RSSWhat Has Happened to America … “Are You an Idiot to Keep Paying Your Mortgage?”
America was built on the hard work, perseverance and responsibilty of generations and generations of people. Individuals faced tough times and the road bumps of life and over came life’s issues, trials and tribulations because they were responsible and wanted to succeed. There use to be a time when taking the easy way and especially fradulent way out was looked down upon.
Today, can that still be said to be true. In the, as News Busters calls it the “You have got to be Kidding Me” moment and as we just like to say WTF … the San Francisco Chronicle actly had an artice advocating for people to stop making payments on their mortgage so that they would qualify for the government bail out package. Some how if one buts too much house and one they cannot afford they are supposed to be bailed out and put and even heavier burden on tax payers and responsible home owners who pay their mortgage. Unreal.
From the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage’?
Should you keep paying your mortgage?
If you have significant equity in your home, absolutely.
If you don’t, it’s getting harder to answer that question, especially when our government keeps giving people who owe more than their homes are worth so many reasons not to pay.
Last week, the government announced a program that will substantially lower payments for many homeowners who have little or no equity, but only if they are at least 90 days delinquent.
Here is how one qualifies for this program that will be abused just like ever other government hand out or entitlement. Go to NewsBusters and read more on the ridiculousness of the plan and the program that is destine for abuse.
To qualify, you must be at least 90 days delinquent and live in the home as your primary residence. You must owe at least 90 percent of the home’s value. It’s fine if you owe more than it’s worth.
Your mortgage must be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or held by one of the participating loan companies.
If you meet these requirements and can document your income, your servicer will reduce your monthly mortgage payment – including property taxes, insurance and association dues – to 38 percent of your gross income.
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34 Responses to “What Has Happened to America … “Are You an Idiot to Keep Paying Your Mortgage?””
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In other words…more WELFARE…these will go to those who were unresponsible enough to know what they could and could not afford when they signed their mortgages, you know, those who have sub-prime loans, you know, those in the Obama middle-class, those making less than $50K per year, you know, those in the lower class, you know, those that Bill Clinton helped because he thought everybody should have the opportunity to own a home!
My family and I are making our payments on time, but have little or no equity in our house, and could use a reworking of our loan…..but we are white and make too much money!
Here is a scenario for you; What if a couple who were both rebounding from financial zero because of divorces, married and started a new life together. They bought a house for say $164,000 seven years ago right when the balloon began to expand. Because their credit was destroyed by their ex spouses they could only qualify for an adjustable rate mortgage.
When their credit became good enough through hard work and limited spending they refinanced at a fixed rate and borrowed a responsible amount to payoff lingering debt from their previous marriages. At this point they have a mortgage for $200,000 on a $230,000 house.
In the meantime they had a child together along with the wife’s two children from her first marriage. They both had good jobs and the future looked bright and they were saving some money for their children’s future
The wife, after working at a job for 11 years with a schedule that provide her the ability to avoid paying child care, one day gets a new manager with a bone up her ass for flexible schedules. Soon the wife is railroaded out of her job.
She finds other work because she is a wonderful person but is now making less and saddled with paying for child care. The couple soon starts to backslide financially, The husband is able to acquire overtime at his job and does so. The only drawback is that he has back injuries and really should not be working at all. He struggles daily in hopes of keeping bread on the table.
Then three hurricanes sweep through their area and causes a fair amount of damage. Insurance, surprise, only pays for some of the damage. In order to make their house a $230,000 house again to satisfy the mortgage company, they have to start using their credit cards. That is something they vowed never to do.
Now the husband has to work more overtime not only to pay the bills but to try and payoff the credit card debt.
They start to see that it is costing more in child care and health insurance than they bring in. The wife takes a job at a child care facility that allows her more flexibility and free day care. The drawback is that she makes a lot less but it works out better financially. The husband still has to work overtime to make ends meet. The wife has no healthcare.
