The middle class squeeze thanks to Bush...I am just about at the end of my

Okay.

My husband had to go to mayo clinic for what should have been throat reconstruction surgery. His throat collapses when he breathes out. We spent 8 days at mayo and they opted not to do the surgery (I think because he didn't have good enough insurance) They gave him a C-pap machine and some medicine. So we get home, our insurance pays not even half. We are stuck with a bill of over 7,000 after insurance and on top of that the insurance sent a bill saying they paid 600 too much and could we please send that back to them. HA

NOw mayo says the 200 dollars we send them is not enough they want 475 a month. yea right

I need to go back to college to obtain enough hours to update my teaching license but I can't afford it and we both have too many days off because his throat STILL closes

Yesterday I was THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS close to just taking all 15 darvocet pills and just going to sleep forever.

Bush doesn't know how his crap affects the middle class nor does he care

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, but hang in there. Things will get better, people are starting to wake up and realize how crappy everything has become for the 99% of Americans who do not belong to "the elite AKA Bush's base."

Wishing you the best of luck,

F2R

I don't know if anybody will ever wake up enough to do anything. Sure people can talk and be aware all they want but unless they act it doesn't do anything. Nobody is screaming about the new Iraq information. Bush and his whole administration should be impeached for this because it proves he's a war criminal but nobody is doing fucking anything and mean while more people are without health care, public education sucks ass, they're trying to destroy SS and men and women keep dying for Bush's lies.

Just keep talking to us about it. Don't hold back, and don't think you're alone. You're not.

Stay close. Somehow, it will be all right. I really believe that.

But, remember - you're not alone...............

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outside the drug part, hospitals are monopolies because they can charge whatever they want and no one can stop them, and you know how doctors can get a god complex

:)

have skyrocketed. Add to that the myriad problems with getting and keeping health insurance, then the squeeze gets more and more apparent.

up.

And we all know what idiot is to blame for that.

Can't wait for 08'.

They have done nothing since they took congress in 1994 to address health care costs. They are up way over 100% since then.

have always been a problem. But it has gotten much worse since the '90s, maybe earlier, when for-profit businesses took over the medical field. They bought up non-profit hospitals, forced the doctors to borrow money to join medical groups and generally wedged their way in. From the beginning they stole the non-profits' charitable treasuries by using accounting techniques to borrow against the money that had originally been donated tax-free to the non-profit charities. They paid, and continue to pay their executives huge salaries. (Think Frist.) Gradually, the for-profits began to put the squeeze on their patients -- causing health care costs and, in turn, health insurance costs, to rise drastically. It's greed pure and simple -- greed -- ugly greed that is forcing people like greenbriar into desperate straits. This has to be stopped.

Greenbriar should talk to a lawyer who specializes in insurance matters to see if anything can be done. It probably can't, and if it can't, she should contact her state insurance commissioner or regulatory office and then her state and federal representatives in the legislatures. Greenbriar should tell her story and raise a stink.

We need to start moving toward some better way to pay for our health care. Single payer plans with better regulated insurance is the only course I can think of, although, if there is something better, I'd go for it. A good way to start would be to continue with private insurance for every day health care costs and add government, national catastrophic insurance for the big items like greenbriar's. I also like starting with Kerry's insurance for children plan.

Where have YOU been? Mr. Megacorp has DEregulated insurance companies and they get away with this type of BS. Hospitals charge "self pay" patients FAR MORE. This big business corruption needs to STOP.

I hope the OP poster fights the insurance company's refusal to pay and reports them to her local Insurance Commission. My advice would be to NOT PAY the bill and further your education FIRST.

Granted, she may take a hit on her credit for late pay but losing a job due to being unqualified is a bigger price to pay.

I feel for the OP poster! I have had battles with my insurance company.

medical bills is overlooked, for the most part.

Yes, it's still factored into one's credit rating, but most times, when someone is applying for a job or a loan, if the bill shows up as late to XYZ Medical Center or Dr. So-And-Such, the recruiter or loan officer doesn't measure it with as much weight as a late payment on a car note or a home loan.

The reason is quite simple: everyone in this country KNOWS how expensive medical care is and how ESSENTIAL it is.

own in the next election. Someone told me a Cali. state Senator is trying to get health care passed here(SB840). It might not be a bad idea to get behind this and see if it passes here, it might roll across the nation. Bringing out millions of horror stories like yours and Andy's would be a good thing to document.

up in her co-presidency.

I agree though, that we need a universal healthcare plan, and soon!

make it look wacko? No matter who brings forth a plan, the insurance companies are not about to give up their stranglehold on healthcare. They control it all. How much we pay, how much the doctors are allowed to charge, how much the hospitals are allowed to charge and how much they charge for medical malpractice insurance.

