US guys: Do you have health insurance?

[rake922]

please participate....

[durito]

yes

[michael777]

yes,aetna $218 a month

[Bet Shooter]

Yes....just a catastrophic type plan with a 1500 deductible

[Cappy]

Yeah, I have a reallly shitty plan

[vanzack]

Saying "I have insurance" these days means nothing.

There is such a huge difference between insurance policies it is amazing. Some have lifetime limits of 250K, deductables of 5k per yr, 80/20 after that, and people relax because they think they are insured. 250K gets eaten up in the first month of cancer treatment.

Health coverage is the biggest scam going. Its a crime.

(edit) what I mean by that is insurance companies are the criminals. As a consumer - it is impossible for the common man to understand what he is up against.

[DarkLord_Rathi]

Yes,free wife works at Boeing.

[Willie Bee]

Yes, medical and dental, pretty good coverage, premium runs about $150 a month with United Health Care.

[topgame85]

Nope, no health insurance for me

[flyingillini]

Yes I do, it kills me each month not to mention I have it for my full time employees as well.

[Justin7]

Catastrophic policy. 5k deductible. $80/month through Anthem.

In the area of risk management, don't smoke, and if you drink, do so moderately. Not only will it save $$$ on your insurance, it will add years to your life.

[BuddyBear]

As of tomorrow, I won't.....

[rake922]

Catastrophic policy. 5k deductible. $80/month through Anthem.

In the area of risk management, don't smoke, and if you drink, do so moderately. Not only will it save $$$ on your insurance, it will add years to your life.

I don't think so.. I'm pretty sure if I was 300lbs, ate KFC for every meal and smoked 2 packs a day I wouldn't save money.

It's wrong, but that's the truth

[HAPPY BOY]

One good thing about working for AT&T is health benefits.

[durito]

As messed up as our health care system is, it's not worth the risk to go without.

I was a completely healthy 23 year old when I had cancer and $100,000 of medical bills. Thankfully I was still in school and covered on my parents insurance which paid for all of it. Though they've been raping me for the 5 years since. The same treatment costs $13,000 in Europe. What a ****ed up deal.

Thankfully I now have residency in a third world country and am about to get a better plan here that costs 10% of my US plan. It includes house calls if I am unable to make it to the doctors office (i'm never sick so it's not really an issue, but interesting nonetheless).

[Willie Bee]

As messed up as our health care system is, it's not worth the risk to go without.

Excellent point. And as messed up as it is, I don't want it getting even worse by turning it over to DC to run.

Was sitting here thinking back to my first real, full-time job that came with benefits...1975. My starting pay was $615 a month, before OT and bonuses, and since it was oilfield related, there was plenty of both to boost your income. Plus your meals & vehicle allowances were NOT taxable income.

The deduction from my paycheck for my portion of the health coverage was $4 and change every two weeks. Came with a $200 annual deductible. Understand that if you went to the doc's with some minor illness or injury, say the flu or a sprained ankle, you could be seen by a physician, get an x-ray and a prescription for about $50 total, if that.

If it was up to me, the first thing I'd do in this country would be to remove Madison Avenue from the whole equation.

[Doc JS]

yes

[durito]

My health insurance was $675 a month when i graduated from college and the next 5 years. There was a about <2% chance my cancer would come back, but if it did I had to have that insurance. There's no way it should cost that much.

[rake922]

Though they've been raping me for the 5 years since.

who ? and how so

[rake922]

on another note...
maybe a month ago, there was a guy on SBR that said he had 6 figures in medical pay. His solution was he left the U.S. and told us it worked and the debt was deemed uncollectible.. downside is he can't come back to USA basically ever

[durito]

on another note...
maybe a month ago, there was a guy on SBR that said he had 6 figures in medical pay. His solution was he left the U.S. and told us it worked and the debt was deemed uncollectible.. downside is he can't come back to USA basically ever

he didn't have to leave the US.

pulling people's credit reports at the bank for 2 years, I saw thousands of people with millions of dollars of unpaid hospital bills.

[durito]

who ? and how so

the insurance companies. they paid all my bills, then said raised my premiums as a high risk customer by 6000%

[rake922]

he didn't have to leave the US.

pulling people's credit reports at the bank for 2 years, I saw thousands of people with millions of dollars of unpaid hospital bills.

So do they declare bankruptcy or what

[durito]

you can

you don't have to. you see all these millions of people with their houses being foreclosed on right now? they aren't going to declare BK and they aren't going to leave the US. they will just have shitty credit for the next 7 years till the debts fall of their credit.

hell, as of a year ago, many mortgage loans would ignore medical collections entirely.

