13 year old boy paralyzed and health care.

[Themius]

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/...inal-fracture/

So this is from last year but I just saw this on espn. The coaches aren't made sure to teach correctly and so they taught players to tackle with their heads and that lead to a 13 year old boy ending up as a quadriplegic.

Now so far the boy has gone through 2m of health care and insurance covers 80% which leaves the family now with 400k in debt with no way to really pay back the bills if they don't win their court case. On top of this they are expected to top out at tens of millions of medical bills which will leave the family a couple million in debt.

It makes me wonder why some people don't think we need some form of national health care.

[Bakis]

It comes down to that people are egoistic enough not to care enough for their fellow citizens.

[Catta]

It is just a disgusting system. Cant say anything more fitting.

[Themius]

People criticize our legal system when you have people suing for falling and such but unlike other countires, when you fall and inure yourself in a store that wasn't paying attention and making sure to clean you, you can end up with tens of thousands in medical bills, and whose paying for that? If you break something some scans are 3-5k each, and per body part.

[Tokru]

Something like that should happen more often, especially to those who are heavily against "socialist" health care until the last of them has realized how beneficial it is in reality.

[Grym]

It is the mentality of "it will never be me" that stops that from happening.

There is already enough arguement in the US about if the rich are paying enough taxes, the argument is "why should they pay for your welfare?". A slightly similar argument would arise here, "why should I pay for your injuries?", because in the back of their mind, the person to get inuries will never be them.

Then you will also have the argument that smokers got into serious health issue, who pays for the treatment? The nation. Someone done something stupid to hurt themselves, who pays for it? The nation. <insert self caused injuries with or without stupidity here>, and who pays for it? The nation.

Unless they can get over those argument, it will be hard for people to want a national healthcare system.

[jmt]

What you fail to realize, is that with social medicine the cost still exists. Its just shifted to the taxpayers.

While my heart goes out to this kid and his family, accidents are an unfortunate part of life. Giving everyone 100% free and covered healthcare are not. We do not have the resources to do so.

[Orlong]

Something like that should happen more often, especially to those who are heavily against "socialist" health care until the last of them has realized how beneficial it is in reality.

Or maybe people shouldnt partake in dangerous activities like playing sports, riding their damn bikes on public roads meant for cars/trucks, skydiving, driving anywhere other than going to work, visit family, and going shopping to get what they need, hiking, mountain climbing, surfing, skiing, and scuba diving. IF you choose to do something stupid that causes you to get hurt, then it shouldnt be society's responsibility to take care of you if we were to use your "socialist" healthcare system. Pay for it yourself!

[Deleted]

Sell the military and stop wasting money on nuclear weapons and warfare. i really doubt that the religious nutjobs in Afganistan and the like can reach america or europe with wooden shit sticks and bombs worth more than 50 of their people.

There, free healthcare.

[Themius]

What you fail to realize, is that with social medicine the cost still exists. Its just shifted to the taxpayers.

While my heart goes out to this kid and his family, accidents are an unfortunate part of life. Giving everyone 100% free and covered healthcare are not. We do not have the resources to do so.

We don't? So one of the richest countries in the world doesn't have the money for health care while most other countries do? Where are you getting this from? Sifted to tax payers... so to pay for this kids medical care would cost the tax payers a little over 6 cents a year.

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 10:14 AM ----------

Or maybe people shouldnt partake in dangerous activities like playing sports, riding their damn bikes on public roads meant for cars/trucks, skydiving, driving anywhere other than going to work, visit family, and going shopping to get what they need, hiking, mountain climbing, surfing, skiing, and scuba diving. IF you choose to do something stupid that causes you to get hurt, then it shouldnt be society's responsibility to take care of you if we were to use your "socialist" healthcare system. Pay for it yourself!

This is so ridiculous.... consider the fact the chances of getting hit by a car are quite high are those people idiots? My mother was walking across the street, looked left, car stops at stop sign, looks right to make sure traffic isn't coming the other way and the idiot accelerates quickly while looking behind him. Or do those people not exist? Do you even realize the fact that most people who end up in hospitals needing care aren't idiots who did something extreme?!!!!! Jeez what a short sighted view steeped in ignorance for you obviously haven't bothered to look anything up.

[Grym]

Shifted to tax payers... so to pay for this kids medical care would cost the tax payers a little over 6 cents a year.

But it won't be just for this kid, it will then be for ALL medical fees across the whole nation. The 6 cents add up.

[Jobnar]

What strikes me, as a non-american, is the ridiculous hight bills the family may have to pay. Free health care system or not, how is it possible that these treatment can cost hundred thousands, if not millions, of dollars? It seems to me, that the pharmaceutic companies in the US are even more greedy than the ones in europe.

[Wildtree]

What you fail to realize, is that with social medicine the cost still exists. Its just shifted to the taxpayers.

While my heart goes out to this kid and his family, accidents are an unfortunate part of life. Giving everyone 100% free and covered healthcare are not. We do not have the resources to do so.

When will Americans actually learn about health care in Europe and not just talking wrong assumptions out of their asses?