They have it all, and they are not about to let anyone in.

I'd out you, but you might do it all on your own.

You are not alone.
:grouphug:

once we dump this crew and start cleaning up their messes, things will get better. In the meantime, maybe we should all start hitting our states to work around the Feds and try and get one payer systems state-wide and the hell with Bushy and his moneygrubbers....

like your doctor or a family member or close friend or somebody. And maybe hand the darvocet over to them. I'm worried when you say something like that. $7000 is a hurdle you can overcome, but not if your mind is in a state of despair. You need to take care of yourself. Is there somebody you can talk to?

.... if you are having those kinds of thoughts, please be careful.

I in no way mean to minimize your plight, but know this. All of us have been through dark times and the light always comes.

Worry about your health and your love ones' health. The money thing is really not that important when you really sit down and work it all out in your head.

Best wishes to you and yours, this hard time will pass. :hi:

PLEASE don't do something drastic!

So WHAT if they report it to your credit. You can repair your credit. Losing a few points on your credit is not that big of a deal. If you are paying even $50 a month, there is NOTHING they can do.

Try to focus on what you CAN do, to better your situation like keeping up with your certification.

Best of luck.
:hug:

$7000 should be a cake walk.
LETS DO IT !!

But we all have bills. It's one thing to raise money for a life saving emergency cancer surgery, yet another to raise money to pay someone's back debt.

I feel for the OP poster, really I do but I also think this is something that she can manage over time.

when he breathes out! She thinks the operation that would relieve his condition denied him the operation because of the insurance they carried. They had insurance and it was inadequate. All of her involvement, the time spent at Mayo was for NOTHING and all she/he got was some pills and a big bill which will be a hardship to pay apparently. And the lady is suffering with worry and angst,depression and suicidal ideation.

There must be hundreds of people on DU who are severely in need because of their illness and their inability to pay. Not all of them are famous, well liked or perhaps not even known by the regulars here, and not all of them have done great things such as participate in a progressive cause that makes them more worthy of the contributions of DU'ers than others. Andy's upcoming operation is not, btw, an emergency.

Geez---when does one person's health/predicamemt take precedence over another as far as how much help they can get from DU donations? All this situation gets is sympathy and the proclamation that we all have "bills" and some good wishes that seem to be verbal support.

That is ridiculous and the whole thing that was made wonderful for Andy, is being cheapened by making that kind of judgement on who can be helped and who only gets verbal support on a thread. It was inevitable that it would come to this. It simply looks as though only the "in crowd" is worthy of donations that would help.

Who decides who is more "worthy" to be relieved of their affliction/pain and money worries over paymenst made to hospitals and doctors?

Or does it rest upon "life saving" as the parameter for donations? There must be many in that same catagory here, I would think. Where is the line drawn and why does anyone think they must defend the contributions made to Andy as being "life saving" and making a distinction that separates others, equally in need, from the same?

That needed to be said.
----------------------

Good luck, greenbriar, and if you can do some of the things Dare to Hope offers up, I think things will begin to brighten.

I did NOT cheapen the fundraiser for Andy by what I posted and you made a lot of accusations in your post that are unfounded. I donated to Andy but FOR ME, it felt right.

I stated that the OP's husband's medical bills are not equivalent to a life saving surgery. And YES, having surgery for cancer IS an emergency surgery. From what I read, the doctors pushed up the surgery and said he should NOT wait a month.

Her husband DOES have medical insurance and did receive medical care at the Mayo Clinic, although she feels it was inadequate. IMO, this IS a situation she can handle. I was giving her encouragement that she COULD get through it.

Perhaps I should have qualified where I draw the line. I didn't mean to suggest that's where everyone else should draw the line.

My husband and I have two children to support and have been sponsoring a needy family for nine years by subsidizing their rent, utilities, clothes for the children, as well as other help. We also make other donations. We each need to decide for ourselves, where and how we can help.

I'm ALL FOR donations for those in need, as my actions show. If you want to donate to the OP or set up a fundraiser, go for it. I was expressing MY opinion on the matter.

and it was not unfair at all.

Here we have a situation that needs help also. There are hundreds of others who do not and are not in the incrowd here, who seldom post perhaps, who have not done extraordinary things in their entire life, but are, nevertheless, human beings and to imply one is more worthy than the other is cheap and disrespectful.

I am not going to argue the fine points over what consitutes an emergency--obviously in your zeal, you equate this to open heart surgery done in the ER an hour after a patient arrives or something on that order. It is not, but forget it. That argument is not worth the time.

