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When shesus and I moved to AZ last year, we enrolled for the same healthcare plan we had in Chicago. Since we were in a private school in AZ, we did not receive the same contract-based rates we did in Chicago.
In Chicago, I was paying around $75/month for me, shesus, and our daughter to be covered well. I got my first check in AZ and noticed that for healthcare, the deduction was $374. I was a little taken aback and went to our benefits person to ask about it. "Are we really paying this much a month for our insurance??" I asked in disbelief. Her response was, "No. That's per pay period."
I was going to be paying $750/month for family coverage. That came to almost 20% of my salary. Considering I was paying around 20% of my income in taxes, I am a bit confused by people who say that universal health care will cause an increase in taxes. What does it mean when I'm paying 15% of my income to insurance that doesn't even guarantee that when I use the insurance, they'll approve the charges. From a financial standpoint, I couldn't afford the coverage and had to move to a lower level of coverage just to be able to afford it.
My issue is that we have some amazing doctors and some of the most advanced hospitals in the world, but those don't mean a thing if you can't afford to get in. Yes, emergency rooms will take you, but wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to have preventative health care so someone who is sick doesn't have to wait until it's life and death to be taken care of?
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"I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses
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