Private Health Care Sucks

[johnaries]

I have excellent insurance through my company. But, I have a $750 deductible.

I have sleep apnea. I know that I have it because everyone who has ever slept in the same room with me heard me STOP BREATHING while I was asleep. They would wake me up just to be sure I was still alive.

Even though I have been paying my insurance company beau coup bucks since I first enrolled, I still have to pay a $750 deductible.

I don't have $750. I can GET $750 dollars on my Credit Card, at some ngodly interest rate that I will never be able to pay off..

Actually, I know that many of you have worse stories to tell.

What pisses me off is that so many Ayn Rand "Libertarian" Conservatives refuse to see they are simply "Social Darwinists" and that they blocking the way of true progress.

[Justitia]

1. Wait until they get sick. Or someone in their family does. They'll be FDR reanimated.

I wish I was kidding.

BTW, I'm very sorry for your experience. So many people think if you have insurance, nothing falls through the cracks. They are very wrong.

Best of luck.

[Skittles]

4. yes

it's one reason I have always despised conservatives - their sheer lack of empathy. They simply are unable to acknowledge suffering unless it happens to THEM.

[flamingyouth]

2. I have a $750 deductible too.

I met it Jan. 10.

I join you in hating insurance companies. And I actually have to buy my own coverage, which makes it even more aggravating.

[RB TexLa]

3. If you encounter charges you have to pay to meet your annual deductible

you do not have to pay all the $750 at once. Even if you do, such as a hospitalization, the hospital billing department will set you up with monthly payments for what you own, that is what they do. The facilities and doctors are sure of what they are going to get from your insurance company through UR and then they work out with you what is your responsibility.

[EVDebs]

5. I have a Blue Cross HSA PPO 2400 plan

meaning I have a $2400 deductible to meet before any BC payments start at all. This is all a Health Savings Account gimmick to put more money into Wall Street's hands (read 'pissed away offshore somewhere') and destroy Main Street...

I'm thinking of switching over to a Kaiser HMO 30/30 ($30 dr visit/$30 drug ) plan but that entails long waiting rooms and questionable service IMHO from stories I've been told, and a higher monthly company payment I must make in addition.

Private insurance SUCKS and they know it too but everyone trots out the old shibboleth, socialized medicine. So what I say when they mention that, anythings better than this private mess the so-called fee market has left us with !

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. I had Kaiser in Oregon for ten years

I much preferred it to what I have now.

Sure, I had to wait for routine visits, but when I had a cancer scare, the cost (at the lower rates of the 1990s) was $20 for the doctor's appointment, $25 for the x-rays, $25 for the biopsy. It may be more like $30 for the appointment, $50 for the biopsy and $50 for the x-rays today, but that's still a bargain compared to what I'd have pay now: ALL costs up to $5000 and 20% of costs above that. OUCH.

[antigop]

11. yes, HSAs are a gimmick to put money in Wall Street's hands -- but also the insurance companies

The high-deductible/health savings account combination is a windfall for both Wall Street and the insurance companies.

Banks and mutual funds will be ever-so-happy to manage that account for you.

And the insurance companies win when people move to high-deductible policies to try to get their premiums down.

The Bush health plan for high-deductible policies/health savings accounts is a gift to insurance companies, mutual funds, and banks.

[Momgonepostal]

17. I have Kaiser and don't have problems with them

I don't have to wait any longer for appointments than under different plans. My biggest gripe about it that the Kaiser hospital in our area is still under construction, so if I need to be hospitalized before 2008, I'll have to leave the area.

[TahitiNut]

6. The GOP message to America: "If you're not affluent, you don't deserve to live."

When nearly 60% of America's 151,603,359 workers earned less than $30,000 in 2005, a serious illness is death.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. Also"If you're highly educated and unemployed, you don't deserve to live."

My state -- no job and no insurance.

Gonna sell my house and move to the country so the property taxes don't eat me up.

Only answer I can come up with -- nobody will hire me with decades of experience and a Juris Doctor.

I can type about 115 words per minute, excellent at spelling and grammar and drafting documents, but they don't need legal secretaries either, with 12 years of college under their belt. Strange for a sector they said couldn't be outsourced.

[SharonAnn]

15. Actually, that sector is being actively outsourced. Lots of it.

[Kali]

7. Do it anyway.

Apnea is a silent (ha ha) killer. PM me if you need more info. 750 at 20% is WELL worth it - get the study done - get on a machine. You will be so glad you did.

[Rosemary2205]

14. What kali said

Sleep apnea is a killer in more ways than one. Do yourself a favor and pay the interest. I know it sucks, but do it anyway.

[MissMarple]

10. $750? I wish we were so lucky.

Is that for the year or each visit? Either way you need to get it checked out. Truth to tell.

[raccoon]

12. With individual medical insurance, they can refuse to cover people

with pre-existing conditions (they don't want to lose money on you!). Or they agree to insure you but they refuse to cover certain conditions you already have.

[BlueJac]

13. I have $500 deductible........

and I pay $100 a month for this bullshit coverage. Everytime I go to the Doctor I pay $15 co-pay and usually get a bill a month later for close to $100. Some call this a good health care plan............I CALL BULLSHIT!

[Katherine Brengle]

16. A $750 deductible for everything, or just certain things?

I agree that is way too high, but is that a blanket deductible or only for certain procedures?

I have private insurance, and we pay quite a bit for it (not as much as a lot of people though, about $400/mo with dental for a family of 3), and it covers most things without a deductible...

I find a $750 deductible more than a little disturbing...

[Momgonepostal]

18. That seems like a high deductible for a company plan

Are your monthly premiums high?