Xerxys

I do. I invest $120 monthly for my health just in case and I'd like some more opinions cause I bought my insurance as soon as I moved outta my parents house what do you think about health insurance in the USA? What company are you insured with and why?

I think it's a very important service to purchase ... you know, just in case. Think of all the accidents that a vehicle can cause and compare. What are the chances you could go to a restaurant and get from minor to severe food poisoning? Even at McDonald's they are bound to make a mistake.

All the money I spend on this will mean nothing. Look at it this way, assuming I don't have insurance, let's say I break a leg and I wind up paying a total of $10,000 (Grossly underestimated and lacking of any citation figure) out of pocket to restore me to full health and the 10k includes meds as well. If I would have just paid what I do now I would have a co pay of what ... 1000 bucks and 83 months worth of making payments? Totally worth it instead of paying 10K outright outta pocket.

Now, I'm not saying nothing serious is gonna happen, but when it does ... please be prepared. Frankly, no insurance is just stupid. I for one, don't have renters insurance. But I live in an empty apartment so I can justify that. But simply breathing nowadays is a risk so get insurance if you don't have it ... like right now, stop reading this thread and get insurance right now!!!

Go to this website and calculate how much it would be if you don't have health insurance. It gives you a beginning of what kind of full coverage and the companies that they actually insure you with. Of which you can do further research on what companies are reputable.

I go with coventryOne ....

Sue

I have insurance through my employer. While I may not have to pay for it, I've got a lovely $2000 deductible for me, a single person. Ugh.

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laconic1

I've got the same deal, same high deductible too. I feel sorry for my coworkers that have to buy insurance for their kids, if I remember right it runs a couple hundred per month per kid, and they still have the $2000 deduct.

FuglyStick

I go to the VA

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Martian

I'm so glad for my insurance. Since the gummint picks up the tab on things like hospital visits and doctor's appointments, I can get a flat $7 co-pay on all medications along with optical and dental coverage for $10 per week.

I can't fathom paying $120 per month for insurance. That's an unreal amount of money, especially if you have a thousand dollar deductible on top of it. Maybe that's standard in the US of A, but it seems brutally high to me.

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Bear Cub

If it weren't for medical insurance, I'd be a cool million in the hole right now thanks to multiple surgeries and radiation treatments, including my thyroidectomy. I wouldn't even DREAM of not having health insurance.

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Fotzlid

I have health insurance through my employer. I honestly couldn't tell you who's the carrier or what my deductible is. I'm fortunate that I don't have to use it but I wouldn't dream of not having any as I am getting into that age group where things start breaking down.

snowy

I have access to doctors/medical treatment for most things via the student health service at my university, but I don't have health insurance.

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m5man

You guys are lucky that you are not self employed and paying what I do at 62. When our $5,000 deductible per adult went to $1,345 a month , I had to go with $10,000 ded. per adult and pay $630 per month. Drugs are $500 ded. per adult with a co-pay after that. Insurance companies are ripping us off and we still need insurance. I can't wait 'til Medicare kicks in.

n0nsensical

Nope. I make enough money to afford it but I am healthy and despise insurance companies. For-profit system off people's health, or lack thereof, fuck em, I hope they all go out of business. I'll pay cash if I need a doctor. Socialize health care or bust.

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spindles

In Oz, we have public hospitals, but also have private health insurance companies. The previous govt brought in a tax incentive for people earning over a certain amount - either get private health insurance or we'll up your income tax. I have insurance for me personally, but have it configured so I'd never use it in hospital - I set it up so I can access dental and other ancillaries. If I'm sick, though, I'll just go to hospital, and this is what my family will do too.

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cadre

I have no health insurance. As a student you would think I could get affordable insurance from the university but it's not worth the money I'd have to pay. If I need to go to the doctor I pay cash. So far I've managed to do fine. I know that not having insurance is a bad decision on my part, given that I take part in a lot of dangerous activities (ie racing sport bikes) but I just can't afford to put out the money. When I get done here and am running my own business full time I know I will have to buy my own insurance, and I will at that point. But when I have no income, it's just not worth it.

As much as I hate how expensive insurance is though, I maintain that public health care is not the solution.

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laudanum

I'm self employed and I've got no health insurance. I know that I'm gambling.