If I were to offer anything as a solution, and btw, I am not attacking you, the others, or Andy and I am not cruel or unfeeling--I am sensitive to the plight of Andy and have contributed to help him with the costs also, although I did not think I needed to post how much and do not like to advertise my kindheartedness etc, which is and always has been a preference of mine in my contributions to help humanity prefering to do so anonymously, but it seems to me rather one sided when so many suffer in the same way or perhaps even worse, to distinguish one as deserving because of belonging to a group, and not others.

My suggestion, and I have thought about this, is to open a site where contributions can be gathered for anyone needing financial help--any DU,er not just the more popular--or open a site that DU people can contribute to certain causes--such as a group that is doing research on pancreatic cancer, multiple sclerosis, even this throat condition spoken about in this thread by this needy woman, and the like. Or even open a thread, with permission from the admin, for the same. How about that?

That way, help, financial or otherwise, can be evenly distributed--do you think it possible that 25 or 50 thousand would be raised by Du'ers to contribute to the pancreatic cancer foundation?

I so feel for your situation. It is hard not to give in to despair. But, you know, it really is true that one learns a lot more than you ever thought you would on the journey.

Breathing is my thing, being a classical singer. Try to get him to breathe from down low (the diaphram) up through the nose. See if you can at least order oxygen for him to help him breathe.

Mayo is not the end-all of health, no matter their reputation. Empty your diets of corn and soy oil (these promote inflammation) and add in fish oil and especially coconut oil. These are healing--3 T/day vco will help rebuild the cells and fight infection. A sardine or two a week will make you both feel and think better.

Also ditch the sugar--eat organic (frozen) berries and other organic fruits instead. I make "ice cream" from 1 bag frozen mangos, 1 frozen strawberries, 1 can org coconut milk, and juice or water to make it blend. Mmmm--and the HEALING is so strong, you can feel it! It would soothe his throat.

Then, if it is something you could do--find a church or place of prayer for yourself. A healthy church will be recognizable as you walk in, they will exchange the "peace" and you will know if you are welcome. Of course, the Holy Spirit is ALWAYS welcoming, and will lead you if you ask. The support you would get is more life saving and spirit supporting than anything else I know. Of course, I am a pastor's wife (among other hats)--I have seen our own parishioners defeat death and despair wrestling cancer, arthritis, heart disease et al.

Building up oxygen can also happen by sleeping on magnets, and through liquid oxygen drops bought in the health food store. The coconut and fish oils will make better use of the oxygen, as will the B vitamins. The body CAN and DOES eventually heal itself. We also have in our area a hospital that the county runs that takes people without insurance for limited treatment.

Finally, stay away from pollution as much as possible, which steals oxygen, including non-green "cleaners," highway traffic, smokers.

I will add you to my prayer list, greenbriar.

God bless.

darkest RIGHT BEFORE THE DAWN!! Pay what you can re: your bills, and concentrate on taking care of yourself and your loved ones...that's all that TRULY matters. My best to you and yours......

Talked with Mayo today

they said if I could get the bill down to 3000 then they would be happy with the 200 monthly.

I said thanks I would see what I could do...


sigh....


like I have it in my back pocket. ARe these people even real, do they not have bills?

they have to take it. Don't commit to an amount that you can't cover and you still have till October to file bankruptcy.

and they can't take your house, so there should be no need to file bankruptcy.
besides, filing bankruptcy over $7000 is ridiculous, your screwed for 10 years at least.

don't do that. It's almost all acetaminophen. Not a nice way to go. Everyone will show up boo-hooing at your bedside and you'll wish you hadn't done it and you'll need a liver transplant eventually (maybe right away) and you won't be able to afford that either.

my sister thought she would just go to sleep forever too. Her husband foundfound her and she survived. Later told me that she thought she would just go to sleep but that it really hurt like hell.

She's been with me for about 7 years now and has never done anything that stupid a gain.

I'm not surprised you thought about the pills, but I'm glad you didn't take them. George Bush and his band of evil, greedy cronies are driving many to the edge and they can't all be Democrats. I'm hoping for a huge backlash next election. If the Democrats can get a majority, maybe we can get something done. In the meantime, I think we have to start making a racket about health care. Bumper stickers, radio/television calls, letters, emails and demonstrations and we need to include Republicans without insurance.

I never know what the middle class is in the middle of. The poor and the rich? What exactly is the dividing line between the poor and middle class, and the middle class and the rich?

I'd love to trace the etymology of the phrase middle class in the modern context. I'm sure it was pushed by GM in the 1950s or something. I'm in the first American generation worse off than the prior one, and I don't consider myself part of some big American suburban middle class at all.

Who is your insurance company? Those of us looking to change insurance companies won't do business with them.

You don't deserve this shit, since you didn't vote for Bush. Now, as for people who voted for him, well...

Never surrender. Never quit struggling. When you quit struggling, they've won. You won't let that happen, now will you? You're not alone in your struggles, and you've a friend in DU collectively.