Welcome to deregulation in heath care my friend! Just like when insurance became mandatory in CA our rates went though the roof.

I can't afford heath care AT ALL. I can't even get state assistance at all for the basics. If I get hurt I am screwed totally up one side and down the other. How fair is it I work my ass off for what little I got and yet Socialists want me to give away what little I do manage to save for the greater good.

your position sucks but the fact is a socialist system will only compound the problem and breed more hate! Everyone wants to crap on Russia about how crime ridden they are but they came out of a communist system that was crime ridden in the first place.

A government's job is to regulate and impose standards and we just keep changing them to suit our mood instead of suiting the "GENERAL WELFARE" which does not mean handing out money to everyone for any reason. From my perspective I can easily say how much have you contributed to the system to demand anything more than the rest of us are getting? If you want to blame anyone for the situation with heath care in this country take it up with your congressman and senators! They are on the take and as long as they can keep shaving sheep they will. I am as qualified to do what a doctor does as much as he is qualified to do what I do. I am as much about saving life as he is in making sure things like heaters in a person's house to not asphyxiate them in their sleep or their jacuzzi's electrical system from electrocuting them in the hot tub.


Our government is as much of the problem as the industry! Let us please put hte blame where it truly belongs!

Well its way too late now, Winx.. Grin!

The only thing I understand about deregulation is that if you leave it up to the companies themselve to police corruption in their company, your an idiot. People can not be trusted to do that, very unfortunately of course. It really is to bad that others don't have our best interest at heart.

When I do a job, whether my client knows it or not, I go out of my way to do a good job, simply because I know if I take a short cut, and I can't sleep at night if I do less than my best. If times are hard I adjust my fee drastically so that I don't feel I am part of the problem. I don't know why when things get like this all of a sudden when people are struggling the worst, the damn utillities and other costs rise. Makes no sense to me, but then I am not an economist or finacial wizzard like my brother so it all overwhelms me.

who's demanding more than the rest of us?, I don't get that, were you suggesting I was? I don't really understand this whole thing which is what I am here talking to you guys. I just don't have a problem with my taxes benefiting others, never did never will. After all life is very very short, what other good can we do for mankind than to share through good times and bad. Of course I can't share as much as someone who is wealthy.

People are wealthy in the first place because a great deal of everday people helped them to be wealthy by buying whatever their selling, you would think the rich would be more grateful.. ok don't beat me up too bad... I have no insurance.. grin.

You say you are as qualified as the doctor, which I wouldn't doubt but not sure what you are trying to say and what that has to do with this.

Personally I don't know why doctors have to make ungodly amounts of money. I used to think doctors became doctors to save lives not to become filthy rich which makes people living on fixed incomes and poor people unable to see that kind of care. Are you saying because your as qualified as the doctor that you should be served over those that aren't as qualified. I am a bit lost here.....

Boo,

I have a few doctor friends. They are not well off for a couple of decades. Couple that with all of the years that they worked hard and studied and did without. The ones that I know are thrifty because they are paying back their student loans for years and years.

Just food for thought.

I missed alot of the thread and in too much pain to reread lol
But I've done billing for doctors....they actually write off a good chunk of the bill as a contractual discount. they have to write off the difference between what they might charge and what the insurance allows. and Medicaid and Medicare really don't pay a whole lot

I have an idea, why not give young people with the mental qualifications to become doctors a free education, only free as long as they stay qualified by some sort of measure. Take the burden of endless years of pay back off of them. That way we aren't some how penalized for their suffering through it all.

Is a doctor that is in it for the money better than one in it to care for people? I often wondered about that.

I have heard doctors come right out and say I deserve as much money as I make because I sacrificed my youth. Well why don't we stop all that, take that sacrifice away, give them time to be young and to learn, give them a salary in keeping with their education and then maybe the rest of the world that might not want to be doctors or lawyers or indian chiefs wouldn't have to be seen as some how taking advantage of them ....

I never understood how we can pay people such low wages, and expect them to be able to buy expensive health care, just makes no sense. And we have to have the people that work in factories and do services, yet we someone look down on them and then blame them when the rich are taking advantage and screwing people.

I'm just pretty much rambling now, so I will sit back and see what you guys come up with.

because it's the personal sacrifice that makes that doctor who he is, both as an individual and a doctor..

take that away and you no longer have a doctor, you have an oil-change technician.

Education is it's own reward.. there's a reason people drop out of college and, while sometimes it's on account of financial reason, more often than not it's because that person doesn't really want to be there. I've seen it in person.. mommy and daddy send jr to college with a mustang and a credit card and he drops outin the middle of his third semester, cause "it's just too hard"

Undergrad is hard (unless you're in RHIM), grad school is hard, med school is reeeealy hard! It's that way for a reason.. please don't advocate for the cheapening of higher education..

why do I get the feeling that the doctors the insurance folks and the medicare etc all are to blame for the insanity in cost?

try billing it. each private insurance, federal coverage, etc all have different costs. blue cross can have a contractual price of one thing and medicare another. the doctors have to go by the insurances cost and write off the difference. they can't charge the patient for the difference. they do this if they want to be in the provider list for the insurance. alot is written off. more than what people realize. it's the insurances. the doctors have to go by their price to be providers for the network

Actually I absolutely agree with you, I never would advocate that we cheapen higher education, I don't want a doctor working on me that doesn't want to be there. I know rich kids that did exactly as you said, they dropped out, they would rather live off daddy's allowances than work that hard. I get that. But there are lots of young people from all walks of life who are not rich and who are dedicated and willing to sacrifice that will never get the chance do to finances, why not make some parts of the process easier, the financial burden alone must make it difficult to focus on study..

