Meanwhile in Australia, every taxpayer pays a certain percentage of their income as a "Medicare levy". I think it's about 1.5% these days, up to 2% for very high earners. For that, you get free care in any public hospital of your choice and discounted doctor visits. If your doctor chooses to "bulk bill" you, ie send the bill directly to Medicare, you pay nothing. Oh, and most prescription drugs are sharply discounted.
A few years back I had a melanoma removed. I paid for the doctor to perform the initial biopsy, and the first consultation with the plastic surgeon.
The rest was covered under Medicare. Removal of the tumour and repair with a split skin graft, overnight stay in hospital, all follow up appointments and dressing changes. Surgeon's fees, theatre fees, anaesthesia, pain meds, antibiotics,
everything paid for under Medicare.
It was...stressful. Made worse because my mother had died of cancer literally weeks before. I can't imagine having to worry about paying thousands for lifesaving surgery. More states should do this.
I worked a little on Lamont's 2006 campaign for senator, he seemed like a good guy, and of course that snake Lieberman won the general after we won the Democratic primary, fuck Leiberman and the republican aholes who helped him!
The American Rescue Plan to the rescue once again. Honestly, as I sit back and consider all the truly great things that this administration has been able to accomplish, things that actually affect the lives of regular Americans in a positive way, I simply cannot wait to cast my ballot once again for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I want them to keep going, and with any luck, with a Democratically-controlled Congress.
As someone who carefully planned financially to be able to deal with medical expenses and then when they hit was able to navigate our family through two different expensive cancer treatments and multiple other surgeries without incurring a penny of debt, I just want to say this is great, great news and my tax dollars well spent.
What a wonderful sentiment, seeing in your own experience not "if I can do it so can anyone else" but instead "I was fortunate and I wish my good fortune to fall upon others." And may your health continue to improve and thrive for many years to come.
Malheureusement, I live in New York state, so this will not help me.
My problem is that I am retired and I have Medicrap or whaterever which one it is.
My ''provider'' is Wellcare, which generally translatess to ''Well, we don't care''.
One of the biggest problems with our current system is how your allged provider fobs certain things off ro other prociders, like, well, Dentaquest.
So I had to go to the denstist back in August, and while not able to pay my almost $600 bill, I paid $200, under the impression I would be reimbursed, and the rest taken care of. It was not.
More to the point the criminals at Dentafrauds told me that my dentist's billing office had not put the right procedure code number on the form. I checke with them, and the woman who has been doing the billing for about THIRTY YEARS, told me they were wrong. Dentalscam hasn't even existed that long.
So I call ut Wellweconotcare to complain about Dentcrap, and they sentme back a letter the next week saying the got my complaint, but nothing about doing anything about this. Foruaunately my dentists' office and the office manager are with me on this and are not pushing me to pay the bill. Meanwhile, I told afriedn about my dentists' offuce being great and becaue he has different in surace and that I do he is having his $2000 bill being paid in full.
This is the result of the medical scam industry somehow created by the ACA.
It's unfortunate that you aren't able to distinguish between the ACA and Medicare, which are in fact separate systems. I was on the first, and now retired too, am on the second. I also have a Medicare Advantage plan, like you, which I grant does have some significant coverage gaps (dental and glasses, for ex). I pay a bit extra to cover those. Those gaps existed long before the ACA. It appears from your comment that another gap exists:: that of your understanding of how the Medicare system works. Medicare cannot account for errors in medical billing; that is unfortunately something the patient has to be vigilant and advocate about. Yours sounds like a correctable error, one that would likely result in your reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses. A shift in attitude from complaining in ignorance to resolving the problem could go a long way in getting your money back. It takes patience and diligence. Been there, done that.
I know the difference, and if the ACA was better organised, other thiungs would be better too..
And I also understand about Medicare. One thing I realise I did not mention is that Dentquest has a shitload of negative commenets on the Better Businees Bureau's website.
Oh gods, my sister must be dancing. I know our parents would have been if this had happened 40 years ago. Cancer treatments are so fracking expensive, and repaying Dad's debt put us into poverty, or so little above the line that it doesn't really count for the vast majority of my childhood.