The money that I would have spent on health insurance (from a place such as freelancersunion.org) I spent on a personal trainer. I've gotten to a better place than having a doctor and them telling me that I need to lose weight, but not really helping me to do so.

I feel that the fact that health care system in the US is solely for profit and will try to do anything to get out of paying. There's more money in keeping a person sick and limping than actually curing them.

In this great county of ours it's more like sick-care instead of health care.

Just 2 more cents
laudanum.

flat5

I'm lucky I live in Holland. I pay 82 Euros a month. I go to the hospital more than once a month.
I pay nothing extra.

Tully Mars

I live in Mexico. I pay 482 a year and have 1,000,000 of coverage with a 1000 deductible. I see a Dr. about once every other month due to a nerve disorder in my leg. Those visits last about an hour and costs me $60. Been here nearly 2 yrs, have never come close to meeting my deductible. Last fall after taking an emergency trip home due to an illness in my family I returned and had a regular scheduled appt. My Dr. noticed my BP was high and we discussed why that might be. She Rx'ed me some meds to help lower it and suggested some exercises. The next week she stopped by my home to see how I was doing.

I'll take the health care here over that in the US anytime.

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ASU2003

I live in the US. I pay $82 dollars a month. I get the first $750 worth of medical care for free, then need to pay the next $2500 myself. Anything over $3250, I pay 10%.
I have no idea how much any medical service will cost prior to going into a hospital or to a doctors office. Therefore, I haven't seen a doctor for a routine checkup since 1999.

laudanum

82 dollars? Are you part of some employer based health care plan?

SabrinaFair

No insurance--like Snowy, I can get treatment through my school's student health center, and I get my birth control through Planned Parenthood.

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telekinetic

I'd say you should at least carry a high-deductible policy for emergency services. You can be perfectly healthy (like me) and still get hit with an overnight $48,000 charge for an emergency appendectomy, with only about 6 hours notice.

Also, I have health insurance through my employer, but it is $150 a month, and it's an HMO. I was on the PPO at my last job, but it was $350 a month.

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Martian

Even though this attitude completely stymies me, the discussion revolving around it has been done to death. So, for a different spin, what do you propose is the solution? For-profit healthcare is a bit abhorrent to me -- the idea that one should have to pay $50 000 for a life-or-death emergency procedure clearly isn't right. What other alternatives are there?

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Cynthetiq

employer's healthcare selection and dental. it's basically 80/20 with a $2,000 deductible per person, $3,000 per family. Prescriptions are not counted in the deductible at all. I've had better insurance when I worked at a larger company which was much cheaper.

I pay approximately $300/mo. Last year I hit the deductible amount so I did more doctor visits to take advantage of the 100% paid by insurance.

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RangerJoe

I opted out of my employer's insurance. The insurance company was known for not paying their part of the bill, so places stopped accepting them around me. I'd have to drive an hour and a half to get anyone that did accept it. Besides, this year they raised the deductible tremendously, raised the copay, got rid of an option. And, I never used it, which seemed like a waste. I did keep my dental, though.

My son, however, is on Hoosier Healthwise, which is like Medicaid. They pay everything for him and I just get a small copay.

genuinegirly

Every university I have attended/worked for has a mandatory health insurance requirement. You can't register for courses unless you prove you have health insurance. My current school offers student health insurance. They also offer health insurance for staff. Unfortunately both options are exceptionally expensive. My husband arranged our current insurance program. We have a high deductible and pay a high monthly fee. Without touching our deductible, our insurance company will cover anything that can be labeled "preventative care". We are healthy. This is all we require.

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braisler

I'm pretty fortunate that I work at a major university. When both my wife and I worked here, we were doubly lucky as the employer paid most of our premiums. We each paid about $23 per month for full HMO coverage. As maligned as HMOs generally are, ours is pretty good really. No deductible at all, office visits are free for primary care, $15 for secondary care. You get to choose your primary care doctor too, so if you know you are going to be seeing an endocrinology guy for some pre-existing condition, you can register that as your primary and you don't have to pay each time.

Now that my wife is home with our baby, my premiums shot way up. I think it is $326 per month to cover the whole family. Still not too bad, I guess, but we are paying about $4000 per year for seeing the doctor about 1 time per year per person. Factor in what my employer is paying into the system too and it is more than $10K per year. At least we got our money's worth when our son was born. The total bill was something around $7000. We paid $0... maybe $50 for hospital admission co-pay.

