On Aug 11, 2:03*pm, Han wrote:
busbus wrote in news:a8552c7c-5604-4c2e-8a14-
:

Reasonableness. *I'm sorry that the pendulum has swung way in the
opposite direction butt he fact of the matter is that is has.
Adjust.

I have hardly ever complained about the salary I was getting. *
Considering what it takes around here to live, a real cut in disposable
income for my kids here is a hardship. *They would live, even if I didn't
help, but they would definitely spend less. *And the real issue is why
healthcare costs are so crazy in the US, compared to elsewhere. *
Example:

I broke my leg while on vacation in Holland (Wed, 7/7/10, ~10:30 AM). *An
ambulance crew picked me up and brought me to the local ER, where they
determined that both tibia and fibula were badly cracked just above my
ankle to halfway up my lower leg. *A trauma orthopedic surgeon said he
needed to operate right away and put "plates" and screws in my leg. *
Operation was done and by 2:30 I was out of recovery in a semiprivate
hospital room. *On Friday afternoon I was released, and was told it was
OK to travel by train to Paris on Saturday. *Followup care here in Jersey
had the orthopedist amazed at the techniques used by the Dutch surgeon. *
For the hospital stay including ambulance, OR, anesthesia and
medications, the total bill was less than 10K. *It's difficult to compute
because of the changing exchange rates around that time. *Luckily my
insurance paid except for a $250 deductible. *Of course, no one but me
paid for my exchanging my tourist class seat for a first class one, so I
could keep my leg elevated during the flight to Newark. *I'd love to know
what a similar operation and hospital stay would have cost hereabouts.
--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

Are you saying what would it have cost with or without health
insurance? Before or after you have hit your limits for the year?

One thing that people are forgetting: no hospital in the US is allowed
to turn away a patient just because they cannot pay. As a result, we
who are actually paying the bill need to pay for those who are not.

This will open up a can of worms but if you insert the Federal
Government into the mix, you will mess things up even more than they
are. Just because the Federal Government would run a health care arm
does not mean those people are any smarter or more efficient or more
ethical or, in any way, better. Plus there are 350,000,000 or more in
these United States. A lot of people bring up the fact that
governments of other countries have universal healthcare insurance but
trying to have one, central point of control of an industry and try to
make it one-size-fit-all for the vast number of people involved simply
will not work. (But this is the subject of another thread!)

As far as it goes, I have not seen my pay increase in about four
years. In fact, two years ago, we were all forced to take one week a
quarter off without pay. None of my expenses cared that I had less
money. I survived. And even though we have not been forced to that
extreme since (yet!), my pay is stagnant and ALL of my costs have
increased. Also, back in 2003, I saw my pay get cut back around 20%
but that was better than no job at all whenever I was about to get
laid off. I put in for over 450 jobs in person, over the internet,
thru the mail, anywhere I could. No bites. Luckily, this was tossed
at my feet. 20% is a hell of a cut, no matter how much you are
making. I made major changes in my life during the time I was looking
feverishly for a job and thru the first 2-3 yer of that lower paying
job. We didn't do anything we didn't have to do. We didn't eat out.
We didn't go to the movies. We didn't go on vacation. We didn't do
hardly anything. We focused all of our money toward our mortgage and
our second mortgage (because we added onto the house) and the one car--
basically anything to get our family out of any sort of debt at all.
During that time, my wife had to go to part-time, too, so it wasn't
easy.

I guess I am saying that things happen and people can either roll up
their sleeves and work harder or, in the worst case scenario (and I am
not saying you or your kids do this) would be to stick your hand out.

Is not the hardship the same across the board? Is it hard to give up
some things? Yes, it is very hard. Going backwards in any degree is
hard. But you need to learn how to tough it out.