Healthcare Reform, where can I locate the facts?Follow

I'm not (or wasn't) Somehow my pregnancy is a preexisting condition, so when our other insurance ended (they were supposed to carry us for 60 more days and have yet to fully refund us for the prepayment.) we were faced with taking money out of our savings to prepay the cesarean and my hospital stay. I've gotten lucky because I am going at least halftime at my college, I qualified to get their insurance. (We purchased it for myself & the children - my spouse is entitled to V.A. it isnt great but its better than nothing)

His job doesn't offer insurance plans but it does pay enough for us to afford it. Our issue was the "preexisting condition" - noone would touch us. I know many other people in similar situations, due to having asthma or something else, they can't get insurance and truthfully some jobs do not offer affordable policies.

Private insurance is in the industry to make money. With Suki, my policy tried to double charge me my "out of pocket" fee of $1000 - their excuse was "well we want you to pay the 1000 to this doctor, just call the other doctor and get a refund....". It took me over 6 months to get that straightened out. The first 30 days, she was supposed to be covered under my plan but they refused to pay for her care and that took me close to 8 months to correct.

The insurance plan that we recently had, didn't cover my daughters vaccinations so in essence we spent 180 a month for no benefits. (Few doctors accepted Tricare select.)However if I didn't have that insurance, the one plan I got through my college wouldn't cover any birthing expenses.

We can't say that people don't want insurance - many people do and either can't afford it or get turned down due to preexisting conditions.

Hell, the hospital that covered the octoslut turned me down and I was trying to purchase a plan that wouldve cost me $400 per month. Blue Cross Blue Shield turned me down and even sent a letter stating that it was due to me being pregnant.

I would love if there was a public option available so that people who didn't have insurance, could.

I don't understand why people are so ignorant about the proposed plan. Ignorant to the point of making up lies - 'death squads'?! In my city's newspaper, some medicare users are complaining about how they dont want "socialized insurance" and claiming that people who don't have insurance don't want it. Well, if they don't like their free government insurance, they could always try to apply for private (it would be a swift reminder as to why so many of us lack insurance.)

Liberals don't have guns, or have you already forgotten the cliche stereotypes that you so desperately cling to?


ITT we learn that varus has an embarrassing disease/condition.

First, Congress already gets healthcare insurance paid for by the taxpayers.

Second, this is about me, and it's not about Niobia and it's not about any other liberal on this board. I think that most of us have insurance that we're ok with. It's about eveyrone else. Everyone who can't afford medical insurance, everyone who is crumpling under the weight of their medical bills, everyone who can't see a doctor because they can't afford it.

Your stance is the selfish one. You are the one saying you don't want to pay for anything for anyone other than yourself. Nice try, though.

I'm in a fairly similar situation to Niobia. I started shopping for health insurance a few months ago, knowing I'd be losing my benefits at the end of August.

Finding an affordable primary health care policy was impossible. None of them would cover the treatment for narcolepsy ($700+ per month in medication, plus quarterly neuro exams that cost ~$1800. As a 30-year-old non-smoking, non-obese woman, the cheapest private individual indemnity policy I could find would have cost me $600 per month with a $1500 annual deductible and no prescription benefit. So faced with the possibility of $1300 in monthly medical costs, before paying an insurance premium, I decided to shop for a catastrophic medical policy instead.

The one I settled on will costs me $180 per month, has a $2500 deductible, and covers the costs of major medical events that require hospitalization. I won't delve in to the list, but it covers stuff like cancer and major injuries. Of course, because of the prexisting condition, the policy has a rider excluding and costs relating to the treatment of my narcolepsy <i>or any conditions or injuries arising as a direct result of it.</i> According to my lawyer, I should just be prepared to pay out-of-pocket for most injuries because it wouldn't be worth my while trying to prove most things weren't related to the illness (I have cataplectic attacks, I fall down, I could potentially fall asleep while driving or operating a turret lathe, etc). So my $180 per month is there if I have a heart attack or get cancer or something like that.

So, to sum up, this is MindelCare 2009:

1) I have talked to the neurologist and switched from the incredibly effective side-effect-free $700/month medication to one that costs $20 per month, but doesn't work as well and makes me twitchy.
2) I am continuing with the other two medications out-of-pocket, $20 and $40 respectively.
3) The neurologist has agreed to annual exams rather than quarterly, so long as my symptoms remain stable.
4) I will try very hard not to get hurt.
5) I will try very hard to get sick, and if I do get sick, I've got to go for the gusto.

And if the fruits of medical research had anything at all to do with population size, you'd have a point...

Britain spends less than the U.S. on just about anything because it's smaller. Varus was making a nonsense point to support his side and now you're doing the same.

How did you miss Ash's point so much? Are you having an extra stupid day or something?

You can't argue with the pithy pseudo-truisms posted on mises.org, Joph. You just can't.

I see disinformation runs across all level of the Republican sector.

It's not small
And that's not taking into account the roughly 20% that have insufficient insurance to actually cover their medical situations, or an medical emergency that might come up.

False dilemma.

Edited, Aug 13th 2009 2:21pm by Xsarus

You may have missed the original point, since it was trimmed out in the quote. Nobby was speaking not of the total cost for medical care, but for medical research, and relating it to GDP. Which is nice and all, and is a relevant economic point, but medical research doesn't care what size your country is. If it costs X amount of money to develop some new scanner, or treatment, it costs that much regardless of whether your country is 1/5th the size of the other.


Which was the entirely of my point.

As long as BT doesn't announce it some OoT people will no doubt come take care of you