Insurance (Photo credit: Christopher S. Penn)
Who can Afford Health Care Insurance?
Health Care Insurance seems to be getting more confusing, more expensive, more difficult to get despite what the government has been doing to provide cheaper , more affordable and accessible insurance.
My friend has the dreaded condition, pre-existing, which makes Health Care Insurance basically impossible to get through any provider. My friends pre-existing conditions came about by having “normal Health care” which consisted of having children by C Section. Since having children, my friend hasn’t been able to get Health Care Insurance because all providers say that she has a pre-existing condition! Does this sound Fair? Does this sound NORMAL? My friend moved to another state that had just instituted a state sponsored program providing Health insurance to those with “pre-existing” conditions, so she applied. Why should people with pre-existing conditions be penalized and not be able to get Health insurance for something they have no control over? It is not like they smoked, took drugs or were alcoholics? My friend, did get accepted for this state sponsored Health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. The premiums were expensive when she started but at least she could get insurance. No she says the premiums have jumped to well over $1300.o00 a month and this is with a $5000.00 deductable! Is that what the government deems affordable?
Self employed individuals and retired people who no longer get insurance through work are another group of people I feel so sorry for. They have to pay their own premiums…and I can tell you that I have some experience with having to buy your own insurance and it is not cheap.
Maybe Australia has some ideas we should take a look at. GMF health has provided Australians with affordable Health care for 60 years.
I hope our government will find some happy medium for providing Health Care Insurance that is reasonably priced.
Yes everyone need affordable health insurance at any age.
I left the US in 1997. All I can say is the health care system is very confusing. Not sure how I can get help when I head back there.
At one point it looked like the state run health exchanges were going to be a somewhat affordable alternative for buying an individual or family policy but they are not in the news much anymore. I’m not sure where they stand now.
It’s horrible how we in America have let health care become so politicized – no system is perfect, but it seems like what we have here is about the farthest from perfect that’s possible.
This is an issue that has hit my family hard. I don’t understand how we can even have a for profit system. Healthcare should be non-profit and access to good and equal care should be a right of all, no matter what country they reside.
Our insurance through my husband’s job is horrid. It is expensive as heck and doesnt cover/give us discounts on anything until we hit a CRAZY high deductable- that we have never even come close to, not even with my son’s c section birth
OMG! Sam. Sounds like you have catastrophic insurance…
great read, I am covered under my husbands but dont knwo what id do if i werent!
I am self employed and pay for health insurance for my family.. It is getting outrageously expensive even without preexisting conditions! I really hope something changes to stop the premium increases soon
I agree.
If you don’t have insurance you’ll get penalized on your income taxes, but many people say a family of four by 2016 will be paying $20,000 a year for insurance. How could anyone afford it. Well, people wanted ObamaCare and this is what happens. The insurance company’s were working fairly well before, not perfect but individual states were doing it better than the Federal Government ever would or could. Some people say there won’t be death panels, but denying people things they need is in effect the same thing for some conditions, e.g. Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Cancer. Thankfully your friend got coverage somehow if she wants to continue having children, but some people with a condition that isn’t controllable are seeing worse problems. My older sister had hospice come into a nursing home and try to take over her care and take her off the medications she needs for Multiple Sclerosis. They did so without authorization from my younger sister who is my older sister’s power of attorney. My older sister did not want to go onto hospice because she knows she needs her medications to be able to function enough to be able to even chew the food she is feed. My younger sister raised cain, I can tell you. She threatened my sister’s previous insurance company and hospice, as well as the nursing home (who by law shouldn’t have given out any of my sister’s info under the HIPPA laws) with lawsuits. They backed down. They put my sister back on her previous insurance and hospice backed out. I’m sure the insurance company did want hospice to take over to take the financial aspect off of them, I’m sure hospice walked in like they had the authority to look at my sister’s medical records and change things at the nursing home. I’m sure the nursing home thought hospice and the insurance company had the rights, but they didn’t. My younger sister does as the power of attorney. I just hope people who need their rights looked after have a powerful advocate like my older sister has in my younger sister. Those that don’t in effect will have a secret death-like panel thing going on, which you’ll never probably even read or hear about via the media.
I’m glad your sister was a huge advocate and got things squared away. And it is scary to think of what can be on the horizon with healthcare!
I am originally from England and back home whilst everyone slates the NHS I personally feel its a far better system than that of what you have in America.
Thanks for your comments.
wow..i hate that it’s all about money, not people’s right to health care. i’m so glad i live in canada.
I’m close to Canada…but that doesn’t help!