Ambulances start charging extra for obese patients

[Mom of Three]

MLK wrote:

<quoted text>
YOU ARE A JERK!!! Not funny at all.

Yeah, that was pretty funny.

[Mom of Three]

chico ca wrote:

About time!!! Why should health care workers have to kill themselves to help someone who doesn't help themselves! They come and pick you up, killing their backs, risking injury that could kill their career all because someone couldn't put down the fork!

This is right on the nose. When my husband was a firefighter, they went to a house where the 400+ lb woman was so huge, they had to cut the railings off the deck to get her down. Emergency responders were blowing their backs left and right on these kinds of calls, right down to the CNAs in the hospital. So hell yeah, they should pay extra at every step, because they actually cause a large number of injuries to health care providers--ask anyone who has to work on the front lines of patient care.

[juanita]

Megan wrote:

Juanita, if the ambulance crew did nothing but give your paitent a ride, why did you call them in the first place? When I was emergently sick and collapsed at work, I had a co-worker rush me to Enloe IMMEDIATELY because I knew she could get me there quicker than waiting for the ambulance and then them transporting me. Sounds like you made a bad decision, and then had to pay for it. But it now gives you something else and someone else to whine about.

No Megan, I just had no idea what ambulances cost. I also thought the drivers knew emergency first aid. They wouldn't touch our patient, said he had to go to the hospital. So, because they don't tell you it costs $1000 a mile, I thought it would be best. I was pretty scared, in my nightgown, shaking like a leaf, I didn't want to get in an accident. Of course, at the hospital, they told us it was no big deal, gave him a water iv for about 30 minutes, then charged us $16,000.

The next time we had an emergency, an inflamed appendix, I kept my head, I drove the patient, and I asked questions. When I asked the finance gal at Enloe, "what are they going to do to my husband?" she couldn't tell me anything. I asked, "what's this going to cost" she didn't know! She had to call someone. Right in front of me, when the person on the other end gave her the dollar figure, she said, "you're kidding!" and her eyes got like saucers. When she told me what it would cost to risk an e-coli infection or an overdose of the wrong medication, my husband said, "let's go to Feather River." Feather River's charges are roughly a third of Enloe's.

At the time, Enloe told us, my husband's appendix had burst, but they felt there was plenty of time for him to fill out the paperwork. At Feather, they said his appendix was only inflamed and could be saved with a much less invasive surgery, and they prepped him for surgery the next day. They didn't make us fill out anything, and the gal at the finance office there just gave me a business card and told me, "be sure to tell them, you want to pay what the insurance companies pay." That amounted to about $12,000 of an $86,000 bill. We paid in cash money when my husband checked out. How do you pay? Do you pay?

Aren't you real proud of the way I handled it the second time? I'm just trying to help others profit from my mistake.

[bobdog]

It's expensive to keep the ambulances' vending machines stocked with chips and Whim Whams for the needy patient on the way to the hospital too.

[Megan]

Juanita, of course the FINANCE gal at Enloe couldn't tell you what they were going to do with your husband???? She obviously has nothing to do with patient care. And until they decide what is wrong with your husband, and what care and treatment is needed, how would they ever tell you how much anything would cost???? I can't imagine you annoying someone with all of these questions when they are trying to urgently take care of one of your family members. I have insurance, that's how I pay, and hopefully the new health care bill will also require YOU to carry insurance for your family and provide you a way to pay for it if you cannot. And maybe alleviate some of your whining.

[Steve]

John Lorenz wrote:

Fine and good. We also need to start charging everyone else for their added costs. The 'no new tax' people need to be charged for the damage they've done to California. The Republican party needs to be charged for the damage they've done to our country with the economic collapse. People who have kids and increase their carbon footprint should have to pay more taxes for the extra social services they take. If we're going to pin it on obese people, and I realize someone has to pay...how about hiring personal trainers for each obese person to come to their house every day and make them exercise and monitor their caloric intake? That would be less expensive than the extreme hospitalization that the obese eventually all go through. Tell them they either follow the guidelines of the personal trainer or get their disability payments cut off. I bet that would get results. But we also need to charge others in society for what they cost too. I mean fair is fair. The epidemic of babies right among the young should also result in forced labor at concentration camps to pay for the extra social costs. And tax the parents and youths themselves for the higher crime rate of idle youth who have no schools to go to or jobs to but have time for drive by shootings and vandalism and murder and drinking and drugs...And why not institute a pay as you go policy to replace the budget cuts due to no new taxes policies of state lawmakers? GOP budget extortioners had almost every average person cut off so they wouldn't have to tax oil companies and mega fat cats any more....so we should make all who supported 'no new taxes' on those who make windfall billions pay 'pay out of pocket for services that were cut. The voting public in California needs to compensate the victims of their mindless 'no new taxes' ideology. Everything has to be paid for by someone. How about everyone stepping up and paying for their own sins too, don't just point out someone else.

