[ElRay]

Hillary's stumping about "An uninsured Ohio pregnant woman lost her baby and died because she could not afford a $100 up-front fee." Too bad the reality is that the lady died two weeks after her baby was delivered (unfortunately stillborn), she was never denied care, she had a regular OB, she was insured, she would have been covered under Medicaid if she wasn't, and hospitals in most states (Ohio being one of them) prohibit withholding lifesaving care even if they suspect the patient can't pay.

Her defense? She claims she's just repeating a story she heard and saw no reason to doubt it. Seems her healthcare research is as thorough as her pre-Iraq invasion research and her willingness to accept her own mistakes is the same 0% it always has been.

References:

• HILLARY'S TALL TALES ABOUT HEALTH CARE - Yahoo! News
• http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/us...s/05woman.html
• Clinton drops hospital story from stump speech - CNN.com
• ‘World News’ Leads With Hillary’s Uninsured Pregnant Woman Fib | NewsBusters.org

Some links my need a login, use BugMeNot.com if you need one.

Ray

[TheMissing]

No doctor would deny a patient because of an upfront fee.

They'd rather work on him/her and bill her extra LATER. That's how it works.

[YYZ2112]

I heard about this the other day. I still think the Bosnia story was the best. She will say or do anything to get elected.

[Xaios]

Hillary Clinton - Making Republicans look like honest, virtuous folk since 2006.

[Drew]

Clinton's tale part truth, part errors - Yahoo! News

I'm no Clinton supporter, but this is a little blurrier than "Clinton lied." turns out she got the story wrong, but the facts of the case aren't far off:

THE FACTS:

Clinton said she heard the story from Meigs County Deputy Sheriff Bryan Holman during a visit to Pomeroy, before the March 4 Ohio primary.

In a March 26 phone interview with The Associated Press, Holman said he had told Clinton the story in essentially the same way she was retelling it in her speeches. He said he knew the Bachtel story only second hand, and lacked several details.

The AP then spoke with Bachtel's aunt, Susie Casto of Middleport, who helped raise the woman. She said Bachtel, who worked at a pizza parlor, did in fact have health insurance when she and her baby died.

But at an earlier time, Casto said, Bachtel lacked health insurance and ran up unpaid bills when treated at a clinic near her home in Middleport. When she returned for treatment when pregnant, the clinic demanded $100 per visit to help retire the outstanding debt, Casto said. Because Bachtel could not afford the fees and found it difficult to travel, her aunt said, she postponed receiving treatment.

Bachtel eventually went to O'Bleness, about 30 miles to the north, for attention.

Casto declined to name the clinics or hospitals involved, and said she felt medical professionals did all they could to save Bachtel and her unborn child.

Pomeroy has about 2,000 residents and two medical clinics. One is affiliated with O'Bleness, the other is the Holzer Clinic, part of a nine-facility chain.

O'Bleness Health System spokeswoman Lynn Anastos said Monday that Bachtel was not a patient at their Pomeroy facility and "she would not have been turned away for lack of payment" if she had sought treatment there.

Holzer associate administrator Jim Blevins said his company has no record of Bachtel being a patient for the past five years. About half of Holzer's patients are "charity cases," he said, and the company tries to work out payment schedules with those who fall behind on their bills.

In some cases, Blevins said, Holzer clinics place "credit restrictions" on patients believed to be able but unwilling to pay their bills. That would not apply to patients needing immediate or emergency care, he said.

Clinton erred in telling audiences that the Ohio woman lacked insurance when seeking help for her troubled pregnancy. But according to Casto's account, Bachtel's medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence of Clinton's now-abandoned account: the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home.

[Bound]

Originally Posted by TheMissing

No doctor would deny a patient because of an upfront fee.

They'd rather work on him/her and bill her extra LATER. That's how it works.

Absolutely. I'm not sure about where you guys are from, but all the hospitals in my area admit you, and send you the bill later. Insurance or not.

I even had an instance where I was between jobs and went to my primary and I recieved pretty much the same pay scedule ( it was maybe $15 more) that I got with my health insurance. Simply because, I had, at one point held insurance with them.

I mean, I probably would've been screwed if it had been something serious but it was just some Strep.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Bound

Absolutely. I'm not sure about where you guys are from, but all the hospitals in my area admit you, and send you the bill later. Insurance or not.

I've only been to the ER once as an adult, and they didn't even ask me. I had to bring it up, and the woman I was talking to said, "Oh, we really don't care one way or another. That's up to billing, we just need to check you out and make sure you're ok."

[TheMissing]

Originally Posted by Drew

I've only been to the ER once as an adult, and they didn't even ask me. I had to bring it up, and the woman I was talking to said, "Oh, we really don't care one way or another. That's up to billing, we just need to check you out and make sure you're ok."

Yeah, I've been to the ER twice. When I was in the 6th grade, my mom brought me in, we signed in, and then I went to see a doctor so he could check me out to make sure I was okay, and then I got stitches. We didn't have to provide insurance until afterwards when they were billing us out...

And the last time I was in the ER two years ago it was the same thing.

If you've ever seen the show '30 Days' when they tried living on minimum wage for a month, they both wound up in the ER and all they got was treatment then a bill.

[Buzz762]

At about 90%* of the ERs I've been into, I'm usually still waiting for a nurse to come so we can transfer care when someone from admissions comes and gets the patients social security info and insurance information. Not that it matters much anyways. If the patient can't pay (regardless of medicare or medicaid eligibility), the hospital (unless it's a military hospital or Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children) is still required by federal law to stabilize the patient. EMTALA states that a patient that is requesting care MUST be examined for the presence of an emergency condition or active labor. If one is found, the hospital must then stabilize the patient/deliver the baby AND placenta and then can either: discharge or transport into the care of a more appropriate facility.


*It should be noted at the other 10% the patient was a Priority 1 so we essentially were entering the ED with a patient that was likely to die within minutes without appropriate care.

[ElRay]

This "defense" has been bugging me, and I just heard somebody else defend Hillary on her misstatements, and called people that expect her to verify everything she hears unrealistic and misogynists, so I have to comment:
Not a dig at Drew, just spelling-out the irrelevance bold-faced lie vs. not verifying your facts defense

Originally Posted by Drew

... this is a little blurrier than "Clinton lied." turns out she got the story wrong, but the facts of the case aren't far off

So, what's worse? She actively lied, or she once again charged ahead without verifying her information? She didn't bother to read the intelligence report before voting to invade Iraq and then used her ignorance as an excuse when she flip-flopped, she's done the same thing trying to railroad (remember, Reno decided not to prosecute Hillary's illegal meetings as First Lady) her communistic (she's gone beyond socialistic) universal healthcare plans, she's slagged other candidates without getting her facts straight (all the while decrying "mudslinging" by the other candidates -- they're addressing issues, she's the only one slinging mud), etc.

Ray