How many of you have health insurance?

reply to post by mattguy404


LordBaskettIV stated what he did in a manner that is definately too course; however there is some truth once you get past the rough presentation. There are too many that will abuse the system as well as the government being far too inefficient.

Here is the raw deal. Many people that do not have health insurance or have high copays or have deductables do not visit the doctor for every little ache and pain because of having to come out of pocket with some of the cost. Imagine when healthcare is free and the same people are now visiting for every little scratch because "smile, its free", and waiting lists get out of hand.

Now this leads to the government saying, "Damn, this is costing more than I thought." Then said government will then raise the price of the wonderful free health care. After this is done, lobbyist will say, "Oh my, it is starting to be a little unaffordable for lower income families to afford this" The government will then add subsidies to low income families and to offset the cost further tax middle and upper income families.

This doesn't even take into account the people that will be "farming" doctors just to get prescriptions or people faking injuries for fraudulant auto insurance claims. You have to take all of this into consideration.

Hillary's plan is what I will refer to as an impulse buy. Its nice and shiny and it does not take much thought to buy it. When one stops and really thinks about it though, you find that you are just wasting money on something that will not work as advertised.

Here is what I hear when people say things like, "I don't want to pay for other people's health care."

I care only about myself and my own family and the rest of the world can rot.

Unless we all learn to take care of each other we're all going to drown....and we would deserve it.

I have not had any health insurance since I lost my job 5 years ago. In that time I had an emergency gall badder surgery, costing about $22,000. Much of it was dismissed because I had no income and even now have not be able to find a job that will pay any health insurance.

I some times think maybe we should just scrap the whole frigging insurance thing. Go back to the old way of paying as you go instead of all the co-pays and fees. I mean do we really need all those tests to find out it's just a cold. Granted there are times when tests are needed, but how many times do you hear "let's runs a few tests" even tho you just had a full spectrum test panel. And it seems that each doctor you see whats to run tests. This makes sense? And of course the cure if the latest and greatest, never mind that it cost $17.50 a pill or shot. And all this costs money, lots and lots of money.

I don't have health insurance. I wish I did. I've been sick for nearly two weeks now and I'm not getting any better, but I can't afford to do anything except keep drinking green tea and orange juice and waiting for it to run its course.

I think universal health care should be a basic right. This is a country that was putting people on the moon decades ago, but they can't provide medicine and basic medical care to people right here, right now?

I'm not saying they should eliminate private health care, or completely socialize the entire system. That would be expensive and unfair to people who want to choose their doctors, treatments, and so-on.

But there should at least be options for those of us living on the low end of the economic scale. Think of our education system: If you can't afford private school, you can still get an education. It might not be the best, but it's far from the worst. We should have AT LEAST that level of care in this nation.

The worst part of it is, there's all these people who have been suckered into the "The government can't handle it!" mentality, fed to them by none other than the elitist republican politicians themselves. But we can afford to bomb people for the next 100 years, by their beliefs. Blah.

The only problem the government would have with health care is stopping the money-tossing democrats from dipping their hands into the pot and spending the money on stupid crap like attempting to socialize everything else under the sun.

Wow, look at that... either way we vote, we lose. Frickin' SHOCKER. :-(

I am fortunate that I do have health insurance. I know I am lucky to have it. I took the job I have due to the great insurance my job has. I pay 320.00 a month for myself and my husband however he has had 2 heart attacks and triple bypass surgery and takes a mountain of drugs each day. As I filled out the insurance papers on my first day of work I smiled and thought "YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE ON THIS ONE",meaning the insurance co will pay far more than they ever thought they would for his health care. He is young, only 49 so he has a lot of life left. Interestingly my husband is an RN and believes in universal health care. He has studied it in other countries and there are countries that seem to do it right. Anyway I thought this was a great topic. Jane

Try to not freak out here, but here it goes. Family of 6 and we have an emergency type insurance so you know, broken bones, major emergency stuff. We pay the first 5K and then the insurance gets the rest up to a certain amount.

We pay everything else out of pocket, cash. We are lucky that we have no real issues and everyone is healthy. We own our own business that does well so we are fortunate in the fact that we can afford to pay out of pocket.

Not ideal, but it is what it is.

