DAR
Absolutely he is. Everyone else is paying for his premium. Perhaps think about car insurance since there seems to be some difficultly thinking clearly about health insurance.

Everyone else pays more, to cover the tens of millions uninsured (Blake’s group). A person driving without car insurance does the same thing. That’s why we made it legally required.

BIGD: A freeloader is an illegal drawing on the system.>>

DAR
Blake’s freeloading is legal, for now. Soon it won’t be. It already isn’t in Massachusetts. (I think the Mass. experiment is a disaster btw).

BIGD: A freeloader is a person sitting on the couch drawing welfare.”>>

DAR
A freeloader is also a person who doesn’t pay for the cost of insuring their health care risk. That’s Blake.

Bigd: A freeloader is a person who accepts government health care when others are paying for it.>>

DAR
Exactly right. Except, you don’t need the word “government” in there. Actually, it doesn’t matter if you leave it in since the government also steps up and eats a great deal of the cost covering of Blake’s freeloading lifestyle.

Bigd: Risk is always passed on and that will not stop.>>

DAR
Not at all. My Allstate premium for car and home insurance covers the cost of my risk, and then some. I know this because Allstate makes money on the deal. People who don’t pay car/home premiums and still expect to reap the benefits, are freeloaders. This is what Blake is doing with healthcare right now. I think he should pay his way and stop freeloading.

Bigd: Because of poor drivers we all pay more. We pay based on risk by age.>>

DAR
Actually, that is factored in and adjusted for. Poor drivers pay more. Younger, single drivers pay more, etc. Blake doesn’t pay, he just asks that we pay for him should he get seriously sick or hurt. And we will.

Bigd: We pay more if the goat rancher down the street is at high risk.>>

DAR
This goat rancher down the street pays his full share for his health insurance. Over $600 a month. Blake does not pay. So they charge me more, to pay for his risk.

And I’m really not blaming him. The system is screwed.

BIGD: “There are not 5700 medical bankruptcies a day. The numbers come from skewed data in a study…>>

DAR
Did you even read your own link? I did. There is nothing in there that even attempts to refute the claim I made!

This is pretty straight forward. Medical bankruptcy in the US is very common and effects thousands of people, every day.

You give a pop news article from a conservative “Investor” magazine with zero reference and it doesn’t address my claim. Try this Peer reviewed scientific study.

***
CLINICAL RESEARCH STUDY
Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study

BACKGROUND: Our 2001 study in 5 states found that medical problems contributed to at least 46.2% of all bankruptcies. Since then, health costs and the numbers of un- and underinsured have increased, and
bankruptcy laws have tightened.

METHODS: We surveyed a random national sample of 2314 bankruptcy filers in 2007, abstracted their court records, and interviewed 1032 of them. We designated bankruptcies as “medical” based on debtors’ stated reasons for filing, income loss due to illness, and the magnitude of their medical debts.

RESULTS: Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for
medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical
bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic factors,
the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold higher in 2007 than in 2001.

CONCLUSIONS: Illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of US bankruptcies.

–Department of Medicine, Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass; Department of Sociology, Ohio University, Athens; and Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass

The American Journal of Medicine (2009)
***

D.

It is not foolish. The fact is, he is not taking anyone’s money. He is not a freeloader or a mooch. A freeloader is an illegal drawing on the system. A freeloader is a person sitting on the couch drawing welfare. A freeloader is a person who accepts government health care when others are paying for it. A free loader is a person who pays no taxes but gets a “refund”

Risk is always passed on and that will not stop. Because of poor drivers we all pay more. We pay based on risk by age. We pay more if the goat rancher down the street is at high risk. That is true of everything.

There are not 5700 medical bankruptcies a day. The numbers come from skewed data in a study conducted by those who want single payer system.

There are not nearly that many, it is all hype.

As usual, you do not know what you are talking about.

Here is an insight into methodology

DAR
No, I kick ass.

How can someone in health care speak so unbelievably foolishly? Oh, cult member. I forgot.

It would not be “on him.” Blake’s risk is passed along to everyone else and adds an average of $1,000 to the yearly premium of every family in America paying for insurance.

Get a clue. He’s a freeloader and a mooch.

Just as he would be if he drove around without car insurance (which he isn’t allowed to do).

Mr. Marlboro man talks tough until he gets emphysema, then he comes riding into town to get care. And we pay.

And as for Joe the Camel?

http://www.notmytribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ad-busters-joe-chemo.jpg

D.

DAR
That’s the American health care system? That’s the best we can do? We’re all “one thing away” from an accident, an illness, that will wipe out our families and property? 5700 medical bankruptcies a day. That’s insane.

We don’t allow this with cars. You have to have insurance and you have to have insurance in case someone without insurance hits you. This is because poor people, with little to lose, like to drive around without insurance and let *everyone else* assume the cost of *their* risk. With our health, everyone just floats along until there is an emergency and then people are wiped out and when they run out (which they quickly do), we all, collectively, jump in and carry them (at ridiculous out of network rates).

What’s Blake’s net worth? Doesn’t matter. There are tens of millions like him with a net worth of negative, to $0, to $30k, to $50k. And these are typically the people without insurance because they don’t have much to lose. So they mooch. It’s just like people driving without car insurance except the cost can be far higher. We don’t allow that anymore.

I was reading yesterday about a young healthy fellow who racked up $25k for tests regarding a headache (could have been an aneurysm I suppose). Come to think of it, I *know* a young healthy fellow who got a staff infection and racked up nearly $30k in days.

How many days does Blake’s family and wealth carry him at $10k a day? Not too far I bet.

D.

DAR
Surely you don’t think I read your articles? I try to but when I come across childish insults (which are usually in the title or first sentence) I move onto to something intelligent.

Regarding your lack of health-care, you are a freeloader, living on the health care dole of everyone else who actually pays for insurance. And I am getting a little tired of paying for your risk. You need to pay your own way and stop mooching.

Get sick, get hurt, and you will coming whining, begging, for a handout (potentially a massive one), suddenly seeing the light and glory of “socialism.” And we will pay. And we will pay through the nose. As we already do for you pseudo “rugged individualists” who are all tough until reality comes to town.

D.

Curious how the right has become so opposed to their intellect that they now openly denigrate intelligence and put their ignorance on a pedestal.

D.
—————-
“Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”
—George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004