Health care in Europe, or Canada is not free.. Everyone pays a percentage of their income on health insurance. And there's the first misconception...
Everyone can afford health care because insurance is income based. The more you make, the more you pay. The less you make, the less you pay. And believe it or not, we are fine with that. Health Topic isn't a business in Europe. You don't see/hear TV and Radio ads from Hospitals or Doctors.
Medical treatment isn't free market. The charges for the services are fixed by laws and regulations. Hence why they don't have to compete. Doctors get so much for a patients vist. That's the same for all.. Special treatment is possible, if you are rich and want to stay like in a hotel when you are in a hospital. Or you want the professor taking care you you exclusively, pay for it.
Other than that, you are fully covered, even with paid sick days, and even if you are home a year, you will get paid for all that time as if you were at work.
The tax payer covers.... True that, all tax payers cover that budget part. But the thing that makes the difference.. We rather use our tax money on our well being and health, than spending it on military crap. The USA could easily have the same health system, if they'd cut their military budget in half, and yet still would outspend most nations on that part. The resources are there, they are just not used for what matters most. health and well being of the population.

[Grym]

We don't? So one of the richest countries in the world doesn't have the money for health care while most other countries do?[COLOR="red"]

In US, if you ar earning $8700 to $35350 (which is probably the standard salary?), you pay 15% income tax.

In UK, that will net you a 25% income tax.(plus National Insurance on top, AND VAT from everytime you buy something)

So yeah other countries can afford the free health care, but that involve everyone to put more into tax for it and even with that the NHS is constantly low on money.

[Orlong]

We don't? So one of the richest countries in the world doesn't have the money for health care while most other countries do? Where are you getting this from? Sifted to tax payers... so to pay for this kids medical care would cost the tax payers a little over 6 cents a year.

---------- Post added 2012-09-02 at 10:14 AM ----------



This is so ridiculous.... consider the fact the chances of getting hit by a car are quite high are those people idiots? My mother was walking across the street, looked left, car stops at stop sign, looks right to make sure traffic isn't coming the other way and the idiot accelerates quickly while looking behind him. Or do those people not exist? Do you even realize the fact that most people who end up in hospitals needing care aren't idiots who did something extreme?!!!!! Jeez what a short sighted view steeped in ignorance for you obviously haven't bothered to look anything up.

If you read my post again, you would see I didnt just cite extreme activities. I put driving for anything other than going to work, visiting relatives, and shopping for necessities in there as well as riding bikes on public roads meant for cars and truck. Im sorry but bikes dont belong on roads, go to a damn velodrome or something if you wanna ride a bike. Also hiking, and walking arent extreme.

[Underverse]

The nature of our healthcare system has inflated costs dramatically. Which is in part why people don't think socialized health care can work, because medical bills are so damn expensive.

The problem is, in fact, that the business of healing is run as a business, where I think it should be non-profit.

[Dazzy]

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/...inal-fracture/

So this is from last year but I just saw this on espn. The coaches aren't made sure to teach correctly and so they taught players to tackle with their heads and that lead to a 13 year old boy ending up as a quadriplegic.

Now so far the boy has gone through 2m of health care and insurance covers 80% which leaves the family now with 400k in debt with no way to really pay back the bills if they don't win their court case. On top of this they are expected to top out at tens of millions of medical bills which will leave the family a couple million in debt.

It makes me wonder why some people don't think we need some form of national health care.

It needs some reform, but not Osamacare, under that pre-existing conditions cannot be held against you. Meaning he can switch insurance companies and you and I will pick up the rest of the bill.

Also, most coaches don't teach head down tackling, in fact MOST teach against it because it is very ineffective compared to chest/shoulder first. Head first tackling leads to stiff-arm missed tackles (think a midget trying to tackle you and you holding him back at arms length), same thing with head first tackling.

But the natural instinct of a lot of people is to lower their head, it's hard to unlearn for some people.

Who do you think should be picking up the rest of the bill? 99.9% of insurance coverage after deductible only pays 75% or 80% of remaining costs.
Not saying it's right, but with any drastic changes, including obamacare, rates will go up a lot. It's already started, bcbs has already given out a 14% increase for Jan 2013, and forcing working couples to split insurance, doubling deductibles....Add into that the Jan 2014 increases of ~35% due to the pre-existing condition issue and a lot of people will figure out it's cheaper to stop working and go on medicaid/medicare/welfare, increasing the rest of the deductions normally coming out of a persons paycheck.

tl;dr : insurance reform could be useful, but obamacare is 100% the wrong way to do it. I can't see any intelligent well informed families with 2 working parents voting for him. Unfortunately there aren't too many of them around.

[Wildtree]

In US, if you ar earning $8700 to $35350 (which is probably the standard salary?), you pay 15% income tax.

In UK, that will net you a 25% income tax.(plus National Insurance on top, AND VAT from everytime you buy something)

So yeah other countries can afford the free health care, but that involve everyone to put more into tax for it and even with that the NHS is constantly low on money.

A couple years ago or so I watched J Leno having Schwarzenegger as guest. They were talking about medical bills.

It happened that Leno's mother went to England for a trip. While on that trip she had a heart attack. Had to be treated there in a hospital for a few days. Leno received the bill from the English Hospital, it was $2000. Schwarzenegger broke his leg during a ski trip in the Rockies. He ended up with a bill of $35.000 for getting his leg in a cast and like one night stay.
There we see the first problem already.... How can heart treatment be so much cheaper than a simple friggen broken leg?

[steveyboy]

Sell the military and stop wasting money on nuclear weapons and warfare. i really doubt that the religious nutjobs in Afganistan and the like can reach america or europe with wooden shit sticks and bombs worth more than 50 of their people.

There, free healthcare.

They apparently blew up your twin towers though didn't they.

[Tokru]

They apparently blew up your twin towers though didn't they.

But it could have never been avoided by a military, as large you want it to be.