Here in Ontario I don't pay nearly 300$ a month. It's more like 4$ a paycheck, maximum, and that gives me 90% paid health care, on top of that I have my OHIP card which gets me taken care of for free for "medically necessary" situations, like seeing the family doctor, or surgery or something, I don't think we even have many private medical places, it's pretty sweet here.

Originally posted by jedimiller
here's the link.

hillaryclinton.com...

Hillary has said on video that it will be very, very affordable for everyone. If we do the math, 200 dollars is not affordable, 100-not affordable. using logic, one can say it will run under 75 dollars a person. i'm willing to pay that.

[edit on 13-5-2008 by jedimiller]

I have a problem with statements made by politicians [any politician] in an election year. Sure, it sounds good, but history will prove that election campaign promises are usually too good to be true.

I'm a registered Republican and I remember this one..."Read my lips...no new taxes."

I pay around 80 a month pre-tax for my coverage. However I have no choice in having my health insurance, being asthmatic it's pretty much a life or death situation. I however have a fairly premium policy 10 bucks for a doctors or specialist visit, 25 for emergency room and fairly cheap prescription coverage. I have it through my job and I believe they pay at the very least half of it.

reply to post by MacSen191


Your post is the perfect example why our current healthcare system doesn't work. You have borderline diabetes and are taking $65 a month in pills, plus strips, more freuent checkups, etc. By the time you are done you are probably looking at $2k per year for a condition that is caused and most likely treated through modification of diet.

Diet can cure just about anything as long as you catch that anything before it progresses too far.

I think we need a comprehensive, preventative healthcare program sponsored by the goverment and run by hmo's and the like. Their profit will be regulated and will reflect the quality of care given to their patients. Keep people from getting sick,or catch it quickly and the costs throughout the whole system will plummet over time.

Doctors will still make a very good living but will have much of their oprating costs will be covered meaning less risk to them as well. If you don't like the new system you can always opt for private care at your own expense.This will work and can be done for a fraction of what is currently spent after some initial heavy costs.

No person should have to pay for anyone else. If you can not pay yourself then tough, you dont deserve it. Since when do you get to receive goods or services and not pay for them. You wouldn't expect to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant that you cannot afford, eat, then expect everyone else in the place to pay a part of your bill so you could eat for free or at a reduced cost. If you make used Honda wages then you do not deserve to drive a Mercedes. You would not buy a house that you could not afford and then expect the rest of the tax payers to pick up your mortgage so that you can live in a really nice house that you cannot afford. (Oh wait, some of you think that IS a good idea!). So why is health care any different?

I already pay for health care for those who can't, its called FICA

By the way I got cancer a few years back and did not have insurance. I had two surgeries that totaled more that $55,000. The cancer treatments were another $20k. And after 7 years of being cancer free, I have paid all but about $4300 dollars back, I should be done paying it off sometime this summer. I never asked for a handout, or for anything to be given to me. I paid my bills. I made payments, some big, some small. There were things that I wanted,but paying off my medical debt that I incurred was the main priority.

How many of you who say you cannot afford to pay for insurance have cable TV, high speed internet, and Ipod, a PSP, an Xbox. etc?

Yeah, health insurance is not cheap. Health care is not cheap. But you get what you pay for. Health care is not a right. If you don't make enough money for the things you want or need, get an education, then get a job that pays well, limit the kind of dept that you incur, and for Gods sake pay your own way. If you cant pay for something yourself then you for sure dont deserve it.

That includes health care.

Originally posted by Malynn
Here is what I hear when people say things like, "I don't want to pay for other people's health care."

I care only about myself and my own family and the rest of the world can rot.

Unless we all learn to take care of each other we're all going to drown....and we would deserve it.

You might drowned, but I for one can swim just fine thank you, and I dont need you to try to take care of me, or use my money to take care of others. It is not your money to take from me and spend on people who are unable to do for themselves what I can do for myself without your help. Its sink or swim, and if you never learn to swim, then it should be no surprise of what the out come should be.

Oh by the way for all of you socialists that want to help the world, in this country, the USA, its about equal opportunity not equal outcome..

reply to post by jedimiller


I have it for myself and family. It used to be that I paid around $200/month to cover myself and family. However, once you pass X amount of years working for the employer I do, then they pick up more of the cost and so now I pay around $55/month. Note - if I was single, then it would be free

Everyone has health cars experience. Even lack of experience is experience. Here's my two cents.

