Michigan Free Women's Services

[moosmom]

Any woman in the State of Michigan on this site who has no insurance coverage, I urge you to call this number if you have not had a pap smear or mammogram. It's FREE!!! My appointment is on October 14th at 5:10 pm.

1-888-242-2702

[kingrattus]

U guys have to pay for that?? I assumed it was included in a checkup??


DO u guys have to pay for checkups too???

[lizzielou742]

Depends on your insurance (if you have any) and who you see (a special girlie doctor vs. your regular doctor). But no, it's not usually included, at least not for me.

[mugsy]

We don't have socialized medicine in the U.S., so yes, we have to pay for our medical expenses. If you have insurance (which you pay for), the cost is less....for example. My insurance company pays 90% and I pay 10% (as long as it's a preferred provider....80/20 if it's not).

[carole]

Wow that is a great scheme, we have free mammograms for women 45 and up , but only every two years, as I have to have one yearly, I prefer to pay, also unfortunately when my mother was at our local hospital, it appeared all the women who had been missed and turned out to have BC, had their mammograms at the hospital, so my faith in them is not high, so I just fork out the 120 dollars a year for top service and reliable results.

Sometimes free is not always best., we have no free Cervical smears as yet.

[moosmom]

:confused: :confused: :confused:

I guess my point got a little misguided. I don't consider it a scheme if it's free for women like me who DON'T have insurance.

The services are being provided free by the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Dearborn, Michigan.

[carole]

oops I think you mis-understood me Donna, scheme was the wrong choice of wording, I did not mean it that way, I think its a great thing, its all good in my book, women's health has been neglected for far too long, bring on the FREEBIES.:)

[kingrattus]

I thought checkups in the usa were free. I thought u just had to pay for operations, emergencies, and specialty dr.s.

That blows.. ur such a rich country & don't have free health care. Do u guys not mind paying for it?? Why not make an uproar about this?

Canada isn't a rich country, we're well off & we have free health care.

Normal Dr.s can do a pap & all the basic stuff. U don't need a special dr. for that kind of stuff. But when there r signs of a problem then they send to to a special Dr. Like the one I plan to see after xmas.

[catnapper]

In the US, we don't have free healthcare at all. We all carry health insurance if available through work, and if its not, many many Americans go without it. To see the doctor for even a sore throat is expensive... with my insurance plan, just to walk through the door and put my name in with the receptionist, I pay $20. Some insurances ask for more or less money as a "co-pay" If you don't have insurance, the fee might be $75 or more, depending on the doctor and the area you live in.

To have insurance, a person will pay a monthly fee - as much as $500 per person a month. Many companies offer it to their employees and pay all or part of that monthly fee. Its up to each employer to decided what type of insurance coverage they'll offer, how much they'll pay and how much you pay, as well as how much "copay" you'll have at the doctor. Once upon a time I had such phenomenol coverage that all doctors, even specialists were $5 and all prescriptions, even those fancy name brand were $5. Then the company got sold and we went from that to $25 copays and $20 prescriptions :(

Did any of that make sense? I'm trying to type a really convoluted system in two paragraphs!

Donna, that is a wonderful thing for women. Thanks for the reminder to schedule my own appointment.

[kingrattus]

Wow, that still sucks, IMO anyway.

We have to pay for prescriptions, some employeers will cover some or all of that cost.

Where I work, I pay .50 for my 39.00 Evera Patch (its the birth Control Patch), & all other approved meds cost .50. Mind u I work for a pharmacy company so thats why its so cheap.

Also many employeers will reimburse it, after u pay it first.. I don't its .50 out of my pocket only.


I'm pretty sure the stupid Liberals removed eye care, because they would rather blow the money on stupid things, or MORE scandles!!

But my job pays for eye care & dental care so I'm covered. & my pay is crappy too, so its super nice to be covered in everything.

[moosmom]

Carole,

I didn't take it in a bad way. I'm just glad that the services are available to me. I have a history of fibrocystic disease and need a mammogram desperately, since the last time I had one was just after my hysterectomy 5 years ago.

I'm just urging all Michigan women who need these free services to take advantage of them!!!

[carole]

After much petitioning here in NZ we finally got the age lowered to 45, for free mammograms, it was 50, to 65 , now it is 45 to 70, which makes far more sense, my mother was 68 when she had her BC, it often strikes later in life.

We have in NZ what we call a Community Services Card which allows people on lower incomes and beneficiarys much lower Doctors fees and prescriptions, it is around 30 to 35 dollars for a visit to the Doctor with it and like another 10 to 15 dollars more without it, but the scripts is the big save, we pay only 3 dollars per item and nothing on repeats, however up until some years ago scripts were free, so we took it kinda hard at first., without the card it can cost anything from 15 dollars per item, it is however hard on a limited income even with these benefits, we paid out over 100 dollars in two weeks for two of us to visit the doctor and one was a child, they get cheaper rates.

At the moment it will cost 25 dollars for a smear taken by a Nurse, and for the mammogram 120.00.

I have private medical insurance, which covers surgery only and that costs us around 1200 per year for my family of four., we struggle to pay it, but it is worth every cent, I don't want to have to wait on a waiting list for a cancer operation or whatever and risk my life.