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My regular insurance is much worse than this, if I were to happen to get sick. We just switched to an HSA; with a $10,000 deductible (employer-offered insurance); it costs me well over $400/month for my husband and I...and we are in our 40’s with no pre-existing conditions.

If I were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, I would be on the hook for ten grand; plus 20% of whatever other expenses were incurred.

We are going to switch to private insurance, I only hope that I can afford something as good as the plan that they are laughing about.

My employer provides a detailed description of compensation to each employee. That statement indicates the employer contributes $8,000 annually toward my health care coverage. I toss in $208 bi-weekly. As usual, the devil is in the details. The coverage details each service. In 2003, my legs became swollen in a manner similar to congestive heart failure. A morning of tests at the hospital racked up $1500 real fast, yet yielded no diagnosis or treatment. I couldn't put my shoes on for 3 months. Walking for 20 minutes on a treadmill daily finally resolved the problem.

I pay $500 (raised twice in two years) for an 80/20 policy with Aetna — just for myself. I take a couple of generic pills per month, really cheap pills, like the generic for Zocor for cholesterol, and I pay for those with my supermarket discount card because it’s cheaper than with the insurance! For name brand pills there’s a bit of a benefit to using insurance.

I have a $40 co-pay for every visit and after several thousand dollars is reached each year, the insurance kicks in. I only carry this in case of true emergency and for now am able to write the entire premium off on income tax each year.

I’ve thought of doing without insurance but hospital bills would kill me if illness/accident did not. I’m told that only if you are very broke should you go uninsured — and in truth the indigents get the best care — and are the ones who’ve caused closure of so many ERs. I worked for another major health insurer for years and all parties are guilty of greed — insurers, doctors, hospitals, big pharma, etc. There is enough blame to go around.

Yet, our old system was still much better than Obamacare. It’s all going to hit the fan soon — and it won’t be pretty.

We just switched to an HSA; with a $10,000 deductible....

Sounds like you need to shop around some. Health insurance varies greatly state to state, but my wife and I have had an HSA through United with a $5700 combined deductible for nearly 10 years now. The insurance kicks in at 100% after the deductible has been met. I have a pre-existing heart condition that requires daily medication and regular monitoring by a Cardiologist, as well as infrequent trips to the ER when my arrhythmia acts up. Our cost is about $420/month for both of us. United has never not payed a claim. In fact, they seem to be very good at eliminating frivolous charges and holding hospitals, doctors and other medical services to their contractual obligations with the United Health Care network.