[rake922]

Why do the debts fall off their credit?

sounds like I'm an idiot for paying my bills since you're implying there's not many consequences for delinquency

[compaqDikk]

i am too high of a risk and no health provider will insure me

[VegasDave]

Nope... can't afford it and am not eligible to be on my parent's plan anymore. If anything happens to me I'm SOL.

[durito]

Why do the debts fall off their credit?

sounds like I'm an idiot for paying my bills since you're implying there's not many consequences for delinquency

Personal responsibility?

The desire to have access to credit for the future?


This is a big problem in the US. If you want to understand why the economy sucks and why the country is headed in such a poor direction. It's all about me and what I want now. Who cares if I can't afford this house, I'll buy it on credit. Who cares if I can't afford it in two years. Who cares if this person can't pay back our loan in two years, I will make $2million selling it this year. Who cares if this war will cost $2 trillion we will just borrow the money from china.

All of these actions have consequences. The US as a whole had a negative savings rate for several years there. That just ridiculous.

[louisvillekid]

not at the moment cause i'm self employed. I have had some good plans over the years through various employers.

everytime people get into a discussion about the cost of healthcare i'm always reminded of a story a few years back in the local paper about some girl of had something wrong and went to the hospital and it ended up being like 15,000 in medical bills. well she didn't have insurance, but some local investigative reporter took on her story. If she would of had insurance through any of like 4 different providers they(the investigative reporter)looked into, depending on the provider, her bills that the insurance provider would of got was like anywhere from 8,000-10,000, meaning insurance providers make deals with doctors and hospitals and say "we are only paying X amount for this or that treatment." When the hospital was asked about how if the women had insurance the insurance would only pay them(the hospital) X amount of money, but since she didn't have insurance she was getting charged full price. The hospital said that if she didn't have insurance she could of filled out some paperwork stating that and they would give her a 10% deduction, a hospital spokesperson said something like "yes we have different rates for different insurance providers, but we also have different rates for uninsured, if you fill out the proper paperwork when admitted you can get up to a 10% saving on your bill. we have to charge the uninsured full price because most don't pay, so the ones that do help make up for the lose."
now this isn't verbatim , i'm just going by memory. I just remember thinking, "shouldn't there just be 2 choices either insured or uninsured , not 2 prices for the uninsured. If you are willing to make a payment plan i would think you should be able to get the healthcare at a comparable cost of whatever an insurance plan is paying, regardless of whether you are in some group plan or not.

[flyingillini]

As messed up as our health care system is, it's not worth the risk to go without.

I was a completely healthy 23 year old when I had cancer and $100,000 of medical bills. Thankfully I was still in school and covered on my parents insurance which paid for all of it. Though they've been raping me for the 5 years since. The same treatment costs $13,000 in Europe. What a ****ed up deal.

Thankfully I now have residency in a third world country and am about to get a better plan here that costs 10% of my US plan. It includes house calls if I am unable to make it to the doctors office (i'm never sick so it's not really an issue, but interesting nonetheless).

Wow! Sorry to hear that man... How are things going for you now? I wish you the best, what third world country do you live in?

[durito]

thanks. i have been cancer free for over 5 years now, it's done.

i live in colombia

[flyingillini]

thanks. i have been cancer free for over 5 years now, it's done.

i live in colombia

That's awesome congrats on beating it! Are you columbian? If not how did you end up there? I always wondered what it is like down there. I was in Peru last year and really wanted to check out Columbia.

[durito]

nope, i'm gringo.

traveled down here a bunch a few years ago, enjoyed it a lot, and kept coming back till i finally just decided to stay

[losturmarbles]

Personal responsibility?

The desire to have access to credit for the future?


This is a big problem in the US. If you want to understand why the economy sucks and why the country is headed in such a poor direction. It's all about me and what I want now. Who cares if I can't afford this house, I'll buy it on credit. Who cares if I can't afford it in two years. Who cares if this person can't pay back our loan in two years, I will make $2million selling it this year. Who cares if this war will cost $2 trillion we will just borrow the money from china.

All of these actions have consequences. The US as a whole had a negative savings rate for several years there. That just ridiculous.

well said my friend

and the smart ones among us will be following your lead, getting the hell out of dodge before it implodes.

i'm still working on my escape plan.

[white2devine7]

I am still a full time student so I am on my parents' health insurance plan.