Re: speaking of health insurance

Barbara wrote:

I switched to the PPO so I could keep my orthopedist. We were with
Humana, and 3 days before the deadline to change we found they dropped
every single one of our doctors. We switched to a plan that all our
doctors were with except for my orthopedist, so I switched to the PPO.
I pay more than my husband does for his HMO coverage, and get less. If
I go "out of network" for my orthopedist, I pay 20%, but when I went
for a ruptured rectus femoris tendon he never sent the bill for the
20%. (He is a client of 20 years' duration.) I'm going to need my
other hip replaced one of these days--don't know if he will pass up the
20% there, but I trust him and it will be worth the price.

All of my current clients are in-network for me, but none are
particularly close to home. I'd let the one who's a hand and arm
specialist do my cubital tunnel surgery when the time comes, though. My
future knee surgeries will be done a bit closer to home, with the doc
who did my knee arthroscopy and meniscectomy some 6 years ago.

The HMO options we're given aren't the greatest when you compare
everything side by side, which is why we've been with PPOs for the past
16 years.

My son got food poisoning and had no insurance--serious he was
vomiting blood and they moved him from Breckenridge to a Denver
hospital. He was hospitalized for 3 days, no surgery, and his bill
was about $20,000. He is still paying. They have made offers to him
to settle for less if he would pay it all at once, but he couldn't
afford to take them up on it. He has a better job now, and health
insurance.

But there are those politicians who still claim we have the best
health system in the world--yeah, the congressmen do. They should try
the real world and see how long they say that.

Yep. Heck, if *** Cheney had to deal with some HMOs or PPOs he'd be
dead several times over. I've said elsewhere that if congressmen had to
jump through some insured folks have to we'd have universal single-payer
health care in a heartbeat.

The Other Kim
kimagreenfieldatyahoodotcom


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