The hook in this part of their story is, a week before the wife starts this new job she is injured when a car runs into the back of hers at a traffic light and leaves the scene. So she is financially forced to work with two herniated discs and nerve compression for nine months while their insurance company refuses to acknowledge that she is injured despite medical proof, and refuses to pay for treatment. She is in constant pain and unable to do her daily routine. The husband, despite excruciating pain and misery, helps out as much as he can but is limited at what he can do. Their health is affecting them mentally, physically and financially. The husband can no longer tolerate the pain and the extra burden is causing more injury and may need to go on disability. The bills are mounting and due to the housing market they owe $198,000 on a near worthless house.
Who is there to help them? Is it their fault that the market turned for the worse? Why should they give a rats ass about the banks losing money if they can’t pay their mortgage. Who is going to bail them out? It seems that hard work and determination is a notion from the past. Maybe more of a punishment. I see this couple suffering daily yet as they drive to the ocean for a day off at the beach, which they call a vacation. There are luxury cars cruising by one after another with happy rich folks basking in their spoils as many more hard working families struggle with much more burden than others.
Who is to blame, the greedy homeowners who bit off more than they can chew? Maybe in some cases, many more cases of greedy mortgage brokers walking buyers over a cliff. Some cases maybe misfortune for some that are just trying to make a good home for their family and getting dealt a bad hand.
Think about this. You have worked and paid your bills, you have lived within or maybe below your means, maybe with a full time job and a couple of crappy part time jobs.
Hey we all want, right, bigger house bigger car, but some of us are realists, and say “I can’t afford it now” (remember this)
So now go down the street, and the guy with the big house and the big suv, who golfs on Friday afternoons, while you are working your ass of at work. So now you drive by day after day, with the realization, that you now are not only paying for your house and your stuff, you are now paying for Mr. Good Time Charleys house and car and the country club membership he put on his visa, he can’t pay anymore.
Some one needs to tell Charly and the Feds
“I can’t afford it now”
Not any idiot in congress is thinking of the horrendous financial strain they are inflicting on our children and grandchildren. I kids and grandkids will be paying for all of the “Good Time Charleys” crap for 100 years. This is INSANE
Raise your hand if you think Charley needs a slap, back into reality?
I vote “present”.
Now, where’s my bailout?
The saying used to be that we can spend our way into prosperity.
Now the slogan is that we can spend our way out of debt.
I’ve read that the U.S. is now in debt to the tune of half a million dollars per household.
It ultimately comes down the people buying their homes what they can and can’t afford. Although, I’m not a mortgage broker, lender or whatever, when I signed my mortgage, everything was presented to me in order for me to understand my finanically responsibility when it came to my mortgage every month. Along with greedy mortgage bankers, consumers too saw the dollar signs! Sure there are some bad mortgage companies out there, but it comes down to us to research and make sure the company you are dealing with is on the up and up!
Whatever happened to if you want something, you have to work for it, nothing in life is free? Don’t we have enough people on welfare already? My husband & I both work full-time to pay our mortgage and put food on the table for our kids. We can not afford to support those who do not work & who do not want to pay their bills. I’m trying to instill some good values into my children, not teach them to hold their hand out and expect somebody to take care of you.
OT
Bailout? They should all go to jail. The stockholders should persue theft/embezzlement charges. How can you cry poor to your stockholders and then comp the exes this magnitude of money?
Please google and check out USA today
“Chrysler leaders get millions
Automaker defends payouts amid looming bailout talks”
let the politicians work for minimum wage, drive a kia, and have to struggle just to get by. then we’ll see just how many of them really want to help the country out of this mess.
do away with all the private jets and the perks that these politicians take for granted, including the president and. if you think our government is bad now , wait until january 2009! Michelle is right, obama wants to spread the wealth, but we are already supporting most of the people who voted him in. 40% of them don’t even work or pay taxes
This bailout BS is like a sick joke on us taxpayers and they throw it in our faces because there is nothing we can do about it.
I wish there was a fresh face that would be President that would march into Washington and change the way that they do business and slap these money grubbin’ CEO’s around. Ya’ know, someone who is willing to fight for the average hard working middle class family, someone we can believe in! There is..? Oh thats right, Obama! Obama, Obama, Obama! C’mon everybody, sing with me! (to the tune of “Hosanna” from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”) O-ba-ma hey ‘bamma, bamma bamma ‘O, bamma hey bamma O-ba-ma, hey Barry, Barry won’t you fight for me? bamma bamma ‘O O-bama B!
