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Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: MillCreek on August 19, 2014, 03:30:45 PM

Title: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MillCreek on August 19, 2014, 03:30:45 PM
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/hospitals-reconsider-free-healthcare-now-insured/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRundownNewsBlog+%28The+Rundown+News+Blog%29

An interesting article about what many healthcare systems are struggling with: should you give a patient free or charity care when they have the capacity to get insurance but choose not to?   At least with the ACA, the hospitals and physicians get paid something, as opposed to charity care where you get paid nothing. 

What most places are doing is if the patient is eligible for the ACA but chooses to not get it, there is no charity care or discount.  If the patient is not eligible for the ACA, as in the states that did not expand Medicaid, there is still charity care available.  Bear in mind that payments to hospitals and physicians have been cut in the expectation that most of the uninsured would go away after getting insurance through the ACA.  Those cuts apply even in the states that did not expand Medicaid.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: zxcvbob on August 19, 2014, 03:51:59 PM
You should get free or greatly-reduced health care iff the hospital wants to give it to you.  You should have no expectation of getting free service, and the hospital shouldn't be compelled to give it.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MechAg94 on August 19, 2014, 04:07:44 PM
IMO, there are two problems:

1.  The Govt forces Hospitals to give free care. 

2.  The Govt rules for collecting debts are such that if they did try to charge some of these people later, they couldn't collect.  Assuming they had proper ID.

Both issues can be fixed, but not with our current politicians. 
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MechAg94 on August 19, 2014, 04:14:00 PM
In this case, we are talking about people with no insurance.  The same issue applies to some with insurance.  There are a lot of people who expect to pay only "$X" for insurance each month, but expect the insurance company to spend "$Y" (Y>X) to cover their drugs or treatment.  Try to tell them they are expecting other people to pay for their medical care and they get really upset.  Maybe it is just another segment of "people who are bad at math".
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Tallpine on August 19, 2014, 04:18:03 PM
What if you pay the "tax" for not having insurance?   :P
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: brimic on August 19, 2014, 04:28:15 PM
What if you pay the "tax" for not having insurance?   :P

Then you should be sent to the IRS for treatment. >:D
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: lupinus on August 19, 2014, 05:14:44 PM
Then you should be sent to the IRS for treatment. >:D
Ok so that covers proctology. What about the rest of ones medical needs?
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: SADShooter on August 19, 2014, 05:17:54 PM
Ok so that covers proctology. What about the rest of ones medical needs?

Easy. TSA.

Wait time. Blue nitriles. Full body scan. Everything available in the conventional system in one inconvenient one-shop stop.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: tokugawa on August 19, 2014, 05:19:12 PM
ha. I got dis all figured out. See, my insurance company done quit the biz. Then I was worried-how I gonna pay my Doc? Hey? Well, now I done got no more worries-see, my Doc, he done quit too!  An he tol me straight- son, ya'all better get a new Doc soon, cause a whole lot of us done be quitin' an them other Doc's, they gonna be so doggon busy they got no time for new patients.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Boomhauer on August 19, 2014, 05:40:09 PM
Thanks to Obamacare, my choice is between health insurance and food, wheras before Obamacare I could get a reasonable policy to cover catastrophic emergencies for about $120 a month.

Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: onions! on August 19, 2014, 05:55:26 PM
From the billing departments perspective,what's the real difference between an illegal with no insurance and a native with none?
 
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MillCreek on August 19, 2014, 06:34:36 PM
From the billing departments perspective,what's the real difference between an illegal with no insurance and a native with none?
 

From the standpoint of eligibility for charity care, there may be a difference.  By Federal law, illegals are not eligible for Obamacare whereas the native may well be.  Since the illegal has no ability to go on Obamacare, he/she may more readily qualify for charity care than the native, who might have the ability to go on Obamacare but chooses not to.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: onions! on August 19, 2014, 06:56:32 PM
From the standpoint of eligibility for charity care, there may be a difference.  By Federal law, illegals are not eligible for Obamacare whereas the native may well be.  Since the illegal has no ability to go on Obamacare, he/she may more readily qualify for charity care than the native, who might have the ability to go on Obamacare but chooses not to.
So what languages does your hospital not have in interpreter for?
What should I mumble and call myself? ;)
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Tallpine on August 19, 2014, 07:00:39 PM
So what languages does your hospital not have in interpreter for?
What should I mumble and call myself? ;)

Tha mo chul gort =(
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MillCreek on August 19, 2014, 07:10:40 PM
So what languages does your hospital not have in interpreter for?
What should I mumble and call myself? ;)

http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Tallpine on August 19, 2014, 07:19:13 PM
http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

Meow!
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: onions! on August 19, 2014, 07:39:02 PM
http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

Figures.
Party pooper.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MikeB on August 19, 2014, 08:05:47 PM

2.  The Govt rules for collecting debts are such that if they did try to charge some of these people later, they couldn't collect.  Assuming they had proper ID.



Oh they can still collect as much as any other other creditor. I almost had my house purchase derailed by a Hospital hitting my credit report for collections. Problem was I wasn't the debtor. Same basic name, but different Social, Address, etc. I was days away from closing when they put that on my credit report. Came down to about 48 hours from closing before I finally got them to understand I wasn't the person in question and send updates to the credit reporting agencies. I had to get an attorney involved.

Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: MillCreek on August 19, 2014, 09:24:01 PM
Figures.
Party pooper.

In this area, about 80% of my foreign language translation needs can be met by Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Arabic and Farsi in that order.  Most of the remaining languages are SE Asian and from East Africa.  My wife tells me that the local school district in which she teaches has 80 different languages spoken by the students.  In the schools in which she works, English, Spanish, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian are the most common.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: lee n. field on August 19, 2014, 09:27:33 PM
http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

Hadzane?
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: onions! on August 19, 2014, 09:31:27 PM
Maybe that click-click language from Southern Africa?
Though I suppose I don't look very much like an African pygmy. :P
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Tallpine on August 19, 2014, 09:48:52 PM
Maybe that click-click language from Southern Africa?
Though I suppose I don't look very much like an African pygmy. :P

You were adopted, right?   ;)
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: onions! on August 19, 2014, 09:53:02 PM
You were adopted, right?   ;)
Adopted AND dropped on my head. :lol:
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Scout26 on August 20, 2014, 01:18:03 AM
One of the Eskimo dialects?

Navaho?

Icelandic?

Klingon?

Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Tallpine on August 20, 2014, 10:19:27 AM
http://listverse.com/2014/05/25/10-secret-outlaw-languages/

 :lol:
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: KD5NRH on August 20, 2014, 10:20:26 AM
One of the Eskimo dialects?
Navaho?
Icelandic?
Klingon?

A friend thought about homeschooling his kids in Klingon and Esperanto from birth.
Title: Re: Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?
Post by: Sergeant Bob on August 20, 2014, 11:00:18 AM
http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e', and Hab SoSlI' Quch!