So, this is a good news (for the kid, and parents, and Home Depot great people) and bad news (Americans aren't able to kick insurance company CEOs in the head and find the reset button I'm sure is buried deep inside somewhere, which we can find if we kick harder, and longer if needed) that insurance companies willfully and deliberately delay and frustrate "customers" they want to dissuade from purchasing medical equipment for kids who need it.
Simply put, medical insurance are two words that do not describe the for profit corporations that try to deny American customers medical necessities in order to increase profits.
So, this little kiddo needed a walker because he has a muscle problem, and he NEEDS, not wants, a walker to allow his independent mobility.
Since the obstructive insurance company was roadblocking the family from getting one, they looked online and decided to make one from PCV and wheels at Home Depot. Not only is this fast, it's cheap. Possibly not as long lasting as an aluminum walker, but I don't have stats and metrics to compare.
When the good people at Cedartown Georgia learned what was in the works, they told the mom to take the kiddo off for ice cream, and come back in about an hour.
Poof, presto, cool people magic happened and they found the materials, assembled the walker, and it was ready and waiting for the kiddo and mom when they returned.
So, Bravo! to Home Depot of Cedartown Georgia! (boo, hiss, and cement boots for medical insurance execs)
https://www.homedepot.com/l/Cedartown-GA/GA/Cedartown/30125/6942
Tip of the hat to the always incredible TYWKIWDBI http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2019/06/this-is-not-feel-good-story.html
https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/year-sweetest-reaction-walker-built-home-depot-employees-63319367
https://5newsonline.com/2019/05/25/home-depot-workers-build-boys-walker-out-of-pvc-piping/
https://www.facebook.com/kaitlynrossjournalist/posts/2532200090143916
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004792632793
The rest of us in the industrialised world stare aghast at the state of US healthcare.
ReplyDeleteTony
and us in countries that produce oil cringe at the price you pay for gasoline that covers your healthcare, versus just paying for medical when you use medical.
DeleteIt makes no sense to me to pay 10 dollars a gallon of gas (just an example, I don't know what you pay per litre, or gallon) to get drivers to pay for the nations health care, instead of paying the dr or nurse, or hospital when you need stitches or shots...
50 dollars for stitches or shots, once a decade, vs 100 dollars a tank of gas, every week, 52 weeks a year, is 5200 dollars a years for gasoline.
OR
40 dollars a tank, 52 weeks a year, 2800 dollars a year, and 50 dollars a decade for shots or stitches...
that's about half the cost, to drivers.
Must be nice to be a non vehicle driver, who has babies, and lives on social welfare, and not pay into the system!
There's no direct link between fuel duty and NHS (National Health Service) funding.
ReplyDeleteFuel duty is high here (we pay about £1.30/litre for unleaded at the moment, which is around $6.25 per US gallon) as part of the government's efforts to reduce import costs (we only produce a bit of oil from the North Sea), help towards climate change and add to the general taxation fund. Historically we've always had smaller, more efficient cars than the US, even before universal healthcare.
If you go for a decade only needing a few shots and stitches, obviously even our National Insurance contribution (roughly £2,500 per year if you earn £30,000, though that also covers unemployment insurance and state pension contribution) will leave you out of pocket. But.. suppose you break a leg? get cancer? need a heart transplant? None of these things is going to bankrupt you here.
Those who don't pay in? Well, I'm one. I'm now retired so I no longer contribute to the system and just take, take, take. Yes, there are some that will try to gouge whatever setup you have, but for most people it simply means you get the medical attention you need, whatever and whenever it is. You will struggle hard to find anyone in the UK (and I suspect the rest of Europe, Australia, Japan etc.) who would want to cancel their healthcare system.
Tony
And Canada. I'm a bit more familiar with Canada, but I tell you right now I only have a vague idea about any of it, and am shocked to hear that the free medical isn't paid for by gasoline taxes.
DeleteYou say no direct link, is that open to interpretation, to possibly mean gas taxes making a gallon 30% higher cost, which simply goes to the general govt funds inbound, which is the general fund that pays for the medical?
If stitches? Well, I've went 48 years with only stitches and shots and dental that vremoved wisdom teeth prior to military service as a prevention issue. I believe I am correct in saying that is all most men get until retirement age... you know, all their working lives they pay in, and like you say, then they draw out.
But I believe, though I may be wrong about this as I am most times I open my dumb mouth, that few people need medical attention they can pay for at 1% of the cost of what they are forced to pay, until retirement or cancer.
Women, well, they can't afford to pay for the sky high prices of birthing babies, or feeding and swadling them, and child care for 8 years, or any one of those 3 individually, as they are too costly now that medical insurance has changed the prices. I, and you too probably, and everyone over 40 was born the same way, but the total cost could be paid out of pocket by any working high school grad, until 1972. Then inflation and greed wiped out the mass production of high quality factory goods, and everything seemed to go to shit.
Factory cities closed down, Flint, Detroit, Pittsburgh.. complete shit show around the world too
I'd say 4 years mandatory country civil or military service would wipe out unemployment, give every citizen job skills, while providing unlimited manual labor for infrastructure like building dams, levys, bridges, etc. It worked when the CCCs did it a 100 years ago!