Oh, whats that you say? He voted for the bailout too? Oh….
Rusty
You got it. The government is in bed with the big boys. Does anyone care to imagine what our kids or grandkids are going to have to deal with? I guess in that sentence the key words are “does anyone care”
Well, I thought they should buy up some of the bad mortgages and give the homeowners a price they could afford to pay it back..
Right now, I feel like we are all on a moving bus with no driver and none of them have a clue what they are doing.. Been listening to Congressmen talking about companies that mismanaged wanting bail outs..yet who is Congress to say that? Look at the mess we are in under Congress and our govt in dc.. So far we are bailing out banks and executives and paying their legal fees. Half of the money is gone,, the stockmarket is still falling and why won’t they show us in writing where these funds have went? I don’t know about anyone else, but I have never been so sick of my govt..or so angry at them.. All the same ones are still there, none have been held accountable, and we keep sending them billions.. and I don’t see a plan anyone has to help the working class people.. or retirees. Just throwing more money at a govt. that doesn’t even care…about anyone, but themselves. If they did, we wouldn’t be in this mess to start with..
The bankers sold us credit,
By catering to our dreams,
Then they sold us debts,
With promised income streams,
But then they raised our interest rates,
And our debts could not be paid,
We found too late It was sex they’d sold,
And us the bankers had laid…
Thomas Jefferson
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Thomas Jefferson, 1816
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, (i.e., the “business cycle”) the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States 1801-1809
That’s the problem with America today to many people always waiting for the hand out… It isn’t going 2 get any better when Obama gets in there cause not only are these people going 2 get there hand out he’s going 2 take from us working people and give them alittle boot 2 go with it..
Well, I am a little biased with the auto industry, my son is employed through one.. but not only that many people I know work in the plant,, I know how devastating it will be for these blue collar workers.. The area around me is largely involved in the auto industry in some way or another. R. Mitch Daniels was re-elected .. He says he has brought in new jobs to make up for the ones who left.. What he doesn’t say is..that the workers now work for about 6 dollars or so less an hour now and insurance is a joke many times for these employees.
On the one hand I think ‘Why should the UAW get welfare in the form of tax payers being on the hook for their health and welfare payment? Why should single mothers with children trying to but food on the table be told no, we need to spend those welfare dollars on the UAW?’
Unless the UAW is willing to agree to make its compensation competetive, we should let the Big 3 go into Chapter 11 and let the courts and the new investors make the companies competetive.
On the other hand I think the contagion from the failure of one of the Big 3 will reverberate through the economy, causing real damage in places that didn’t even know they were connected to the auto industry.
I’m thinking I might as well piss away money on the Limping 3 as the pork barrel projects that Congress is likely to think up.
Simplistic/lack of depth view on a very complicated situation? Yep.
Jon Kyl (AZ),Republican Minority Leader in the Senate: ”I suppose most of us will oppose it as a very bad idea,” he said in reference to Senate Republicans. “This didn’t happen to the auto companies overnight. For years they’ve been sick. They have a bad business model. They have contracts negotiated with the United Auto Workers that impose huge costs. Companies fail every day and others take their place. Just giving them $25 billion doesn’t change anything.”
Jon Kyl voted “Yes” for the Wall Street bailout bill. So how is it that the U.S. automakers are now failing because of their own inept behavior while Wall Street seems to have been given a pass on everything they’ve done wrong? The automakers lobbied heavily to delay things like raising fuel standards (as they were making a fortune off the sales of SUVs and trucks), but how are we not supposed to notice that the banking and finance industry was doing something very similar (leveraging themselves far beyond any reasonable point) and facing near-collapse because of it. Both of these industries were reckless and are now in some pretty deep shit because of it.
And the Democrats that are advocating this bailout are stipulating that such help will not come without conditions (unlike the insane plan to hand out well over $700 billion to Wall Street only to be told we cannot know how a fair portion of the money is being allocated).
Nutty, imo.
What really worries me (among many other things) is … we are borrowing, I think, $2 billion per day from overseas to fund our current operating deficit.
What happens if those countries say enough is enough, and stop buying Treasury bonds?