I love this Robyn! I am CT born and raised, and still live here. People make fun of CT for loads of reasons, but I love it here. And there's one thing for which we can thank Joe Lieberman: because you are such a dirtbag loser and crybaby, we now have Ned Lamont as our Governor. And he's great! He does more for the people of CT everyday, before breakfast, than you ever did across your entire career. Edit: housing prices here are, however, bullshit.
"About 100 million Americans owe $250 or more in medical debt, and while we don’t have an exact figure on how much we owe in total, one analysis determined that it’s about $195 billion ($88 billion of which is in collections), which you will note is a lot of money."
$195 billion! That's almost 30% of the unpaid taxes the IRS didn't collect in 2022 ($600 billion). In other words, we could pay off all of America's medical debt for several years if we just collected all the taxes due in any given year. Unfortunately, republicans don't want us to collect those unpaid taxes.
"buys debt at the same discount price at which debt collectors buy it, and will be leveraging $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to get rid of $1 billion in medical debt."
This right here is what's (most) wrong with the system. If they can sell a billion in debt for 6.5 mil, that unpaid $993,500,000 must not have been a real cost to begin with. And yet on the open market, those entities paying the 6.5 mil still expect to get paid the $993,500,000 or somewhere in the neighborhood after defaults and collection expenses from the people dinged in the first place, or they wouldn't have spent 6.5 million buying up that "debt."
I have been hounded over 40 bucks that I “owed” for a service that my insurance had already paid 1500 or so for. Heck, they spent three times that harassing me.
Meanwhile in Australia, every taxpayer pays a certain percentage of their income as a "Medicare levy". I think it's about 1.5% these days, up to 2% for very high earners. For that, you get free care in any public hospital of your choice and discounted doctor visits. If your doctor chooses to "bulk bill" you, ie send the bill directly to Medicare, you pay nothing. Oh, and most prescription drugs are sharply discounted.
A few years back I had a melanoma removed. I paid for the doctor to perform the initial biopsy, and the first consultation with the plastic surgeon.
The rest was covered under Medicare. Removal of the tumour and repair with a split skin graft, overnight stay in hospital, all follow up appointments and dressing changes. Surgeon's fees, theatre fees, anaesthesia, pain meds, antibiotics,
everything paid for under Medicare.
It was...stressful. Made worse because my mother had died of cancer literally weeks before. I can't imagine having to worry about paying thousands for lifesaving surgery. More states should do this.
I worked a little on Lamont's 2006 campaign for senator, he seemed like a good guy, and of course that snake Lieberman won the general after we won the Democratic primary, fuck Leiberman and the republican aholes who helped him!
Lieberman's despised here now. CT represent!
The American Rescue Plan to the rescue once again. Honestly, as I sit back and consider all the truly great things that this administration has been able to accomplish, things that actually affect the lives of regular Americans in a positive way, I simply cannot wait to cast my ballot once again for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I want them to keep going, and with any luck, with a Democratically-controlled Congress.
Yay for CT, where I come from back in the old country.
I donated to RIP Medical Debt last year, thank you Robyn for letting us know about this organization!
What is this non-profit and how can I contribute?
As someone who carefully planned financially to be able to deal with medical expenses and then when they hit was able to navigate our family through two different expensive cancer treatments and multiple other surgeries without incurring a penny of debt, I just want to say this is great, great news and my tax dollars well spent.
What a wonderful sentiment, seeing in your own experience not "if I can do it so can anyone else" but instead "I was fortunate and I wish my good fortune to fall upon others." And may your health continue to improve and thrive for many years to come.
Malheureusement, I live in New York state, so this will not help me.
My problem is that I am retired and I have Medicrap or whaterever which one it is.
My ''provider'' is Wellcare, which generally translatess to ''Well, we don't care''.
One of the biggest problems with our current system is how your allged provider fobs certain things off ro other prociders, like, well, Dentaquest.
So I had to go to the denstist back in August, and while not able to pay my almost $600 bill, I paid $200, under the impression I would be reimbursed, and the rest taken care of. It was not.
