On Tue, 12 Apr 2016 08:20:57 -0400, Gary > wrote:

>Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>>
>>
>> Yep. That's why I'm grateful to have my husband's employer pay half
>> the cost.
>
>You should be grateful too. Years ago, I worked for a company. It's
>the same one that I work for now. My health insurance was paid
>completely for family coverage by the company.
>
>Then when I became a single parent and needed more flexible time, I
>quit and started my own business. Health care started out costing me
>$85 per month for me and my daughter (suscriber and one minor) and
>deductible was only $100 per year for each of us. Co-pay of
>prescriptions was never offered either.
>
>Over the next 14-15 years, we rarely went to the doctor so the
>insurance company never paid a penny for out health care...not one
>cent. Even though we cost them nothing, they constantly raised the
>rates and/or the annual deductible every couple of years.
>
>When I turned age 50, the new policy jumped to $425 per month and
>$1500 deductible. Keep in mind too that we never even met the
>deductible so I was paying all that insurance money and getting
>nothing back.
>
>That's when I dropped it. I literally couldn't afford it. My ignorant
>father (who has govt. paid insurance help) mumbled that I couldn't
>afford NOT to have it. Idiot. I told him, "Dad, I can't pay the
>premium if it's not in my bank account." He had no clue since his was
>supplimented.
>
>So anyway, almost 20 years to the day, my business was hurting so I
>went back to the old company that gave me so many benefits. Father was
>out of it and his worthless son had taken over. Very little benefits
>since then. The son wants all the money for himself. He would make a
>good exec for Walmart. heheh
>
>I've gone almost 13 years now without health insurance. At my age,
>it's like playing "Russian Roulette." These are the very years that I
>should have it. I've "saved" a ton of insurance money (assuming I
>could have paid it, but I couldn't).
>
>Many people have employer provided insurance to some extent. They
>often run to the doctor for every little sniffle since they only have
>to pay $20 per visit and meds are cheap. These are the people that run
>up the insurance/medical costs.
>
>Anyone that doesn't believe me...go try to buy insurance on your own
>with no company co-pay. What ever they charge you, you'll get no
>returns unless some very serious hospitalization is required.
>
>Again though...I'm not sitting here wringing my hands and crying that
>it's not fair. Nobody owes me anything. I made my decisions in life
>(right or wrong). I make lots of sacrifices to accept and deal with my
>situation. I'm not resentful at all. And as I said, like many without
>insurance, I'll probably die someday for something stupid just because
>I can't afford to get it fixed. I'm just one of the worthless and the
>world will go on fine without me.. oh man! ;o
>
>Hey... :-D I take life one day at a time.

I often see stats for the number of people in the US who have no
insurance, people just like you, circumstances, and it is quite
shocking to us anyway. Even though I know many like to point fingers
at us and say it is 'socialised' health care, if it is, who cares.

Stay healthy Gary, we made basically a similar choice. When David
retired the Blue Cross he'd had all his working days (for frills
really, things like a private room if in hospital etc) wanted to
charge him $400 per month, lot of money then. So we decided he would
drop it and just use what the gubermint supplied and I would gamble
that I would stay in good health until I was 65. The gamble worked
fine as it turned out. So now I pay $434 per year and that covers any
drugs I might need, which could be very expensive. Bugger Blue Cross
they took advantage of knowing what his medical condition was.