Health Care & War Against the Fat?

My company's health insurance has gone up every year between 6-15%
I can't afford to work there anymore.

The benefits people tell me it's because our coworkers are unhealthy.
I maintain it's because we hire crack addicts who use the E/R for primary care.

Regardless of which slant is put on this, it appears that they're now scapegoating the unhealthy (or FAT, if you care to translate it).

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Brief diversion

I have a $40 monthly copay to get a doctor to write a prescription, then a $50 copay to fill the prescription.

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Yet I hear the Obamachrist, et al, will make everything ok by putting the government in charge of health care.

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Is there any hope at all?

No.


Thoughts?

reply to post by leftystrat


Not much hope. Since Obama and his progressive/psycho buddies in Congress decided to get involved you should just expect to pay more for your crappy insurance.

Based on the copays you are paying you would be better off to get off of their plan and get your self a catastrophic policy and just pay for your own doctors visits and prescriptions. If you tell the doctor you will pay him cash up front he will probably only charge you 50-60 a visit and if you tell him that you don't want expensive prescriptions he will give you stuff that has generics. Most of those generics go for $4 at Walmart. Just a thought.

reply to post by leftystrat


It's really a never ending list of why healthcare costs are what they are here in the U.S.. Fat people, smokers, drinkers, drug addicts, greedy/corrupt corporations/politicians, families with 10+ kids, the list goes on and on and on. As soon as you try to tell someone that they need to be more responsible, the individual rights defense wall goes up, lobby groups go nuts and nothing ever gets resolved. We are not the only country in the world with fat people, smokers, drinkers, etc but we are the only country that is afraid to hurt someone's feelings and tell them how to live their lives. I am quite sure we have the most lawyers in the world, ready to sue anyone and everyone and we love to waste time/money in court. Are fat people to blame, no, we all are. America is a nation comprised of fat people, smokers, drinkers, drug addicts, greedy/corrupt corporations/politicians, families with 10+ kids and we are all to blame for the screwed up country this has become. We should all be proud of ourselves. If anyone reading this does not fall into any of the above mentioned categories, it really doesn't matter, good for you, blah blah blah.

reply to post by leftystrat


Lefty .. I feel for ya brother, I really do because I know how bad that company insurance game can sting the ol' paycheck. But there is an upside. Your employer can not force you to accept their insurance policy or provider. So here's whatcha do .. Do some research, email and call as many insurance companies as you feel comfortable with and do some comparison shopping. Tell them what you want and don't want, what you need and don't need. Give them all of the details regarding your health, family history, and your fitness.

Gather all of that information and price quotes from thos companies and then choose the Top 3 or 4 based either on low price or high quality or a combination of both, whatever you feel is best for you.

Now call back those companies and tell them that you really like their insurnace policies and plans, co-pays, coverage, network of Dr.'s etc ... but their price is a little higher than what you're comfortable with because Company B can give you pretty much the same exact thing with a smaller price tag, but you would much rather have insurance through their company and ask them if they can meet or beat the price of Company B, or if there's any extra coverage that they can add that Company B can not.

Do this to all of them. Call them up and haggle the price of coverage for a cheaper cost to you.

It works and in the end you'll wind up getting good health coverage for a better price.

Originally posted by Feeling Frisky
you tell the doctor you will pay him cash up front he will probably only charge you 50-60 a visit and if you tell him that you don't want expensive prescriptions he will give you stuff that has generics. Most of those generics go for $4 at Walmart. Just a thought.

That's actually what medicine used to be, or so I hear.

Great suggestions. If I didn't need brand name, I'd probably take them.

Originally posted by Detailed Perfection


Gather all of that information and price quotes from thos companies and then choose the Top 3 or 4 based either on low price or high quality or a combination of both, whatever you feel is best for you.

Phenomenal idea, if it weren't for the concept of pre-existing conditions.
Employers have to provide group coverage, which never has a pre-existing clause. Everything that isn't employer-sponsored has a pre-existing clause.
I checked.

The only way out of which I'm aware is to find a different group policy. If I were to belong to some professional association or something that had its own group, there would be no pre-existing clause and it would no doubt be cheaper because the group wasn't full of crack addicts

Oh yeah, because of some stupid legal ruling, I can't NOT have insurance where I work. I don't even pretend to understand.

They get us coming and going.