To say that Romney and Obama are the same is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst.

Good thing I didn’t say that, then, huh?

I hope this guy gets better and I hope that the insurance industry realises how embarrassing it must be for them that they price themselves so high that a hard working guy like this has to take donations to to pay for treatment instead of using their services, when it comes a matter of life and death should money really be that important that they couldn't work on the basis that they loan the money required to make his life better, and his healing would be in their interest in order that he pays his way back?

America should be upset that even a 3rd world country with embargos enforced on them, offer better health care to all it's people (Cuba).

The U.S.A. is totally backward in many ways.

This is seriously taking the f**king piss. And for the useful idiots who somehow think that healthcare reform is the equivalent of a large hairy Soviet flying in and turning your children into atheist lesbians, please consult your consciences and your reason a little more.

“I tried for weeks before my official treatments began to get an estimate of what I would be spending and neither the insurance company or hospital would give me one.”

Yes, this.  I just had surgery that was planned, and I was practically in tears trying to find out exactly what my out of pocket costs would be because oh, here’s the number for the procedure but that doesn’t cover the anesthesia, well the anesthesia could be any cost and some of the anesthesiologists at Hospital X aren’t in-network even though Hospital Y and Surgeon Z are, and no there’s no way to request a certain anesthesiologist, and no that may or may not cover your overnight observation, it depends on whether they classify you as inpatient or outpatient, and….”

And so three weeks later I still don’t know if I’m going to get hit with a giant bill.  Conservatives love to talk about how Americans need to be consumers, get some “skin in the game,” not feel like we’re entitled to go to the ER and get an MRI for every little scratch or cough because it costs money, but when we TRY to be informed consumers, and find out “should I cut my grocery bill this month in anticipation of this procedure? should I buy a plane ticket home for Christmas or will I need that money? should I pick up some hours at a temp job to supplement my income?  HOW MUCH IS THIS GOING TO COST ME AND CAN I AFFORD IT RIGHT NOW?” we are talking to brick walls.

How does it not apply in this case?”

Because that part of Obamacare doesn’t kick in until 2014.  Same time as the individual mandate.

Ask me how I know.

Children with pre-existing conditions can’t be denied right now.  Adults?  We can go die in an apartment.

I just hope in 4 years the American public finally pulls its head out of its collective ass and DEMANDS a single payer system for health care, not this Obamacare bullshit or Romneycare crap either.

Maybe shame will motivate this country into doing something.

Nah, I think ‘mericans do better with bullshit pride nowadays.  Shame is for self-aware pussies.

Disclaimer: Yes, I’m fucking bitter.

I have insurance and I’m still hemorrhaging money. Don’t let the colorful insurance booklets full of smiling faces fool you. When it comes down to it there is really no way to tell what they cover until they turn you down. I tried for weeks before my official treatments began to get an estimate of what I would be spending and neither the insurance company or hospital would give me one. The only estimate that I ended up being able to pull out of them was that my original colonoscopy would cost somewhere between $0-$2,500 depending on several different factors to be determined after the fact. There is literally no way to prepare or to budget when no one will give you any numbers and most of the calculations will not be made until after the procedure.

I was on the phone with my insurance company today asking them why I was receiving a bill since I had already met my deductible for the year and I was told that after the deductible was met the total then rolls over to another type of out of pocket total that was actually quite a bit more that the deductible before I was considered done with my contributions. I can honestly say I had never every heard of this secondary type of out of pocket total and I try to stay very educated. I am going to go back through documentation that I was give to see if it ever even appeared. It seems like every step of the way stuff like this is happening.

I’m pretty sick of hearing “Oh I’m sorry that procedure that counted toward one total last week is now classified completely differently so you are responsible for the charge this time ” what they are really saying is we didn’t want to pay it this time so we came up with an arbitrary internal judgment and an amazing amount of double think that absolves us from responsibility. It seriously takes an amazing amount of mental gymnastics to try to follow their logic.

Sorry this is getting long but if you are interested in numbers.
Cost of colon resection and 4 days in the hospital $25,801.50 before insurance. Not including $16,000 in tests before they even decided we needed the surgery. 6 different $45.00 copays for doctors visits. Around $2,000 for people to read the tests. I wish I could even tell you how much in blood work but I would have to get all my papers back out and I’m just not that committed for a rough estimate. All of this in accrued in a 3 month period and I still haven’t started radiation and chemo that will last approximately 7 1/2 months in total. Not including the $5,000 in tests that the insurance denied to approve so they will not be done even though they could detect a life threatening inability for me to take the chemo. But insurance will not cover it until after you have a bad reaction to the chemo. Wrap your head around that. 1 or 2 doses of chemo could be fatal if you have an inability to process it but they will not do the test until after you are half dead because the insurance will not cover it. Totally makes sense >.<

All of those numbers are with insurance numbers so it is safe to say much less than without insurance numbers. 

TL:DR : Insurance is not health care.

Of course, none of this is news to anyone here.

Anyways, good going Xeni, it is good that the happy mutants try to do their part! I’m on the verge of suggesting a sort of “medical treatment donation fund” that would be run by boingboing, much like PennyArcade’s Child’s Play fund..

That noted, the medical insurance industry is about profits before care. And the physicians who are associated with the practice of medicine are engaged in billing for procedures, not for best outcomes.

Insurance could be about shared risk, but we have forgotten that in confusion about what markets can and cannot do. Care isn’t in the business model. The free market, and maximised financial gain for the insurance company serves patients poorly.

I’m willing to share Michael’s risk by contributing to his treatment fund. I hope that this makes a difference. – You are never so alone as when you do cancer. – And I hope that others can find it in themselves to contribute, too.

To clarify:

Boing Boing is not responsible for the health care crisis. I resent comments suggesting that we’re jerks for drawing attention to specific cases. I do that because nobody gives a shit about the millions of cases as an abstract thing; people only give a shit when it’s about a single person to whom you can relate, for whom you can empathize. This guy isn’t a statistic. Neither am I. Maybe if people read more about our individual stories, they’ll care about all of us.