[Conservative til I die]

We have not had health insurance for years.

YMMV, but that's a dangerous game to play. I've always relied on employer provided coverage, and when I got laid off last July, I figured I'd just pick up coverage at my next job for the usual $60-100 a month. My thought was, I'm a young, healthy, virile male, I'll get by for a few months. Then I got the lump on my neck. Five doctor's visits, one visit to a specialist, and one CT scan later, I was out $1500 cash, and that was after they cut me a break since I was paying cash. Soon after I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Thank the Lord that I had a new job and my insurance kicked in retroactively a week before my official diagnosis. I also thank the Lord for my doctors doing what they could to fudge and hold off the results so that the insurance company couldn't deny me coverage because of my "pre-existing condition."

$70,000 of medical treatment later ($69,000 or so paid for by my insurer) and I'm doing OK, but I've learned my lesson. You never know when you're gonna get hit with something out of nowhere. And you never know when the insurance companies will be complete pricks and withold coverage from you.

[Polycarp]

Its not a game. I'm a self employed businessman, a solo practitioner, and the costs of keeping this young practice afloat preclude any possibility whatsoever of being able to afford health care. Reality stinks. But God Provides.

[Aliska]

thank the Lord for my doctors doing what they could to fudge and hold off the results

Don't you think that is a sin? Deceiving the insurance company? I don't mean that to bash you, but isn't that dishonest? My son sells insurance and I've seen a lot of fudging.

Well, you have a serious disease so scratch some of what I said regarding you. Thank God that it is treatable now. I wish God would heal you. I hate it when people have these terrible illnesses. That's one problem I have with Christianity. God doesn't heal very many people any more. They just have to live with it. St. Peter's shadow healed all who came under it. I wonder and wonder why that gift was lost or withdrawn.