[TheRealThing]

I work in an ER that sees about 200-300 patients a day. I keep seeing you refer to many of these patients who come in with no Health Insurance as "slugs" or "sluggards". Many, of those are children. 25% of the uninsured in this country are Children. Some have conditions they will have all their lives, you know what happens when they get older and get a job and get on their own insurance, they get nailed with pre-existing conditions and then have to pay out of pocket for the rest of their lives. I know a girl that pays over 800 bucks a month for a genetic disorder, for her Meds alone.


The sluggards and non workers you keep referring to as justification to hate on this bill, make of a very small % of the 38million number you referenced.

I see children come in all the time who end up getting admitted, stay for days and weeks, and are back time and time again because they have no insurance. Their parents work full time, but have no insurance through their jobs and make barely enough money, or even not enough to scrape by.

I've seen cases where if the child was just able to follow up for a pediatrician regularly, and get treatment on a regular basis there would be no need for hospitalization.

Instead, they stay at the hospital, the hospital eats the costs of all the bills, as well as the MD's, Radiologists, and w/e other specialist sees them.

You know where this cost is transferred to? You and me. We are insured, so the hospital will charge us tons more for our care, thus causing an increase in premiums.

Like I've stated, WE ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR IT. This will decrease our overall cost. Will it eat into the profits of the handful of Insurance companies? Sure, who cares.

Who here with insurance has Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield?

You know why you have Anthem? Because they have rights to this area, there is no competition market for insurance. Like I said, it is a monopoly by the handful of companies that control the market. They split up market share to keep prices high. We as consumers are getting hit from 2 sides. The increased cost from the hospitals for the uninsured, and the money hungry, greedy, Insurance companies.

If you do have something other than Anthem in this area, it's because of 1 of 2 reasons.

1. It is a more local smaller insurance company. 2. Your parent company is from a different region and that deal was struck with another Insurance company. UPS would be a good example.

However, 95% of your Hospitals, Factories, Refineries, Rail Road, all are Anthem. Which are your biggest employers.

Yeah, and my tax dollars likely paid a portion of the cost to bring them into this world and my tax dollars likely pay for their substance en toto already. Plus, my tax dollars are paying for your wages and the meds they get while they are there in the ER, I'm already paying my fair share if you ask me. And FWIW, though unfortunate for the little ones, slugs have progeny too.