Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule
Well, I just have to throw in a personal anecdote at this point:
My son was born May 8th, 1997. We had a very good BCBS employer sponsored Health Care, a caring employer, solid doctors etc. My son came 4 weeks early - unexpectedly, and had a perfect apgar for the first test, but quickly went into respiratory distress. We nearly lost him that night and several times over the next 3 weeks while he was in the NICU, the neo-natal specialist was called in made several visits and over time the medicines and treatments, and basically nature all kicked in. My son is in very good health at the age of 12, and has not even a clue of this, except what we tell him. Great story. Love US medical care.
A year later we were still disputing with Blue Cross about the neonatal fees, as they said that he was to be paid according to the fees for west of the Rockies (we lived in Colorado Springs, which is east of the Rockies, and close to Denver like Baltimore is close to Washington). The Doctor, who was the only specialist available for the period when my son needed his services charged the fees based out of his Denver practice. In the end the insurance commission sided with BCBS (my wife fought them tooth and nail) and we were stuck with major (to us at the time massive) bills. Thankfully, my company(not the govt) helped us, and we paid the fees, and in the end the system worked. The whole total was near 100,000 dollars I think, and we-with my companies help paid maybe 4-6 thousand, I don't remember the exact numbers.
That's my anecdote. I probably pull almost all of my healthcare beliefs from the interactions from those days.
No government UHC was going to help that situation, the good will and charity of my employer, the doctor's abilities, and even the insurance companies overall management all made my son's life possible. And I believe with all my heart that in Canada, Germany (this one I know, as I was told by native Germans), and other UHC countries, my son would have died that night, or up to 3 weeks later when he wasn't given the medicines he needed for the extended time. Every one draws their beliefs from something or some events, this happens to be mine.
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