For what it’s worth, I had cancer as a young adult, and traveled out of state to be treated at a major cancer center. It was a very good decision for me and for my family, but it was quite difficult being so far from friends and family and of course expensive, not just during treatment but also traveling there for follow-up appointments. That in spite of my willingness to sleep on couches (including one in a mens’ dorm, that was interesting…). I wish Mika the best of luck.

((((((((((((((((((((((
AKM:
I must take exception to “Each number is a man, a woman or a child who could be any one of us, or our parents, spouses, siblings, or children.”

My husband and I could never be a part of that number. We lost our insurance over 2 years ago.
Not that we ever used it. Too expensive still.
Last summer I was out of commission for a few weeks. My husband, a couple of relatives, and good friends and neighbors pitched in to take care of me until I was up and around again. My old insurance wouldn’t have helped any, though, because of deductibles, co pays, and what was covered. Thankfully, I recovered without medical help and through the help of some dedicated pray-ers. We couldn’t have afforded for me to go to the hospital, and selling our house wouldn’t have helped pay the bills, as what it’s worth is pretty darned close to what we’ve got in it at this point.

We didn’t have health insurance for 15 years, paid out of pocket for a family of 4. Now we have insurance, the same offices that charges us $45 or $60 cash, now chare Blue Corss $85-$125 for the same appointment. We pay $40 copay, Blue Corss pays around $13 bucks.

Recent illness, bill of $700plus, Blue Cross paid $0, the rest is a deducatable. I swear, I think it truely is cheaper to be unisured sometimes.

The entire system is a ripoff. Health, auto, etc. Just like our “forced to buy” FEMA flood insurance. When we flooded, our neighbor made a claim, turns out FEMA doesn’t cover basements, even if theri finished. For a grand a year, nothing, not a dime. Luckily, we don’t have a basement!

Also, too though, on that “doctor.” Who was he speaking of, because everyone knows we treehugging granola lovin’ vegetarian liberals don’t live like he mentioned.

Was he talking’ about the Republican base, ya’ know, them Palin rally types?

My heart goes out to Mika and her family. They will use and appreciate all the positive energy we can send their way..$$ and prayers.

I did the cancer “battle” last year. Prior to last year my husband and I had a carefree full-time traveling lifestyle. We have good insurance that we pay $450/mo. for. My deductible was $500. I had a $3,000 cap on co-pays because I was “in network”. I paid that out before March with biopsies, ultrasounds… all the tests ordered before diagnosis. We drove 80 miles roundtrip to the Cancer treatment facility. We settled into a more permanent living arrangement.

I consciously waited to start the cancer dance until January 1, so that I wouldn’t rack up charges late in 2008. (I had major symptoms) But, by waiting, I got all my needs met within 2009 and got the maximum bang for my medical insurance buck. I have a PET scan scheduled for next week and it will be my first doctor appointment of 2010. It will automatically cost me $500 for that deductible.

We are retirees on a fixed income and we went into debt last year. Do you know that nobody would tell us how much a chemo treatment would cost? I later found out that the five bags of poison they infused into my body ran $10K. I had 12 rounds of chemo followed by 20 radiation treatments at $5K each… that’s just the highlights. According to billing I received about $250K of care.

I can’t imagine how much it would cost to go to the Mayo Clinic, then add on travel, lodging, food, prescriptions, etc… Nobody should have to weigh life saving health care and financial ruin when they are sick.

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201002250062

The evil in me hopes that karma will pay Ms. Ingram and her ilk a visit very soon!

I almost laughed when the good doctor said that he didn’t ask patients whether they were Republicans or Democrats or if they had health insurance. Well, no. I’ve never had a doctor ask that either. But I’d bet my last dollar that his receptionist required insurance information before any of those patients were allowed to see the good doctor.

I was glad that they finally got to the main difference at the end: Democrats care about helping people and see government as having a responsiblity to do so, while Republicans say they care, but expect people to do it on their own.

Hubby and I have been lucky to have insurance through his work, and it’s actually been pretty good when we had to use it. Our first daughter was premature, something we definitely didn’t expect. Nor did we have the extra money sitting around to pay our portion – that took a little over a year and lots of phone calls to the hospital and doctors to arrange payments. (Daughter is fine but those first 19 days in the hospital were scary – I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about how we were going to pay for it like the lady I met whose son was premature AND had to have heart surgery, with NO insurance.)

Then in 2007, hubby was diagnosed with colon cancer. By the time all was said and done the insurance company had paid out nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Of course he’s used a sizable amount of that life-time cap. (Hubby is now fine, btw.)

In both cases, we asked ourselves what people do when they don’t have insurance or don’t have very good insurance. And of course, we all know the answer to that one – they lose everything.

Well, at least one thing was apparent yesterday – if the Democrats are going to do anything about health care reform they are going to have to do it on their own. And they’d better face up to that and get busy.