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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 8, 2008 - 06:00pm PT
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Since I was in my twenty's I have been self employed and have always paid my own health insurance. I have had Blue Cross Prudent Buyer Plan for 30 years. This month they raised my rates $100.00 per month, to $6000.00 per year.
I stay healthy and rarely use the plan, but I do not want to live without it. As we age the insurance companies raise our rates so eventually we are forced from the plan. When people need it most, lower and middle class seniors are forced out.
Because I have had this plan for so long, they can not claim an exemption for pre-existing condition with me.
I hope the next president kicks some insurance company butt on this. One out of 7 Americans have no health insurance. Keep this in mind when you vote.
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salad
climber
San Diego
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im on cobra right now at 1100 a month (that includes vision and dental..whole family).
on the bright side, my daughters medication is about 1500 a month and it only costs me 60, so i cant really complain.
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WBraun
climber
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The body is the source of all misery .....
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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Hmmm... I'm pretty sure that most people, in their 30's and even 20's would be pretty stoked to only pay $6K a year in insurance costs. Even besides their employer contribution.
Seriously, that's pretty cheap.
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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riley that's crazy...
werner - i heard that was new jersey...
i'm all curious to see how my rates jump here too. i suspect they are going to go up after this last incident. 2500 a year with 4500 out of pocket is what it is now.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
Nowhere
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In the next election, vote for the Democrat.
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salad
climber
San Diego
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nefarius, ive never paid more than 250 a month to cover my entire family, on a ppo, while employed.
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Ricky D
Trad climber
Sierra Westside
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Yo Pagan - get ready for reality when your insurance next comes up for renewal.
I was paying 134 a month before my heart blip. After the incident - the price went up to 822 a month with no prescription coverage!
What the insurance companies want are 20 year olds with genetically perfect bodies and unlimited incomes - the rest of us can drop dead.
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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"What the insurance companies want are 20 year olds with genetically perfect bodies and unlimited incomes"
oddly enough, that's what I'm looking for too...;-)
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 8, 2008 - 07:26pm PT
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You've hit the nail on the head Ricky.
roflmao PaganMB
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Tan Slacks
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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What Riley said...
"But here is the crazy thing all us hard working health care workers have to deal with. 80 percent, up to even 100 percent, of the people we take care of everyday in the ER are illegals and/or people who don't work or have a job and are on medicaid. Or they have no job at all and don't pay their bills. So they get constant free care, that believe me they demand, while we in many cases can not even afford the care ourselves."
This is so true, it can't be overstated. I could count on one hand all the insured people I transported via helicopter last year. I recently recieved a plaque at work for transporting 4000 patients in the last twelve years years. Can you imaging how many people were not covered, and we are just the first piece of the medical care they will charge up... YIKES. It is so hard to fathom how this bill gets paid with all our tax dollars.
Which brings me to a funny story. When my wife became pregnant, we both had insurance and wanted to do everything right. They offered a breast feeding class that would ONLY cost us forty doolars. We thought that would be money well spent, so we paid in advance and drove for Joshua tree to Palm desert for the class. In the waiting room were 6 couples all there for the same class. We waited for over an hour. I was getting a bit pissed, but everyone else did not seem to mind. Finally someone came in and said the instructor forgot to show. Again, no one seemed upset, so I asked. My wife and I were the only ones that paid, because we HAD insurance. Interestingly, 3 of the other couples had put off getting married so that they could have the kids through medi-cal and wica (the fathers had better jobs than I). I also found out they got more choices during childbirth. The system is sooooo screwed up. We had insurance and it cost us more and we got lesser care.
Good luck to anyone who can get a hold of this.
ps. my thoughts are still with you Riley.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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I sucks. My catastrophic insurance kept going up and up and the deductible too. I've never got significant benefit from it except this, the insurance negotiates lower rates somebody without insurance pays $80 for the same tests that the uninsured pay $160 for! Screw that. The insurance isn't paying the difference, they charge the poor more!
We're always going to pay for the bottom rung of society. Anybody want to stand up and say "Let em die!"? I know folks on social security for disability. If they get more than $2000 in total assets and savings, their meager benefits get taken down by that amount. Wanna freeload society? Welcome to the gutter. We waste way too much money on killing and corporations to try to save a buck on the backs of the weakest and poorest among us.
That's another reason for universal coverage. If I had to pay $6000 a year, I'd quit it too get ready to go bust if I got hurt. There has to be a better way.
See Sicko, Seriously. The health insurance industry is based on increasing profits by denying coverage. Execs are rewarded for making money, not making people healthy
All this crap about "America has the world's best system" is just crap. It's only the best if you have lots of money, or the best coverage and you wind up with an expensive problem that takes the state of the art coverage. We are not even close to the healthiest country.
I like how the English doctors get bonuses for increasing the health of their patients
PEace
Karl
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WBraun
climber
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Yeah Karl I agree
And this country is all wrong, they do everything backwards, and they claim it's advanced.
