tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7961111.post3760613654756464417..comments2024-03-05T23:42:30.151-06:00Comments on The Poor Farm: A Tad PeevedJeffrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06873138122305060834noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7961111.post-29744184564288626832013-11-09T09:16:01.983-06:002013-11-09T09:16:01.983-06:00I was just discussing the sore-thumb-issue of heal...I was just discussing the sore-thumb-issue of healthcare bills someplace else, and various propositions on improvement.<br />Someone pointed out to me that as of now, the hospitals (not even ERs, hospitals on a whole) can not refuse a patient w/o insurance and unable to foot the bills. I, naturally, objected, as my own experience is the opposite (f.i., I was made to pay for basic mammography $330 at the time I was officially unemployed and other patients' insurance paid $150).<br />Then I was shown an <a href="http://commonhealth.wbur.org/tag/emergency-medicaid" rel="nofollow">article from MA newspaper</a>:<br />" Emergency Medicaid is federally mandated. In order for Massachusetts to participate in the Medicaid program, which brings in billions of dollars in federal revenue, it must provide emergency Medicaid. Every state in the U.S., including those like Arizona that are hardly welcoming to illegal immigrants, provides emergency Medicaid. No candidate is proposing to withdraw Massachusetts from the Medicaid program which now covers over 1.2 million U.S. citizens and legal residents in the state...." So what is going on practically everywhere is an non-paying patient [with connections @the hospital, not EVERY non-paying patient] shows up, declares inability to pay, the billing department files Emergency Medicaid case on his behalf, and we the taxpayers foot the bill.<br />And then come somebody like me, w/o insurance but with sense of duty, and pays $330 for procedure even insurance Cos pay only $150 for.<br /><br />As to the ways out of the current mess - see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uPdkhMVdMQ#t=105" rel="nofollow">this video as example of one brave OK hospital</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com