I am angry this morning.

Before Obamacare, insurance was TONS worse. We paid $1200.00 per MONTH for a family of four. More than our mortgage for sure.

I have a son with a severe medical problem since birth. He had a major, life-threatening crisis this year, and we will have major procedures to come. For about $200,000 worth of medical bills THIS YEAR ALONE, we are paying $5400 in deductibles and our monthly insurance fee is under $500.

In addition, under the old ways, there was such a thing as being "uninsurable." I know because I had cancer at a young age and found myself UNINSURABLE FOR 10 YEARS!!!

I had to wait those 10 years until I was older to have children, because I was a responsible human, and wanted health insurance for them. Now both of my children have problems. My eldest son has autism, which strongly correlates to older parents. I'm pretty pissed I had to wait, though he might have had autism anyway. It's really hard on him and we have to worry about life-long care with State governments who want to do nothing but cut money toward disability. INSURANCE RULES RULED MY LIFE. It was terrible for a lot of people.

In other words, if you were well, insurance "pre-Obama" was just fine and dandy. If you were ever seriously ill, you would be telling a different story.

= AB

PS - OP - I'm sorry for your troubles. I wish we had a better, less expensive system all around.

The system in the US, in terms of healthcare, is a catastrophy. I can't believe there even IS deductables to pay considering how much people pay each month for their insurance.

People spenda lot of tie complaining about the government , as if it is TPTB , but from what I can tell, the real power in the US is the corporations - private business. Our government is pretty powerless actually, being their bitches.

originally posted by: avgguy
a reply to: Creep Thumper

It is a business, but so is car seats, grocery stores and water companies. None of those things are free and they all either save lives or keep you alive. it compounds the problem immensely when we have leaches that use goods without paying, the cost then passed down to the people that are decent enough to pay their bills.

It's really disappointing that you actually had to elaborate on your initial comment, isn't it?

a reply to: Snarl

Sounds like TB if you ask me.

Damn cats.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Not really, all of the things I listed are necessity yet none of them are "free."

a reply to: AboveBoard

That's awesome that your son got the service he needed at a good price, but there's no reason that healthy people like myself should have an out of pocket max near the 10,000 mark. My healthcare was much better before obamacare. There has to be a sweet spot somewhere.

a reply to: Bluesma

You're mixing up your arguments, here.

Healthcare in the U.S. is some of the best around, and that's why even world leaders from other countries fly here to have medical procedures performed on them instead of trusting in their own country's abilities for healthcare.

Health insurance, on the other hand, will always be a debacle because it's not treated like insurance should be treated, so the companies that supply the insurance have to pay out sooo much money to cover things that should be paid in cash. It's like expecting your car insurance to pay for tires, and oil changes, all other maintenance and issues that arise. Can you imagine how convoluted the car insurance industry would get and how much more it would cost?

And no matter what some people say, for the average American, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made healthcare more expensive.

a reply to: avgguy

That's my point...anyone with critical thinking skills should have known what you meant from the start.

a reply to: thinline

We went in the opposite direction. From $485.00 to $301. 00
$40.00 copay and $500.00 deductible for hospital stays.
But we're pretty healthy so far.

I am four years tobacco free after smoking for forty years. The difference in how I feel are day and night. Healing is rapid when you quit.
****************************************************************************************************************************

And problems swallowing is a sign of lung cancer so I'm hoping for the best for my favorite adversary Butcherguy.
I'm pulling for you fella.

a reply to: avgguy

but there's no reason that healthy people like myself should have an out of pocket max near the 10,000 mark.

I agree with you. It is extremely frustrating that no one can do anything to fix obamacare because our Congress would use it as an excuse to destroy the law from within, and poison any chance of positive reform of the law.

If they repeal it, I honestly don't know what my family will do.

a reply to: Sillyolme

And problems swallowing is a sign of lung cancer so I'm hoping for the best for my favorite adversary Butcherguy. I'm pulling for you fella.

Thanks.
You know that I love you.

a reply to: Bluesma

I don't know about France, where you are, but when Cameron was making his 'exit' speech, and enumerating the accomplishments he's made, among them he said "the waiting list for needed surgeries was reduced from 17,000 to 700".

WTH? 17,000 people waiting for surgeries? See, I can't even imagine that. I can't even imagine 700 (not including transplants due to the availability of organs)

Butcherguy, my sister in law has some kind of condition that causes food not to always pass from her esophagus into her stomach. She's had it for 15 years. She goes into the doctor for a procedure once in a while that pushes it out.
Just telling you because not everything is cancer. Don't focus on it. I know it's worrisome, but it will most likely be something else. Let's hope.

AboveBoard

DAMN! I hate having to deal with them period! (Insurance companies). But I don't typically have to. The only thing I notice sometimes is doctor's charging them for things that didn't actually happen.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Your healthcare costs would have gone up and up and up faster than inflation - how do you know you are paying more now than you would have anyway?

Sorry. I don't want to go off topic here.

OP - Wishing you the best on that test result.

a reply to: butcherguy

Are you sure a cat didn't come into the room while you were eating that rice? That would be enough to make me choke too. Just sayin'.

originally posted by: AboveBoard
For about $200,000 worth of medical bills THIS YEAR ALONE, we are paying $5400 in deductibles and our monthly insurance fee is under $500.

And you don't see anything wrong with that?

Hey butcherguy I'm leading a cheer for you buddy.
And a creative billing clerk can up your bill by a thousand then bring it down to the actual amount thus showing the deductible satisfied.
At least that worked with an auto insurance claim.
Lol I could be totally wrong. Like I said we're pretty healthy and have only ever used this current plan for a check up and a case of pink eye. Oh and an ear infection. (I swim, get swimmers ear owwww)

Best of luck man. But i bet you won't need it. 🍻

a reply to: Snarl

Of course I do!! Geez. It shouldn't cost $200,000 to begin with. Health care costs have been out of control for decades. Trust me. I know that intimately.

My point is I would have paid a crap-ton more, both in deductibles ($10,000 per person) and in monthly fees pre Obamacare.

Turning back the clock to pre-ACA is NOT the answer, and Mr. Ryan's "solution" would still leave us in a pile of doo doo.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting
No cats in sight here.

a reply to: Snarl

Tuberculosis is very rare here in the states. It was probably a stubborn piece of rice or possibly the rice was hard and scratched his esophagus making it feel like something was stuck in his throat. That did happen to my dad. A piece of rye bread toast scratched his throat and he was saying it was stuck in his throat. I lived across the street from the fire dept at the time and one of the paramedics looked at his throat and said nothing was stuck. He was sure something was.
The medic said it was scratched.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: Snarl

Tuberculosis is very rare here in the states. It was probably a stubborn piece of rice or possibly the rice was hard and scratched his esophagus making it feel like something was stuck in his throat. That did happen to my dad. A piece of rye bread toast scratched his throat and he was saying it was stuck in his throat. I lived across the street from the fire dept at the time and one of the paramedics looked at his throat and said nothing was stuck. He was sure something was.
The medic said it was scratched.

This was lodged there in my throat for ten minutes.
I drank a lot of water trying to get it to move, but I had to induce vomiting to get it cleared.
I only got about a teaspoon of rice to come up but I got relief. Then I drank more water and it went down.