Occupation:: Medical Assistant

I had a hysterectomy for uterine cancer in Jan 2010. The surgeon perforated my bowel. I ended up going back to the hospital two days later and that is the last time I remember anything until April. I had went septic, ended up in a coma, on the vent, all my organs failed. I had to learn how to eat, walk and breath on my own! I went to three atty’s to sue this doctor but no one would touch it. I now have all these medical bills that I can not pay. I feel in America why can’t the surgeon be liable to pay for the extra medical bills that I have to pay. I was out of work for eight months my short term disability ran out. I just had surgery again for repair of my abdomen two weeks ago. I feel like the walking dead!

While I was in the hospital fighting for my life my mother became paralyzed from the waist down. She was 84. Mom could not get any help from Medicare or qualify for Medicaid so I paid on my credit cards $23,000.00 for two months care for her since I could not take care of her. I could not pay any longer. She ended up in the hospital and went to a nursing home which paid for her for 100 days only then they kicked her out! I had to scrap up more money until she could get on Medicaid with another nursing home. Now the nursing home that kicked her out is suing me for the amount mom could not pay for $25,000.00. In The state of Ohio children are responsible for indigent parents. Only in America could this happen. If I were in Canada at least my Medical bills would have been paid. I do not know how they take care of their elderly but I am sure it is better than they do in America and kick you out on the street if you can not pay. The last nursing home my mother was at was a nightmare. She had tumors on her spine that was inoperable and she was in terrific pain. The pharmacy at the nursing home ran out of her morphine for three days! She had a stage 4 bed sore because they did not turn her. I fought the whole time she was in there. They did not bring her meals sometime and she would call me to bring her something to eat. I could go on and on what they did not do. But the last couple of months I had Hospice come in and she was treated like a queen. If you do not have people to help you ( some family member etc ), you are going to die sooner than you think in America!

Occupation:: Customer Service Supervisor

I currently have private health insurance with a health care company who I have been employed by for 10+ yrs. After two years of appeals and negotiations my insurance finally agreed to approve a neck fusion. Not only did they take so long to make a decision they also denied claims submitted by my specialist for authorized services ( I appealed this as well). I have been in a great deal of pain and also have had numbness and tingling just waiting for approval of my surgery. The surgery was finally approved during the holidays but unfortunately MD was not able to perform the surgery until the new year and they also mentioned to me since the insurance took so long I needed a new MRI (more money out of pocket). I also have a huge deductible that I pay out of pocket, that MD’s office said I would also have to pay this up front before the surgery. When I called to schedule the MRI and my surgery I was informed by my MD’s office that I have been in care with for 12+ years that they were no longer contracted with my employer/Insurance and I would need to find a new provider. This is devastating to me and so unfair! To think of all the time, effort and money I have spent to have to start all over. I pay for my insurance! Where are my rights!? Who cares about my health? Please help!

Occupation:: Freelance Audio Video Tech

I’m a Veteran who served 7 years in the Army. I got of the service in 1997 and went to flight school. Worked hard to gain experience to get into the airlines. Got furloughed from the first one a week after 911, went to the next and the cost of healthcare for my wife and I was nearly half of my $25,000 a year earnings. Got furloughed from airline number 2 when they went bankrupt. The cobra option was almost twice what it had been. How is it that you get $125 a week for unemployment but the premium for healthcare is $400 a month. Fortunately my wife’s job took care of that till I got on with another airline a couple years later after. But the low eventually forced me out of the airlines and my wife lost her job in a mass corporate downsizing. Now we are both freelancers and for the first time in our lives, have no coverage. This is after having paid thousands of dollars a year for years to make the taker even more able to take.

We recently looked into high deductible plans and were quoted with premiums of $350 a month with a $10,000 deductible. That is what I consider to be prohibitively expensive. I got an idea, everyone stop paying them tomorrow. They’ll be begging for business when the recession finally hits them.

If you make $25,000 a year, pay 12($400) = $4800 bucks a year in health insurance, 12($1,000) =$12,000 in rent, Taxes of $2,400 a year in taxes (half of the cost of insurance coverage if you don’t go to the doctor even one time). 12($200) = $2,400 a year for car insurance so you can get to work, (if you are fortunate enough to have a car and a job), you are left with a grand total of $2,800. Now divide that by 52 and you find that there is only $52 a week to eat. There are a lot of other expenses that haven’t even began to be added. These are just the basic requirements to operate within the modern world. If you can’t meet these, you are out on your butt in a hurry.

