US Health Care Bill Passed |

US Health Care Bill Passed | Kicking a dying man - a tale of US 'care'

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I went to live in the US in 1999 for my American-born husband William to have treatment for a brain tumour. Over 10 years he had four brain operations, six weeks of radiation, numerous rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and multiple prescription medications.

My husband might have been battling cancer, but the battle with the insurance companies proved just as sickening. Each time William had a brain operation we would receive a bill - usually in the vicinity of $50,000-$80,000 for the operation and three-day hospital stay - despite the fact we paid a hefty premium and the insurance company intended to pay costs.

I've heard often that unsuspecting and unwell patients who are insured have paid hefty medical bills because they are vulnerable, confused, tired of being harassed by hospital billing departments or simply didn't understand the insurance jargon that the bill was the responsibility of the insurance company, not the patient.

The day William's doctors gave him the ''go home and die speech'' in 2005 we went home and within an hour the hospital billing department called, followed by his insurance company, disputing a $2000 bill for a brain scan in 2003 they claimed was not pre-approved by his insurer. It was.

I yelled down the phone to them both something along the lines of: leave us alone, let my 41-year-old husband spend some time with his son and die with some dignity, not on-hold on the phone to an insurance company mid-medical bill dispute.

William died peacefully at home a few months later. The calls from the insurance company stopped because the debt collectors took over. It was tempting in my grieving state to write them a cheque and be done with the harassment. Instead, I kept my husband's advice firmly in mind: ''Don't pay them a cent.''

I wrote multiple letters and enlisted the help of William's doctors to prove no money was owed. The bills continued two years after he died.

The term ''socialised medicine'' was invented by the American Medical Association in 1947 to disparage president Harry Truman's proposal for a national healthcare system. It was a ploy to protect the interests of the US medical insurance industry, and the term was resurrected by Ronald Reagan to counter Jimmy Carter's campaign for national insurance. Yet ask any American what's so bad about "socialised medicine" and they are clueless. ...