buck_wildest;3295979; said:
You know the main argument ive been hearing is that People who CANT afford health care are dieing on the streets every day what are they supposed to do?.
Well thats complete BS. My situation proves it.
When my son was born my girlfriend quit her job then 3 days later i was fired for a accedent i was responsible for. we didnt have insurance at the time of his birth but we applied for medicade/medicare/wic or whatever its called. Her being a single unemployed mother qualified no problem. yes she did have to go wait in a few lines but hey what can u expect for something for FREE! Then when he was born we found out he had to have imidiate heart surgery for my son, then another, then a 4 month hospital stay, then another surgery and so on for the first year of his life. Ive seen the hospital bills, ive never added them up but its over 1 MILLION dollars easy. just 1 night stay in PED ICU is 9K dollars! My son also qualified for a free government insurance cause he is cronically ill.
Then again last yeah i was working practically for free and had no health care throu this employer. I got in another accident and had to goto the hospital for a few hours. I got the bill in the mail a few weeks late, it was about 500$ and a form to fill out to see if i qualified for the bll to be payed and it was cause i was making crap.
ANYWAYS my point is that if someone TRUELY cannot aford Healthcare there is some sort of government givin healthcare.
Im not 100% happy with the healthcare system here in the us, but im 100% sure I am very lucky to be born in this country.
Spot on, you are right, people who cant or dont have it are still getting treated.
dogofwar;3296001; said:
"Then when he was born we found out he had to have imidiate heart surgery for my son, then another, then a 4 month hospital stay, then another surgery and so on for the first year of his life. Ive seen the hospital bills, ive never added them up but its over 1 MILLION dollars easy. just 1 night stay in PED ICU is 9K dollars! My son also qualified for a free government insurance cause he is cronically ill."
Situations like this are precisely why health savings accounts (HSAs) and the like are a poor replacement for comprehensive insurance.
Let's say that you and your girl put money in your account every month for years and managed to save a few thousands of dollars.
A single day of PED ICU time would suck up all of the money in your HSA...
It's simply not possible to plan for costs like this. Which is the point of insurance.
The HSA needs to be in conjunction with a PRIVATE insurer plan so you can get contracted rates. The HSA goes only to the deductible (everything goes to the deductible until the deductible is met) and there are no copays nor co insurance. HSAs are portable, you dont need to use it, GREAT save it and keep adding it the next year and purchase a plan with lower premiums and a high deductible. I contribute $100 a month to my HSA, I dont make much money and the wife is in school full time, we have a child, money is tight...believe me, money is tight however if we can put in $100 a month, so can ANYONE else.
The new High Deductible Health Plans with HSAs are where its at. Deductibles are usually somehting like $2,000 per person for the highest premiums on up to $5,000/ person for the lowest premiums. Usually your employer will match your HSA contributions. Your HSA goes to pay for your deductible. An example, our plan period started this month, Ive contributed $100 this month to my HSA and my employer matches that x3 so I know have $400 in my HSA. My child gets sick, the claim comes in and its $350 for just the office visit. The HSA has its on debit card, I call the office after the claim with correct conntracted rates is figured out, give them my HSA debit card number and boom, claim paid and $350 is off my deductible. BUT its actually less then $350 as HSAs are PRETAX so that saves me a good 30% right there (of course the powers that be want to tax HSAs now cause they dont want people being responsible).
Once my extremly high deductible is met, we pay nothing, I dont care if we have to have brain surgery or what. I have my premium and an x amount of money out of my paycheck every pay period and that is all I will EVER have to pay for health care this year as its my premium plus a contribution to my HSA that will be enough to meet my deductible by the end of the year.
If I dont meet my deductible I will have money left over my HSA to spend next year so that means I can either contribute less to my HSA or purchase a higher deductible plan with less premiums.
I will get back to TX later Im at work and dont have time to read 8 pages.
