You are admitted to the hospital for a surgical procedure. Your surgeon's office staff has told you to use this hospital because it is "in network" so your "surgery" will be covered there. You get a bill when you get home which shows your surgeon's fee was covered.
But then you get bills from the anesthesiologist who was not even present for your surgery--his nurse anesthetist was--but his group does not accept your insurance, so you owe him $4500.
Then the bill from the doctor who monitored your nerve impulses electronically from his office in Sante Fe arrives--another $3000, also not covered by your insurance, although your surgery was done "in network."
You never met or were even aware of either of these doctors, but you must have signed some forms among the thousand you signed in five minutes.
You can refuse to pay, be sued but do you have a lawyer?
You know the anesthesiology group and the mystery doctor have lawyers. Your credit score will be trashed.
Your senator gets $500,000 from the banking lobby and votes for a bill which scuttles protection against banking fraud, recklessness and abuse and you will be paying for the next financial collapse through high taxes. When the lobbyist handed over the attache case of money he did not say, "Now vote for this bill." That would be a bribe. He said, "We are so happy you are our friend. We know you will have our back in the future." That is perfectly legal.
You have trained for six years to become a specialist in your field of medicine. You have been evaluated daily, hourly, for the quality of your care, for your ability to analyze a wide variety of medical problems. You chose to train at a very intense, big city hospital where you would see more cases, a wider variety of cases, than most doctors who train at community hospitals will see in a lifetime.
But before you can claim to be a specialist, you must pass a "board exam" given by the society of specialists in your field. You must pay $1500 to take the course they offer as "board review." You must then pay another $1500 to stay in the hotel where they give the exam, and another $1500 to "sit" for the exam.
All of this supports the specialty society, in the name of ensuring the "quality" of specialists certified to practice. Every few years you will pay again, to ensure the ongoing quality of your care.
The society is very vigilant to protect the public health. The president of the society makes $1 million a year. Without the society's diploma, you cannot get privileges at any hospital and without those you cannot be licensed to practice in any state.
You are not Black. You are, in fact, not poor, although you may have school debts. You do not have to contend with the daily drumbeat of insults, injustices the Black janitor has to put up with just driving to work and encountering police.
But you know, somehow, there is something very corrupt about the society in which you live.
You are not stopped by police on your way to work, not faced with demands for bribes, not on the street anyway.
The extortion is not so brazen, but it is scaled up. And it is so pervasive we don't even think about it as corrupt any more. It's just the way our country works.
People in power shake down those below them.
You open the telephone bill for your office phones and find a bill for internet services $50 a month. You do not recognize the company. You ask your secretary, the staff. None of them know anything about this. You get your internet through the office building as part of your lease. You call the telephone company and they say the charge is not theirs but was added by a company with whom you contracted; they just do the billing. You call the company and they play you a recording of your secretary saying, "Yes" to a series of questions from the company's employee. "Do you want to sign up for our service? "Yes." Your secretary says she never talked to them, but she does answer the phone and if asked if this is Dr. So and so's office, she would say, "Yes." It's a scam. You call the FCC--good luck finding that number. You spend an hour going from number to number and finally leave a message on a voice mail.
You will never see that money again. You paid the $55 bill monthly for a year before you found that item among the 14 page phone bill.
You do not live in a third world country. You do not live in Colombia or Mexico or Sicily.
You live in America.
You find you have had several new accounts opened under your name at Wells Fargo Bank, one of the biggest banks in America, where your money should be safe.
Your President is still keen to call his defeated opponent, "Crooked Hillary."
Here's my question: In this country, who isn't?
But then you get bills from the anesthesiologist who was not even present for your surgery--his nurse anesthetist was--but his group does not accept your insurance, so you owe him $4500.
Then the bill from the doctor who monitored your nerve impulses electronically from his office in Sante Fe arrives--another $3000, also not covered by your insurance, although your surgery was done "in network."
You never met or were even aware of either of these doctors, but you must have signed some forms among the thousand you signed in five minutes.
You can refuse to pay, be sued but do you have a lawyer?
You know the anesthesiology group and the mystery doctor have lawyers. Your credit score will be trashed.
Your senator gets $500,000 from the banking lobby and votes for a bill which scuttles protection against banking fraud, recklessness and abuse and you will be paying for the next financial collapse through high taxes. When the lobbyist handed over the attache case of money he did not say, "Now vote for this bill." That would be a bribe. He said, "We are so happy you are our friend. We know you will have our back in the future." That is perfectly legal.
You have trained for six years to become a specialist in your field of medicine. You have been evaluated daily, hourly, for the quality of your care, for your ability to analyze a wide variety of medical problems. You chose to train at a very intense, big city hospital where you would see more cases, a wider variety of cases, than most doctors who train at community hospitals will see in a lifetime.
But before you can claim to be a specialist, you must pass a "board exam" given by the society of specialists in your field. You must pay $1500 to take the course they offer as "board review." You must then pay another $1500 to stay in the hotel where they give the exam, and another $1500 to "sit" for the exam.
All of this supports the specialty society, in the name of ensuring the "quality" of specialists certified to practice. Every few years you will pay again, to ensure the ongoing quality of your care.
The society is very vigilant to protect the public health. The president of the society makes $1 million a year. Without the society's diploma, you cannot get privileges at any hospital and without those you cannot be licensed to practice in any state.
You are not Black. You are, in fact, not poor, although you may have school debts. You do not have to contend with the daily drumbeat of insults, injustices the Black janitor has to put up with just driving to work and encountering police.
But you know, somehow, there is something very corrupt about the society in which you live.
You are not stopped by police on your way to work, not faced with demands for bribes, not on the street anyway.
The extortion is not so brazen, but it is scaled up. And it is so pervasive we don't even think about it as corrupt any more. It's just the way our country works.
People in power shake down those below them.
You open the telephone bill for your office phones and find a bill for internet services $50 a month. You do not recognize the company. You ask your secretary, the staff. None of them know anything about this. You get your internet through the office building as part of your lease. You call the telephone company and they say the charge is not theirs but was added by a company with whom you contracted; they just do the billing. You call the company and they play you a recording of your secretary saying, "Yes" to a series of questions from the company's employee. "Do you want to sign up for our service? "Yes." Your secretary says she never talked to them, but she does answer the phone and if asked if this is Dr. So and so's office, she would say, "Yes." It's a scam. You call the FCC--good luck finding that number. You spend an hour going from number to number and finally leave a message on a voice mail.
You will never see that money again. You paid the $55 bill monthly for a year before you found that item among the 14 page phone bill.
You do not live in a third world country. You do not live in Colombia or Mexico or Sicily.
You live in America.
You find you have had several new accounts opened under your name at Wells Fargo Bank, one of the biggest banks in America, where your money should be safe.
Your President is still keen to call his defeated opponent, "Crooked Hillary."
Here's my question: In this country, who isn't?
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