People who say our health care, the care itself, is poor are dead wrong. You, of course, only hear about the rare instances of gross misconduct or errors, not abou the millions of people who receive the best care American money can buy.

People who clamor for universal health care in the US are ill-informed. There is universal health care. Medical facilities don't turn people away unless they have no room for them.

I've had two relationships with nurses. One was a Krankenswester and the other an ICU RN. They filled the same roles, sort of, in their respective health care systems. Who do you think was the more highly skilled, knowledgable, spot on, pro?

My wife works in a metropolitan hospital and earns decent money. She wouldn't be able to do that in a universal health care system and you wouldn't have access to her services because Federal employment couldn't pay for her enough.

I don't have health insurance right now. I do see physicians, but we hash out the payments privately. If I were injured or seriously ill I'd go to the ER and pay them back as soon as I am able. Also, I KNOW that hospitals will occasionally reduce or wholly eliminate bills for emergency services if one is willing to actually go and negotiate with the right people.

So, no. Universal health care is unnecessary because we already have it and you can get great affordable service if you know the rules. This is America. That's how we do. Sink, swim or get the attention of the right people and they will help you. You shouldn't get something for nothing, even if you're old or mentally retarded. Because that something has to come from somewhere.

How in the heck can anyone think that universal health care is a good idea? People say it works wonderfully in Canada and the UK? Geeze, take a sample of the citizens of THOSE countries and see how it works....

Let me ask you this...can I opt out of "The Hill's" plan? I'm more than willing to pay 6x the money for my own insurance that to pay 40 bucks a month to cover all the fat, lazy, well-fare taking, "woe is me" people...and illegal's....

Anonymous because I have a 6:00AM flight and am too tired to setup an account....

Signed,
P.O.'d in Colorado......

You can crow your "it's all about me" ideology all you want. It seems like we're all about to find out how terrible this little dog-eat-dog experiment really was. If the current economic indicators mean anything.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


I live in Canada and the health-care here works just fine. In fact, I'd say the service I've personally received is as-good-as if not better than care I received in the US. And guess what? I can't really see a noticeable difference in taxation, and that's how I pay for my health-care!

I am fortunate enough to only pay $10 a month for what might be the best insurance. Here is what I pay for doctor visits. $10 co-pay for physician visits, $55 for ER co-pay and $20 for urgent care. Vision and Dental are included and I think at most I am responsible for is 30% and that might even be higher than what it really is. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm Native American.

Yes, I have health insurance, and I'm not sure how much healthcare would cost me under Clinton's plan, but I'm sure that it would be less than the HMO I'm paying for now. I would be willing to pay more in taxes to pay less for generally inadequate health insurance and to make sure that everyone had health insurance so that I would know that I was not paying for someone else's ER bills that never got paid. But then, I would like to know where all the extra money to INS, DHS, and the CDC has gone while we are all still waiting for there to be enough vaccines and inoculations for the major outbreak diseases that could strike any day. (Oops! Did I say that out loud?)

Originally posted by Karlhungis
reply to post by jedimiller

 

I already pay closer to $100.00 a month. Since when has the government shown that it is capable of properly managing something as important and large scale as Universal healthcare? That is why I hope it doesn't happen. They already run free healthcare for vets and it is a horribly broken system. Now expand that sytem to fit the entire country and it will become a worthless mismanaged mess.

I am sorry if you don't understand my posts. Hopefully other people do.

I do understand you, I believe.

The gist of it is...with the government's track record of screwing up everything they touch, how can we believe they won't screw this up with deadly results for some...think thinning the herd and the ever intertwinging big pharma.

At this point you have to ask yourself, do I trust THIS government with my life? Uhhh....NO!

In a perfect world this concept would be wonderful. I myself had a massive heartattack in Sept. 2004. At the time I made so little money that I actually qualified for state health care. If I had not had it, I would have died. As it was, it was real close. I no longer have any type of coverage, so I have not taken prescribed meds for a long time. So, yeh, it would be nice to have, but as a poor person, there is a part of me that feels me and mine would be prime targets for any such 'thinning'.

It's a matter of trust, and THIS government has given me every reason to NOT trust it.

For those who do have health coverage, I would like to ask a question

If you like the idea of everyone having coverage, but you would have to give up your great coverage for a universal fairness type thing, and put your health into the hands of THIS government...would you?