Christie's Blog

Bobby and i have had long discussions and have spent a lot of money on our families health care and health care plan. We are currently subscribed to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Our plan is a catastrophic plan costing us a little more than $300.00 a month. We also have a HS account (Health Savings) that we are allowed to put up to $6,000.00 a year into. We can use this money for anything medical. This includes braces, dental, eye care, pre-natal & delivery, shots, band aids, etc… We do spend about on average $3000.00 a year.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33435 This Article helps explain the positive influence of HSA accounts on health care.

Because we are cash paying customers and do not go through a 3rd party bureaucracy doctors are way more willing to work with us on the price of their care. The first thing i ask a doctor is, “I am willing to pay today the complete bill, are you willing to give me a break on the price?” This includes hospital stays and OBGYN care. We have saved thousands of dollars doing this. This is an example of the free market at work. The customer sets the price, not the government who is willing to dole out tax payer money at usually double the cost to the next guy.

When my children need shots, well checks or school physicals we go to the locally funded, non profit Henry County Health Clinic in Colona and pay pennies on the dollar of what we would pay at the doctors office. For example after Sophia was born I took her to our pediatrician that we have been taking our children to for more than 23 years. We waited in the waiting room with about 8 other patients for about 20 minutes. We then were called back into the examining room and were there for about another 15 minutes waiting for the doctor. Her doctor spent about 10 minutes looking her over and asking me questions, and me asking him questions. After that we waited anther 10 for the nurse to come in and administer shots. Then I was presented with a bill of more than $500.00!!! I was more than shocked! Not only that but i realized that i was going to have to do this two more times inside Sophias first year. The total would be more than $1500.00! Huge dent in our budget! Can’t do it. So the next round of shots were done at the health clinic. We have been going to this group of pediatricians for 23 years and now I feel that we have been pushed out of receiving the excellent care that they provide because of government funding. (Medicaid patients go to our doctor and the State pays their bill, that means you and me. Also the State does not pay the full bill, nor do they pay in a timely fashion as paying customers are required to do. So paying customers get charged more to make up for the lack of funds received from Medicaid) Wow! No one in the waiting area. We walked straight to the examination room and a nurse practitioner looked Sophia over with great care and administered the shots. Our total bill came to $35.00 so as to not be a burden on the tax payers i payed it gratefully. Medicaid patients pay nothing. Now really i don’t have a problem with people needing assistance but lets give them the care that the tax payers are already funding. We are funding the clinic and paying for them to get shots, well checks, physicals, etc. at the pediatricians office. It doesn’t make sense. People who get care for free should be grateful that they receive care for free and go to the facilities provided for them.

Good Samaritan ministries a Christian based health share system, takes care of each others health care bills by sharing each others medical burdens. They do this by paying the first $300.00 of all of their own medical expenses and then send $300.00 a month to others for their medical bills. Your medical share expenses are set at $300.00 but if you feel you can do more you can send those in need more. This is how the free market works it self out. Necessity is the mother of invention. If we have a government bureaucracy in place why would people get creative and find ways to deal with the rising cost of health care on their own.

Another problem i see with the health care system we have, was created by the governments laws and regulations. The Law requires an emergency vehicle when called has to respond no matter what the call is. EMT have to provide the care that is demanded. Including rides to the hospital pharmacy to fill a prescription, a bloody nose from fist fighting. Now if my family needs an emergency ride to the hospital it costs us $800.00 or more. Medicaid patients pay nothing. So why call a cab? or even a neighbor?

We see it time and time again, get the government involved the quality goes down and the price sky rockets. i remember the tax payer getting charged $800.00 for toilet seats and $300.00 for hammers. Go to a rest stop and you will use a million dollar facility to purchase a bag of chips, a can of pop, pack of gum and use the restroom. Can you imagine the homes we could build for the homeless? What if the private sector took care of rest stops? You would have a tax revenue generating business that puts people to work, pays for itself, and makes a profit. This same principal will work for people when it comes to their health care and it’s rising cost.

We Americans are resourceful and wise when we are tested. The opposite can be said when we are not tested, we become lazy, ignorant and dependent on a cold hearted bureaucracy, who will only provide the bare minimum if that and provide it at the highest possible cost.