If you have a co-pay of $20 for a visit to the doctor, are you going to go to the doctor, or are you going to eat? But remember, you have already paid the medical industry nearly over 20% of your money for the year. And now, you are in a position where you must pay nearly 50% of your last money in order to talk to a Doctor for a few minutes. People, we are all going to die. The idea of healthcare has been around for less than 100 years, and in that time, they have lobbied to take every last dime they can prior to taking your temperature. And if you miss one single payment because you get sick, hurt, downsized, or whatever, your right to health is instantly revoked.

My final point, they have a new thing called HSA (Health Savings Account). But to be eligible for one, you must be enrolled in a high deductible health insurance plan. (Remember, I was offered a great deal at only $350 a month.)

Let me get this straight. In order for me to even begin get a tax break from the government for saving up my own money to pay for doctor bills, I must first pay any money that I could possibly allocate to saving to a health insurance company that won’t cover any of my medical expenses until I pay the first $10,000.

My suggestion. We all stop paying them tomorrow morning. Go to your employer and ask what they are paying for your healthcare. Ask them to put 75% of that into a savings account for when you actually need to see a doctor and invest the other 25% back into the business by giving it to you in stock options or some kind of creative win-win situation. Imagine then, what would happen when more than half the doctors in the country suddenly lost their free ride. Any you’re all still worrying about our tax dollars helping poor people. The medical industry costs you far more than taxes do. And write to your congressman asking why you can’t have a health savings account.

Occupation:: Maintenance

In the state of Colorado people who have health insurance are forced to pay for people who don’t have it. “Cover Colorado” the program was designed to help people who cannot afford health insurance. The insurance rates for this program are higher than if they were to go to a regular insurance company. How is it that a “non – profit org” funded by the state mandated by the state cost more than a private insurance company? Why am I forced to pay for it? The fees for this program are going up every year. And nobody is being helped except the people running the program. Please help me understand?

Occupation:: Disabled, employed part-time

I became disabled after a doctor messed up while putting a pacemaker in. This apparently wasn’t usual procedure and I also have congestive heart failure that we couldn’t find treatment for for 2 years or so. I, during this time, developed a muscle disease as well. I fell into depression while trying to be a wife and mother of three busy children, since I just couldn’t keep up anymore. I had been very active. I slept for 20 hours a day during the years the heart failure wouldn’t respond to meds. I was, later approved to receive SS benefits, though I really just needed the health coverage at the time (we had been paying nearing 800.00 per month for health insurance and copays, at least monthly, for Dr visits and 300.00 per month, at one time, for meds that finally allowed me to have enough energy to work part time. My husband became overwhelmed and depressed and turned to drugs, without my knowledge, and life became unbearable. His mind was affected and as soon as the children graduated high school it was time to find another place to live. The drugs had made him do things that frightened me and when he refused to get treatment, I left. This past spring, only a couple of weeks after I left, I was informed that I would not receive SS benefits any longer. Since the job that I was working paid a bit higher wage than I had and I met some amt of hours I needed to prove I was not disabled, I simply didn’t qualify any longer. Since the position is a seasonal position I still have 5 months with no pay and my now ex-husband was required to pay the health insurance premium until the end of the year-today. Tomorrow I have no health insurance since I cannot afford to pay the Medicare premium. I will, then, not be able to have my check-ups or buy my medicine. I am only able to earn enough to pay my expenses today and therefore can’t even see myself finding a decent person to share my life with, when ready, because all that I am reading says that you need a net worth for anyone to be interested. I, right now, earn just above level or income to get anyone to even look things over for me, and apparently my medicines do not count toward this. I likely will end up homeless this summer. With no health care and no ability to buy medicine. Funny that it is thought that I have enough income even though I have to spread the earnings out over a year. I am a tad older, have a disability and with this economy, have had difficulties finding a job in the first place. This is frightening for me, but nobody cares…seems they are trying to just let the ill disappear.

Occupation:: Unit Representative

With the advent of advanced computer systems in a hospital setting, not enough departments within any given hospital have an easy way to SHARE health care information about a given patient, and even more hospitals cannot share such information with each OTHER.

One solution would be software that is universal to the system; both within departments, (i.e. Cardiology studies available to Respiratory, available to Nephrology etc.) Also the same within hospitals.

Also important would be the ease of composing information to *patients* with findings and further steps to be taken in far simpler language than is currently available.

I know a lot of the above is talked about, but even most hospitals too much is handwritten. There is no excuse for this. For example, one hospital has scans on patient X. Patient X is sent to another hospital for deeper scans for Y condition. Past records should be sent, before the patient is seen at the second hospital, from the first, but for some reason, there’s a lock on such sharing of information, even when the patient specifically requests it be sent to the 2nd hospital. Some patients are even told because the scans are now on ‘microfiche’ (who uses that in 2011?) they cannot send it to hospital 2. Or they have been digitalized but it would take 6 months to unearth them.

