medical bills. People ARE losing their homes and their retirement for simply getting treatment for their illnesses. The cost of medical tests and medicine is absolutely OBSCENE. Wake up America! Health care is not for the rich only! We are all human beings and brothers and sisters.

By: Wildflower

Wildflower — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:58:41 +0000

My granddaughter will soon no longer be eligible for the health insurance she has had. She has had health problems much of her life (autoimmune)Asthma, anaphletic reaction to bees and certain foods.. 2 yrs. ago she developed painful knee problems and had surgery. This has recurred and it is now thought to also be an autoimmune problem where the body is breaking down it’s collagen. The prognosis for the future may include a wheel chair. It is thought to be genetic (we don’t know her father’s medical history). He was a hardcore alcoholic who left town when she was 1 yr.old.Never called, never sent a dime..The mother had problems so we supported and took care of our granddaughter while she was growing up, provided life’s necessities, paid for private health insurance, med. care, etc, prob. abt.$50,000 or more for med & ins.alone out of our pocket over the years. Without a dime of gov’t. help.
She just graduated this year from a college in another state. A dean’s list student, member of honor societies, takes notes for blind students, worked with disability people to make things more accessible for the handicapped, etc. She plans another 2 years of college to get her master’s in a helping profession. As part of her course in her desired field, she works with domestic violence victims, abused children, children with disabilities, elem. schools,a sweet, kind, caring person. She plans a career dedicated to helping others.
The tears welled over in my eyes in May as I watched her hobble down the aisle on her cane to receive her diploma.
She has not been able to find another insurance company. It costs hundreds and hundreds, and they do not cover “pre-existing conditions”. Her prescriptions would be $800 or more per month without insurance. She has been a resident of her college state 4 years
so she set an appointment to try to get state medic-aid. (To protect her anonymity I will not name the state, except to say it’s governor recently boasted that he kicked thousands of critically people off the medicaid rolls.) Yesterday she met with the state medic aid people. They told her she was too old for the insurance (she is 22 and single). They told her she would be eligible for the insurance if she was unmarried and pregnant OR unmarried and had a child.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? I am beyond disgust. Is this what it comes down to with our limited gov’t. health resources….assumedly healthy young women who have chosen to bring babies into the world without benefit of marriage to the children’s fathers..vs. “uninsurables” with chronic health problems who have nevertheless chosen to be productive members of society? My thought is that gov’t. health should work hand in hand with organizations such as (gasp) Planned Parenthood so the young women know there are other alternatives to having babies. And I think the men who father these children should be held financially accountable, think DNA..Step up to the plate or step up to the jail cell. And they too should be required to visit Planned Parenthood. Perhaps they would not sow their seed so prodigiously as in “What you sow you shall reap”….

By: Jan MacKenzie

Jan MacKenzie — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:43:10 +0000

I was glad to read your article on health care. Your readers may be interested in investigating a single-payer advocacy group called Health Care for All Colorado. We are currently distributing flyers outside theaters where Sicko is playing to catch interested viewers
I don’t believe the single payer system can be the most expensive in play. The U.S. spends almost twice as much per capita on health care are most industrialized countries, of whom all have some form of single payer. We are also way down the list in favorable outcomes of our care.
Check out http://www.healthcareforallcolorado.org or call 303-277-8306