Where's the obvious tag? No private insurer wants to insure preexisting conditions or pay claims. American health policy is designed for profit, even its supporters admit this. It's not designed for health.

Oh there's the tag duh

From TFA: "She says she's recieved nothing but rejection from insurance companies. "She doesn't qualify for this insurance but why don't you try another insurance," says Brown."

You think? Why would a new insurance company want to sign up someone that is an automatic payout of $3200 a month? I'm not taking anything away from the heartache in which they are experiencing, but they need to really appeal their case to some charities.

huh...i guess you CAN put a price tag on a human life.

if she would commit a victimless drug crime and go to prison for life, she would have her medical needs taken care of at taxpayer expense. I'm just saying...

Love,
Jay And Silent Bob

Instead of spending $3200 a month for anti-rejection medication, maybe she should start being less picky about the kind of heart she gets.

_{/run away!}

JayAndSilentBob: if she would commit a victimless drug crime and go to prison for life, she would have her medical needs taken care of at taxpayer expense. I'm just saying...

Or move to Canada? ( just brainstorming...)

/ a Farking tragic situation

Meanwhile, insurance profits soar

If I remember correctly, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (Non-Profit) turns no one down for pre-existing conditions.

Generation_D: Meanwhile, insurance profits soar

You know what happens when big companies don't make profits?

/see also Savings and Loan crisis, and probably the current subprime mortgage fiasco.
//Since there is corporate personhood, there should be corporate euthanasia, and probably a corporate death penalty.

I'm not buying her story



_{/I reject it}

The real irony is that she didn't even want the surgery, at first. Then she had a change of heart.

I'm not sure I understand Medicaid's logic. "We'll keep you alive until you're 19 but then you have to die, mwuhahahaha."

nobozo: JayAndSilentBob: if she would commit a victimless drug crime and go to prison for life, she would have her medical needs taken care of at taxpayer expense. I'm just saying...

Or move to Canada? ( just brainstorming...)

/ a Farking tragic situation
This

She believes in God. She must not be praying hard enough, pray harder .. or ask Pat Robertson to talk to the big guy.

at some point, shouldn't you just let yourself die?

just saying... doesn't look like living is the cards for you honey.

Gee, if only there was more funding for cloning so she could grow a brand new heart that wouldn't have these problems...

/o threadjacky?

What a waste of tax payers' money to begin with. I imagine that surgery and all the medications following it for the past 12 years have cost a fortune. And now, they are willing to flush that investment down the toilet! Not to help care for here from here on out is just a moot point. Why did they even bother to save her to begin with??? All hail our government's wonderful decision-making! My heart goes out to this child and her mother. Hopefully some millionaire will take pity and cover her cost. (Maybe like the drug companies that have been paid into to keep her alive so far.)

Based upon this one single anecdotal event, I am now going to make the blanket statement that this proves that all healthcare in the USA is horrible and needs to be centrally planned.

/how'd I do?

Oh, but let's not get into the evils of universal health care, which are... ... ...


um... ... ...


oh yeah, it looks vaguely socialist, and anything that looks vaguely socialist is bad because the invisible hand of the market cures all ills.

burndtdan: at some point, shouldn't you just let yourself die?

just saying... doesn't look like living is the cards for you honey.
.....

Oh well.. I could extend my life if I take these drugs, but what the hell, I'm going to kill myself instead.

etymxris
I'm not sure I understand Medicaid's logic. "We'll keep you alive until you're 19 but then you have to die, mwuhahahaha."

It's more like, "We'll keep you alive until you're 19, but after that, you have to be a productive citizen who pays for his own upkeep. You don't have to die, but that's your choice".

The real question should be why the drugs cost so much. Does it cost anywhere near that to manufacture them? Making a profit at knife point is OK if your a drug company I suppose.

Glad I live in Canada!

I just got out of the hospital a couple months ago, and I was just short of the "last ditch" treatment, an injection similar to chemo that would cost upwards of $20,000.

I asked my doctor if there was going to be any problems with the cost or insurance and she just said,

"Oh no, you won't even see a bill. Alberta Health Care will cover it. Just thought you were curious about the cost."

Say what you want about socialized spending policies...

What really pisses me off about all this is that the insurance companies have the system gamed so that they pay only a fraction of what a non-insured person would, yet have a law in place that prevents doctors from charging non-insured people the lower rate.

They bribed a bunch of congressmen to make it impossible to afford healthcare without going through the insurance companies, then get to pick and choose who they will deal with. farking evil.

The Free market cannot work in medicine, for the simple reason that in choosing medical care people are not rationale actors. When choosing a car you will pick the one that meets your needs and budget, when getting heart surgery budget is no concern only living is.

Winston Smith '84: She believes in God. She must not be praying hard enough, pray harder .. or ask Pat Robertson to talk to the big guy.

Sometimes God says "no, not yours".

She says she's recieved nothing but rejection from insurance companies. "She doesn't qualify for this insurance but why don't you try another insurance," says Brown.

