Georgia man ignites his cigarette lighter over his gas tank while he's pumping gasoline.

He's charged with something minor for setting his wife on fire and burning off her skin.

Missing from the scene: an unlit cigarette.

ABC News compares Obama to other TV pitchmen.

I'll have the blue cross special, hold the mayo.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/call12foraction/articles/20131031hospital-bill-call12.html

Dude passes out in his shower, is taken by EMTs to Mayo where he lies unconscious for 12 days.

Mayo is "out of network" for Blue Cross, is insurer, and so Blue Cross refuses to pay the $150,000 bill tells dude it's his responsibility to deal with Mayo on his own.

This is one reason of a trillion I am completely and totally okay with any health care reform that not only does away with the health insurance companies but literally salts the earth and sterilizes their CEOs and boards of directors.

I dont see the woman catching fire Gog, I see her NOT on fire running away and then it cut to her being off camera and the new crew claiming she was burned

This is one reason of a trillion I am completely and totally okay with any health care reform that not only does away with the health insurance companies but literally salts the earth and sterilizes their CEOs and boards of directors. -- jerry at November 3, 2013 9:38 AM

In favor of some bureaucrat over at HHS saying he was 65 so didn't need the rehab hospital stay and should just go home.

Or that Mayo goes to wards and closes down the ICU sections because they are losing money off it. Or close their emergency room for the same reason.

How about the doctors that dumped $100K and 8 years of their life getting $35 per hour from Medicare or Medicaid? Think they'll stay in the profession?

Sure, it lives in the sewer and lures children to their horrible deaths.

But breakfast is breakfast.

"In favor of some bureaucrat over at HHS saying he was 65 so didn't need the rehab hospital stay and should just go home.

Or that Mayo goes to wards and closes down the ICU sections because they are losing money off it. Or close their emergency room for the same reason.

How about the doctors that dumped $100K and 8 years of their life getting $35 per hour from Medicare or Medicaid? Think they'll stay in the profession?"

This seemed to have nothing to do with Mayo.

This was about assholes at Blue Cross either selling a worthless plan or criminaling defrauding the purchaser of that plan.

"This is one reason of a trillion I am completely and totally okay with any health care reform that not only does away with the health insurance companies but literally salts the earth and sterilizes their CEOs and boards of directors."

Well, this is interesting.

You're mad because this man picked a health care plan - that would pay more than he could earn - that did NOT cover what ended up being his expenses.

Who was in charge of paying his insurance? Who determines whether a medical insurance plan is administered by law (hint: not you or me)? Who will be when the Federal government cancels what he has?

And for all this, "any" plan is OK by you. I remind you that Federal involvement CANNOT make care cheaper, because it raises the manpower requirements for ANY treatment. The powers that be have completely clouded every issue with such care, even to the point of concealing that any plan's job is to pay doctors, because that is NOT the job of Obamacare.

This was about assholes at Blue Cross either selling a worthless plan or criminaling defrauding the purchaser of that plan. -- jerry at November 3, 2013 3:13 PM

We don't know the details of the plan. So saying it was purposeful fraud is probably wrong.

My last company had an insurer that gave us a choice of totally in network coverage only, or pay more and get the option to go out of network with a lesser reimbursement.

And then one year, one of our local hospitals was acquired by a chain. Because of the change in the rates that hospital was out-of-network until the contract was re-negotiated with our insurer.

But if we go to a single payer system that means some group of assholes working at HHS in Mordor on the Potomac is going to be determining rates, what is covered, what is essential and non-essential treatments. They will also establishing the priorities of treatment as well.

So just think that some of the hospitals and doctors could say "fuck it" and go cash only. Others will just close up and go away.

You have to remember health insurance does not equal health care.

So he got health care. Now the question of who pays is a different story. But saying all health insurance companies are too horrible to exist is equivalent to saying that all car companies should be gone because the Yugo was a piece of crap.

It's ridiculous for a doctor to make $35 per hour. $300 seems about right for doctor. More for a doctor while performing surgery, I would be happy to pay a nurse $50 per hour. I can get a nice hotel room for $150 and meals for another $50 per day. If you spend any time in the hospital, you would find those prices would be a bargain compared to the costs and care.

How can we get to reasonable prices and decent care?

I hoped that hospitals could quit gouging with Obamacare because they wouldn't have to overcharge because of all of those people that are uninsured or on Medicare or Medicade, which underpay doctors and hospitals.

I can't imagine that the coma patient's care was truly worth $150,000. I can guarantee that the room cost was ridiculous and there were lots of add-ons such as $20 dollar boxes of Kleenex that people in comas can't use. This isn't about ripping off doctors.

It's the little things that get ya. I was disgusted that they left my medical waste overflowing in the bathroom, not bothering to empty the trash during my stay. That was only one of several health violations for outrageous sums!

I can get a nice hotel room for $150 and meals for another $50 per day. If you spend any time in the hospital, you would find those prices would be a bargain compared to the costs and care. -- Jen at November 3, 2013 7:21 PM

Have you ever heard of hotel rack rates? Usually they are posted on the back of the room door. You almost never pay that much.

Hospitals do the same thing. They'll have a cash rate of $400 per day. Then they work with an insurer to negotiate down to $175 per day based off the idea that the insured count in the area are about 5K people and they figure about 100 will be hospitalized in 2014. Because an empty bed is not a profit maker for the hospital it can deal with it. Also the hospital knows that to pay the staff (from kitchen to janitors to transport) and keeps the lights on they need a minimum of $120 per bed. So some of the hospital's per bed cost is also because of the Fed. Medicare and Medicaid is run by the federal government they say we'll pay $100 per day as the regional average. Then the hospital will also, usually, do charity cases. They are then losing money from that so it balances out. But because you are walking in off the street as an individual they will hit you for the $400 rack rate.

I ran into this with a hotel once. I went back to visit relatives, but didn't plan months ahead. It was also the same weekend as a local music festival. I paid $225 a night for a room that made Red Roof Inn's look like a 3-star hotel.

"It's ridiculous for a doctor to make $35 per hour. $300 seems about right for doctor."

Two things:

I love it when somebody starts this line of "reasoning". It's usually followed by a cry for Federal or other authoritarian limits on someone else's income - which, of course, then establishes an agency who can do that to the person crying. All of a sudden it's not fair! Then, of course, the cap on earnings drives people out of the profession. What? There are no doctors to treat me for free? My professor can't be wrong!

Obamacare is going to demonstrate what can be done TO YOU in the name of care: you will be a commodity, not a patient. It has already shown this to those who have been affected!

But here's the real shocker:

You have been led to believe that you can be treated for any ailment whatsoever and be healed. That is NOT TRUE. There are still afflictions for which NO treatment is either effective or possible!