The Other Credit Crunch

Dear: Jessica Bennett,

I REALLY NEED HELP. I was a volunteer worker for 25yrs. therefore to be in need and ask for help is VERY humiliating for me. I cannot live in Canada during the 6 coldests months. Even in a warm home I cannot breath and talk or breath and walk I go into strokes. The M.R.I. of my brain shows 12 ruptured veins. I have a type of Vasculitis. We have managed to go out of country for 5 yrs. now but we owe $30,000 and when we return to Canada this April 25th, 2009 we will end up in bankruptcy and loose our car and all credit. I don`t expect you to pay our debt that would be UNBELEIVABLE buT I am asking for one more yr. of life please, the 2009, 6 months of out of country costs which is $5,000 this includes round trip fairs, transportation , shelter and some medical needs not covered by the court order of Colombia, South America. It is a court order under THE HUMANS RIGHT TO LIFE!!!

PLEASE HELP ME have one more yr. of life. I am more then willing to prove I am NOT a fraud! I have many doctors reports as well as the manager at The Brain Injury Of Chatham-Kent, Michelle Suiter who is well aware of my case. Pat Hoy the M.P.P. and his secretary Charlene is also well informed and she as well has all the medical reports.

It is very difficult to not know whether someone somewhere will help in advance of the next winter. Please help me.

Sincerely, Leah Diaz

Dear: Jessica Bennett,

I REALLY NEED HELP. I was a volunteer worker for 25yrs. therefore to be in need and ask for help is VERY humiliating for me. I cannot live in Canada during the 6 coldests months. Even in a warm home I cannot breath and talk or breath and walk I go into strokes. The M.R.I. of my brain shows 12 ruptured veins. I have a type of Vasculitis. We have managed to go out of country for 5 yrs. now but we owe $30,000 and when we return to Canada this April 25th, 2009 we will end up in bankruptcy and loose our car and all credit. I don`t expect you to pay our debt that would be UNBELEIVABLE buT I am asking for one more yr. of life please, the 2009, 6 months of out of country costs which is $5,000 this includes round trip fairs, transportation , shelter and some medical needs not covered by the court order of Colombia, South America. It is a court order under THE HUMANS RIGHT TO LIFE!!!

PLEASE HELP ME have one more yr. of life. I am more then willing to prove I am NOT a fraud! I have many doctors reports as well as the manager at The Brain Injury Of Chatham-Kent, Michelle Suiter who is well aware of my case. Pat Hoy the M.P.P. and his secretary Charlene is also well informed and she as well has all the medical reports.

It is very difficult to not know whether someone somewhere will help in advance of the next winter. Please help me.

Sincerely, Leah Diaz

I have a bit of a problem with our medical facilities in to days time. They have a tendency ( not always ) to take advantage of people needing a cure. There ultimately looking at there bottom line and not the health of the individual. I se it day in and day out a <a href="http://www.calnarconon.org/">Narconon Vista Bay</a> what the effects are of these large pharmaceutical companies showing a "cure all " down there throats to line there pockets with profits. The AMA has so much political pull that we have little to say about the actions they take. I hope something can be done about the needs of the people and the needs of the stock holders and CEO's.

American medical system is fundamentally
wrong. American Medical Association looks politically ttoo powerful, so it totally control not only the number of medical schools, but also arbitrally the number of medical stuents, so providing only the limitted number of medical doctors to the society. America is a typical capitalist country which allows free competition to the utmost, but what's going on in medical society in this country ? Medical expenses have become unbearable by any indivual or even this society. American exporting products have lost its competitiveness due to heavy burden of medical expenses embedded into them. Let's fix the problem !

Thank you, BigHappy... you are the ONLY one today who has taken the daily struggle of those who are sick WITH insurance into account... It's not easy... and the system is a mess from top to bottom. I am highly educated with what would be considered highly impressive professional credentials, and yet, I am in this mess, with everyone else. It does make me more understanding. I hope lawmakers are reading what we have all shared today... some are self-pitying, hostile and ignorant, but most of us have really been through it, despite all our best, most responsible efforts. Happy Thansksgiving!

We also have found doctors and hospitals usually unwilling to negotiate costs. Pharmacetutical companies have been unable to provde my rare cancer drug at a reduced cost, so I go without. And so many billing errors have been made that my husband, with all his transplant bills, al though he finally paid them all, found his credit damaged. If the billing departments had done their jobs correctly, things would've been resolved and they would have been paid on time. Instead of correcting the problems, they simply turned him over to collections. It's nice to think that this is a perfect world and people do their jobs correctly, but that is not the case.

