Thom Hartmann - Why should private health insurance companies exist?

Run time: 10:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6bwbbjY4Os   Posted on YouTube: August 27, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: August 27, 2009 By DU Member: thomhartmann Views on DU: 1202

 
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I don't know how Thom was able to conduct that interview without eviscerating the right-wing talking point spewing moran through the fucking phone. I gotta commend his patience!

urologist as he claimed.

both of us have insurance through our employers. Supposedly great plans. During the past ten years both of us have had our rates raised and benefits reduced.

A couple stories:

In 2002 I broke my arm one Sunday morning. We went to St. Josephs hospital in Burbank and after seven hours in the emergency room were told they could not set my broken arm there was no doctor on site. They gave me a pain killer, a splint and told me to call a list of doctors in the morning to find someone to set my arm. In the morning after calling from the list of doctors and being told there were no appointments for two weeks we went to a different hospital (Kaiser) and they set my arm. They were surprised St. Josephs had no one on staff to set my arm. Maybe it was just that one hospital? Still later we got a bill for 3300 dollars from St. Josephs for the x-rays, pain killer and splint. Nice, huh? Luckily we had insurance to pay for our non-treatment.

In 2004 I had my son. He was six weeks premature and ended up spending one week in NICU at Cedars (Great place, btw.)
My son was under 5 pounds but doing well. One day a doctor came in looked at his chart and said "We need to send this one home, insurance won't pay for a longer stay." My husband and I overheard that and flipped. This is our first kid, we're nervous and besides we're double covered with insurance from both of our workplaces. They ended up keeping our son a couple more days but we were still floored. What if he had needed more care? We both work for big companies, is our care so limited? The insurance did cover his stay, but the bill was 130,000.00 for one week in NICU. We recieved bills for two years after his birth while our insurance companies played pass the hot potato until one relented and paid. Now what I want to know is who could possibly pay for that out of pocket? Do doctors decide what kind of care a patient receives based on what insurance will pay?

Anyway, my little guy just turned five. I love him more than anything. I want him to grow up in a world where greed and profit don't decide who lives and who dies. This country needs Health care reform. Insurance companies need competition, because they've already shown they can't be trusted to serve the people over their stockholders and CEOs.

He just keeps on telling the truth, and they keep trying to defend the indefensible. The doctor made no sense.