Velociworld

Funny how Operation Smile and all the other medical charities can do surgery like this for people in other countries, but they can't do it here. Nope, if you live here, you gotta have insurance or cash...no freebies allowed. I call BULLSHIT on these doctors.

They won't do it cause that would be too much like right. Fucksticks!

Um, guys...?

It aint' the doctors....its the hospital. The docs will do it for free. I run into this all the time. I volunteer to do a surgery for free, but the hospital won't let you use the OR or admit the patient.

No fucking way that $95k is all hospital. Besides, Medicaid covers the hospital, not the surgery. It's the doctors, blaming the hospitals. Despicable bastards.

Negative Ghostrider....

It IS the hospital...read the story. Look, I go through this everyday. The hospital OR and ICU charges are 15-20 times what I get for a surgery. I have a case like this right now, I am ready to do the operation, but the hospital won't give me the time until they get the cash.

For an operation like this 95K for the hospital is probably a good deal.
Or maybe you just like the idea of "rich doctors" causing all this evil? Did you ever read "Atlas Shrugged"? You should....

I think my friend Pedro just volunteered his services.

Used to do stuff like that actually, not so much any more...brain tumors and the like is my current thang.....

I don't care who it is, its a gottdamned shame. I'm embarassed and I'm not even a medic. I'm not buying liability reasons either, if I were a parent in that situation I'd sign any piece of paper you wanted to try and save my kid. Embarassed I tell ya.

Sounds like Doctors Without Borders needs to form a local chapter....or maybe smuggle the child to Juarez so they could get the job done.

Or maybe one of these obscenely and inexplicably successful hip hop stars, like the one I saw on MTV who spent $150,000 to have a custom-made diamond, ruby, and sapphire encrusted Nintendo controller built for him, could fork over the money.

It's times like these that I understand hermits.

I'm so happy to be living in a country with socialized medicine...
This is sickening and despicable...

Wow, scary.

These kind of comments on a "Conservative" blog.

America has the finest health care in the world...bar none. It is where people come to train, and get treated if they can. It costs money...

Just remember in our system, we pay what we feel something is worth. We have become so spoiled and sel-satisfied with modern medicine it has become a right that should be given away. What a shame. Soon enough we WILL have a truly socialized system (though actually we have it now...the government fixes all the prices via medicare), and then we are screwed. Do you know how many Canadians and Europeans I have treated over the years? Most were rich, and most didn't feel like waiting for years to get treated.

And liability IS an issue. Patients sign consents and releases all the time, and still get shyster attorneys to sue doctors and hospitals. You have any idea what THAT costs?

Don't get me wrong, the health insurance system is screwed nine ways to sunday. Health care is un-Godly expensive...and it is also the best in th world

That kid would never get a surgeon to operate on her in most of the world, not skilled enough.

You people want to pay for a Yugo and drive a Porsche...and it can't be done.

Pedro,
Yes, I understand the shyster lawyers and the cost associated, I'm also embrassed by that. But what are the parents facing if the child does not have this surgery? Again, this is a special case and I'd sign any waiver to try and save my kid.

Amen, Pedro.

Buncha damn slack-jawed communist faggots around here...

sgt hook,

The parents can sign all the waivers the hospital puts in front of them.

Then some scumbag ambulance chaser, like John Edwards, can come along and claim they "signed under duress" and sue the pants off the hospital and MD's involved in the case.

Tort reform, coupled with the inevitable down trend in CYA (Cover Your Ass) tests perfomed by MDs, will bring down medical costs. Whether or not it happens...

Of course your right Hook. Who wouldn't?

The problem is, there are a hundred kids just like her out there in the world. What happens when they all show up at your hospital?

It is kind of funny....in the old days american medicine took care of people like this. If you were a banker, you paid the full fee , while if you were the janitor, you paid a lot less.

Do you realize that it is illegal for me, or any other surgeon to not charge a medicare patient? If I have some poor old lady, and I try to waive the deductable, I am committing a felony, fraud. The system is well and truly hosed up my friends....

A "conservative" blog? I thought it was more of a knee-jerk right-wing reactionary exercise in scatalogical surrealism. Or something like that.

Not hardly, you got a bunch of damn commy pinko's running around here....

Where's "Tailgunner Joe" when you really need him?

If you guys really think the doctors are at fault here I envy you either your good health or the deep pockets taking care of your bills for you. Open your eyes--the hospitals charge beaucoup bucks for their OR's and staff and shit. Hell, I could find a facial surgeon in about 5 minutes who'd team up with some others to do this kid for nothing. They like that shit--makes them feel better about doing facelifts and other frivolous stuff.

I blame the illegal aliens.

Yes, I just said Messican.

Hey, if the kids tudday can get away with their bloody raves, why can't a bunch of medical professionals get together and run a black hospital/ As in black-op?

Fuck da Man, do what you want. Lose your 'license'? So what? Yer still a fucking doctor.

If you can have a damn bookmobile, why not a hemmrhoidectomy van?

When I had my last tooth pulled, it was in a dang motor home, by a real dentist, for free.

Fuck those highly paid bed pan jockeys, and their overhead, too.

I will submit I teed off on physicians first, and spent no time on the rest of the dog chasing tail scenario. The hospitals blame the insurance companies, who blame the doctors, ad nauseum.

My only point? Every once in a while, a situation so vile, so pathetic, so humbling, arises. And we set aside policy differences, and positions, to help that child.

That's not politics. That's humanity.