Insured or Uninsured?......That is the question.

What's your health coverage status? Full disclosure - I'm covered by my employer's plan, which I'd describe as marginal (and sinking).....and it might or might not be operated by an insurance company with a five-letter name that begins and ends with "A". Just sayin' ......

:think:

because my employer pays for 90% of it. about $900/month

Been suffering from back problems for years - has two herniated disks, L4 and L5. The total cost of the MRI was about 1,800.00. We got a bill in the mail for a little over a thousand. Another expense right now that we just can't handle, I'm going to have to send about 15.00 a month ... I would say marginal at best.

nevermind that we all mind end up losing everything if we ever get sick... but it's the BEST!!! sorry you are having to deal with that bs on top of a back problem.

We have BCBS of NC - they are notorious for dropping coverage. Hubby already went to a back surgeon, who thankfully told him that he was the very, very, extreme last resort - even said that he makes his living cutting people up and that he didn't want to see him again for a long time (the surgery only has about a 60% success rate) - the surgeon even told us that his insurance sucked, and to take a course of over the counter Ibuprofen instead of any expensive anti-inflammatories that he could proscribe. Thought that was really decent of him. But the thought of being dropped scares the crap out of us, we have two children, ages 8 and 4 ... you can not put a price on their health care.

healthcare on our representatives so that maybe they would be more inclined to DO SOMETHING!!! this is ridiculous. maybe if they were in the same boat as the rest of us...

A French pharma company.

I'm right there with you. :hug:

We're closer than ever before!!!

:dem:

-Laelth

and refuse to support for profit insurance company... hope I don't get sick before the PO is put in place. :shrug:

It's the choice we made years ago. Our family business has been kicked around and spit on by the "for profit" insurance industry. I don't feel compelled to write them a monthly check.

I had to make a non-urgent appointment today with my doctor, and I was given the choice of coming in at 3:30 on Wednesday or 8:30 Thursday morning. CAN YOU BELIEVE THE INSANE NAZI FASCIST POL POT MARXIST WAITING LIST IN THIS BACKWARD COUNTRY?!!?? At least I wasn't referred to a death panel.

... we have no coverage. I can't buy it at any price.

Our backup plan, if you can call it that, is to throw the keys into our underwater house and take a flight to Canada where I still have citizenship. Yes, you heard me right, I will flee to a communist, fascist, socialist, degenerate, insane, waiting listed, death panelled country so that I could recieve world class health care.

Thank God for Canada and thank Buddha for Canadians. If the US doesn't get single payer and soon then this country is doomed.

was once provided by my most recent job. good insurance, good enough to continue on COBRA as long as i can afford it.

I can't afford to "go to the poorhouse". If anything goes wrong, I will cope with it at home, get medical treatment to the best of my financial ability, and either get better, or die. I will refuse to be transported by ambulance or cared for in an ER beyond what I can pay in cash, because I am already in debt and I've learned the hard way that debt snowballs--or avalanches.

That reminds me, next time I see the free clinic doctor I need to ask her for a DNR.

Tucker

for lack of insurance. Got bad head aches starting about two weeks ago. Hoping it isn't a pending aneurysm or stroke. They run on one side of the family. Sure would like to see a Dr. Just spent 6 grand for two hours in the ER one year ago from a bicycling accident. Barely scraping by as an under employed educator. Hoping it will pass soon. I am too young to die for the cause of capitalism.

apparently unemployable, nearly broke, and so so very tired. Sorry, just a moment of feeling sorry for myself. :::smack up the side of the head:::: okay, I'm feeling okay. Rah, rah, hope and all.

:hug:

Well, more like I did a few years ago. Now a days, I don't know how I feel. I have a bad heart, just went through having cancer in both breasts (a different type of cancer in each of them) and had my doctors basically thinking I was going to die. I accepted my coming death and prepared for it.

Four years ago, right after my congestive heart failure, I finally got disability and medicaid. I now have half the medical care I need and it has made a difference. All of my check-ups and test are coming back pretty good. My doctors smile when they see me. I still have a hundred things wrong with me, am very limited in what I can do physically, but I am doing better than anyone expected me to. I feel depressed. Now that I don't expect to die any day, I probably will and I won't be ready for it. Dang! :rofl:

Been there, doing that. Just a little note for you: after a while, that smack up the side of your head will only give you a headache. At least aspirin is cheap... Rah, rah, hope and...ummmm...whatever. Fingers crossed for both of us and anyone else in our shoes--if only because they're stuck that way, it's been so long. ;-)

horde my last few thousand dollars to eat and buy gas for the car I'll be sleeping in, or keep paying the mortgage and bills and hoep that tomorrow there will be some postings for real jobs instead of scam after scam.

