Well, for that, we can thank the Naderist Deborah Senn, who as Insurance Commissioner made it her mission to ramrod these socialized medicine bennies through the legislature. She actually ran for the US Senate, and was narrowly defeated in the Rat primary by Maria Cantwell, who won the election over RINO Slade Gorton. Now, Cantwell is a bought and paid for subsidiary of Hillary, and I really don't know which one of them would have been worse.
That "Simple Care" concept is a good one, except that I'm not sure it's truly an actual "insurance" policy against a mega-claim, is it?
No, its just an association of providers and patients. The cost for patients is $29 per year for an individual, and $39 for a family. They charge prospective providers even more, about $150 for an initial listing, and a third of that for an annual renewal. This covers the costs of the website, and of issuing cards and such. It's designed to ideally work with catastrophic coverage, and gets used by people who have no health insurance. You can check out their website at www.simplecare.com
One of the problems I have with it is that they have very few providers in my area, and most of those are naturists or osteopaths. I wouldn't mind driving an hour or so to find a provider in Tacoma, with as infrequently as I use medical services.
I agree that the HSAs were the "sleeper" provisions of the Medicare bill, and it was one of the reasons I was happy that legislation passed. It's also the first thing John F'n Kerry would kill if he could. The challenge comes from finding super cheap catastrophic coverage. It's like auto insurance, I'm a careful driver, with a sterling record, I just want the cheapest stuff available to have a card to show to a cop who stops me for a burned out taillight.
Very well. I sincerly wish you the best on finding what you need and want. I liked hearing about your politics up there, too. I follow it as much as I can, but I must admit I follow CA's a whole lot closer.