09 May 16 11:34, you wrote to me:

 >>> I'm not against people getting health insurance.  People could always
 >>> get health insurance here.  It is just that people with no income on
 >>> the books never got it and would rather use the ER as the primary
 >>> care.

 >> couple of things here...

 >> 1. how can people with no income get any health insurance?

 JK> Well, in NYS, if you have no job, no income, etc. etc. you can get
 JK> Medicaid. That's what it's for..

nope... i've been turned down more than once when i've been out of work for an
extended period of time and badly needed medical attention... when i had
custody of my oldest son, i was qualified but once he left home, my coverage
was revoked and refused to be reinstated...

 JK> I know of at least one person who has it, and it's the only way he can
 JK> survive with his medical situation.

i know of several and almost all of them have some really huge hoops to jump
through to keep their coverage...

 >> 2. people without income have no way to pay for doctors visits.

 JK> That person above uses Medicaid here.  Pays the bill...

medicare and insurance are both scams... how else can they charge such
exhorbenent rates to insurance companies and then chop them by 90% for
uninsured individuals who have to try to pay out of their pocket???

 >> 3. people without income have no way to pay those emergency health care
 >> clinic if they try to go there.

 JK> Same as above again.

maybe we're thinking of different clinics? all the ones around here require a
minimum of $50US just to get a walk-in appointment...

 >> 4. by law, the hospital ER cannot turn people away.

 JK> Yep, true.

 >> 5. for many folks, it is a last resort going to the ER because they
 >> still get billed for the visit.

 JK> He doesn't get a bill.. it's all taken care of by Medicaid here.

every time i've been forced to use the ER, i've been billed for it... i have no
insurance and have never been able to afford any sort of insurance... the last
time i had anything like that i was in the USAF... since i didn't retire from
there, i don't have any coverage any more... only once or twice since then have
i had a chance to get some sort of coverage but it took over half my paycheck
and since i/we were already living paycheck-to-paycheck there was no way that
the money could be spent on a "nice to have" thing like health insurance...

 >> 6. the hospitals use those unpaid bills as a tax write off.

 JK> True..

 >> 7. i've personally seen a $1000 ambulance charge reduced to $100 due to
 >> no income. that reduction didn't help the person, though, because they
 >> still couldn't pay it.

 >> sorry that's more than a couple but not as many as i originally started
 >> to write...

 JK> One's state has so much to do with this crap though, it makes me sick.
 JK> They should ALL be doing this, not just NYS IMO.

yeah... i don't know... all i know is that every time i look, all i see is the
scam... insurance and banking are the two biggest scams around... hell look at
banking... where else is one allowed to jump to the beginning of the line and
take penalty funds from an account when there are other debtors already ahead
of them in line? the removal of those funds to pay that banking penalty can
then cause the account to not be able to cover the next bill and poof! there's
another penalty removed from the account which can then lead to the next bill
back not being covered and around we go until there's no $$$ in the account and
none of the bills have been paid because the bank jumped to the head of the
line and took their $$$ first... definitely a scam and always has been... then
with the interest rates being such shit today? hell, you can make more in
interest by keeping your $$$ buried in a box in the forest out back...


)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey

... Taglines make great Christmas gifts.
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