I am surprized you all complain and do not discuss how level our health care cost with others civilized countries. If EU doctors have 2-3 times less - something MUST be done that ours received the same salary. There can be wide sprctrum of measures, srarting with mandatory reducing medical staff salary in Federal and States-sponsored hospitals (obviously it will require also refuce their liabilities to mostly frivolous lawsuits) till to various tax insentives to low-cost insurances or forbidding medical insurances altogether. I repeat, there are countries which were able to solve this problem, why we do not follow their example? Whining without uncovering root cause will not help, leave this to Congress and Obama.

One more thing, Ms Rutlege... my husband and I had long careers with a major international corporation, both retired early due to our illnesses.. I wish we COULD get off our butts and get back to work... sure would beat our health issues! We would LOVE to be able to work again! We would love even more not to have cancer and pulmonary fibrosis.... We are proof that these financial health problems, can happen to anyone... even little you, with your myopic, self-important view of life.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Cancer drugs are astronomical and many of us simply have to decline treatment , having exhausted our savings, etc, even with "good" insurance. My husband and I spent over $22,000 for his transplant durgs and his care and treatment. Many people with insurance, who are trying to figure out how to make it all work, simply get to the point, of having to turn down treatment. Much of what you say is true, but you are missing most of the point of the individiuals who have posted here today. Until you have walked in our shoes, don't say we're looking for handouts. We're trying to stay alive and off the streets, and we have insurance. We have accepted responsiblity. I'm sorry you find our circumstances of life threatning illnesses "sickening." I can only hope you don't find yourself in such a situation through no fault of your own, There has been a remarkable amount of ignorance and mean-spiritedness here today... but you are one of the most ignorant and unkindest of all. Turning down cancer drugs for my stage III cancer is not something I would ever come to. I'm glad you find our situations so "amusing."

I have been sitting here reading the posts and I find them rather amusing, most are blaming the high prices of healthcare services and the salaries of the doctors for debt. Hospitals provide payment plans and lower rates for non-insured patients, and if it is a "medical emergency" the patient will be treated, there are federal laws that regulate this. The real reason for the high costs of healthcare are due to so many people abusing the system, using hospital services for a free clinic instead of going to a doctor, who also offers lower rates for the un-insured, but that money is due at the time of service. Many patients know that they are not required to pay at the time of service unless it is an elective procedure, but if people would accept responsibility and actually pay for the services they receive instead of avoiding the bill, then the costs would decline. I am not a doctor or even a nurse, but the comment about lowering the salaries of the doctors, that is someone who is ignorant. I think that if you want to complain about what doctors make you should go through medical school and you should have to deal with what they deal with on a daily basis and then you can complain, they watching children die and they can't prevent it, they deal with ungrateful families that want to sue over anything, they deal with the stress of major auto accidents or gunshot victims, they deal with patients that know everything about healthcare due to internet services and self diagnosing themselves, or the best, patients that abuse the system to try to get their drugs to sell on the street to our children. I know that healthcare is expensive, I have to pay for it myself and I am a single mother of 2 small children making little more that minimum wage, but I have accepted responsibility for myself and my family and I pay for what I receive, it is sickening to see this country constantly looking for a "free" handout, get up off of your sorry behinds and get a job, if you are really sick then there is healthcare available.

I blame government regulation and the red tape of insurance forms for most of the problems. Hospitals and doctors spend too much on administraton and too little on the actual caregivers.

While Mrs. McNamara's story is tragic, I have some questions for this family. When she and her husband "decided" to retire at age 55, what was their plan for covering health care until Medicare? Is it reasonable to say that if they could not afford health insurance or had trouble buying it, that maybe one of them should still be working for benefits? I'm 50 and there is no way I can cover all of my "bases" to retire at 55 including health care. If many Americans think that "real reform" means that they will wake up sometime in 2009 to "guaranteed", "full", "quality", and "affordable" health care that will not cost them the other things they want to do with their lives, better to stay asleep. The above adjectives to describle ideal health care delivery for everyone will require enormous sacrifice from every working and retired American ( including postponing retirement for most of us because of the added tax bite it will require) Mrs. McNamara may also have to wait a considerable while longer than she did for her first surgery with an explosion in demand for health care, and with hospitals, physicians, researchers, biotechnicians making far less money than before this revoloution, the precision and success rates of future surgical procedures and cures will certainly diminish over time for America ( God help the rest of the planet relying on America for health care innovation)
So my fellow Americans, if recent history hasn't taught you yet, start saving lots more money! You will need it no matter where "Real Reform" takes us. Regardless, best of luck Mrs. McNamara. I'm sure you are a very nice lady.

If the US would open up the medical profession to immigration, it wouldn't get such inflation in medical care costs. Doctors and medical personnel should make good incomes, but let's look at it honestly - their pay is so high that if they are reduced by 20%, nothing major will happen. And that's enough to cover all bad debt and cover the uninsured. That can be achieved only with increased labor supply, which US can't do without immigration. There's a fairly simple solution to the over-hiped medical cost problem.