I've been pretty healthy for years now and I often wonder how much I've paid into the health care casino vs. how much they've paid out. I recognize that as I age the dynamic may shift, but for now I know that I've paid in WAY more than I've gotten out.

Craven Morehead

Private health insurance for myself and my wife. Its over $800/month! Age and the maladies that accumulate through the years contribute to the cost. I just changed policies to reduce my cost by $110/month. My wife's is COBRA coverage which will run out in June.

Health care is a huge issue. Can't afford it, can't afford to be without it. My father had an aorta aneurysm repair in Jan. that resulted in two additional surgeries. He's still in a nursing home. The total cost will undoubtedly be over $1 million. The worst part about it was that he developed a staph infection. That could happen to anyone at any time, unfortunately common following surgery. If that happened to either my wife or me, we'd be bankrupt.

Yeah, health care is a huge issue. Especially since I lost my job two weeks ago.

ROCK(ME)HARDPLACE

yournamehere

I'm paying $341 a month thru COBRA for a decent PPO. It's $1000 deductible, but when I reach the $1000, my (ex) employer will refund $400 of it directly to me. Supposedly, starting in March of this year, the new stimulus plan will pay 65% of my COBRA payment for 9 months. The people at COBRA said they don't know how long it will take for the paperwork to catch up, but it will be retroactive to my March 1 payment and I will be credited for any overpayment starting then. So it looks like I can skip a payment or two once it kicks in, depending on how long that will take. I'm not holding my breath. BTW, I'm also supposed to get an extra $25/wk in unemployment benefits effective March 1st. I'm not holding my breath for that one, either.

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cadre

I'd say the solution is somewhere in the middle. In countries with socialized health care, people who have ongoing medical conditions suffer. Then again, those people who are generally healthy except for the occasional problem are well treated in public health care systems. There are many problems with both systems. So, while I can't say what the solution is, I will say it's nothing that is in practice so far (to my knowledge).

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grumpyolddude

We currently have a PPO with a high deductible, which we supplement with a Health Savings Account, plus a Flexible Spending Account administered by my employer. It's a cumbersome system, and most of our healthcare needs come out of pocket. We manage to spend all of the FSA money every year, on medicines, first aid supplies, dental and eye care. We try to leave the HSA funds alone in case we take a huge hit. Fortunately, we are all reasonably healthy.

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Destrox

45$ bi-weekly, 750 deductible, 20% generic, 40% name brand.

has its pros and cons.

having, no matter how bad, is better than not.

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Redjake

We have a program at work with a really corny name that's basically like this: you go to a doctor's office twice a year and if you are A) fit or B) getting fit on a regular basis you get medical insurance for free.

If you are completely fit, my company PAYS YOU what you were paying before into your checking account each month - if your insurance costs $50 a month, you now GET $50 a month, plus insurance.

If you are "on your way to being fit" like me, and show continual progress, you simply get free medical insurance.

I have a $1000 deductible and a good copay. I very rarely get sick, but hey, it's free. My uncle was in a motorcycle accident about 5 years ago that nearly killed him and he didn't have insurance at all and he and my Dad had to pay the ER $15,000 and he was there for one hour.

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Meditrina

I have the health insurance through my employer. I pay approx. $97 every 2 weeks for family coverage, no matter how small (or large) the size of the family is. As long as I go to participating providers, of which there are many to choose from, the co-pay is $18/visit. Luckily, I found a social worker for my son on the plan, he sees her every week. But unfortunately, the psych eval he will be getting tomorrow is not covered. I have to lay out the money, and hope to be reimbursed for part of it. Dental insurance and eye glass coverage is under the union contract. It is so-so coverage. The basic dental coverage is good, like regular check-ups, but they hardly covered anything on the bridge the dentist claims my husband needs.

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new man

Couldn't be without it. We have gotten our money's worth the past couple of years. Gastroenterology appts for the wife, ongoing appts with my dr. figuring out the best ADD meds and dealing with their side effects, fertility treatments for us, and a few years ago finding out that I have developed allergies to some antibiotics (penicillin based and one other). Also, broken foot for my wife, took almost 6 months to heal fully. She wore out one walking boot, and also had two MRIs.

