What's So Great About Private Health Insurance?

[Manfred]

Because we still have too much to lose. If I go to the streets, I voluntarily lose my job, health care, etc. because if I take to the streets, I stay there until I achieve my objective or, more likely the case, I end up in a small cell with three squares a day.

We have been well pacified. We are fat Americans only used to armchair quarterbacking.

This is why the French can demonstrate so much against their government. Once your basic needs are met, you have time to look after your country and keep the government in check. This is why Corporate America is so passionately against it and will lie, cheat and, steal to make sure universal health care does not happen. Basic health care for everyone will remove some of the chains and THEY know it!

Universal health care is a civil war!

[Amskeptic]

In the NYT this morning, a Texas representative got shouted down at a town meeting by "local citizens" protesting his stand for healthcare. Turns out his car was blocked, and he was heckled by a "Tea Party" Republican operative who gathered like-minded Republican loyalists who screamed "NO SOCIALISM" during his attempt to inform people of the current health care options.

This is going to be ugly. The misinformation being fomented by these large companies with the undercurrent of torpedoing Obama's every other effort . . . I am truly disgusted, I am really disgusted.
Colin

[hambone]

It feels like the lines have been drawn and people are uniting under their favorite banner without thought or recourse. Same old crap.
The same people that thought W was good for them and their country. Also raging liberal democrats who stand by their pet projects "DOG PARKS" etc. while people starve.
Humanity is capable of great feats of compassion, and really dumb selfish self-justified crap. How do you tell an alcholic Indian to not drink hair spray? All of this comes from THOUGHT, the great black blanket.
I'm befuddled.

[Sylvester]

67 million people uninsured. There are people who cannot understand that if I am uninsured, of little money, and break my leg and go to the hospital, that I will get treated, and in a round about way, they are paying for it anyway? That we all are? Isn't there someone who sees the BENEFIT of covering all these people, the 67 million, even some of you reading this, and sees this is needed, it would help this nation, and that I doubt anyone is going to go broke? Who will go out of business if these 67 million are covered? If we have to give up troops in Germany and Korea, will the Communists and former Warsaw Pact countries care if we roll that savings into universal coverage? I bet an uninsured child with cancer doesn't give a rats ass about troops we still maintain in Europe. I will gladly give up my share of an aircraft carrier, or the next 17 F-22's off the assembly line at Lockheed-Martin, or the next down payment to Israel, to cover at least the children of the 67 million.

How much a year do we pay for uninsured medical costs?

[hambone]

You got it man. Beautifully said.

[zblair]

How much a year do we pay for uninsured medical costs?

I went to a symposium at a local t.v. station on this very topic for Central Texas and they had a formula I can't remember at the moment.... But what I do remember is if you figure in taxes and fees paid to cover what would be considered routine medical care had there been preventive care/affordable insurance available but instead becomes ER treatments at County hospitals and overwhelmed free clinics??? It was a high percentage, several times higher than the cost to cover most of the residents in Central Texas for routine care...

When I interned at Adult Protective Services the number one issue I had to deal with was finding a doctor willing to see a medicare patient who was on the verge of life/death due to lack of life-sustaining treatment and medication. Every day for a year folks, many times in multiples throughout the course of the day...

[Sluggo]

Those of you who have no health insurance on this site reading this, can any of you tell me why you don't have insurance? I am not on a witch hunt, I just want to know why, and if you are concerned.

I have insurance through my Job. My wife & son are covered by my Dental but not Medical. My son gets medicare but my Wife is out in the cold. Why? Because adding them to my insurance would leave us $500 a month to live on (after rent & utilities). I would have to pay $1700 a month to add them. Also, it barely covers anything. I had to fight for days to get a consultation to go with my ECG. They would let the doctor run the test but he couldn't talk to me about it! If something big does happen (from what I've seen with co-workers), they will not cover most of it and still leave me in major debt. Plus I'll have to fight tooth & nail for what I do get! What's the point?

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE NOW!!!

(side note: after what my insurance covers I'd have to pay $1200 per tooth for a root canal! What do they cover?)

[bretski]

As a not-so-gainfully-self-employed-person, I have to pay for my own health insurance. Fortunately, we are a reasonably healthy family.

I have high deductible plan, in which I can contribute pre-tax money to a Health Savings Account. It rolls over from year-to-year, unlike other accounts you can get through an employer cafeteria plan. The premium costs me $392/month. It covers a yearly physical exam for everyone in the family, but we pay for everything else up to the limit of our deductible...around $5200 per year. Once you hit that deductible, everything is covered at 100%, as long as I stay in-network.

This works pretty well, and protects us from catastrophe. Simple math says: at best, my annual health care cost is $4704. At worst, it's $9904. Either way, it's a very significant amount of money. Last year when I broke my clavicle, the ER, orthopod, and surgery rapidly chewed-up that $5200...

