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For all of you with nice $10-$20 co-pays, ready yourselves for the day when your company pulls the rug out from under you. Health insurance expenses for employee coverage are steadily rising. The company I work for switched from a 'traditional' health care plan (they paid all the costs and our co-pay was $20) to a HSA plan with a $2200 deductible almost two years ago. So in essence, I am being paid less money than I was when I was hired. From what I understand, this is becoming more and more common as the cost of providing coverage is becoming too onerous - especially among small businesses - so the costs of most non-catastrophic medical care are being transferred to the employees. As a single mother, this has been a real burden - especially this past year in which we have needed a lot of medical care.
I will pay more taxes not to be put into the position of questioning which is more important - taking the child who has been throwing up all morning to the doctor or buying food for the week. These are not imaginary scenarios taking place only in impoverished homes or among the unemployed. And it's only going to get worse.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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