Mennonite Measles in Texas

[JohnH]

I am still waiting for your 80 emergency care visit without insurance. I looked up the median for the relevant CPT code. It is not 80$, if the child is sick. Many in our community do not have insurance, remember?

I feel like a broken record here, but I said $80 for a "doctor visit", not going into the ER. I switch to a mutual aid plan a few years ago and asked my doctor what cash price would be. It was $80 for any visit. That's generally the standard around here.

When my kids are sick I call my primary care provider and either get in the same day or get an appointment the next day. (There is also a walk in clinic if I wanted to do that but I usually prefer to see our family doctor.)

But if you don't have insurance:

- Generally HCAP kicks in for people under 250% of FPL. ($120k for a family of 5 kids in Texas.)
- Medicaid in Texas kicks in at $63k annual income or less for a family of 5 kids.
- If you use mutual aid, well, use mutual aid. That means asking for help if you can't afford something. That's how mutual aid works.
- A hospital will work with you if you have an ER visit you can't pay for. I had one when I was between jobs around 15 years ago, when the medical safety net wasn't nearly as good as it is now. They reviewed my tax return, income, etc. and first said I was only responsible for $1,000. Later on after a secondary review it was reduced to nothing.
- Check healthcare.gov for health plans - they may be cheaper than someone thinks.

We have a big safety net in America.

[GaryK]

I am still waiting for your 80 emergency care visit without insurance. I looked up the median for the relevant CPT code. It is not 80$, if the child is sick. Many in our community do not have insurance, remember?

I feel like a broken record here, but I said $80 for a "doctor visit", not going into the ER. I switch to a mutual aid plan a few years ago and asked my doctor what cash price would be. It was $80 for any visit. That's generally the standard around here.

I am self-pay for doctor visits and a regular visit is $80 for me as well.

[Soloist]

It really depends on how many children you need to take in.
If I want get vaccines for my children, I can go to the health department here, back where we used to live I had a deal where we would pay for one office visit plus the cost of the vaccines for doing more than one child at a time. The office visit was 140$.
Economic wise, it was easier to pay a monthly fee to a doctor for all of us then have an appointment scheduled then pay the entry cost given it was at least 100+ for almost everything.
Prices differ dramatically, depending on location.
I’m seeing a cardiac specialist for 118$ and I am kind of used to at least 300 for a specialist…

Contrary to certain forum member’s arguments, I don’t qualify for financial aid even with five children. I could get my children paid for, but I don’t really want to see the doctors down here for them. It seems like in the liberal states it’s easier to find doctors that are friendly to unvaccinated patients which sounds really ironic.

[Ken]

I am still waiting for your 80 emergency care visit without insurance. I looked up the median for the relevant CPT code. It is not 80$, if the child is sick. Many in our community do not have insurance, remember?

I feel like a broken record here, but I said $80 for a "doctor visit", not going into the ER. I switch to a mutual aid plan a few years ago and asked my doctor what cash price would be. It was $80 for any visit. That's generally the standard around here.

When my kids are sick I call my primary care provider and either get in the same day or get an appointment the next day. (There is also a walk in clinic if I wanted to do that but I usually prefer to see our family doctor.)

But if you don't have insurance:

- Generally HCAP kicks in for people under 250% of FPL. ($120k for a family of 5 kids in Texas.)
- Medicaid in Texas kicks in at $63k annual income or less for a family of 5 kids.
- If you use mutual aid, well, use mutual aid. That means asking for help if you can't afford something. That's how mutual aid works.
- A hospital will work with you if you have an ER visit you can't pay for. I had one when I was between jobs around 15 years ago, when the medical safety net wasn't nearly as good as it is now. They reviewed my tax return, income, etc. and first said I was only responsible for $1,000. Later on after a secondary review it was reduced to nothing.
- Check healthcare.gov for health plans - they may be cheaper than someone thinks.

We have a big safety net in America.

And what is your doctor's office supposed to do with a child that is sick with the measles?

[JohnH]

And what is your doctor's office supposed to do with a child that is sick with the measles?

I'm not a doctor, so I can't give medical advice about that.

However, given that the rate of survival of measles in the UK is 1 in 5,000 or 1 in 10,000, it would seem a doctor's office should do whatever they are doing over in the UK that works.

Ken, everyone used to get measles, and it would be treated. The idea there is no treatment at all for measles is hogwash.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I am still waiting for your 80 emergency care visit without insurance. I looked up the median for the relevant CPT code. It is not 80$, if the child is sick. Many in our community do not have insurance, remember?

