Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

The other day when I was waiting with my grandmother at the neurologist’s office, I witnessed a conversation at the front desk that sort of disturbed me. A woman came into the doctor’s office with her pre-teen aged son. The son went directly to a chair in the lobby waiting area and she went up to the desk to sign him in. While checking him in, the receptionist asked for their insurance info, etc. and then informed the woman that she had a $25 copay. The woman then gets all bent out of shape because they want money from her…. Now my interest is really peaked as I watch this scene unfold in front of me. The nurse explains to her how the system works and how her insurance requires a co-pay of $25 to be paid by the patient. The woman just stands there… planted in that spot… hands on her hips… mouth gaping open… it was clearly evident that she either did not have the cash to pay it or just did not intend on paying it… so they left! I just sit there amazed… the reason I am blogging about this subject tonight is because this episode kind of goes hand in hand with an article I perused through on the front page of the AJC yesterday… it was an entire article detailing how so many family doctors, general practitioners, etc. are losing their private practices these days because they cannot afford their office overhead, utility bills, membership fees, etc. and pay their own salary. And why you ask? Because of the low-dollar amounts that Medicaid pays them for their services on Medicaid patients. One example in the article was that a typical baby delivery for you or me pays the doctor around $2500-3000 (typical- common), but a Medicaid delivery pays him only $1,300 for the same service. And these patients are not paying ANY portion of these! We the hard-working taxpayers of America pay a portion of ours…. The woman this week is an example of the mentality that someone owes her ALL of it… and that is not responsible for ANY of it… so maybe now she wants to get set up on some of that free Medicaid??? This just seems to be the attitude everywhere you look these days… gimme, gimme, gimme…. Take, take, take and nothing in return…. I see similarities with this concept in all the political crap happening these days too. My husband tortures me daily with all of the political discussions on the television, the Internet, the radio… I am sick of it already! Medicaid, Medicare, HMO’s, PPO’s, universal healthcare, tax cuts, tax increases, stop the war, support the war, border security, help the illegals, stop the illegals, the list goes on and on and on… and we have to listen and endure this for the next NINE months… Count ‘em- 9!