(Begin somber music).... In America, John lost his life savings because of one hospital stay....

We need some advertisements to throw up against the scare ads currently being seen on TV.
You know, the ones that show the worst case scenarios from countries with universal
health care, and make it seem as if that is what the norm is under a universal health care
system.

There are just as many scare stories that could be told about our system such as:

<start playing sad sounding music and show faces of crying people>

In America....

Elaine was told that she could not obtain any health insurance because she had cancer seven years ago.
Jim had to file for bankruptcy to pay his medical bills.
Al was told by his insurance company that the medical procedure he needed was not covered.
Anne was told by her insurer that she couldn't go to the doctor of her choice because he wasn't part of her insurance group.
Betty was told by an insurance company bureaucrat that her prescription wasn't proven effective.
Derek lost his health coverage when he got sick and started using his insurance too much.
Tom was told by his employer which health insurance company he had to use.
Jeannine had to choose between feeding her family or buying health insurance.
Dave waited an hour in the emergency room after having a heart attack, before a doctor would see him.
Edith died in a hospital emergency room while hospital staff refused to help her.
Ron spent the night on an emergency room gurney because there were no available hospital beds.
Helen started having seizures, because her medical insurance stopped covering the brand name version of her medication.
Some prescription medicines are so expensive that some people have to travel to other countries to be able to buy them.

<end sad sounding music>

This happens here, in this country.

If anybody can think of any more, please add them. We need a website where we could post these real examples.

it's their own fault. They don't care that perhaps these folks don't have a job (since we have to tie it to employment, cuz that's such a great idea!!) Or that they have a preexisting condition that makes them apparently uninsurable. And the fact that people just can't afford it. Whatever, they don't care. They figure they have insurance, so if you don't... then you are lazy or something and that's why you don't have it. People need to see THEM.... someone like them.... someone who has insurance but doesn't find out until they have some illness that their insurance won't pay or they have a limit... they need to see someone like themselves for it to mean anything.

Cannot ever leave her current employer to start her own business, triggering job creation - because she now has an Auto Immune Disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis. She must have medical care/insurance to keep from looking and feeling like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The threat of not ever being able to get health insurance coverage again is preventing her rugged individualism from helping to grow our economy.

:rofl:

Only half way laughing. It's very true. I've always been a proponent of a National Health Insurance program. Now I'm more strident than ever.

And yes, I'm one of those millions of Americans that given the choice, will stick it to the Insurance Industry and drop my employer provided Health Insurance by showing my patriotism and signing up for the Federal plan.

I'm rotten I guess. I'd like to see a commercial that says, "You aren't a good American if you don't want every single one of your own to have access to health care."

the people that the insurance companies are refusing to cover, would be unfair.

and make sure to say.... so and so did everything he was supposed to do. Had insurance, tried to take care of himself. He thought he was ok if anything happened. But then he got sick. Then he realized that his insurance wasn't what he thought it would be. Now he is struggling to stay alive while dealing with the financial struggles of medical bills that he never thought he'd be strapped with. He HAD insurance. Now he doesn't anymore. He lost his house, had to go bankrupt.

It just needs to be something all those people with insurance can understand. Because they think that they are doing everything right. They may not like that the prices keep going up, but they pay them and feel they are covered if anything happens. It isn't unless and until some catastrophic thing happens that they find out. By then it's too late. The worst thing here is that people like my relatives think that anyone without insurance... it's their own fault. regardless of whether they are even able to obtain insurance nevermind the cost... like for preexisting comditions. Or they don't have access to it through work or whatever. If you are uninsured then it must be your own fault. They need to see someone like them, who HAS insurance. It's sad that it takes seeing it happen to them to get them to give a damn. I wonder what the hell is wrong with people.

"If we don't make a profit you die."

:dem:

Some are nicer than others, but legalized extortion is what it is.

Insurance I had when pregnant would not receive my bills unless I sent them certified receipt requested. I experimented once, sent one in the regular mail, another cert/receipt. They only got the second. Or so they said.

Obstructionism and denial is their way, some have surliness training.

.
.
.

The book is fiction, but the essence is real.

Th author is an emergency medical physician in real life, and although the main plot is how a serial killer is suspected of being responsible for a string of deaths CEOs of HMOs,

dribs and drabs of facts regarding how the greed of the Health Insurance Companies overrides the needs of the patients . .

An interesting read so far - and I'm only on page 41 . .