What if all of us with insurance scheduled doctors appointments as a protest?

[Ian David]

Aside from costing us our $15 copay, would this accomplish anything?

[madokie]

1. If enough others did it too

It could possibly make a few doctors think about what is going on except the wallet they think with now.

[DrDan]

2. what am I missing?

just to show that we also have queues to see the doctors?

I think it is much too subtle to make a point.

I must be up too early. I don't get the point.

[Ian David]

3. Because every time we go to the doctor, it costs the insurance company money.

That $15 copay doesn't pay for the visit- it goes to the doctor.

[DrDan]

4. well - I see no vacancies at my doctors office

so seems to me they are maximizing the time right now.

So to schedule an appointment - it will just be sometime in the future - which will be filled anyway at some point?

If that is true - how would it increase what insurance companies are paying for doctor visits? If anything it will decrease the payments. Healthy people going to the doctor must be cheaper than sick people going.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. it would keep ppl who need to see the doctor

from getting a timely appointment. And that's pretty much all it would accomplish.

[TexasObserver]

11. co sign

[ima_sinnic]

6. & when you got in to see the dr, what would you say?

I didn't really need to see you, but I am protesting that the insurance co. will pay for this visit?

[Buzz Clik]

7. And what if someone who really needs a doctor's help is denied service for your childishness?

Try a different approach.

[exboyfil]

8. $15 copay. What insurance do you have?

It costs me $90 to visit the doctor until our deductible reaches $4300. For this insurance my employer tells me that between myself and my employer they pay $12,000/yr. Think about that for a second the insurance company gets paid $16,300 before they pay dime one. No wonder my UHC stock is doing so well in my mutual fund.

I am fortunate my entire family is healthy, but we still spend about $1000-$1500/yr for medical expenses. If we were not so healthy (like having a major event during the year) we would be up to $4300. This is why I contribute to the HSA the maximum amount every year.

After all this I still feel very fortunate to have the insurance, and I am not complaining.

[NYC_SKP]

12. Ditto. $55 visits. $5000 deductible for an individual plan. I pay something for everything.

Lab visit, $180.

They always get their $5000 plus the monthly $433 for BC California plan.

[H2O Man]

9. Some sort of

organized public demonstration would be a good thing. However, as others have noted, the one you suggest isn't it. Keep working on the concept, though.

[Ian David]

10. Okay, so it looks like my idea of mass doctor visits is a non-starter.

What if we all overpaid our premiums by one dollar and asked them to send us a check refunding the difference?

[havocmom]

21. I know! How 'bout

we spend time and effort lobbying our elected reps, getting facts out there in LTTE, discussions, TOWN HALL meetings, news forums. How bout we fight the lies with facts up the wa-zoo? How about we drown out the town hall disrupters with logic and facts? We outnumber them. Why do we let them look and sound like they are more than the pitiful minority of fools that they are?

[bhcodem]

13. $15 copay?

Whoa! Mine is now $30!

[csziggy]

14. Thanks, I've spent enough time with doctors this year

It took me six months to get shoulder surgery scheduled. In the USA with private health insurance. My out of pocket costs SO FAR are over $3000. I expected it to be over $2000 because that is my deductible. And I expected some more since my co-pay is 10-20%. But I did not expect over $1000 on top of the deductible. And I did not expect the bills to still be trickling in two months after the surgery when I had to pre-pay the surgeon and the facility for their estimates of my co-pay.

And I did not expect form after form from the insurance company trying to find someone else to bill for this. They want me to say it was an accident and claim that it happened some where else. Sorry, guys, I wore my shoulder out by working hard for the last forty years. It's just age.

Now I am worried they will pressure my husband's company to dump him so they don't have to pay for medical bills for an older worker and his spouse.

No, we don't need to add to the doctor visits.

[Ian David]

16. Maybe this is what the reich-wingers are REALLY afraid of.

If poor people can get access to doctors, THEIR waits will be longer.

Hence the talk of "rationing."

But let me share an observation with you:

One year, on Superbowl Sunday, we made an emergency appointment for my daughter at the pediatrician. (She has emergency hours on Sunday from 9 AM to 11 AM)

It was the only time we ever found the office empty and did not have to wait in line.

Which means one of two things. Either:

1) People with children are calling things "emergencies" that are really just things they've put-off too long. With an "important" football game coming, they get their "emergency" visits out of the way earlier in the week.

Or

2) Children with "emergency" medical conditions are being forced to wait and suffer at home because The Superbowl is more important.

[csziggy]

19. Well, this surgeon stays busy and his waiting room is always full

But every single appointment was always six weeks in advance. The first one after referral from my primary, the followup visit, the debate between the surgeon and the insurance company about the MRI (we wanted to waive it, the insurance company wanted it), the surgery itself, and the followup visit. Six weeks.

Now this was not life threatening, but if I were working, it would have been limiting since I have not had full use of this arm since last fall.

My knee surgeries were at a faster pace - about a month between the first appointment and the surgery and two weeks to get the first appointment. I guess they consider lack of mobility less impairing than lack of use of an arm. But for me, it kept me from applying for a desk job with the census so I'll be unemployed for a long long time.

[havocmom]

22. The rich will always get in to see the doctor. That is NOT their worry.

Want some decaf?

[Ian David]

25. Sure...

Thanks!

[Bluerthanblue]

15. hey, as one of those without any insurance-

(and little hope of ever having any)

I appreciate your thought- and willing-ness to put yourself out, for the sake of others.

:hi:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

17. There are doctors who are very much for single payer. It would make their lives

a good deal easier.

[prolesunited]

18. Doctors -- most of them, anyway -- aren't the problem

Why punish them, their office staff and fellow patients?

[deaniac21]

20. Brilliant!

[Ewellian]

23. What it would accomplish:

the truly sick would have a longer wait for an appointment.

[alfredo]

24. Come Nov, just don't renew.