Unpaid medical bills cost Washington state $1B a year

shallowend said on November 20, 2009 at 8:15 AM

So a million uninsured is costing every family $917. Doing the math (based on a 6.7 million population from the April 1 official state web site), that's roughly 15% of the population no covered by employers or by Washington Basic Health. If we do the math to exclude illegals (6.5% of the population based on 20 million in US out of 320 million population), we're still looking at 8.5% uninsured. So basically, the conservative puke anti-health reform argument is that paying roughly a $500 tax per family is just fine.

ptcvolunteer said on November 20, 2009 at 9:45 AM

So what does the "liberal puke" health reform argument do to address the real problem? Health care COSTS too much. Why is the democraps only solution to have "them" pay more taxes or go without (medicare cuts) so they can make sure that "everyone" (including people who don't contribute) can afford something that costs more than it should? All they ever do is throw other people's hard earned money at problems. I can't get behind any "plan" that doesn't deal with the real issues, and certainly won't have it rammed down my throat. Vote 2010!

jersue96 said on November 20, 2009 at 10:03 AM

Yes, we all know there are so many folks out there out of work, and also out of health insurance, not to mention, they have no means to pay for their care. Lets talk about the criminals who recieve health care, dental, eye, and a haircut in our nations prisons. We are all picking up the tab for that one. Now here we are not able to pay for our own needs. No one is intentially setting out to default on a medical payment. For example, we use to reside in Pennsylvania, when I needed to make a payment, they were grateful to accept the 5 or 10 that I could gaurentee payment on. In Washington, they want a set amount. That is not feasable for so many of us. Who can come up with 30 or 60 or higher a month? Not us thats for sure. Mabe if the state of Washington would start to accept what people are willing to pay reguarly, the deficit would decrease in time. When you are asking for an amount that a individual is unable to produce, you are only hurting yourselves.

smart1 said on November 20, 2009 at 11:45 AM

Sending the illegals and their anchor babies back to Mexico or where ever they came from would help immensely! Stop the flow of people using emergency rooms that have a sniffle or a cough. Use urgent care if you think you need attention. If you use the ER, cash or credit card up front.

bobdhs said on November 21, 2009 at 3:56 PM

When health insurance came ourt in the early 50s, evrything had a 20% co-pay. The ":crisis" can be eased by reinstating this. None of us felt put upon by this. It was only when the Dems made the US health welfare dependent for "total coverage" that the problem begain. Also, it isn't the 20% payes down the bill so much ( although it does) but it forces the consumer not to jump for every medical problem they have. In other words it forces the consumer to assume responsibility for health choices they do not have now. Combine this with health portability and tort reform so MDs can save more asnd costs can be resonable. The currrent debate is not over health care anyway, it is an entrance for personal control over 20% of our lives! This was written about in the 1940s by the socialist party in the 42 elections.