I have been freelance since 1989 and guess what....I have purchased my own healthcare since then. (These are some of the options from my current provider if I choose to switch plans - with no subsidies. A $5000 deductible sounds rather high but
as an example saving 56 cents a day for 25 years pretty much takes care of that.) My parents taught me to be a responsible adult and taught me about saving money from an early age - they started me with my first savings account when I was 8 years old - I learned how to balance a checkbook when I was 10. Making sure I'm covered is just part of the game of budgeting life. I have worked smart and hard to pay for the things that I need without a single handout from the government. All the generations of my family have done the same. Few of my friends in "the arts" have had healthcare because they think that following their bliss is more important than sucking it up, doing what is right, and paying the price. Most of them are loving the false promise of Obamacare. Forcing everyone to join up does not make healthcare more affordable. Healthcare is still just as expensive as it was before the ACA kicked in. It just dumps more money into the pool to be redistributed as illnesses arise. I'm not an actuary nor am I an economist but this sure sounds like a ponzi scheme to me. My parents also taught me about debt. How can a nation that is 17 trillion in debt afford to subsidize a system that gets more and more expensive every year? 67,80,46,0,B,.16
28 comments:
that helps clear it up — as clear as mud now… as soon as I pay for my new gold iPhone & my ~$400 data plan, I'm going online and buy one of those bronze plans for silver hairs - ought to fly like a lead balloon - feel like a metals commodities trader. hmmm,
thanks for being a patient
Anything that the government does costs a lot more than it should.
It can't but they are politicians and think they can do anything. I'm past political parties. They are all wanabe's who stumbled into politics very full of themselves. And we idiots............voted them into office. If you didn't vote you're still responsible. At this point I don't know what to do.
Actually Medicare does a good job at negotiating low prices and being efficient. The current Plan A & B costs $104 a month, and some combination Plan C include prescriptions for the same $104. Of course the beneficiaries contributed all their working life, but try to find some who would give up Medicare, not only for the price but for the quality.
I am thankful the Veterans Administration takes care of my health needs. Health Care Act sounds mighty expensive! Got my social security check at 62 but still have to wait a couple of years for Medicare.
I don't believe in the ACA because the government destroys everything it lays its hands on but I do have one question... how about those of us who don't have a website to login to to compare plans because we're denied because of preexisting conditions? My family could get a $10k deductible plan that would include my 2 daughters and my wife for around $1000 / month. I cannot be covered though.... and what good is an insurance plan that requires you to pay the first $10k out of pocket? I think I will just stick with my own plan.... self insurance. That's $12k / year that I can save. That makes for a whole lot of healthcare when I need it and we'll use the emergency room plan for the rest because sheeple have allowed us to live in a country where people can be DENIED health insurance because of an ear infection when they were 6 months old.
Most people don't get it because they're covered by their employer, medicare, the VA, etc etc. Must be nice....
Why is it that no one seems to mind subsidizing the military industrial complex, but all hell breaks loose when you mention healthcare? I'm a-ok with doing away with Obamacare, but we needn't stop there, next: the military, car insurance, crop insurance, public education, roads, mortgage insurance, national parks, churches, city parks, public pools, police, state universities, judges, public defenders, clergy, gasoline, corn, wheat, beef, pork, chicken,......all that pesky stuff that I pay subsidies for in the form of taxes, fees, etc. I'll just put the savings in my piggy bank and take care of all this stuff myself....aMEricans aren't as independent as they like to think they are. Pretty ballsy statement from a guy who likes to espouse the teachings of Christ on here every Sunday. I'm quite certain Christ would have a much different viewpoint on the subject. Of course, I don't need a slick preacher in a $50 suit and a copy of the King James to know that.
I,m not paying.medicare is the reason for this.bless your heart rj.get it all mohave rat, going to be gone soon.its the American Way.
re: govt "destruction".
as pointed out - the govt already does healthcare for the VA, Medicare, TRICARE for the military and MedicAid.
the govt built and maintains the roads that helps John live off the grid.
how easy would John's life be if he had no nasty govt road to get supplies?
John looks at weather and radar all the time - that's govt. NOAA
The DSL that John depends on was likely financed by the rural universal service fund an outgrowth of the rural electrification effort.
People find their way to Johns place often via GPS - that satellite network is govt.
Govt is like people. Some of what it does is damn good and some of what it does - just sucks.
the same govt that put men on the moon also had terrible tragedies and lost astronauts on other launches.
we make mistakes. we learn. we get better. both as people and govt.
