Health insurance story to share

[Jackie]

Chris - If you deem this post as political, please delete it and I apologize. It is not meant to be. This post is meant to be very educational for all, no matter your political affilliation.

A good friend of ours (David Belk) is a doctor with a private practice out in CA. For more than a year, he has been working on a web site to tell the truth about the cost of our health care in this country. This is an eye-opener to be sure!

Just this past week, his work was picked up by the LA Times with a link to his web site that caused his web traffic to soar. Then he got a call from the NY Times and has an interview scheduled for next week.

He has since received emails from some top name insurance companies and also a medical agency in Russia that want to talk to him! (He's not going to respond at this time).

Heres a link to Dave's site: Healthcare - Home. The site discusses The "cost" of health care vs. the "price" of health care.

And a link to the LA Times story: Many hospitals, doctors offer cash discount for medical bills - latimes.com

Take it for what it's worth. But the man is real and he knows what he's talking about. If this thread doesn't get deleted, I'll post the results of the NYT interview after it happens.

[Squshiee1]

WOW! He should have his own documentary!

im still reading!

[Chris]

I don't see anything political at all after scanning the site and LA Times article Jackie.

Unfortunately I didn't see anything I didn't know before either probably because I'm too familiar with the subject and have had some great, informative doctors in my life as well as a hospital administrator at one time. I will suggest people read it though.

[Rob]

I saw that story today at work. Like Chris, I've known about this, but I think the disparities are getting larger.

[Jim]

I did a cash operation - the discounts, via almost all of the providers [too many], were not what are reported in the story (unfortunately).

[ColoJeeper]

Good info....thank you for posting Jackie!

[Java]

Thank you for posting this, Jackie. I'm setting up some testing right now; the prices are astronomical, everything is in the thousands, and I have a $10,000.00 deductible so it's all me. I will call and see if there is a cash discount, that would be awesome!! Health insurance is so stupid.

[Jackie]

Good luck Paul. I hope you find a cheaper way to go. Insurance is a scam.

[Rick]

Java previously posted:

[Chris]

Jackie previously posted:

[Java]

I think you're both right.

[Rick]

Java previously posted:

[Jackie]

Catostrophic insurance is a MUST - but the pricing is still a scam.

[Jackie]

Ooooh, this is getting interesting...

Dave called me today and was telling me about all the emails, phone calls etc. he's been getting since the LA Times story. The most recent was Fox News showing up at his office with the whole camera crew and all. (Not the local station - the national station).

It's funny. He told me he feels like a novice surfer looking up and seeing a sunami approaching!

I have a feeling he opened up a huge can of worms that should have been opened many years ago...

Scanning his site doesn't do the trick. You need to really read it to get it. If nothing else, read the chapter on malpractice insurance!

[Chris]

Without issuing a blanket condemnation of all media (Rob's a good guy) I think Dave needs to understand that his sudden fame is not necessarily due to the quality of his research but perhaps the LA Times filing some space and Faux News is not interested in presenting anything more than a piece to get people excited. I'm not in any way trying to put down his work but my own past experience taught me how easy it is to become an expert, deserved or not.

Years ago when I was staying home raising my family while Barb was the breadwinner I became the expert on fatherhood issues and stay-at-home dads. Why? Because I was accessible, had written some articles and was interviewed in a newspaper article that was picked up by papers all around the country. I received some national award for a newsletter I produced too. The award was presented in Washington DC by Hilary Clinton. (I didn't go but would have if I knew Hillary was the presenter) I was an Instant Expert!

I fielded questions from all big news magazines, routinely got calls from other countries, papers, etc. Pretty funny stuff but I can talk a good story and apparently sounded authoritative enough to whoever called. It was fun when my then 5 year old daughter would answer the phone and tell me the London office of Time Magazine wanted to talk to me and the caller would assume I brought my daughter to my office when my "office" was a 4x6 room off the basement laundry room where I had my computer. This was all pre-internet when people talked rather than emailed.

I hope Dave is able to get his message out, that it's received openly and that it's transmitted accurately. He should expect himself to be misquoted, have his facts distorted, etc with no defense. I guess this is just a cautionary note on my part and my opportunity to say I'm glad the internet didn't exist as we know it now when I was "famous."

[Jackie]

Yeah - Chris, he has already been mis-quoted, and also been refferered to with no link to his work so people can't fact-check on their own.

They are now asking permission to interview his patients. A few of his patients have agreed.

I just find the whole thing interesting. You can already see some spin going on on some news sites that do not refer to Dave's web site. He gets the distinct feeling that reporters that have talked with him have a lot of homework to do before they can go out with their story. He's seen a lot of "deer in the headlights"!

[Jackie]

@ Robyn...My thoughts exactly!