I see people in emergency rooms that are overworked, it's wrong and it's dangerous to the people they serve, don't understand why it's like that unless the health industry only wants to support a certain number of doctors? Dont know, but there has to be a way to make things more balanced.

ok, that's fine.. the socio/economically disadvanaged CAN go to college if they want to.. They can do as I and millions of other Americans have done and that is to get loans and grants to go to school..

I'm way in debt because of school and I'll spend the better part of my working working career paying off those federal loans. Why change that?

is it too much to ask that one sacrifice something of himself to better himself? there's no better investment in oneself than to become educated.. why "teleport" folks down a road than so mnay others have worn out the soles of their shoes walking? how does that advance any real socially cognizant mentality? how does it benefit someone to have it handed to them, either by mommy and daddy or by Big Brother? What's the difference between the coutry club crybaby and the hoodrat if they're both going to university on someone else's nickel? niether is paying for it.. why would either appreciate it as much or make as much of the opportunity as if they had to pay for it themselves??

p.s. if you're looking for a good career field, look into nursing.. nationwide there is a shortage of nurses that numbers in the MILLIONS!!! the positions pays well and is quite mobile such that if one wanted to relocate, it's not like there aren't hospitals and healthcare facilities all over the country..

why does it always have to be sacrifice though? everyone has gotten into this mindset. it pisses me off that i have to pay $20,000 to pay off my student loan. it shouldn't cost that much. now, my field has been taken out by these stinking companies like rca and phillips that makes throwaway electronics. no need for the technician anymore. what the **** am i supposed to do about my degree now?

I ran into that same problem. I took a couple extra classes and changed over to photonics (electro-optics) There is ALWAYS a demand for photonics, hardly anyone goes into the field

beacuse, dude, nothing comes without some sweat, a few tears and, if you're lucky, only a little blood. sacrifice. personal sacrifice for your own good. not human sacrifice for the "greater good".. I thought we got over that when we stopped throwing people into volcanoes..


you don't get 6pack abs w/o doing thousands of situps..

you can't win a race without running hundreds and hundreds of miles before race day..

you can't just show up and play if you didn't come to practice.

get it?

you can't be the starting shortstop for the boston red sox without fielding millions and millions of groundballs and endless practice drills..

how people have gotten away from THAT ^^ mentality befuddles me and might go a long long way towards explaining the state of things today..

you don't think that my 2 years in there getting a 4.o was sweat enough especially when i had to memorize the math because i dropped out of high school in the 10th grade? i busted my arse harder than anyone there because they at least knew the math for the formulas already!!!!! don't tell me that i owe more sweat by paying them goddamn ****ers more money than it was worth!!!!!! that's wrong!!!!

are you an engineer or a technician? and which field of photonics are you in, because that sounds ultra interesting to me if there are openings for that field.

oops i see which field you're in lol. i was drinking a couple of beers earlier trying to help a friend of mine try to get his gmc suv up on the most crappiest car dolly i've ever seen lol.

Amazing fact, that despite the article puts through some sense of how the government figures are wrong, everybody "forgets" to include the millions of small business owners who are - by default- cannot get any unemployment benefits, no aid nothing and pays(paid) the most taxes of all.

Anyone with your corporate job working for Walmart or whatever the hell do not know, that small business owners have (had) to pay outragous amounts of money for medicare (many went without) , outrageous amount of taxes and faced a most fierce competition coming from corrupt business owners, outsourcing and outbetting the jobs , because they hired an army of illegal immigrants, working for money that no one could live off , let alone to pay for an honest worker.

My middle finger keeps waiving around for those, who continue to ignore the destabilization and destruction of the small businesses, in favor of cheap and illegal labor and Walmart quality outsourcing. These large companies and illegal hiring corrupt businesses are the real culprits of the economy crisis, but they manage to keep hiding behind the curtains.

Don't have to ask for proof, go talk to anyone who owned a business and now can't find a job and neither cannot get any benefits, although I am ashamed to ask anyway, because I don't want to live like a parasite!

That is a very valuable point! America was founded on the principles of free enterprise but big business does not want that. Even unions are destructive to the process when they over step their limits of power! America has become very f**ked up towards the middle class. I am self employed because it is the ONLY way to compete with the Illegal Aliens hogging up our jobs! At least I have specialties that they couldn't do in a million years of training! It really pisses me off to hear rich people telling me I cost too much for fixing the things they can't or are too cheap to pay "the professionals."

This country is full of blind cheap skates! At least some of my client base actually knows I am saving them money and doing the job right and pay up front for my services with a smile! Makes me want to hold my own kind of labor strike but this one would involve striking on employers who do hire illegal aliens!