ItWasMe

BCBS through the grocery store I work at. I pay approx $35 each month for medical and dental combined for my entire family. (I think the deductibles are around $100 per person per year) With that, we get a prescription card through BCBS for either Rite Aid or Walgreens that covers probably 80% of our meds.

One kid with asthma and one with diabetes, we would be paying around $1000 each month for prescriptions alone if we didn't have this Rx insurance. Which is one of the reasons I haven't even thought of leaving my job for another.

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777

When I was working retail, I had a co-pay for about $60 a month, with dental included. Since I was only part-time, there wasn't much coverage. The day I quit to start another job, I went to a dentist for a check up and cleaning. And she was a cute dentist too

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Grasshopper Green

I had awesome insurance when I worked at a grocery store too. The plan sounds similar to yours, but with a slightly higher deductible. I had a friend there who has diabetes and I doubt she'll ever quit for the same reason.

I have employer sponsored coverage right now - 90 dollars biweekly, $2000 deductible per person, no copays. Meds do not count towards the deductible but are covered, but the system is tiered and if there are no available generics, then there really isn't much savings. The company chips in $1500 towards the deductible, but I fear with the economy that this perk may be one of the first slashed. Hubby had surgery on his ankle last year and we only paid $500 total because of that perk - appointments, MRIs, surgery, post op therapy. I didn't really think my insurance was that great but after reading some of these replies, I'd have to say it's better than I thought.

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MSD

$28 per month gets me $10 copay for a doctor or specialist, nothing for emergency, inpatient, or outpatient hospital care, urgent care, or walk-in, no deductible, no annual or lifetime maximums, $3 generic prescriptions, and $6 name brand prescriptions. Yearly physical exams from my GP and two eye exams per year are free. My evidence of coverage book is page after page of "No cost to you." They even cover quackery like chiropractors and acupuncturists (up to 20 visits for the latter) at a $20 copay, and the only thing not covered that I might have gotten if it were is orthotic shoe inserts.

I think I win.

kutulu

Wow, at that rate, what is the point of having insurance? You need $22k in claims before you break even.

---------- Post added at 02:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 PM ----------

Our plan is a health fund PPO for $290/month. It covers me, my wife and or two kids. There is a $2,000 ded for an individual ($4,000 for family). My employer contributes $1,000/yr to the health fund. Routine care is included with no copay. Any costs I incur count towards the deductible but go against the health fund. Any money leftover from the health fund rolls over each year. Basically, if after 4 years we could have our entire deductible taken care of.

Once the deductible is met, the insurance company pays 90% with a maximum out of pocket cost of $8,000/yr.

n0nsensical

Ironically enough, the day after I posted in this thread I actually did have to go see a doctor for the first time in years. And that wasn't the worst of it: I got probed in every orifice, I mean EVERY, and the diagnosis? Urethritis. They don't even know. Not a UTI and the only STD I should possibly have is HPV. Now they want me to see a urologist. Personally, I'd rather pick up some narcotics and hope it goes away, if they won't give me any I know a guy in the Tenderloin who will, hehe.

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m0rpheus

OHIP, and some additional benefits through work for meds, dental, etc.

Truth is if I so rarely go to the doctor anyway that I probably wouldn't if I didn't live in Canada where I don't really have the choice.

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Leto

Same as m0rpheus, the employer contributes to my OHIP premium, and I have some additional benefits that I contribute to through work (family dental, prescription coverage, AD&D insurance etc).

So far this past year, my family has had to hit up the medical system for one round of breast cancer and resulting radiation therapy (wife) one operation on an arm to remove a bone growth (son), 5 regimes of twinrix shots (all) 5 physical checkups (all) one colonoscopy (myself) and I am scheduled for an xray of a bunion on my foot this week.

I can't imagine doing all this without medical insurance, and am damn glad that OHIP has taken care of every last cent of it, except for the cost of the prescriptions (which is 90% covered through my work plan)


*Edit:

Just returned from an Xray on my foot. Arrived at the waiting room at half past the hour, armed with some work to do while waiting. Spent sevaral minutes searching my wallet for my health card, as without it you don't get any service. I never use it at the Dr's office as my name is on file there. Having found it (stuck to the back of my zoo membership) I sat down to wait. No more than 40 seconds passed, before I was called. I had my xray and was out of the office by 41 mins past the hour. No money changed hands. That's what I'm talkin' about!

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