Why the hell did I spend the time to type this, when I should be working??? I dunno. Universal healthcare? I dunno, I have mixed feelings about it. Having lived overseas, I've witnesses first hand the dark-side of government run health care. Endless beaurocracy, fighting tooth and nail to get the correct care for your situation, etc.

...on the other hand, I have little love for the mega-insurance cartel that will pleasantly deny you coverage for a pre-existing condition, or jack-up rates 20% year-over-year to improve their bottom line.

If hard-pressed for an answer, I would probably like to see a comprehensive "group" (as in, the US Citizenry) plan that anyone could buy into. Give choices for managed (HMO style) care, or a PPO-type model. Perhaps with an income-based tax credit to help those with lower income levels?

[RussellK]

There is just too much fat. Hospitals systems that have spent the last two decades expanding and now look to recover expenses and fill beds. Pharmaceutical companies that subsidize export sales to nations that have cost control by overpricing US customers. Rebates paid to insurance companies to steer clients toward their product. Doctors offices that install test equipment and then seek ways to create an additional revenue stream. The list goes on. The point is this discussion should not break down to simply demonizing the insurance companies. They are just one kink in the system and if we lay all blame at their feet we miss an opportunity to get this right. It's interesting that the AMA has already sold their soul and in effect have been declared a sacred cow. Not only have they walked away with a guarantee they won't have to give back anything they actually have enhanced themselves by "fixing" a supposed medicare shortpay issue. Well isn't that nice? My quacker gets to keep his two vacation homes. Am I pissed? You'd better believe it.

[Sylvester]

Universal healthcare? I dunno, I have mixed feelings about it. Having lived overseas, I've witnesses first hand the dark-side of government run health care. Endless beaurocracy, fighting tooth and nail to get the correct care for your situation, etc.

...on the other hand, I have little love for the mega-insurance cartel that will pleasantly deny you coverage for a pre-existing condition, or jack-up rates 20% year-over-year to improve their bottom line.

If hard-pressed for an answer, I would probably like to see a comprehensive "group" (as in, the US Citizenry) plan that anyone could buy into. Give choices for managed (HMO style) care, or a PPO-type model. Perhaps with an income-based tax credit to help those with lower income levels?

I am glad you did Bretski. Any idea for insurance for those that don't have it, is better than no idea. I just cannot see how some people, Congress, insurance companies and the ilk see no problem with 67 million uninsured. Do they think most of these people choose not to? You pay $500 a month. I pay over $350. I suppose it is a free country, you don't need insurance, I mean it isn't a law.

[RussellK]

I pay $1200. I'm 56 years old and my wife has MS. Her medicine cost $1500. The company that makes the medicine increases the cost annually claiming they are merely trying to recover the cost of research. Research that is shared and funded in part by tax dollars. Anyone care to tell me why this particular company is a darling of wall street? Could it be really nice profits?

OK here's another rub. We can't afford the insurance or the medicine. One of the biggest side effects of MS is fatigue. Because we cant afford the insurance or the medicine to treat the MS on our own she is returning to work full time so she can get company paid insurance so we can afford the insurance that pays for the medicine that treats the MS that causes the fatigue that is made worse by working full time but will pay for the insurance that will pay for the medicine that witll treat the.....sheesh can anyone say hamster on a wheel?

[zblair]

I suppose it is a free country, you don't need insurance, I mean it isn't a law.

I could be mistaken in this, but doesn't the state of Massachusetts require its citizens by law to have health insurance? I seem to remember reading that somewhere. Maybe if Bill or Nancy are around they can validate or correct that claim....

[Sylvester]

I suppose it is a free country, you don't need insurance, I mean it isn't a law.

I could be mistaken in this, but doesn't the state of Massachusetts require its citizens by law to have health insurance? I seem to remember reading that somewhere. Maybe if Bill or Nancy are around they can validate or correct that claim....

That is a good question, but I was being kind of sarcastic and drawing a loop back to if I break my leg, no insurance or money and go to the hospital, then I get fixed up anyway. Perhaps if you went to the hospital and had no insurance, you would be automatically enrolled then.

[Velokid1]

I can imagine that some conservatives would find this thread whiney, but I find it absolutely touching. What an awful situation we find ourselves in. To change it is going to take huge sacrifices and lots of faith and courage. I don't know that Americans have it in them.

I feel very very lucky that our family is covered by my wife's very generous employer. Will the ins. company really pay when something catastrohic happens to me, my wife or our boys? Time will tell. I'm not counting on it.

I am all for universal healthcare. Hopefully we can find the compassion and the balls to make it happen, but I very much doubt it.

[zblair]

That is a good question, but I was being kind of sarcastic and drawing a loop back to if I break my leg, no insurance or money and go to the hospital, then I get fixed up anyway. Perhaps if you went to the hospital and had no insurance, you would be automatically enrolled then.

Not in Texas. And I'm afraid that you wouldn't automatically be guaranteed to get that broke leg fixed there either, depending upon which hospital you went to. Don't know about other places, but folks get turned away here or given the address of the closest charitable organization that might help. Children tend to make out better in that scenario most of the time.