chrisfromusa

Just the response I expected

scrubbedexpat099

What's the difference?

Charity from an individual

Charity from the Government where the donations is compulsorily taken from the individual.

First one sounds better.

Michael

I don't think many Americans realize how brutal the insurance companies can be since they have always had company provided health care.

All my life I had company provided health care and never paid one cent (except small copays) since the plans were so good. Therefore health care in the US was never a concern to me until one day reality hit.

When I was 55 (11 years ago) I developed chronic fatigue and after a year of struggling at work to try to stay awake, I finally quit my job (my performance had decreased to about a 20% level). Since I had plenty of money, it didn't bother me that I wasn't working and I would stay on Cobra for the next 18 months.

I had never been in a hospital in my life so I never had medical bills that exceeded a few hundred dollars per year. Even during the period of chronic fatigue, I never had medical bills (what insurance as well as my payments) that exceeded $2,000 per year. When Cobra ran out, I applied for private health insurance thinking that there wouldn't be a problem since according to all web sites, it states that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome does not cause any other problems. To my surprise, they turned me down because of a preexisting condition but offered to place me in one of their lower risk pools. The cost would be $600 per month (not too bad but probably rise to about $1,500 by the time I was 65) but the deductable was $10,000, the copay was 30%, and there was no prescription drug benefits.

So I figured that I would need to have about $40,000 in medical bills per year to break even. Luckily while I was searching for an alternative, I found out that I was eligible for VA medical care for free.

In my case, everything worked out fine but it made me realize that almost everyone is one sickness away from bankruptcy.

Michael

Then there is the case of my older brother who worked for ACE hardware store as a manager. He didn't have a large salary (about $50K per year) and ACE had a $350 per month subsidy for their group health care plan. By the time he semi-retired at 65, he was paying $2,200 plus copays per month to insure himself and his wife though the group plan. Neither one had any major problems with both having controllable hypotension and she had controllable high colostral.

He made it but I don't understand how since he was paying over 50% of his income for health insurance premiums.

chrisfromusa

Boiler we all know that liberals love to preach about helping the poor and destitute yet when I ask 2 liberals to hlep me out with the kindness of their bleeding hearts, one tells me everyone experiences financial difficulties, file for bankruptcy (yet has no problem paying dramatically more in taxes to subsidize insurance through the new law), and one tells me to screw myself. Funny that liberals want the government to help the poor and for everyone to spread their wealth around and pay their fair share, except themselves. Same with healthcare, everyone on here except a few wants single payer, wants this, wants that, because it's "fair" yet Giantaxe nor Michael, nor any liberal, wants to do anything to help me and others without health insurance, except save, MAYBE those that mirror their ideology, as Giantaxe alluded to

Michael

Finally there is my youngest brother (age 55) who was laid off at the same time as his wife about 1 year ago. They have been paying their Coba but have had a hard time finding new jobs. About 6 months ago, his old company asked him to come back to work but his heart stopped that day for a few minutes causing brain damage.

I was surprised that he seemed to come out of it pretty well and really didn't notice any major problems. After he went through rehabilitation, he then talked to his old company about getting his job back and they agreed that he could come back as soon as he got the doctors release. When he went to get the doctors release, they refused saying his short term memory was too bad and he would never be able to hold that job or any job that would require short term memory.

So he applied for SS disability but even when that is approved, there is a wait of 2 years before he will be eligible for medicare. Can he survive for those 2 years without medicare? Can he even get health insurance on the open market? Will health care reform kick in quick enough to help him?

fatbrit

No liberals on this site. You must be confused.

Michael

Well you are just being obnoxious. I think you will feel more comfortable over at Yahoo Answers in the politics section.

cranston

Whether you like it or not there is no going back. The door has been kicked open.

Giantaxe

From what you have written about your financial situation, I suspect I am paying rather more taxes than you are. And, of course, you have no idea what charitable contributions I make.

I don't give money to the homeless on the street either. Does this mean I don't care about the homeless? Of course not; it simply means that such contributions are not an efficient way to deal with the issue.

chartreuse

That's the sort of selective reporting of the facts that I'd expect from a politician*, FB. Your graph showing spending must be put in the context of available revenue. For example, under Reagan - with those terrible tax cuts, federal revenues doubled (and inflation fell from 10% to under 4%).

I agree that government always spends too much, but the brake on spending is the practical limit of how much it can grab (or print, with inflation providing a brake there), not any desire on the part of the filth that comprise it to limit expenditure.



* politician - a lower form of life than a child molester.

fatbrit

That was the same Reagan who just raided social security to make his figures look good, was it?

elfman

his graph's not showing spending, it's showing the national debt as a % of GDP

chartreuse

Hmmm.... there's probably an argument as to why my conclusions are still valid, but stuff it, I'll be honest. I started drinking an hour ago and wasn't really paying attention.

The post was mainly a vehicle for calling politicians worse than nonces, anyway. That, it achieved.

Michael

Every president raids the social security and medicare trust funds instead of borrowing on the open market. Reagan however was very smart. He cut income taxes and then raised social security taxes so that he could redistribute the wealth from the poor to the rich.