I believe that China was a big investor in mortgage bonds, and they must have lost money there.
Now it has launched a huge domestic stimulus package. Suppose that China decides that it can do better by investing in China than by investing in our deficit?
Behold the Intestinal Worm. It provides no service to the
host, but skims its energy and subsistence away.
Too much skimming and the host weakens and dies.
Something within the Intestinal Worm knows not to kill
the source of it’s survival. Greedy politicians are generally
unable to recognize the impending doom, and thus fail
to moderate their feeding frenzy.
#1- Scott—DITTO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My husband and I are feeling the pain EXACTLY in the way you pontificate. Millions of Americans are in the same boat—(no matter what their skin color) but for real—-We are feeling your pain, Brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Makes me soooooo angry–However- no one wants to read another one of my over-emotional/ranting/ long-winded posts so I’ll just end this one right here.
#7- Michelle—E X A C T L Y !! (again)…lol
Your post emulates more of my families sentiments and values TO THE T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#12- Miz………Yeppers–the Gov. is in bed w/the big boys….RUSTY BRIDGES…YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (as always)
#13- Maggie===Excellent post…LOVED the poem. WOw, I never knew Jefferson said that!!! (second quote I mean….remember the first one BUT WOW…he was so ahead of his time…even back then, eh? I love your posts Maggie, really enjoy reading…you edumacate me even further every time. lol
Richard, as always—good questions…you are so wise.
Yoyo- good posts, too! I don’t agree in their entirety–but for once–I actually don’t want to rage at you..lol ” …I have always respected your intelligence and input believe it or not—we just do not hold all of the same political views.
PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a good thread….cool.
=)
“The bankers sold us credit,
By catering to our dreams,
Then they sold us debts,
With promised income streams,
But then they raised our interest rates,
And our debts could not be paid,
We found too late It was sex they’d sold,
And us the bankers had laid… ”
Is there are source on that for Jefferson? It doesn’t sound at all like him, and I can’t find this in any list of his quotes written prior to the last 6 months or so.
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, (i.e., the “business cycle”) the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States 1801-1809
————–
This was, generally speaking, Jefferson’s position on a private version of the “Federal Reserve” system that we have now. Keep in mind that back then, each “Private Bank” issued it’s own paper currency.
This quote, authentic or not, is arguing against “private currency”, not “Banking in general”. Imaging a world where “Bank of America dollars” was printed, and valued differenty than “Citibank dollars”. Where CitiBank had the powers of the federal reserve…to manipulate the value of the currency that they printed. It would be financial chaos.
The quote itself, although widely attributed to Jefferson, was unlikely ever spoken, or written, by him.
“Respectfully Quoted” finds that the word “Deflation” was not used in this context until 1920 (and other words used are simularly modern) so one could hazard to guess that this quote was made-up during the Great Depression era.
“This quote, authentic or not, is arguing against “private currency”, not “Banking in general”. Imaging a world where “Bank of America dollars” was printed, and valued differenty than “Citibank dollars”. Where CitiBank had the powers of the federal reserve…to manipulate the value of the currency that they printed. It would be financial chaos.”
—————
I will retract that. I have no idea what the quote is arguing against since I have no idea who said it or in what context.
However, Jefferson is well-documented to be anti-banking in general. He thought that bankers were little more than con-artists, tricking the poor into lifestyles that they could not afford.
#2 – (Rusty Bridges)
That is a terrible story of a family getting dealt a bad hand.
From your story, I don’t see any fault in the bank or the homeowners. They are in a fixed-rate mortgage, at a valuation that was fair at the time of the loan. The fact that the market collapsed only affects them if they want to sell the home, and since it affects all homes in the market, the price of the new home they will want to purchase is also lower than it was, so they should still come out even.
Almost all car payments out there are “underwater” for the first 3 years of the loan…nobody complains about that.
Every time you put a new television on a credit card you are making payments on a depreciating asset….nobody complains about this.
Honestly, it sounds like the problem in this story is rooted in the medical bills, and lack of available & affordable medical insurance or care; not the housing.
