No question, dealing with an acoustic neuroma tumor is an expensive proposition.
I haven't actually sat down and added up all the bills, but I think that my medical insurance has paid around $100,000. in hospital, doctor and lab/MRI/CT scan bills. I do know that the hospital bill was the most expensive, around $58,000., followed by the fees for the surgical team (about $32,000.) and the various tests, scans and other necessary components of dealing with the tumor that ran close to $5,000. An MRI scan is $5,500. before the insurance company 'discount' that knocks it down to about half that. I had 6 in the past 12 months. I've paid close to $3,000. for co-pays, deductibles and a few medications. I can't complain, considering my medical insurance costs less than $2,500. per year for both me and my wife, the primary policyholder (she's on long-term, paid disability leave from her management job) who has had numerous surgical procedures, doctor visits and is on a number of medications, all related to spinal problems that are rather severe. I hardly used our medical coverage at all until my AN symptoms started manifesting themselves in the spring of 2006.
Unfortunately for me, I turn 65 in 2008 and will lose this coverage (Blue Cross) and have to accept Medicare coverage, which I doubt will be anywhere near as comprehensive as what I have now. This is why I'm not a fan of 'universal' health care. It will never be as good as private health insurance, no matter what the politicians promise. I have no problem with making health care insurance available for those who cannot afford private insurance but I fail the see the wisdom in watering down
everyone's coverage in the process by forcing every American to accept government-sponsored insurance that will , most likely, be far less inclusive than the private coverage most Americans have now, and yet, we'll probably pay more for it in the form of higher tax rates. If other countries experiences with nationalized health care are any indication, service will erode and we'll lose many of our choices as to physicians and hospitals, which I see as an unnecessary loss many will have to endure in order to help the relative few. I would much rather pay a small tax increase to fund medical insurance for those who cannot afford it than to just abandon our present privatized health care system and jump into a nationalized health care plan, which I find unnecessary.
Frankly, I have never felt that health care was a 'right' the government had a duty to provide it's citizens. Most hospitals treat emergency room patients for free if they cannot pay or are not insured and 'write off' the bills of the indigent that require hospitalization. This is nothing new. Of course the hospital simply raises the prices it charges to insurance companies to cover the costs, and the insured pay higher insurance premiums. I think we all realize and accept that fact. Charities have always helped the poor with medical bills. I know my church does. I'm not talking about a few hundred dollars but many thousands of dollars in medical bills paid for folks who, for reasons beyond their control, such as an unexpected job loss, emergency (a fire or car accident) or simply a low income, couldn't pay their hospital/doctor bills...and that's just one source in a fairly small town. This happens all over America but receives no publicity (neither the charity or the recipients desire any) but it exists on a fairly large scale. Government meddling in heath care practices in the form of state and federal 'mandates' have also worked to drive up medical costs, but that is never considered by the politicians clamoring for nationalized health care for Americans. Neither is the fact that most of the people who don't have medical insurance
choose not too purchase it; those simply between jobs, illegal immigrants, and prison inmates, combined, constitute a major portion of the medically uninsured in this country. Politicians always ignore these realities when pandering to those who mistakenly believe 'free' health care is a constitutional right.
Sorry for the untypical rant - and I want to state - emphatically - that I don't wish to start (and refuse to engage in) - a 'political' debate. This issue has been on my mind lately with the release of the Michael Moore propaganda film
'Sicko' that apparently trashes the U.S. medical system and praises the efficacy of nationalized health care in other countries, including the Cuban dictatorship. I haven't seen it and don't intend to but I'm concerned that this kind of propaganda - that glorifies nationalized health care as a panacea for whatever problems our current, privately-funded U.S. health care system may exhibit - will influence U.S. citizens and the politicians to go down that road, which I believe would be a huge mistake. End of rant.
Jim 