I feel like a broken record here, but I said $80 for a "doctor visit", not going into the ER. I switch to a mutual aid plan a few years ago and asked my doctor what cash price would be. It was $80 for any visit. That's generally the standard around here.

When my kids are sick I call my primary care provider and either get in the same day or get an appointment the next day. (There is also a walk in clinic if I wanted to do that but I usually prefer to see our family doctor.)

But if you don't have insurance:

- Generally HCAP kicks in for people under 250% of FPL. ($120k for a family of 5 kids in Texas.)
- Medicaid in Texas kicks in at $63k annual income or less for a family of 5 kids.
- If you use mutual aid, well, use mutual aid. That means asking for help if you can't afford something. That's how mutual aid works.
- A hospital will work with you if you have an ER visit you can't pay for. I had one when I was between jobs around 15 years ago, when the medical safety net wasn't nearly as good as it is now. They reviewed my tax return, income, etc. and first said I was only responsible for $1,000. Later on after a secondary review it was reduced to nothing.
- Check healthcare.gov for health plans - they may be cheaper than someone thinks.

We have a big safety net in America.

And what is your doctor's office supposed to do with a child that is sick with the measles?

If they have the beginnings of respiratory failure, send them to the hospital ER.

[Ken]

And what is your doctor's office supposed to do with a child that is sick with the measles?

I'm not a doctor, so I can't give medical advice about that.

However, given that the rate of survival of measles in the UK is 1 in 5,000 or 1 in 10,000, it would seem a doctor's office should do whatever they are doing over in the UK that works.

Ken, everyone used to get measles, and it would be treated. The idea there is no treatment at all for measles is hogwash.

You know very well why you can't come up with an office visit treatment for measles. Because there is none.

People in the UK have a much higher survival rate from measles compared to the Mennonite colonies in Seminole Texas because they have a much higher vaccination rate. And so when a few people still get measles despite being vaccinated, they get a much milder form of the disease. The measles vaccine doesn't just protect against catching the disease. It also reduces the severity of the disease if you are among the 1 or 2% who will still catch it despite being vaccinated.

The standard of care for measles is to get your children vaccinated. Anything else is negligence.

[Judas Maccabeus]

And what is your doctor's office supposed to do with a child that is sick with the measles?

I'm not a doctor, so I can't give medical advice about that.

However, given that the rate of survival of measles in the UK is 1 in 5,000 or 1 in 10,000, it would seem a doctor's office should do whatever they are doing over in the UK that works.

Ken, everyone used to get measles, and it would be treated. The idea there is no treatment at all for measles is hogwash.

I had measles. It was not treated with anything but aspirin at the time. Treatment is supportive only.

[Ken]

I feel like a broken record here, but I said $80 for a "doctor visit", not going into the ER. I switch to a mutual aid plan a few years ago and asked my doctor what cash price would be. It was $80 for any visit. That's generally the standard around here.

When my kids are sick I call my primary care provider and either get in the same day or get an appointment the next day. (There is also a walk in clinic if I wanted to do that but I usually prefer to see our family doctor.)

But if you don't have insurance:

- Generally HCAP kicks in for people under 250% of FPL. ($120k for a family of 5 kids in Texas.)
- Medicaid in Texas kicks in at $63k annual income or less for a family of 5 kids.
- If you use mutual aid, well, use mutual aid. That means asking for help if you can't afford something. That's how mutual aid works.
- A hospital will work with you if you have an ER visit you can't pay for. I had one when I was between jobs around 15 years ago, when the medical safety net wasn't nearly as good as it is now. They reviewed my tax return, income, etc. and first said I was only responsible for $1,000. Later on after a secondary review it was reduced to nothing.
- Check healthcare.gov for health plans - they may be cheaper than someone thinks.

We have a big safety net in America.

And what is your doctor's office supposed to do with a child that is sick with the measles?

If they have the beginnings of respiratory failure, send them to the hospital ER.

And will the ER visit and subsequent ICU treatment be included in that $80 office visit charge?

[JohnH]

And will the ER visit and subsequent ICU treatment be included in that $80 office visit charge?

As I have documented over and over, nobody needs to worry about what an ER visit or ICU treatment will cost. If the family with 5 kids earns under $120k, they can be fully covered under CHIP or Medicaid. If they earn over that, they can use traditional health insurance. If they choose to use a mutual aid sort of arrangement, mutual aid frequently pays for things like ER visits and ICU stays.