Don't even pull that crud here, your bosom buddy Geithner tries to evade them, oh wait, he forgot to pay them. Yeah right. It is not just limited to California stupid, this is a nationwide epidemic regarding state funding issues. You cannot lay the whole blame on the GOP. Put a sock in it.

[sjjdba]

pypr wrote:

<quoted text>
It does not take a personal trainer or any exercise to not be obese. Cutting out all the junk food and eating a healthy diet alone will do it. We could rig ETB cards so the recipient can only buy healthy food. As taxpayers if we are going to provide people with the food that sustains them don't we have a duty to see that we are not paying for the junk food that is distroying their health?

ok i know that i am going to get bashed for this. i have recently fallen on some hard times. i have never been on foodstamps or wellfare. but recently i have had to get food stamps so that i can feed my four kids. i have beed tring to watch the carb and eat healthy. it is hard to feed a family of 5 on 300 dollers a month. when a bag of fresh green beans is about 5.00 a couple of frozen pizzas look good for the same price.

[pypr]

sjjdba wrote:

ok i know that i am going to get bashed for this. i have recently fallen on some hard times. i have never been on foodstamps or wellfare. but recently i have had to get food stamps so that i can feed my four kids. i have beed tring to watch the carb and eat healthy. it is hard to feed a family of 5 on 300 dollers a month. when a bag of fresh green beans is about 5.00 a couple of frozen pizzas look good for the same price.

Green beans are healthy and nutritious. Cheap frozen pizza are crap carbs. It is a question of being able to adjust your kids' taste. Over their life time you will be doing them no favor giving in to the easy food.$300 isn't much, the max for a family of 5 in CA is $793. The must have figured that you had some extra "spare income" that you could put toward food. Isn't that something? Spare income!

I cannot say eating healthy has been cheaper or more expensive for me, my food cost has been about the same. It is certainly more work. I have lost 1/5 of my body weight. I have trouble choking down green beans, they don't seem to blend well with other veggies.

[Justice For Whom]

sjjdba wrote:

<quoted text>
ok i know that i am going to get bashed for this. i have recently fallen on some hard times. i have never been on foodstamps or wellfare. but recently i have had to get food stamps so that i can feed my four kids. i have beed tring to watch the carb and eat healthy. it is hard to feed a family of 5 on 300 dollers a month. when a bag of fresh green beans is about 5.00 a couple of frozen pizzas look good for the same price.

You need to shop at a different store. Try Winco. I have never spent $300 a month on Groceries. Learn to make less expensive, just as nutritious meals. It's not hard. Cheaper cuts of meat. More Veggies. I'm not on food stamps or welfare, thank goodness my job has not been cut. Good luck to you, it's tough out there.

[pypr]

Justice For Whom wrote:

You need to shop at a different store. Try Winco.

I'll second that. I cannot afford to shop anywhere else. The price difference on as little as 3 items pays for the gas to get there. Mushrooms are $1 dollar less per pound [still pricey at $2.99], squash and bell peppers are less than the farmer's market. Chicken thighs go in the range .89 to 1.09 per lb. What would us poor folks do without them? A good source of leaner protein. For around $5 you get ten, each one with enough protein to serve as a meal for one. Round it out with a lot of veggies, a piece of fruit and you have a recipe for dramatic weight loss without being hungry.

[pypr]

Weight loss without doing exercise.

[Mom of Three]

One of the keys to eating healthier but paying less is giving up quick and convenient. Or, really just relearning food preparation. Beans, for instance, are so healthy and cheap in bulk, but you have to be willing to remember to soak them overnight, for instance, and drain them, so that they're ready the next day to cook. Free recipes can be found online, with tips on using a crock pot and seasoning. Combine with rice, also cheaper in bulk, and you have a perfect protein. Carrots are so cheap and if you buy them in bulk, they keep for long times, and you can cut them for snacks, or coin them and boil them for your dinner veggie. Get a juicer at a thrift store or a rebuilt one online and the juice is delicious. Serve your kids juice, but cut it by half with water. I do and no complaints here. Bananas, apples, these are the cheaper fruits, and cut up with a little yogurt make great dessert parfaits.

Also, cut down on the meat. You don't need to serve meat more than a couple of times a week, it's too expensive and not really that healthy.

Finally, never buy anything with high fructose corn syrup--it blocks an enzyme to the brain that tells it you're eating and that you've had enough. I found that when I switched from regular pasta to whole grain, my kids ate half as much, at least, and stayed full longer. Be careful, because HFCS hides in things like breads and crackers. Franz bakery makes a no HFCS bread that's reasonable.

Good luck, it's tight over here too.

[juanita]

Megan wrote:

Juanita, of course the FINANCE gal at Enloe couldn't tell you what they were going to do with your husband???? She obviously has nothing to do with patient care. And until they decide what is wrong with your husband, and what care and treatment is needed, how would they ever tell you how much anything would cost???? I can't imagine you annoying someone with all of these questions when they are trying to urgently take care of one of your family members. I have insurance, that's how I pay, and hopefully the new health care bill will also require YOU to carry insurance for your family and provide you a way to pay for it if you cannot. And maybe alleviate some of your whining.

