by zeroday 57 Replies latest jw friends
What happened to, ok it's time to wind down and go peacefully and with dignity?
This is getting scary because I agree with you again...My father died 4 years ago with prostate cancer it had spread he said let me go home...he refused all medical treatment and ordered the feeding tube to be removed hospice provided us with care and medications to ease his pain and he passed... you are right at what point is medical care more important than quality of life...
Zeroday...Sorry about your dad. My father at aged 64 was given 6 months to live, but the doctors were insisting he get radiation for his bone cancer. He went once and came home exhausted. The radiation would not have extended his life and was paid for by the U.S. government. Had he continued with the treatment we would have never had hospice. He never got up again. He died within 3 months.
We decided what a waste of all our time and energy. He was also prescribed $200.00 a month in vitamens. For What? Mom kept them in a huge grocery bag. When the final bill was sent, the portion not coverd by the govt.....mom went back to the pharmacy with the bag of unopened pills and the bill. She shoved the bag on the counter and said "here ya go".....take it off the goddamn bill!
She never heard from them again.
r.
We in the US don't take care of our own, but just look how well taken care of illegal criminal aliens are:
Parkland Memorial Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas is a fairly famous institution and for a variety of reasons:
1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after
3. Jack Ruby-who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, died there a few years later..by coincidence
'On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That's almost 44 per day---every day)
A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth atParkland in three months were illegal immigrants. That's 11,200 anchor babiesborn every year just inDallas.
According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.
The average patient in Parkland 's maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child.
She is also an illegal immigrant.
By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay. OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday, middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital , they do. ' Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics'.
That's right !!!! NINE.
The Dallas Morning Newsarticle followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two were also born at Parkland .. Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in Mexico. This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away. (I wonder why they even bother asking at this point.)
'How long has this been going on? What are the long-term affects?
Well, an other subject of the article was born at Parklandin 1986 shortly after her mother entered the US illegally - now she is having her own child there as well. (That's right, she's technically a US citizen.)
These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula.
Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.
Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification - no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income - an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.
Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so easy for Americans.)
There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the hospital is going to sue them! Illegals get it all free! But U.S. citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?
As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish . In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her.
In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multi-cultural) requirement.
Remember that this is only ONE hospital is Dallas, Texas. There are many more hospitals across our country that also have to deal with this.
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY U.S. CITIZEN YOU KNOW.
Here is the link:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.asp
Farkel
I don't mind paying for health care, I just don't want to lose my home and everything I've worked for if I have a serious illness. It just doesn't seem right.
Tort reform.
Malpractice insurance for doctors and hospitals is off the charts. Juries award irresponsible people who smoked for 50 years tens-of-millions of dollars for their stupidity...just before they die of lung cancer. More than half of what you pay the doc...or what your insurance premium pays them...goes to pay for malpractice insurance to offset what shyster lawyers and insane juries are willing to award.
THAT is why health-care is so expensive. Period.
Carlos
The problem with US healthcare is that a large proportion is spent on administration and legalities than anywhere else in the world ... it isn't being spent on healthcare at all !
Other countries manage to treat people who get ill when in their country without the huge fuss ... but then they have a system where everyone contributes and everyone can use it. When you create a system that becomes more and more exclusive then the relative cost will go up because you are not getting the economies of scale or competition for the shared resources.
Cuba even treats people from other countries as a service (you yanks could learn so much from the Cubans ... they are much better with fuel usage too, LOL)
Farkel,
I am very aware that illegal imigrants and their born here offspring are qualified for healthcare. Those of us who are legal citizens, who have no coverage and wind up in a hospital...are sued for everything if you can't pay.
I saw it over and over again as a legal secretray working for personal injury attorneys.
Here is how it works here in Florida.
We are all required to carry PIP. (Personal injury Protection) if you are in a car accident. That is eaten up as fast as you can blink at top dollar by the hospitals here. Once thats gone, if attorneys are involved, the hospital will hold off as long as needed until the settlement. At that point their was a special number to call to negotiate....(all hospitals)....they would eventually agree to 1/3 of the settlement wether it be 10,000.00 or my biggest case was 6 million. (This is after health insurance companies are billed if there is one)
Now, on the other hand if you happen to go to the emergency room for being sick or hurt, they promise a 40% discount if you pay cash up front. What they neglect to tell you is the doctor, labs, xrays, are all above and beyond that. The 40% discount is the for the luxury of sitting in the waiting room and getting seen......eventually.
This is with non profit hospitals which I feel is a real mis-nomer!
For those without insurance in this state the prices are 5 to 7 times what the insured pay. So how is that fair? Non profit? BS!
I landed on a toothpick that went into my foot. Had to go to the emergency room. The cost? $3000.00....... that was 15 years ago!
r.
Restrangled,
How about all this ridiculous care for people in their 80's, and 90's ....chemo, prescribed vitamins, kidney dialysis, etc., etc. extending their lives, making those around them miserable as we change their diapers, wait on them hand and foot, prolonging their misery for 100's of thousand of dollars. They lose their minds, and ability to think, drive, etc. shower, and dress while their lives are extended by the medical community. What happened to, ok it's time to wind down and go peacefully and with dignity?
I could not agree more. We are living too long, and the last few years are seldom pleasant ones for anybody. There is a time in life when there are worse things than death, and we should be allowed a graceful exit without the intervention of religion or government into the issue.
HS
Restrangled,
How about all this ridiculous care for people in their 80's, and 90's ....chemo, prescribed vitamins, kidney dialysis, etc., etc. extending their lives, making those around them miserable as we change their diapers, wait on them hand and foot, prolonging their misery for 100's of thousand of dollars. They lose their minds, and ability to think, drive, etc. shower, and dress while their lives are extended by the medical community. What happened to, ok it's time to wind down and go peacefully and with dignity?I could not agree more. We are living too long, and are the last few years are seldom pleasant ones for anybody. There is a time in life when there are worse things than death, and we should be allowed a graceful exit without the intervention of religion or government into the issue.
HS
Fine, but choose that for yourself, not for me.
Warlock
Fine, but choose that for yourself, not for me.
Warlock
LOL, Let me help you choose!!
cbb