Relevation: our children maybe be living the best years of their life now, there after it’s anyones guess, I am guessing things will get much worse. The American dream has been hi-jacked this election. God Save and God Bless America
The Cast Will Die
by Darryl Schoon | March 24, 2008
Print
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, (i.e., the “business cycle”) the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States 1801-1809
Today, private bankers control not only the issuance of money in America, but the corporations [that will grow up around the bankers] control what Americans see, read, and hear because of their influence in the media. The clear and present dangers Jefferson warned about two centuries ago are now clearly present.
America threw off the yoke of British dominion in 1776 only to institute the very form of that dominion in 1913 when US banking and corporate interests—the same forces Jefferson warned about—recreated the British credit-based banking system in the US in the form of the Federal Reserve Bank—a system whereby private bankers control the issuance of the public currency; and, just as Jefferson had warned, America’s freedoms are now at risk.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Thomas Jefferson, 1816
In 1913, Woodrow Wilson was President of the US when the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law. Too late, Wilson recognized the damage he had done; and his own words haunt us today as it is now clear what his approval of the Federal Reserve Act set in motion:
A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men…We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men..
Today, Americans are looking to the Fed to protect them against the financial chaos threatening our economy. This is tantamount to the Jews in 1930s Germany looking to the Nazis to stave off a possible holocaust. The Fed cannot help America with its economic problems because the Fed is itself the cause of those problems.
While it is understandable that slaves would look to their masters to save them
The bankers sold us credit
By catering to our dreams
Then they sold us debts
With promised income streams
But then they raised our interest rates
And our debts could not be paid
We found too late ‘twas sex they’d sold
And us the bankers had laid
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/schoon/2008/0324.html
btw you can read the rest on that link…
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_jefferson.html
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson
Never spend your money before you have earned it.
Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
Regulating Banking Institutions
“The principle of rotation… in the body of [bank] directors… breaks in upon the espirit de corps so apt to prevail in permanent bodies; it gives a chance for the public eye penetrating into the sanctuary of those proceedings and practices, which the avarice of the directors may introduce for their personal emolument, and which the resentments of excluded directors, or the honesty of those duly admitted, might betray to the public; and it gives an opportunity at the end of the year, or at other periods, of correcting a choice, which on trial, proves to have been unfortunate.” –Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:437
The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” –Thomas Jefferson to Maryland Republicans, 1809. ME 16:359
3 of the best shows PBS ever had on … the story of Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark Expedition and Marie Antoinette..
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson..were kind of rivals in later years..due to many dif. things, the day Adams died..he said Thomas Jefferson survives… however just a few hours earlier, Thomas Jefferson had died also. July 4th, 1826, 50 years to the day they had created the new world.(Declaration of Independence)
re,,,unions.. I can see both sides of the union. I know facts about them are often distorted also. IE.. My son has directed me to sites online where people are saying he and other people we know are making 300,000 a year etc.. and we laugh.. One woman lives by me, is divorced with 2 kids and barely makes her house payment, car payment and support her two kids. Last union contract…people took a half hour cut in a work day.. started paying more for their prescriptions, overtime really went down, volunteer lay offs .. just to keep the company going…for 2 more years..after that who knows. I don’t remember which one, but one of the car companies makes.. equipment for soldiers to drive. Last I knew they were doing well. I am sure that is down too. My son has been in Detroit for the past week and a half..until next week. I’ve seen him work many times 7 days a week. I’m sure there are bad eggs in this industry , just as there are in every industry. What the answer is I am not sure.. I know they need smaller cars..but I also know many people who will really suffer from the auto industry if it goes down. GM is the number one seller in China..however working conditions aren’t that great..and neither are wages..Some of these places don’t have to pay for health care, they have govt. healthcare. I’ve also seen South Korea only allows about 600 or so cars in S Korea from the USA to be sold while they ship out like 700,000 cars they make to sell. I don’t know where it started, but I think it’s sad that so many American jobs have been lost and shipped elsewhere.
Rusty Bridges and flippy: Think about it this way. The people in Rusty’s story married other people of their own choice. No one forced them to marry spouses that ran up their credit. No one forced them to then divorce and marry each other. They decided on their own to have children. They decided on their own to purchase a home. They chose the home they would buy. They decided which mortgage to take. They decided to refinance and mortgage even more.
