I hear over and over that if you don't have health care

[Egnever]

You get your health care free from the Emergency room.

Now i am just wondering in who's freaking world is that? I have never been to an emergency room where I wasn't handed a bill afterwords. And those bills in my younger days dogged me everywhere I went.

Is it standard practice in your ER to let you walk out without a bill when you go?

[busymom]

1. I have never understood this either...

In Bush's world, maybe...

[Fovea]

2. That is in Karl Rove world

And I think they give out free oxycontin too.

[lvx35]

3. My world.

I was poor and I ended up there with a broken bone. Sure, they hand you a bill for over a thousand. Doesn't mean you can pay it. So it goes to collections, where it does nothing but multiply into many thousands, and you can't pay that. In the end you just accept the bad credit record, know that once you bad credit, there's nothing to lose in going again if you have to. My best freind went through the same thing. Some people can pay the $1000, most can't pay the $40,000 that comes from a serious accident. That's where they really get screwed.

[busymom]

5. This is why health insurance should be mandatory.....

No one would ever be caught owing 40,000 for an accident because they opted out of coverage.

[lvx35]

9. That's only the beginning...

The real thing is that all I had in that incident was a broken collar bone. It was sticking up strait into the skin. If I had a doctor, I would have been able to wait a couple days to see him, because all broken collarbone's need even when they are that bad is to be put in a sling, they heal themselves (I found out). All the ER did is refer me to a doctor, who I paid something like $50 strait to for his advice. But the ER has to charge $1000 because of the type of care they must be prepared to give...They do intensive care.

So repeat this story thousands and thousands of times. Poor people have to go to ERs because they either have no doctor, or things have gotten so bad because they have no doctor, and because of the ER's setup, this costs literally 20 times what it would cost if people could just go strait to doctors.

[Mojambo]

4. It's not true at all.

And I don't know why conservatives get away with saying it repeatedly.

[Bluerthanblue]

11. I don't know why either- or why Dem's have adopted it-

It is disingenuous at best.

peace~

[Texas_Kat]

6. Bill, yes.... payment? no

[Seeker30]

7. But if you can't pay it

And you own a house plan on a lien and possibly losing your house.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. Your fellow DUers are trying to help you by forcing you to buy insurance you can't afford

According to them the uninsured are deadbeats and free riders on the system. I'm guessing most of these DUers have insurance through their employers and have never checked what rates for individual coverage would be. Mine would be over $500 a month for just me.

[adapa]

10. maybe we're sick & tired of paying for everyone who choses not to get insurance

My insurance has gone up 300% in 10 years

[Seeker30]

12. You watch to much FOX News

Blame the people who don't have health insurance, there's the ticket.

The real reason is because repugs allowed drug companies to rape the sick person.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

15. And this is, of course, the fault of working people who can't afford insurance

Not the greedy corporations that make record profits year after year.

Obviously the answer is to force more people to give them money.

[Two Americas]

20. thanks

Keep speaking the truth. Your efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

[MasonJar]

13. How can anyone afford not to have insurance. That said the insurance should

be guaranteed by the government and paid by taxes or by employer. No more insurance companies in the health dept. field...they can stay rich with homeowners and cars.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

16. The gambling industry should not be involved in our healthcare.

We don't buy police and fire insurance. We don't buy public school insurance. We don't take out insurance policies for roads and infrastructure. We pay taxes and those things are provided as necessities of a functioning society.

[no name no slogan]

14. The trick is, you don't pay it

and when they call you at home, pretend you don't speak English.

Works every time. That's how I got this new botox and liposuction job for nothing.

Suckers.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

17. You damn plastic surgery free riders! nt

[no name no slogan]

18. Sorry, understand no. Me English speak do not I.

Glad I didn't mention my bewb job.

[Vinca]

19. That's George Bush's world. You get a bill. Usually a giant bill. nt