...against the American people who can.. "afford" insurance? My golfing buddy, the plumber, the republican, should be here in about an hour for our eleven thirty tee time, has insurance. He's worried about his heart, had some tests done, one doctor told him he better have a bypass in the next four days, six months later they sent him a letter saying if he didn't have more tests within the next week they would be forced to drop him because of the risk he is bearing. Saw another doctor last month, was told he was fine after more tests. My point, he's paid over eight thousand dollars for tests that shouldn't have amounted to more than a thousand. Is an insurance card a free pass to health providers to commit fraud? Would he have been better off paying for the tests out of is own pocket?

Wanting to live, and not die, does not fit into what we call capitalism, since people will pay or put up with most anything in order to stay alive. The 'demand' is endless, while the 'supply' is limited. A truly ridiculous situation. Remove health care form the game of capitalism!

i know it's a shame that we let greedy health insurance companies run our health care in this country, that's one of the reasons why our infant mortality rate is no better then a third world country, all they care about is making money so their c.e.o can live in luxury, and dont look to Washington d/c for any help, it's not going to happen, our congress is in bed with them and they dont want to make waves, besides they have the best health care, thanks to the tax payer,

When you have insurance you don't care what they charge creating an inflated market.

If people had to pay from their pockets for health care then there would be competition with pricing.

We pay more for Health Care than any other country in the world. Half again as much as the countries who spend the most. And, in quality of care, we are ranked 37th. That's two notches above Cuba, and only because they have trouble getting Medical supplies because of the Embargo.

If it's not fraud, it's massive incompetence. There are some things Private Enterprise just can't do properly and Health Care is one of them. Even if National Health did cause a major Tax increase, the fact that Medicare operates on 1 the Administrative costs of the most efficient Private insurer means that we'd still be paying less.

And, in the War on Terror, National Health is an important defense. It means better Health Care for our Vets and Reservists and faster response to Pandemic or Bio-war. An epidemic of the same proportions as the Spanish Flu of 1919 would put most of our hospitals out of business due to denied claims. "We're sorry but we can't pay claims for Plague Victims who didn't pre-notify us." Not to mention too many people waiting until it was too late--"too late" including having infected hundreds of others, because of the out of pocket costs.

Your friend would have been better off paying the taxes for National Health.

This is typical. The insurance companies can get away with anything! What a ripoff.
My own opinion is: They have a cure for cancer but would lose huge profits from the medicines they sell now.

Its a scam alright, but not for the providers, who are only paid a portion of what they charge. As for your tests costing only a thousand dollars, I'm LMAO, you friend is lucky, those more detailed tests showed nothing wrong, that's why those tests were ordered. In the old days, they would have gone in first based on less detailed tests, now the have machines that can look into a beating heart and 'see' whats happening while the heart is in motion.
Hes got poor insurance if he neither met his deductible or the insurance didn't pay for the tests outright.
In my area there are providers who drop out of insurance programs because they don't pay enough to make buying the machinery, giving the tests, interpreting them, filing and storing them, and paying for the office assistant in charge of insurance papers worthwhile.
Its not just the ten minutes the test took with a tech that costs.

It sure sounds like it. That's what conservatives are trying to tell people. Clean up the health insurance industry, don't just force more people onto it via the government...if the insurance industry is fixed then more Americans will be able to afford their own insurance and the need for government assistance would be far far less.

I am dropping my full coverage family policy this year, which has cost me $13000 a year. I am going to a much cheaper plan that only covers extreme health problems for less than half the price.
With the coverage I have now, every time anyone in my family goes to the doctor for the slightest problem, thousands of dollars of tests are done just to rule out this ailment or that ailment.
My wife when to the doctor with a sore back, after going thru an MRI, which cost up the butt, she was given an anti-inflammatory, which was nothing more than a big aspirin. A simple pulled muscle ended up costing a couple thousand dollars in medical bills.
Had we not had this expensive insurance, she likely would have gotten the aspirin first. If the pain didn't go away, then more test would have followed. Doctors have reversed treatments over the last few decades. They used to treat for minor ailments first, then test for bigger problems. Now it expensive tests first, then treat for minor problems.
This is why medical insurance has become so expensive.

Hey when I was a kid I had the best health insurance money could buy. My dad worked for the federal government, and you know, they get good benefits. Long story short, I have an auto-immune condition that went undiagnosed for 11 years, although the doctors had soaked us for 10s of thousands of dollars with tests, drugs, and surgeries aimed at treating the symptoms - no doctor ever figured it out, an art teacher did.

I'm in the best health of my life (really, a miraculous change) and I haven't been to a doctor in years. I don't need medicine to treat the condition, I just have to watch what I eat. I absolutely believe that health insurance and the state of modern medicine is grossly fraudulent, and I do NOT support billions in new federal corporate subsidies to make this fraud "universal." Reform has to come before the payout.