Megan, you are an idiot to go along with crap like that. Go ahead and eat your plate of shit honey, I don't want any. Eat every bite, clean it all up Sweetie. Chew it, that's right, chew it reeeeeal good.

[new frugal gourmet]

pypr wrote:

<quoted text>
I'll second that. I cannot afford to shop anywhere else. The price difference on as little as 3 items pays for the gas to get there. Mushrooms are $1 dollar less per pound [still pricey at $2.99], squash and bell peppers are less than the farmer's market. Chicken thighs go in the range .89 to 1.09 per lb. What would us poor folks do without them? A good source of leaner protein. For around $5 you get ten, each one with enough protein to serve as a meal for one. Round it out with a lot of veggies, a piece of fruit and you have a recipe for dramatic weight loss without being hungry.

Safeway has chicken on sale for as little as 77 cents a pound. They just rotate which pieces (or whole chickens) they need to get rid of. It always seems fine, we have never had any bad meat from them.
In fact, Safeway is cheap if you shop right. They always have stuff on sale somewhere. The "club card" saves a lot of money and is no big deal - you realize, you can give them a fake name and phone number, they don't care. If you pay with a check, you might as well join their club anyway - they can get more personal info off your check.
I can't remember whether it was WINCO or Food 4 Less where they take forever checking you out because they print "competitor's prices" on the receipt. The prices they printed for other stores were anything but accurate, so we never shopped there again. WINCO did not impress me, I definitely remember how pushy the place was, people grabbing things right out of your hand, as if there was some kind of Y2K frenzy going on. And the prices were not impressive either.
You really got to shop around regularly, things change. we recently discovered Cash and Carry, where they have alot of regular grocery items for cheaper than grocery stores - sometimes half the price. But like any store, some things aren't a good deal. You got to pick and choose, and you got to know what costs what where.
WalMart has the screaming deal on dairy products. All their stuff is not cheaper, but it is worth a peruse whenever you are in there buying whatever else. Cereal, which I buy just to keep my kids off my back (I can't cook EVERY minute) was about $1 a box last time we were there.
I'll tell you what's funny - unless you are willing to go to the rice dryer, nobody can beat Raley's for brown rice. You got to shop around. I call it, "hunting and gathering."
Another thing I did was send my kids to the hunter's safety class, then I bought them some licenses. We eat pheasant about a dozen times a year, it's great once you learn how to cook it.
One nice thing about being "white trash" is, you never really notice the economic downturns - you been down there all along anyway!

[pypr]

new frugal gourmet wrote:

In fact, Safeway is cheap if you shop right. They always have stuff on sale somewhere. The "club card" saves a lot of money and is no big deal -

Interesting. I suppose that is a result of the competition for our food dollars that you have in Chico. The three year that since I have been up here the only thing cheeper at Safeway has been some apples in the past few weeks and $5 chicken Friday.

new frugal gourmet wrote:

I'll tell you what's funny - unless you are willing to go to the rice dryer, nobody can beat Raley's for brown rice.

I used to eat a lot of chicken and rice. I discover that was causing my weight problem. I switched out the rice for vegetables and lost 65 lbs in 90 days.

[Other Sign Guy]

John Lorenz wrote:

Fine and good. We also need to start charging everyone else for their added costs. The 'no new tax' people need to be charged for the damage they've done to California. The Republican party needs to be charged for the damage they've done to our country with the economic collapse. People who have kids and increase their carbon footprint should have to pay more taxes for the extra social services they take. If we're going to pin it on obese people, and I realize someone has to pay...how about hiring personal trainers for each obese person to come to their house every day and make them exercise and monitor their caloric intake? That would be less expensive than the extreme hospitalization that the obese eventually all go through. Tell them they either follow the guidelines of the personal trainer or get their disability payments cut off. I bet that would get results. But we also need to charge others in society for what they cost too. I mean fair is fair. The epidemic of babies right among the young should also result in forced labor at concentration camps to pay for the extra social costs. And tax the parents and youths themselves for the higher crime rate of idle youth who have no schools to go to or jobs to but have time for drive by shootings and vandalism and murder and drinking and drugs...And why not institute a pay as you go policy to replace the budget cuts due to no new taxes policies of state lawmakers? GOP budget extortioners had almost every average person cut off so they wouldn't have to tax oil companies and mega fat cats any more....so we should make all who supported 'no new taxes' on those who make windfall billions pay 'pay out of pocket for services that were cut. The voting public in California needs to compensate the victims of their mindless 'no new taxes' ideology. Everything has to be paid for by someone. How about everyone stepping up and paying for their own sins too, don't just point out someone else.

We should charge Al Gore a Hypocrite Tax for flying around in his private jets whining about the average Joe's carbon footprint!(I trust him less than I trust Hussein Obama, and I REALLY don't trust Hussein Obama!!!)