I would retire yesterday if I could take my insurance with me. I'm not old enough for Medicare.

that is part of my retirement package from my job in education. I have Kaiser and I'm very happy with it.

and it's increasing at an unrealistic rate

or quite good in the abstract. My plan is quite good compared to others (although not the best I've had). In the abstract its between marginal and quite good. We just changed providers and I hope it will be better. Did not like the last provider.

it still leaves me one catastrophic illness away from the poorhouse. WTF good is a policy with a $6K deductible and $80K cap? Best of all, this is the "improved" policy my company changed to last year. And yes, it's Aetna.

I'm presently at the time of year when I have to decide whether to stay in or stick my money in the bank where it might actually do me some good. Unfortunately, now I'm old enough (my youngest just left the nest) that something stupid could develop and I might need it, regardless of how bad it is. I know for a fact that I can't get a policy elsewhere because I tried last year and was told to fuck off by everyone. I haven't even seen a doctor for 10 years, hardly ever before that, am not going to get pregnant, have no health issues, and you would think would be a pretty safe gamble. Nope. Not if they consider you old, fat, and female. :grr:

which should be the model for the rest of the country.

Yes, it has its issues, but boy it is one of the best programs in the country.

A pistol in the mouth if the pain gets too bad.

I will keep that insurance before I'll give a nickel to a For Profit Health Insurance Corporation.

they pay 80%, and the medicare supplemental private coverage is supposed to pick up the rest.
but- since i'm disabled, NOBODY will sell me the supplemental coverage at any price.
so- until i turn 65, and there's an open enrollment period- i'm on the hook for that 20%.
and- i'm 48 now.

Last November.

My employer pays my medical insurance. I have a high deductible plan because I rarely go to the doctor or am sick. I have a health savings account that my employer pays into and I pay into. My deductible is $1,500 and my employer pays into the HSA $900 a year so if I use that for the editable that brings the deductible down to $600 out of pocket.

I'm a vegetarian and just lost $23 lbs by adjusting my caloric intake and exercise. I have 10 lbs to go to be at optimum body mass.

People need to start taking better care of themselves to reduce the need for medical treatment.
That's why I decided to take off the extra pounds.

I agree with that statement and good for you reducing your weight and having access to health insurance. But, shit happens.

I quit smoking tobacco and started riding a bike three years ago. While out exercising one day and trying to "reduce my need for medical treatment", it only took a split second to crash and break a collar bone, two ribs, my c-7 vertabrae and compress all of my upper cervical discs.

I have good friends who take excellent care of themselves who have had strokes or been in car accidents. Shit happens and hard working taxpaying American citizens should not have to suffer the consequence of poverty because of it.

Respectfully, your comment here makes you sound like a republican bootstrapper.

doing what I can today.

There were times when I was clinically depressed with no health insurance and no job. I lost everything but today I am in a better place. Shit just may happen again but that doesn't stop me from doing what I can do today.

on edit: I generally think that I am responsible for most of the shit that happens to me in one way or the other.

you should feel very fortunate. Boot strap away!
I'm going to take another uninsured bicycle ride myself!


:hi:

personal responsibility isn't going to treat my bipolar disorder. personal responsibility isn't going to treat my uninsured sister's thyroid disorder. personal responsibility does not preclude the need for preventive care and checkups (including dental). personal responsibility does not shield you from accidents. personal responsibility can only do so much if you're at risk for something due to genetics or family history.

i'm in relatively good health and, when i had health insurance, i rarely saw my doc for anything other than my annual. however, i know i can count on getting really sick once every couple of years or so and i know that without health coverage, it's going to cost me several hundred dollars that i don't have. personal responsibility isn't going to pay that bill, either.

yes, we do have the responsibility to take care of ourselves, but that only goes so far.

born in Iraq.

but I can't really comment on how good it is because I haven't needed it for much. one thing they do, though, that is pretty unusual is that they will fly us to Oakland once a year for a complete physical at the MEBA clinic (that's Marine Engineers Benefit Association), paying plane fare for both of us and the cost of the physical. We go on Medicare in a couple of years, so will lose this bennie, but we've enjoyed the vacations. :)

I own a small primary care clinic. My wife is the medical director and we offer very low cost care for people without insurance (as well as decent care for those with insurance - we don't operate a churn and burn practice). Despite being in the field neither my wife or I have medical insurance. Both of us have pre-existing conditions and we can't get coverage at any price.

I know some highly placed folks in health insurance companies and they tell me that even if pre-existing conditions are not allowed to be rejected for coverage the coverage they will offer will be worth less than the paper the contract is printed on. The costs will be very high, the deductible will be astronomically high and the payout limits will be ridiculously low.

The irony is that although we own a clinic and our employees are covered, we are not. If we get sick then not only will we suffer, but our employees will likely lose their jobs and our patients will be shit out of luck.

This problem is not just greedy (I take home less than my lowest paid employee), lazy (80 hour week) and freeloading (I don't take any government help - period) folks like me but rather the system. We need single payer. I am not alone in saying that the ripples of this problem are felt all across the land and in our big companies ability to compete internationally.

and it's been more than 18 months since i've had it. the plan i had through my old job was, outside of the hoops i had to jump through to see my therapist, was a pretty good plan.