More to the point the criminals at Dentafrauds told me that my dentist's billing office had not put the right procedure code number on the form. I checke with them, and the woman who has been doing the billing for about THIRTY YEARS, told me they were wrong. Dentalscam hasn't even existed that long.
So I call ut Wellweconotcare to complain about Dentcrap, and they sentme back a letter the next week saying the got my complaint, but nothing about doing anything about this. Foruaunately my dentists' office and the office manager are with me on this and are not pushing me to pay the bill. Meanwhile, I told afriedn about my dentists' offuce being great and becaue he has different in surace and that I do he is having his $2000 bill being paid in full.
This is the result of the medical scam industry somehow created by the ACA.
It's unfortunate that you aren't able to distinguish between the ACA and Medicare, which are in fact separate systems. I was on the first, and now retired too, am on the second. I also have a Medicare Advantage plan, like you, which I grant does have some significant coverage gaps (dental and glasses, for ex). I pay a bit extra to cover those. Those gaps existed long before the ACA. It appears from your comment that another gap exists:: that of your understanding of how the Medicare system works. Medicare cannot account for errors in medical billing; that is unfortunately something the patient has to be vigilant and advocate about. Yours sounds like a correctable error, one that would likely result in your reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses. A shift in attitude from complaining in ignorance to resolving the problem could go a long way in getting your money back. It takes patience and diligence. Been there, done that.
I know the difference, and if the ACA was better organised, other thiungs would be better too..
And I also understand about Medicare. One thing I realise I did not mention is that Dentquest has a shitload of negative commenets on the Better Businees Bureau's website.
Oh gods, my sister must be dancing. I know our parents would have been if this had happened 40 years ago. Cancer treatments are so fracking expensive, and repaying Dad's debt put us into poverty, or so little above the line that it doesn't really count for the vast majority of my childhood.
A happy nutmegger!
I love this Robyn! I am CT born and raised, and still live here. People make fun of CT for loads of reasons, but I love it here. And there's one thing for which we can thank Joe Lieberman: because you are such a dirtbag loser and crybaby, we now have Ned Lamont as our Governor. And he's great! He does more for the people of CT everyday, before breakfast, than you ever did across your entire career. Edit: housing prices here are, however, bullshit.
TBF housing prices are through the roof everywhere that people WANT to live.
Point taken!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS ❤️!!!!!
Hooray for my state!
Right?
Fani Willis has responded in a 176-page document to the allegations made against her:
https://apnews.com/article/fani-willis-nathan-wade-trump-indictment-493165c4614761d4b965923696134c09?user_email=c3ec34cbf101b52a24ede36c92cb6fe5b120e757b69d91c344e8f7102eab5d78&utm_medium=Afternoon_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru_AP&utm_campaign=AfternoonWire_Feb2_2024&utm_term=Afternoon%20Wire
The GA lege will take any whiff of a chance to derail the entire trial.
"About 100 million Americans owe $250 or more in medical debt, and while we don’t have an exact figure on how much we owe in total, one analysis determined that it’s about $195 billion ($88 billion of which is in collections), which you will note is a lot of money."
$195 billion! That's almost 30% of the unpaid taxes the IRS didn't collect in 2022 ($600 billion). In other words, we could pay off all of America's medical debt for several years if we just collected all the taxes due in any given year. Unfortunately, republicans don't want us to collect those unpaid taxes.
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/18/1093380881/on-tax-day-the-treasury-department-urges-for-more-funding-to-the-irs
"buys debt at the same discount price at which debt collectors buy it, and will be leveraging $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to get rid of $1 billion in medical debt."
This right here is what's (most) wrong with the system. If they can sell a billion in debt for 6.5 mil, that unpaid $993,500,000 must not have been a real cost to begin with. And yet on the open market, those entities paying the 6.5 mil still expect to get paid the $993,500,000 or somewhere in the neighborhood after defaults and collection expenses from the people dinged in the first place, or they wouldn't have spent 6.5 million buying up that "debt."
Am I wrong about how that works? (could be)
I have been hounded over 40 bucks that I “owed” for a service that my insurance had already paid 1500 or so for. Heck, they spent three times that harassing me.