Now yes, bad things happen to good people. But where did it become the responsibility of the US taxpayer to pay for the decisions made by others. Aren’t we all suppose to be responsible for ourselves? Doesn’t part of good decision making involve planning for bad or unexpected things happening?
We didn’t run down the lady with our car! We didn’t turn the market bad – in fact the market effects all of us. Even those who gave these people a mortgage are not to blame. They didn’t force them to take the mortgage. It’s a free market – this couple could and did make their own decisions. How is the mortgage company greedy because they expect their contract to be honored?
I guess what I was trying to convey is that this couple is trying to meet the goals they set for themselves. They are failing due to the rough road and they of all people are not asking for a handout. They could take the easy way out and claim poormouth, but they won’t give up.
They are human and have every right to free themselves from abusive relationships just as anybody else does. Just as they have a right to raise a family, that is the core of our existance.
My point is, as most others here is they took a responsible path by eliminating their debt and not overtaxing the value of their home. They had a choice to borrow a lot more and declined, much to the bewilderment of the lender.
They struggled through unforseen difficult times that they were attempting to prepare for. I’m not saying that there bad luck is anybodys fault. It just happens.
They tried all their lives to to the right thing for themselves and their fellow Americans by following the “American Dream” by working hard and paying there dues. Their home is not extravagent by any means but that was the market at that time.
Now at a critical time in their lives the economy tanks and they, along with all of you, are expected to bail out the “Good Time Charleys” (I love that analogy, by the way.) Because of their health problems they would like to sell their home and move to another situation that better suits their needs. They obviosly can’t sell it without a huge loss.
I agree 100% that the ones out there that went above their means should be told tough s##t, But I have also witnessed first hand, several times the lender “pushing” their wares aggressivly. They make a commission on that sale and will do whatever it takes to sell you more.
Most people will believe what they are hearing for several reasons. Most believed that their home would increase in value because that was the truth at the time. The problem is that most first time home buyers aren’t savvy enough to understand the system and buy into it.
I think that the lenders and the home buyers should shoulder the responsibility. Looking at this plan I don’t think a lot of people are going to make out better if they try to take advantage of the system. I could be wrong, but in most cases they still have to pay back the money they borrowed because the loan will be extended to 40 years. They will lower the percentage rate because the lender should not make money on that additional ten years.
I’m sure that some will figure out a way to scam the system, they have to live with themselves and that will be punishment in itself.
Katablog -
Abosultely agree with you. I don’t see any fault in the mortgage company (in this case). My point was this family is in a bad spot because of medical problems, not because a bad mortgage.
I would not be suprised when, 10 years from now, we look back on this time with the benefit of hindsight, we see that a major portion of the economic problems today are really being caused by medical costs.
I know too many people who simply can not afford to fix what is wrong with them; so they end up languishing instead of getting better. They are always either in pain or depressed. They do crappy work at their jobs, and either can’t hold a job or they get fired or simply not promoted.
Getting farther off-topic here, but why is it that when I got blood work last month “The Bill” from Quest Diagnostics was for $3000, but Blue Cross Blue Shield reduced it to $200 for their negotiated rate (I ended up paying $40 for my share). If Quest is willing to accept $200 for the work just because I have insurance, why would they expect $3000 from someone without insurance?
Whether or not I personally have insurance should be irrelevant to how much the doctor gets paid for the services he renders. Who actually pays the bill should be between me and my insurance.
This is not just Quest, every doctor bill I ever get is the same way. Even my pediatrician charges $200 for visit, but accepts $60-ish from insurance.
I would just like to say i’ve been a taxpayer all my life.Now i’m disabled im in a car loan at 25% interest.Reason being is back in 2007 we found out our Son it was found out he has a inopperal brain tumor.We went in the hole paying our bills& mySon’s.Our 2007 vehicle was repoed.So now we are in a underwater loan we will never get out of.My Son lives a 70 mile roundtrip visit away from us. the kicker is it’s one of the banks thhat got a bailout.So now they are holding a gun to my head on this loan.We are not looking for a hand out just a fair shake.These dealerships have all these vehicles on there lot’s but no deals out there for people in our boat. Not taking it out on the dealers it’s the bailedout banks.Thank You for letting me blow off steam