Everyone should qualify for insurance!

In this case, the insurance company would have reason to ask premiums of $3200/month plus what, on the average, are the other medical expenses of someone with her daughter's overall medical condition. Plus a reasonable profit, of course.

Maddogjew: The real question should be why the drugs cost so much. Does it cost anywhere near that to manufacture them? Making a profit at knife point is OK if your a drug company I suppose.

Drugs cost so much in the US because 90% of the companies that develop the drugs are located in the US and almost all the R&D is done here. People in the US bear the cost of that R&D while the rest of the world just gets the benefits, a.k.a. the drugs.

Want to change that? Force the rest of the world to help bear the cost of R&D.

RandomFeature: Winston Smith '84: She believes in God. She must not be praying hard enough, pray harder .. or ask Pat Robertson to talk to the big guy.

Sometimes God says "no, not yours".

Sometimes, the unicorns say that too.
And it doesn't matter for the same reason, they don't exist.

SwiftFox: She says she's recieved nothing but rejection from insurance companies. "She doesn't qualify for this insurance but why don't you try another insurance," says Brown.

Everyone should qualify for insurance!

In this case, the insurance company would have reason to ask premiums of $3200/month plus what, on the average, are the other medical expenses of someone with her daughter's overall medical condition. Plus a reasonable profit, of course.

Actually insurance companies should not and were never intended to profit from the premiums. They spread risk and invest that money to make a profit.

Uncle Karl: RandomFeature: Winston Smith '84: She believes in God. She must not be praying hard enough, pray harder .. or ask Pat Robertson to talk to the big guy.

Sometimes God says "no, not yours".

Sometimes, the unicorns say that too.
And it doesn't matter for the same reason, they don't exist.

Whatever. You say He doesn't, I say He does. Neither of us can prove the other wrong - or right - so c'est la freaking vie.

She has my sympathy, but how exactly did this come as a suprise to anyone invlolved?

They new since before she actually got the new heart that she would need expensive meds for the rest of her live and that the government would only pay for them for so long. Did anyone consider this going in? Were they in denial? Or did they all just think that she would not make it past nineteen anyway? They could have started lobbying, advocating and searching for alternate solutions years ago instead of calmly staying in denial and trusting God to sort it all out.

The sad part is that because of the organ scarity there very likely was another now dead patient who could have recieved that heart and who could have been supplied with the medcine for the rest of their life. Shouldn't they take things like the ability to pay for meds into consideartion when assigning transplant?

RandomFeature: Uncle Karl: RandomFeature: Winston Smith '84: She believes in God. She must not be praying hard enough, pray harder .. or ask Pat Robertson to talk to the big guy.

Sometimes God says "no, not yours".

Sometimes, the unicorns say that too.
And it doesn't matter for the same reason, they don't exist.

Whatever. You say He doesn't, I say He does. Neither of us can prove the other wrong - or right - so c'est la freaking vie.

RandomFeature: Uncle Karl: RandomFeature: Winston Smith '84: She believes in God. She must not be praying hard enough, pray harder .. or ask Pat Robertson to talk to the big guy.

Sometimes God says "no, not yours".

Sometimes, the unicorns say that too.
And it doesn't matter for the same reason, they don't exist.

Whatever. You say He doesn't, I say He does. Neither of us can prove the other wrong - or right - so c'est la freaking vie.

You don't prove a negative.
The one making the positive claim is the one who is supposed to offer proof.
Not that this is the time or place to argue it. In short, if such a god exists I am glad to say I am not a fan of his.

She needs to get a lawyer who knows health care. If she cannot afford/qualify for other insurance, then Medicaid is on really shaky ground trying to end her coverage. HIPAA was passed for more reasons than privacy concerns.

/just sayin'

I_Can't_Believe_it's_not_Boutros: The real irony is that she didn't even want the surgery, at first. Then she had a change of heart.

LOL! That ain't right....

THX 1138: Based upon this one single anecdotal event, I am now going to make the blanket statement that this proves that all health care in the USA is horrible, if you're poor and needs to be centrally planned.

FIFY


/how'd I do?



6 out of 10.



Next trolling attempt, include some Canadian horror stories.

rancidPlasma: burndtdan: at some point, shouldn't you just let yourself die?

just saying... doesn't look like living is the cards for you honey.
.....

Oh well.. I could extend my life if I take these drugs, but what the hell, I'm going to kill myself instead.

no...

i could extend my life if i take all these drugs, at a cost i can't even hope to afford... and i'm still going to die someday, after putting my family in a really bad financial position.

all i'm saying is if her continued life is worth that much money, she better do something god damned impressive with it.

we're all going to die, some sooner than others.

Many companies, at least property/casualty wise, shoot to break even between claims and premiums. As Uncle Karl noted above, profit is made through investing.

That said, you don't insure a house that is already on fire. Bad business.

Isn't medicaid for low income folk? All she has to do is pay her monthly bills for a while, and she'll certainly be poor enough.

