More high-income Americans go without health insurance

USA Today ^ | 11/22/02 | Julie Appleby

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Leanne Ely is a radio talk-show host in Southern California. Jay Belle is four years into running his own business in Memphis. Jeanie Whiting is an author and farmer in Washington. All three have household incomes of more than $75,000.

And none of the three has health insurance.

[oldcomputerguy]

Is the monthly fee of $55.63 just for you or is there spousal coverage included for that price? I am guessing it is individual coverage.

[Mr. K]

This problem started when Nixon let your employer deduct your medical insurance.

You don't get your car insurance or homeowners insurance from your employer.

Why should you get your health insurance from your boss?

If this did not happen we would not have a population that is totally ignorant of the cost of health insurance. When you pay the same $10 'co-pay' for your prescription, what difference does it make where you buy it? (no price shopping)

[APBaer]

The monthly fee of $55.63 is just for me.

[woofie]

I had high deductible insurance....and had a major heart attack....and bypass...$300,000 or $400,000 worth of stuff ....My cost? about $6000. Anyone could come up with that if they had to....high deductible is the way to go

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The medical community had procedure shoved down their throat long ago. What would you do if the policy didn't completely cover all that was necessary? You didn't mention malpractice, what overall affect do you think that had?

[Slipjack]

Another choice is to become an illegal while your sick, for they get all of their Medical paid for free by all us, then the proceed on to our welfare rolls without any penalties.

[GailA]

We priced private health ins for two, age 54 & 55 one a smoker, $825 per month. With a $1,000 deductible.

[stylin19a]

41.2 million Americans who lack insurance

This was the about the same figure used during the HillaryCare crappola.

A. In 10 years, these people haven't gotten insurance ?..or
B. The figures are the same, the names change ?...or
C. It's a made-up figure ?

[Motherhood IS a career]

>>We priced private health ins for two, age 54 & 55 one a smoker, $825 per month. With a $1,000 deductible.<<

Yep. At one time, we priced basic health insurance for a family of three, all non-smokers, husband and wife in their late 30's and one child, at over $1,000 per month. We don't spend nearly that much on health care, even when we go to the doctor, so we opted for catastrophic/hospital insurance only, in case something really bad happens. Otherwise, we chose to be self-insured.

Oh... and that did not include dental.

[Badray]

I have not made a decision yet, but I found this site the other day:
https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ehi/Welcome.ds
When I was looking for insurance about 4 years ago, I couldn't find high deductible coverage so I opted to go without it. I just spent 9 days in the hospital without insurance coverage and the bill is about $25,000 - about what it would have cost me if I had paid the BC/BS premiums monthly.
The incredible news is that the doctor only charged $250.00 for the surgery and 9 followup visits while I was in the hospital and he made sure that I had plenty of samples of the medicine that I needed when I went home.

[lelio]

Just so happens there was an editorial in the SeattleTimes the other day. (If that link doesn't work go to SeattleTimes.com and search for "msa"
In a nutshell: a Medical Savings Account is a device setup by Congress in 1996 that allows you to put away pre-tax income into an account used for your high deductable insurance that you have to buy. In this case the writer works for Acordia which provides the MSA / insurance for individuals or small companies.

[Badray]

Thanks for that info. I had forgotten about MSA's. They should be extended and expanded.

[Mamzelle]

GOP is not in bed with insurance companies--at least not the way you imply. The problem is going to be finding a way to keep people covered, period. A lot of the better companies leave the business, and where does that leave us? Scolding, suing, regulating insurance companies is not fixing the system. Would that "getting in bed" would help.

I could go on for pages on the pressures that are driving the costs of medical care upwards. A collapse of medical insurance, in its entirety, is inevitable unless the will is found to make some simple (simple, not easy) changes.

[lentulusgracchus]

Excellent article. Meanwhile, physicians are leaving practice in droves due to exponential increases in their malpractice insurance premiums.

It's worse than that. Doctors are becoming paid henchtoads of the insurers and PPO's, accepting abysmally restrictive work rules. They're practically in time-and-motion hell any more. Case in point: young woman of my acquaintance is about 26, has one child by her ex. She's very pale, and diabetes runs in her family -- both sides. She has occasional symptoms of something or other. Went to a doctor who did blood tests and announced -- rushing through her office visit -- that she was anemic but he couldn't figure out why. Shattered her confidence in him.

I suggested she go back and visit him again for followup, now that he's given her a tentative diagnosis of "anemia".....and just beat him to death with the Socratic method. I suggested she make a list, a long, long list, of all the things that could be possibly wrong with her (benign tumors, insulin resistance, bone-marrow disorders, liver disorders, leukemia, mononucleosis, hep C) and make him tell her why he thinks she doesn't have each one. She's obviously presenting with something, but he's rushing past her appointment because she doesn't offer him an easy diagnosis.

The reason I told her to do that is because I remember another young woman, 25 years ago, who married a guy I knew. They were very much in love and moved to California. She began having disturbing symptoms of something or other, but her doctors were stumped. Finally, after this had been going on for months and months, they finally diagnosed her with some obscure, dread disease when it had progressed quite some way, and she died a few months after that. Her husband was psychologically destroyed and was worthless for years, until he finally righted himself and found employment with Hughes Aircraft.

That's what happens when they can't answer your questions. And the less time they have to see you, because of work rules, the less likely they are to be able to answer your questions.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is the deductible per year, per illness, or what?

[lentulusgracchus]

A collapse of medical insurance, in its entirety, is inevitable unless the will is found to make some simple (simple, not easy) changes.

Which is exactly what Bill and Hillary intended, when they turned the insurance companies loose by changing the law to allow insurance companies to buy PPO's and HMO's -- they knew that the insurance companies would simply fall on the medical-delivery system and gobble it up in an attempt to control costs.

They destroyed fee-for-service, in order to pave the way for British-style socialized medicine.

Yeah, that's what I want -- some guy like Huey Long in my life, holding my intravenous drip and reminding me how much I depend on him.

Rat-scum lowlifes.

[I_dmc]

Are we to shortly see news items of black market health care providers? "Hey, buddy, need some stitches?"

[Mamzelle]

HMOs and PPOs were OK as far as they went, but they were "cherry pickers"-- they picked the lower cherries of costs savings, and that was the end of it. Then they got people sold on the idea of "free" office visits.

So silly--the office visit is about the only cheap thing in medical care.

What costs you isn't even that high-powered surgeon--it's the *operating room*! The infrastructure of the hospital--and the costs aren't just increasing, they are ZOOMING.

[Jim Noble]

You are correct, of course-but why should I buy health insurance now when I know the government is about to start stealing money from young workers to give it to me for nothing?

[lentulusgracchus]

My cost? about $6000. Anyone could come up with that if they had to....high deductible is the way to go

There are a couple of other things you can do, too.

One is the "in-hospital" plan some outfits offer, that offers you cash payments for days you're in the hospital ward. Typically you buy these in "modules" of $25 or so per-diem payments, priced per module. So if you're in the hospital 20 days, and you had six modules, that'd be $3000 in cash payments to go against incidentals and your deductible.

Then there's the excess-major-medical policy that typically has a five- or six-figure deductible and runs out to a couple of million in payments for a fairly modest premium. That's the belt to go with your suspenders -- a real butt-saver financially for people who've managed to save something up, or who have a family business or farm they're trying to protect.

I hope you're recovering okay from your surgery. Best of wishes for your continued health.