To the government who sets tuition too high to pay out of pocket and then refuses to provide financial aid, total pricks the government is.

They do that deliberately, don't they? We went on vacation the other week and ours decided to puke up a huge pile right by the door from the garage into the house.

That's a weird one, she's not our only chance for a female president, just the current one. I agree that demographics aren't a good reason to vote for a candidate.

Agreed.

To paying for Health Insurance every month and then a deductible and then a co-pay and then have it reset on January 1st with worse coverage for a bigger premium....every....bloody....year....

You do know there is a market place for health insurance and you don't have to stick with the old one. Many plans even though they are high deductible do not even touch the deductible for most routine visits.

With you on that one CB.....

I shop mine every year at renewal time when the 20% premium increase comes in. Every year (for the last 7 or 8) I have renewed with the same plan because the market alternatives are worse. Now at 830/month for 5 of us on a 12k deductible. I'm on a grandfathered pre-ACA plan but going to lose that next (?) year and be forced on to an exchange plan, which was about 25% higher again when I looked this year.

That'll learn you to go away.

I was just quoting what I have read. Some women feel that "in their lifetime" Hillary will be their only chance.

So Obamacare has not helped you at all?

To be honest we have just stuck with hubby's work plan, I suppose I could look and see if there is better out there. Ours isn't as bad as others - we are $440 per month for family of 3. ($1500 individual/$3,000 family deductible) then 20% until we reach our annual out of pocket of $10,000. Most of those figures have more than doubled since we moved here in 2008.

We are very low users so normally don't even reach the deductible so the insurance never seems to kick in, other than of course providing us with the 'negotiated rates'. Just spent $870 on an MRI of my shoulder so am still in pi$$ed off mode

Now if I add on home insurance of around $3,000 p.a. (includes hurricane insurance) and car insurance which has just doubled by adding on The Dude (age 16) it seems like all we are paying for is insurance.

I try to look on the bright side of 'Well that means we can afford insurance for all the nice things we have and health insurance so an accident won't bankrupt us'.

Then I swing to 'OMG we don't have enough insurance, we should have umbrella insurance for our insurance and more liability insurance in case someone decides to sue us'.

Then I remember there are people out there with no insurance and wonder how they sleep at night

Oh yeah, I wasn't attributing it to you.

Doesn't make it any less weird an idea though

Unfortunately, in this day and age, that is not a bad plan for a family of 3.

You are therefore a perfect example of a family that would benefit from switching to high deductible insurance. We're paying about $150/mth for insurance (family of three, employer policies), and have already salted away enough tax free money in a Health Savings Account to pay the maximum deductible for four or more years if we needed to.

This is hubby's high deductible plan, the other plan is a higher monthly premium with lesser deductible/co-pay. They do stick $500 in our Health Savings Plan each year as long as we have an annual check up and we have just been letting that accumulate, plus we have our emergency medical stash 'just in case' we ever have to pay out that annual out of pocket max!

And how is your shoulder. Hope it hasn't halted your creative talents, especially the wonderful creations in the kitchen

That's an expensive high deductible plan. You're paying three times what we are for a family of three, for a policy with deductibles that are a fraction of ours. (I think ours are $4k/$8k.)

Are you contributing to the HSA yourselves? That is where your "emergency medical stash" should be ...... In 015 you can contribute $5,300 IIRC tax free (like 401k contributions) to an HSA.

Have the minimum deductible limits come down? I had it in my head that way back when, it used to be about 5000 or 5500 as a minimum deductible to class as a High Deductible plan and qualify for an HSA? I looked at CB's deductibles and thought "that's not high", then I looked at Pulaskis and thought "huh - nor is that" So I looked it up online, and sure enough $2600 for a Family. Did it used to be higher, or am I misrememberating?

$6650 for a Family this year

That may be family size dependent, I am definitely capped at well below $6,000 this year.