Posted on 10/05/2010 10:26:46 PM PDT by Nachum
The Federal Government is BROKE. It is 14 plus TRILLION dollars in debt. It can not pay to subsidize anything...
My parents never had health insurance while I lived with them. My first health insurance started in 1968, (42 years ago) when I started my first job after graduation from college.
For my family coverage, (I paid half the premium), I had withheld from my salary about 2% of my gross pay ($13.89/mo. Yes! I made the “rich” salary of $700/ mo.), indicating a total gross premium of about 4% of a new college graduate's pay. Total monthly cost $27.78 (Blue Cross-Blue Shield) that paid almost 100% of everything, including drugs, with a very low or no deductible or co-pay.
I've been retired for 12 years now, and pay 100% of my monthly premium. Single plan. (Widower, children on their own for a long time now.)
Costs $717.16/month. Does not include any drug cost (drug costs alone today run over 10 times the total cost of my health insurance back then), 20% co-pay, $500 deductible. That's 46.3% of my income (social security only, since my invested capital has made nothing since obama was elected.)
Very interesting and mercy, you are spending a lot of money each month for “What if”. Most people go through life without health insurance (or at least did in the past). If your employer offered it, fine, but the costs are now exorbitant and few can purchase it on their own anyway.
The whole idea of sending that much money into a health plan seems ridiculous to me. Even now with Medicare, I will not pay for Part B simply because it is mostly unnecessary. If you have to go the the Doctor, you should pay for the visit. Only for major (catastrophic) hospitalization should coverage be needed. If everyone did that, maybe costs would go down.
My outlook is definitely not the norm - I understand that.. Maybe too many want to live too long even if it drags down the rest of society.
Prescription medications should be very rare and only reserved for those that can not get by otherwise.
About 26 months ago my HI company bought me a $70k pacemaker/defibrillator. Glad I didn't have to pay for that out of pocket change.
I have to see my cardiologist and urologist twice/year each, and my GP every four months, and also have comprehensive blood tests every four months.
In about 11 months, I will be eligible for medicare, and my kids will have to pick up most of my health care costs. I will have medicare (all of it, including drug coverage).
I hope your strategy of minimal insurance pays off for you. For most of us, expensive medical care is not a matter of “what if” but “when”.
I'm sure I could save a lot of money if I had the same ideas about health care costs as you. If I quit taking my five prescription drugs my health care would cost a lot less. Especially in the long run, as I would not live very long. But, I would save a lot of money!
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