The only thing right in this country is the cookie cliff ......
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crøtch
climber
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It was only in 1997 that it became legal for drug companies to advertise prescription medications directly to consumers. What proportion of prime time network TV ads are for pharmaceuticals?
In 2001, according to this report, Merck, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, & Abbot Labs all spent more than twice as much on marketing than research and development. That's back in 2001. You can bet the marketing:R&D ratio is higher now.
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Robb
Social climber
Pick Up Truck Heaven
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To put the present cost in perspective......
We were paying something like $14.25 a month for group health when working for Curry (under MCA) back in the late 70's/ early 80's.
Coverage: $100,000 per incident, $250,000 or $1,000,000 (I forget) lifetime total.
Mind boggling, no?
Politics aside, I fear that unless something is done to correct the present out of control cost situation, this problem may well be a primary factor in the destruction of the backbone of this country, the middle class.
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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Who are these folks that go to the doctor after coughing twice? And how can they get in to see the doctor so quickly?
I must run in totally different circles than these people do. The people I know wait until they are friggin' near death to go to the doctor if at all.
I personally hate going to the doctor and will do anything to avoid it. I've taken out my own stitches before and definitely suffered though some heinous respiratory illnesses, etc. in the past.
Similarly, many friends I know have done real damage to their bodies from wiping out and just let it heal on it's own (like obviously broken bones).
That is behavior I see. Not these cough-twice and run to the doctor people.
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Ricky D
Trad climber
Sierra Westside
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Here's what I don't get -
In 2003 I had a "cardiac event" - nothing earth shaking - just a quick clog in the plumbing that scared the crap out of me and resulted in a self-driven trip to the ER and a few days in ICU for observation and testing.
A few dozen tests later and I'm told to swallow a baby aspirin once a day and take a statin to hold down my cholesterol.
Now understand that all of this occurred with a health insurance plan that I had been paying into for over 12 years and had NEVER used!
Naive me - I thought that insurance was there for this kind of event - to be used when the need arose and not to be callously abused for the "flu" or some other BS crapola.
Soooooo - comes the next quarterly premium and SURPRISE - I am now a "High Risk Candidate" and my monthly premiums jump from 134 to over 800 bucks!!!!!!!!
I call and consult with a number of supposed RN "reviewers" who express concern over the need to take statins. I counter with the argument that according to the Cardiologist - I either control my cholesterol - or I risk an even more severe and costly cardiac event.
Surely, I propose, the $114 a month cost for a statin drug is far less than the estimated 20-40K cost of enduring an actual heart attack. Surely you understand that my preventative program is less costly in the long run?
Apparently not according to Aetna.
I am now considered "tainted goods" and shall be punished for my genetic shortcomings by paying out the azz for the rest of days. Damn my ancestors to hell for their overactive livers!
What really grinds my goat is being told by one person that my rates could conceivably go down if I were to cease taking the medications.
"Wouldn't I risk a more severe heart event" sayeth I?
"Possibly", was their reply, "But you are covered for that so it would work out dollar wise."
America - ain't it great?
P.S. - I keep thinking bout my Grandpa - smoked cigars every day of his life, ate all the fried chicken and catfish he could shovel in, drank like a fish -- and still lived to 86!
ALL WITH NO FRIGGIN HEALTH INSURANCE!
P.P.S. - I keep thinking about going commando on the insurance thing - but my wife sweats the idea of being sued out of house and home should we ever rack up a big bill event. My thought is to quit claim all of my property over to my daughter, cash out my IRAs (yeah, yeah - pay the IRS a 10% penalty) - but stash the leftover cash in the Caymans, sell the dog and then show up at the ER and say "I's be a po mofo - so youse bettah gives me a free bypass and some mo' o' that guvment cheese."
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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"THAT is why we pay higher premiums"
That is what the health insurance racket would have you think....
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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LEB...your posts on this matter are insulting and really are not worth a response.
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rockermike
Mountain climber
Berkeley
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It figures, LEB is on the wrong side again.... ha
The Health insurance industry is a scam. $300 of every $1000 you pay in premiums goes to insurance back-office; figuring out who not to cover and hiring lawyers to fight denial of service cases, and "pricing" (pricing out) according to statistical risk. All that could be done away with with universal coverage. No one has to be denied. No one has to be priced out of the market. No more lawyers fighting to not pay bills. That would be $700 million in savings right there. And no more hidden subsidies to cover the uninsured who stumble into the ER with a broken leg or in a diabetic coma.
Our system is so inefficient its going to bankrupt our whole economy (total health care expenditures are 16 percent of US GDP and raising / $6700 per person on average)if we don't change it.
Good news is even the captains of industry are starting to feel the pain and look for alternatives.
Private industry is supposed to seek out efficiencies, but this is just one example that reality doesn't follow theory. Too many pockets getting lined and the industry hires lobbyists who block rationalization.
Then there is the state of US health itself. I say give a big discount to anyone who is a vegetarian and/or runs/cycles/climbs regularly. ha
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