State 29 by Libs On Crack: Creative Writer Andie Dominick Gets ...

Andie Dominick, who is employed by the for profit newspaper out of Des Moines and who has a degree in Creative Writing, put that degree to the test on Sunday when writing about her husband's recent pacemaker procedure and dealing with the bills afterwards.

She says, "What would my family owe if we didn't have insurance?"

If you didn't have insurance, it would likely be because you're unemployed.? If you're unemployed, you might qualify for Medicaid if you don't have much in the way of assets.? If you have assets, it would be wise to carry some sort of health insurance to protect those assets.

Dominick speculates that her husband could have gotten a 20% discount if they didn't have insurance.? That is almost completely untrue.? If she and her husband didn't have insurance and did not qualify for Medicaid, it's likely the hospital, doctors, and lab would offer settlement in full at a discount of 80% to 90% of the original bill.? Something is better than nothing, correct?

Speaking of nothing, that's what the hospital would get if you were granted Chapter 7 bankruptcy.? That's why hospitals are eager to settle in those situations.

Dominick repeats the lie that Elizabeth Warren keep bleating on about, that "hundreds of thousands of Americans declare bankruptcy each year due to medical bills."? This is a big fat lie, but if you're a "Creative Writer" like Andie Dominick, you can get away with it.? Just keep repeating the same lie over and over again and they'll want it to become the truth.? Warren had participants "self report" information about their bankruptcies and counted any medical bill as the "excuse" for the bankruptcy rather than other things like lost jobs, over-extension of credit, and an excessive lifestyle of credit cards.

Socialists like Andie Dominick are too dumb to understand the role of health insurers.? She wants all the bills to be sent to "one insurer" (the government) and paid without question.? Does Dominick not know that the government, through Medicare and Medicaid, is the biggest denier of claims in sheer numbers, more than all other insurance companies combined?? Despite this, Medicare and Medicaid lose billions every year due to fraud.? Medicare alone, it's estimated, loses around $48 billion a year due to fraud.

One thing Dominick is correct about is that nobody can get a straight answer on the cost of a procedure, but she writes off "consumer driven health care" as a sham.? Actually, Andie, we don't have consumer driven health care because nobody asks about prices.? Nobody can easily shop around.? Everything is geared towards Medicare reimbursement rates and insurance reimbursement rates and the costs of losses of treating the non-paying uninsured and illegal aliens.? If going to a hospital or doctor's office web site was the same as shopping at Amazon.com with prices and reviews, then "consumer driven health care" might become a reality.? We don't have consumer driven health care except maybe at the dental, vision, or prescription level.

Instead, Dominick supplies flippant answers like "So where should we have looked for a better deal on a pacemaker? eBay?"? No.? It's hiring the trained people and providing the infrastructure to make the switch of pacemakers that's expensive.? Medical school isn't cheap.? Neither are buildings and equipment and salaries.?

I find it very sad that Andie Dominick can't be grateful of the advances in medical technology.? Implantable artificial pacemakers have only been around for just over 50 years.? The first man to have one in 1958 died in 2001 at the age of 86.? Isn't this something to celebrate?? Instead, Dominick bitterly complains about the cost.? Her husband's overall out of pocket expense for living the past 15 years is relatively small, possibly in the range of $1500 to $1700 a year.?

Maybe Andie Dominick should complain about other things, like how her parent company's outgoing CEO was given a $32 million golden parachute for working 6 years during which time the company stock went down 80% in value.

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