Last week she got the news that because Arielle is 19, she no longer meets Medicaid's guidelines. "I'm not scared for my life, I'm scared for hers but in retrospect her life is my life," says Brown.

I feel sorry for the girl, unfortunately her mother can't be bothered to read about her policy when her daughter gets a farking heart transplant. It's not as though Medicaid just sprung this on them. OTOH, given what Medicaid is for, they should provide some type of temporary coverage extension until they can figure something out.

burndtdan: all i'm saying is if her continued life is worth that much money, she better do something god damned impressive with it.

we're all going to die, some sooner than others.

I hope your not around much longer.

I know how she feels. I'm really pissed off that I can't get any coverage on my burning house.

This is why we need a government health insurance plan to fill the gaps where the market does not work. The government insurance can exist along side private insurance plans. The scary socialized medicine people can STFU because the government would not own the hospitals or employ the doctors any more than they do now. They would simply provide coverage for those that the market fails. Right now that's something over 40,000,000 Americans. I'm sorry free market purists, but it does not work for everything. It does not work for defense. It does not work for the police. It quite often does not work in health care coverage. Here is a huge, open, obvious example of its fail (that and tens of millions of other people without coverage).

Think of the government health insurance agency as something like the Post Office. It's there to provide basic service. You can still use FedEx if you want. The Post Office existing does not prohibit you from using private shipping services. The Post Office has to recognize market forces and compete on some level with private companies. But if FedEx folds tomorrow, the Post Office will still be there to keep the circulation of communications and information going.

SwiftFox: She says she's recieved nothing but rejection from insurance companies. "She doesn't qualify for this insurance but why don't you try another insurance," says Brown.

Everyone should qualify for insurance!

In this case, the insurance company would have reason to ask premiums of $3200/month plus what, on the average, are the other medical expenses of someone with her daughter's overall medical condition. Plus a reasonable profit, of course.

are you people farking insane?--there is not BUSINESS in the world that would willingly fork out $38,400 a year for one person--don't blame the insurance companies--how about the DRUG COMPANIES--i bet the pills she takes cost about $150.00 a month to produce--most companies have pre-existing free plans but they are expensive--and for a reason--would any of you dopes pay $38 grand for a busted car knowing you have to pay that every farking year to keep it going?

for those who think national health care is the answer--go to canada or england and see how THAT'S working out--there's no way they'd pay for this person

yes i work for an insurance company--and yes--its a BUSINESS

RandomFeature: Maddogjew: The real question should be why the drugs cost so much. Does it cost anywhere near that to manufacture them? Making a profit at knife point is OK if your a drug company I suppose.

Drugs cost so much in the US because 90% of the companies that develop the drugs are located in the US and almost all the R&D is done here. People in the US bear the cost of that R&D while the rest of the world just gets the benefits, a.k.a. the drugs.

Want to change that? Force the rest of the world to help bear the cost of R&D.

Drug companies spend more on Advertising than on R&D.

Big Pharma Spends More On Advertising Than Research And Development, Study Finds!

Uncle Karl: burndtdan: all i'm saying is if her continued life is worth that much money, she better do something god damned impressive with it.

we're all going to die, some sooner than others.

I hope your not around much longer.

why, because i accept the fact that i'm not immortal?

Of course I know nothing of the specifics, and as the FA is from the teevee news, I'm sure they spent a good five minutes looking in to this...

At 19, I suppose she is falling out of the "Low Income Families" category of eligibility. I would expect her to transition into the "Medically Needy" or "Aged, Blind or Disabled" categories, if she meets financial requirements. Any newsies who are at all interested in the "Journalism" thing rather than the "tug on the heart-strings to get ratings" thing would have looked in to this and "reported" it. You know "reporting". It's that thing, done by "Reporters".

So (A) She doesn't meet financials (and if the state says you are too rich for medicaid at a level where you obviously cannot afford life-saving medicine, that is a story worthy of being in a newspaper, or something.) or (B) She and her mother have no idea she can transition into another category and Medicaid is going to let her die in ignorance (yet again, a much better story to report on, for the "Journalist") or (C) the FA is Bullshiat, bullshiat, bullshiat.

LOCNAR69: -would any of you dopes pay $38 grand for a busted car knowing you have to pay that every farking year to keep it going?

A car and a human are two very different things.

for those who think national health care is the answer--go to canada or england and see how THAT'S working out--there's no way they'd pay for this person

The Canadians would pay.

burndtdan: all i'm saying is if her continued life is worth that much money
.....

That's the crux of it, isn't it? How can you put a price on someone's life? I'd smuggle myself into Canada if it meant, you know, living.

burndtdan: Uncle Karl: burndtdan: all i'm saying is if her continued life is worth that much money, she better do something god damned impressive with it.

we're all going to die, some sooner than others.

I hope your not around much longer.

why, because i accept the fact that i'm not immortal?

Nope, because your claiming that this women should die for a lack of money. I find that inhuman.