In another thread here, I mentioned that my orthopaedic surgeon had an annual insurance premium of over $400,000.

I had some surgery in late April and the final bills are coming in. Here are a couple results...

• Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago billed Medicare $49,110.55 for my room and board, drugs, OR and anesthesia, lab work and nursing care. Medicare approved payment of only $5,340. The hospital wrote off the remaining $43,770.65, over 89% of the bill submitted.
  
• My surgeon subitted a bill for $17,272 for all the pre-op and post-op appointments and the surgery itself. Medicare approved payment of only $2,512.30. The surgeon had to write off $14,760, over 85% of the billed amount.

Now tell me, how many businesses could stay alive with numbers like this? It's going to get worse as more U.S. citizens qualify for Medicare and the schedule of payments which will be authorized by Medicare continues to slide downward. It's no surprise that more and more doctors and hospitals are refusing to accept assignment of Medicare insurance, requiring patients to pay their bills and try to collect what they can from Medicare personally. My surgeon would have to perform 159 surgeries like mine just to pay his insurance premium. At about three surgeries per day, that's 53 days in the operating room with surgeries like mine just to pay for his insurance. He operates three days a week, so that amounts to 17 weeks of work--almost one-third of a year--on surgeries like mine just to pay for insurance!

He kiddingly referred to my status as a Medicare patient as a "charity case" and while he'd do his part, he can't afford to take any more Medicare patients.

Hospital bills are a joke.

My wife was in emergency last year with an upset stomach, they put her in a bed and took her temperature and checked up on her every few hours for half a day and sent a bill for $5K.

And people think plumbers charge too much!

A little Stein to balance things out:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/h...ife-expectancy

Again it goes back to what's wrong with our medical system in this country. And the ONLY fix is tort reform. You can compare us to every country in the world and how great they have it, and how wonderful their health care is, but they don't have the lawyers we have who have wrecked the system. And as most of our elected officials are lawyers, they will never change it. So it doesn't matter how you change national health care in this country, it will fail until you resolve that issue.

Originally Posted by l2ridehd

Again it goes back to what's wrong with our medical system in this country. And the ONLY fix is tort reform. You can compare us to every country in the world and how great they have it, and how wonderful their health care is, but they don't have the lawyers we have who have wrecked the system. And as most of our elected officials are lawyers, they will never change it. So it doesn't matter how you change national health care in this country, it will fail until you resolve that issue.

YEP!!!

Originally Posted by l2ridehd

Again it goes back to what's wrong with our medical system in this country. And the ONLY fix is tort reform. You can compare us to every country in the world and how great they have it, and how wonderful their health care is, but they don't have the lawyers we have who have wrecked the system. And as most of our elected officials are lawyers, they will never change it. So it doesn't matter how you change national health care in this country, it will fail until you resolve that issue.

Lawyers run Congress.

My wife went to hospital emergency. 30 minutes, 1 shot and a 30 second visit from a doctor. $1600

Why? One of the reasons was the 20 illegals also sitting in the waiting room... all free of course.

Originally Posted by dklassen

My wife went to hospital emergency. 30 minutes, 1 shot and a 30 second visit from a doctor. $1600

Why? One of the reasons was the 20 illegals also sitting in the waiting room... all free of course.

Hmmmm What ya have to do is go in there and say in a foreign language that you do not understand English. Just nod your head up and down and say" No Comprendo"

Funny how I have to provide, drivers license number, place of employment, contact numbers, insurance card and every other piece of financial info they can get you to turn over when you're signing in. If you're illegal you get treated and walk. All you have to do is sneak in, have a baby.. all for free of course. Then the baby is automatically a citizen with full entitlement to all the government freebies.

Any wonder why health care is so expensive for the rest of us?

But the powers that be in places like California and Texas are perfectly happy with the status quo--superhighways into their states for the illegals.

Can anyone figure out why?

The solution that would slow the flow of illegals to a snail's pace is so obvious. Place a serious penalty--jail time or a really big fine--on any employer caught with undocumented workers in his place of business or on his job site. Then actually go out an look for them!

Seems to me a lot better than the fence that never seems to get built.

Can anyone figure out why?

Yes.

Amnesty = dependency on the government which equals votes for the Democrats... by the millions.

Originally Posted by dklassen

Yes.

Amnesty = dependency on the government which equals votes for the Democrats... by the millions.

I agree with the first part of your reply. But I surely don't think that an unwillingness on the part of elected officials to confront the porosity of our borders and all that subsequently results is limited to just one political party. All members of Congress, regardless of party, pander to the illegals and their legal and voting relatives.

The sizable population of Mexicans in states like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California causes members of Congress from those states to tread lightly on anything that would make that constituency unhappy. As far as what party panders the worst, last time I looked those four states had 4 of 8 Republican Senators and 42 of 96 Republican members of the House. That's as close to a 50-50 split as is worth talking about. And they all pander to the Mexican voters who got them elected.

True but,

"Hispanic voters give Republicans an average feeling thermometer (0=coldest; 100=warmest) score of 48 and Democrats an average score of 60. And 63 percent of these voters identify with or lean towards the Democratic party compared to just 31 percent who identify with or lean towards the Republicans."

And the Democrats know it. When Bush supported Amnisty, he and I parted company.

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

But the powers that be in places like California and Texas are perfectly happy with the status quo--superhighways into their states for the illegals.

Can anyone figure out why?

The solution that would slow the flow of illegals to a snail's pace is so obvious. Place a serious penalty--jail time or a really big fine--on any employer caught with undocumented workers in his place of business or on his job site. Then actually go out an look for them!

Seems to me a lot better than the fence that never seems to get built.

But everyone turns a blind eye on whether the person who cuts the grass, nails on the roofing shingles, digs the ditches, butchers the beef or harvests the fields is illegal or not, when it costs 20-30% less for the illegal's labor than to use US workers. As long as there is a "demand" for cheaper labor, there will be a supply.

The agency responsible for enforcing the immigration laws within all 50 states and all of the territories is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As it's name indicates, ICE has two missions - immigration enforcement and customs enforcement. ICE's total workforce is roughly the same as the New York City Police Department, with ICE having a much greater geographic responsibility. So, for those who want greater immigration enforcement, the place to start is demanding ICE be provided with resources commensurate with the mission.

Originally Posted by dklassen

My wife went to hospital emergency. 30 minutes, 1 shot and a 30 second visit from a doctor. $1600

Why? One of the reasons was the 20 illegals also sitting in the waiting room... all free of course.

True, a reason, albeit a relatively small one when taken in it proper context with respect to healthcare costs as a whole. Undocumented immigrants represent about 20% of the total of unisured nationally (with wide fluctations based on individual states) and all of them don't use healthcare. For those that do they use it at a substancially lesser rate than their "non-illegal" counterparts. Some actually pay their bills.

Does any of this make it right? NO. But it is not by far a major player in the costs associated with our health care industry as compared to wasted tests associated with malpractice, self induced illness from patients (alcohol, drugs, smoking, obesity, non-compliance etc) administrative overhead, and more.

While it may be a hot button emotional issue that is popular to use, there are much bigger players at work.

That being said I do think we have to figure a way to stem the cost associated with illegal immigrants and healthcare. That would mean we would have to address the bigger picture of illegal immigration at large. I don't think that problem can be blamed completely on either party. As always..follow the money.