Bay Area transportation

[Deirdre Saoirse]

On Tue, 18 Jan 2000, Jim Franklin wrote:

> were you offered the best available without insurance? 

Yep. My late husband had no insurance (we insured me as I was the primary
breadwinner) and got the best possible care -- to the tune of $20k for
about 12 hours. There really wasn't anything they *could* do other than
keep the functions going.

> BC may only have 2 MRIs but at least everyone has an equal chance of not
> using them.

MRIs are frequently done to prevent MORE costs later on, so it's a false
economy. For example, MRIs can detect aneurysms before they become costly
hemorrhagic strokes (see above). My late husband was about the cheapest
possible such patient since he stopped breathing within a minute of
hitting the hospital. They kept him on life support until they were able
to declare him dead legally. As the hospital didn't have an MRI, they
airlifted him to one that did so that he could be declared dead sooner
(thus preventing tissue deterioration that would render the organs
unsuitable for donation).

>   I'm just upset because the neighbors across the street(very nice
> people) were just cut off by their HMO.  The gent had a stroke 6 mos ago
> and he has been cut off from recovery support.  The reason given is that
> he is not making enough progress the actuallity is that the insurace
> companies see no payoff so it is cut the ties time.

In any system, there are people disenfranchised. The difference is simply 
who decides and who gets left out. Talk to my mom sometime if you want to
hear the downside of being a cancer patient in BC, for example.

-- 
_Deirdre   *   http://www.linuxcabal.net   *   http://www.deirdre.net
"Mars has been a tough target" -- Peter G. Neumann, Risks Digest Moderator
"That's because the Martians keep shooting things down." -- Harlan Rosenthal
<Harlan.Rosenthal@Dialogic.com>, retorting in Risks Digest 20.60