Sarah Palin is an evil idiot

[sdreid]

I am not against Medicaid when all else has been exhausted and we've had that for decades.

I just checked and it "only" went up $900 a year. It did go down last year, just not as much as I thought.

[Stephen Thomas]

In the UK healthcare is totally free and has been since 1945

hahahahahahahaha

[mariab]

Ouch, $1500 is the increase? I thought it was the final amount. No, this is expensive. I guess waiting for 3 years (or more) until insurance rates go down (eventually) and people have options (when insurance actually becomes competitive) sounds like a bad joke.
Still, America needs a health case reform.

[sdreid]

That's a $1500 annual increase on what I'm responsible for. My total health insurance is something like $20,000 a year, possibly even more. Most is paid by my company as a part of my remittance for my labor.

[mariab]

My house is paid for so I don't have mortgage insurance.

Still, $1500 yearly doesn't seem expensive compared to Europe. I know of people who pay the double here in Germany (if they're not careful to research their options well.)
In continental Europe only the very rich buy their own house, everyone else rents. To a continental European, mortgage sounds like a stranglehold of indentured slavery.
Plus we don't have the problem of paying back astromonic college tuition costs.

[sdreid]

I just answered an inquiry, I can't help it if people don't like my answer.

My house is paid for so I don't have mortgage insurance.

[mariab]

My insurance cost went down $750 last year and is going up $1500 dollars this year with no more benefits. I call that for the worse.

The increased one sounds about the same as the average German is paying. Of course, it depends on what it's covering. Are you talking just health, or mortgage too? (Almost afraid to use the word, after the recent situation in the US.)

[Ally]

My insurance cost went down $750 last year and is going up $1500 dollars this year with no more benefits. I call that for the worse.

As I said, already, but I know I have to repeat it for the Palinites, the insurance companies are raising their prices in the short term because they are trying to scare people. I know your rate hike came with a letter explaining how this incredible hike is a direct result of the new "federal legislation".

In 3 years, when the exchanges kick in, insurance rates will go down because people will have options and insurance will actually become competitive.

C.D.

I have explored ALL options. I can't even get catastrophic care insurance. Basically I am considered a catastrophe waiting to happen (insert snark here) so they won't even cover me for worst case scenario. I have ONE company out of all who have denied me say they are reviewing some cases (since they will have to take me in 3 years anyway) and might give me insurance early, but not to hold my breath.

[mariab]

Completely agree with Ally, especially on the following:
Quote Ally:
The fact of the matter is that the health insurance companies have a stranglehold on the american health industry and they have been out of control for decades.
Health insurance companies have scared the ignorant masses into thinking this is going to be a disaster, when in fact, the health insurance companies got everything they actually wanted. They are currently inflating their prices to scare people into thinking this is a bad idea.
When I work at the UofC, I use a German travel health insurance that covers quite a bit of things. In 2009 it costed me 75-€, in 2010 90-€ – this for my entire stay in the US. The UofC only accepted my appointment in the condition that they wouldn't pay for my health insurance.
For budget reasons I've cut my German health insurance (which would have been just over 150-€ monthly, comprehensive for the entire Europe) to a basic thing (still covering basic dental and ob/gyn) where I pay just 64-€ monthly. Plus the German state covers half of my rent, since I happen to work from my apartment this winter.
Even for a recent stay in South Africa, I arranged a deal from a German insurance company where I paid 37-€ for 2 weeks, and it covered not the usual theft/luggage coverage stuff, but just medical, including surgery and evacuation in case of a shark attack.
What's not to like about Germany's health care policies? (While I have to admit that the state health insurance company, AOK, is the worst and the most greedy. Since about a decade and a half, everyone's turned to small private insurance companies, and there's a host of them on the market.)

[c.d.]

Hi Ally,

I am sure that you have researched all possibilities for obtaining insurance but have you tried ehealthinsurance.com? They list all plans by state and they have customer service reps who seem pretty knowledgeable. There might be some high risk insurance plan that they can steer you to. Worth a shot if you haven't already tried it.

c.d.

[sdreid]

My insurance cost went down $750 last year and is going up $1500 dollars this year with no more benefits. I call that for the worse.

[Ally]

Your health care hasn't changed for the worse. You're just engaging in empty rhetoric.

The fact of the matter is that the health insurance companies have a stranglehold on the american health industry and they have been out of control for decades. The republicans had over a decade to do something about it, but didn't bother, so now they are whining because it got taken away from them.

Health insurance companies have scared the ignorant masses into thinking this is going to be a disaster, when in fact, the health insurance companies got everything they actually wanted. They are currently inflating their prices to scare people into thinking this is a bad idea.

I am a non-smoking, non-obese, non-drinking person who is healthy in every way that I have the slightest control over, but because I am not genetically blessed, and for an issue I have absolutely no control over, I have been denied health coverage by every single health insurance company in the state.

Health insurance needed a massive overhaul, the Republicans completely failed to do so, too busy pocketing the bribes from "lobbyists" and now they are whining because of a situation based entirely on their own making.

Tough cookies. The reform isn't ideal, but it's better than what we had. At least I have a hope of getting insurance in a couple of years.

But backwater hillbillies like to beat the drum of government take overs, while failing to admit that the most governmental control ever exerted over the people was by Bush Jr.

[mariab]

Not obsessing on Palin in the least. And not terribly surprised that most Americans, conservative or not, distrust “the State“.
Sorry to hear that your health insurance has been changed for the worse.

an alliance between government and privately owned business

He he, like with the bail out?
(Still, let's not engage in an unproductive discussion of American politics.)

[sdreid]

I was very satisfied with my health care but it's now being ruined. Anyway, please keep obsessing on Palin.

[sdreid]

Fascism is an alliance between government and privately owned business as long as they cooperate so it's actually not right wing in an economic sense. Call it State Capitalism if that makes you feel better. Like I said, para-Fascism.