All this makes for bad medicine.

Occupation:: ER TECH

There are several issues with Healthcare, that need to be addressed. One being increased cost! Due to the Manufactures charging more for Medical supplies than several items which are used in other professions or recreation,for hundreds less. Why? Other issues abound people who drive 35k-60k vehicles wearing diamonds and I phones, on medicaid / medicare arrive in the ER for abscess’s, shots, meds (Narcotics)Saying they cannot afford their MD’s Co-pay nor can they pay co-pay for ER visits. Thousands $$ in test can be saved if this was stopped. Further more healthcare workers are required to to submit a drug test before hire. Why do those getting financial help from the government not do the same.

Occupation:: Retired Secretary

My mother was in a serious car accident. In 55 days, we were in 5 different facilities & had 5 surgeries. The biggest problem is lack of communication & continuity in patient care. It is not a staff problem, but a problem with the “system”. Even moving within a facility has the same problems. Nobody knows what the patient history is, what orders have been done nor do they communicate with previous staff. Everything is on a computer program that is hard to track & easy to lose info. The staff is never the same. It was like starting over every time we moved or had new staff which was constant. I had to be there 24/7 to know what was going on & still did not always know. I had to second guess staff & question whether they knew what had been ordered by someone else. Because everybody is a specialist, they are only concerned with their area of specialty & what they prescribe. Mom had 12 different injuries. They were never treated as parts of a whole body, just individual injuries. We had to go 250 miles away for surgery. Medicare did not want to pay the ambulance trip back to the local rehab because they wanted us to stay where we were. We could not stay 250 miles away, 24/7 for several months. Letting the government take over would be another problem. Anything the government gets involved with is a mess with paperwork & cost. We are continuing into our 3rd month since the wreck & have several more months to go. We are in our 6th facility. Same problems no matter where you are. It has been a nightmare & continues to be so, probably for the rest of my Mom’s life. I do not know the solutions but definitely know the problems.

Occupation:: Retired

In Oct. 2010 my husband (age 84) fell and severely injured his shoulder and he was admitted to hospital for surgery. It was a complicated surgery lasting several hours. He did not recover well from the anesthetic and was in a serious condition for 4 days in the hospital and had weeks of rehab. When we received a bill from the hospital for $37,900, I called to see if Medicare had paid the bill and after calls to everyone involved, the hospital said that he had been admitted as an outpatient for “extended recovery” so Medicare would not pay. We have Blue Cross, Blue Shield Federal employee insurance and they paid the majority of the bill but the hospital sent us a bill for $4,790. We do not have the funds to pay that on our fixed income of Social Security and a small annuity from BLM where we both worked. I protested that he was NOT an outpatient but was in the hospital for four agonizing days!!

Occupation:: Customer Service

I feel so ripped off by the entire medical industry and the health process. Doctors don’t care about people or about what happens to their patients, as my grandmothers say they used to when they were young.

I have a bill for approximately $900 from a doctor who didn’t even see me during an ER visit for depression, where I stayed at the hospital for about an hour before being transferred. The doctor didn’t even see me!!! Had he bothered to come talk to me personally, I can guarantee that it wouldn’t be worth $900, to me or to anyone. How does a doctor who provided zero treatment morally justify sticking me with a bill? An unconscionable $900 bill, even! Especially when that’s almost a month of my current pay, and I didn’t have a job or insurance at the time I incurred the bill. This doctor, whoever he is, must be a really uncouth degenerate, probably like most doctors since half the country is in medical collections!

I received Charity Care at the hospital I was transferred to, and no one mentioned the ER didn’t apply, they just told me my bill was 100% covered. Why would I think the ER wouldn’t apply to the charity care?

There is also a second bill for $1600 for the same visit, but I don’t even know what that’s for. I think it’s the hospital separate from the doctor who supposedly did something for me. I feel so cheated and wronged.

I found out about the bills more than a year later when I answered a collections call. I feel scammed and abused as a customer and as a human being.

And then these people want to ruin my financial life for the next 7 years by putting this on my credit, as if I signed up for it. I didn’t agree to a $2,500 bill! The costs are so inflated. It’s just not worth it to me. If I walked into the ER and they told me they were gonna stick me with $2,500 bill, I would have said no thank you and left. I feel so wronged over this that I will be unconscious, bleeding in the street before I seek medical help from these wolves. The health industry is a bad business.