If you're looking for perfect, govt is the wrong place to be looking.
there are millions of people in this world right now that truly live off the grid - 50 miles from the nearest "govt" road and no DSL, no Fed Ex/UPS, and no nearby road-accessible town to get supplies - because the govt is very minimal and people truly are on their own and are responsible for much, much more than folks in this country.
I don't diminish what John has achieved. I celebrate it but the anti-govt fervor is wrongheaded IMHO.
@ Larry G
Who do you think the Gov't is !!!
After their huge cut?nadrency
well it looks different from where I sit. I've been paying my own health care insurance for about 15 years now, and what I find is I pay a small fortune for totally crap insurance. Wife and I are both cancer survivors, in spite of clean living all along no smoking blahblahblah...and that is pretty much THE pre-existing condition. we've been cancer free for quite a while now but time doesn't erase the pre-existing label. So as of 2012 we were paying $18000 a year for 70% of ALLOWABLE costs, and APPLOWABLE turns out to be a really key word because pretty much everything isn't allowable. NO inmaging is covered, not even an x-ray. No preventive care is covered, other than a basic annual checkup. My annual out of pocket is only limited by my net worth. When I call to find out if something is covered they have actually told me, well we don't know...just get the procedure done and we'll let you know if it's covered or not then. In other words, write your doc a blank check, which pretty much defeats the whole concept of insurance. Now, I pay about $1800 a year in county hospital taxes so those with no ability to pay can go to the emergency room. Around here, poor folks don't think twice about calling an ambulance to take them to the ER for a hangnail because they know it's free to them. I'll never use the county hospital but I pay for it every year and then I pay an ambulance insurance policy that will get ME to the ER because for me that would be a $1000 ride. Then I pay via my taxes the 75% subsidy that the government gives to all government employees. And what really burns me up is I'm paying for insuring the poor folks, I'm paying for insurance for all federal and state government workers, and when I buy anything I'm paying a subsidy for all the employee plans. I like Obamacare because it makes everyone pay their on way, at least to the extent of their ability to pay. I've checked...for me Obamacare is going to cost me a little more because I make enough that I don't get any breaks, and that's fine with me, because the key issues to me are that my insurance (gold plan) will actually cover something and it also has an anual out of pocket cap, so now my insurance will actually insure that if I have another catastrophic illness it won't completely wipe out what I have worked for and saved for my entire life, and isn't that the whole point of insurance? and Chris Miller....under Obamacare there's no longer any such think as pre-existing conditions, and frnakly you're a damn fool if you have children and don't have coverage. I've sat in a cancer clinic and seen people with no insurance turned away. It's a sad sight. You have to ask yourself...what if that was my kid?...it happens. Besides, you off the grid folks who aren't showing much in the way of income can get Obamacare for damn near free....you might ought to study up on it and see if I'm not right.
Thanks to your parents for explaining the checkbook. Too bad they didn't explain the concept of insurance and risk spread.
Why should I pay the fat cats at BCBS $300 when I can pay $100, more coverage and lower deductible? Sounds like the latter is more fiscally responsible --- I think your parents would approve.
What Larry G said. --I have relatives that stayed proudly uninsured, until one of them had to have gallbladder surgery in the emergency room. Now they understand. John, if you came down with a serious illness, I imagine you would rather it be covered by health insurance than possibly having to give up the Field Lab or your independence. --By the way, the only "pre existing condition" that ACA takes into account when presenting you with your options is whether or not you are a smoker; in that case your premiums will be higher.
Here in my state we are funding our own programme to nearly 50% of the entire state budget. The costs are rising and are approaching an unsustainable level.
Rather than reform health care from a public health perspective (a more healthy society) and - just as critical - removal of the corporate-based profiteering that our system is based upon, the various government programmes simply guarantee insurance companies a much larger "pool" from which they may collect. Add in the various mandates that demand businesses to offset costs, and we have a real economy killer.
We have government-enabled for-profit health care, not government-provided health care. Big difference, and neither one is attractive.
The rest of the industrial world is able to provide medical care to it's people like it provides police & fire protection.
They do it for everyone and they do it for way less money than than the US pays (even before Obama care).
The US is #1 in cost, #37 in quality and 40k people die every year because they can't afford the health care industry's product.
We have a health care industry, not a system.
. . . hello! from Finland, where we have near the most advanced health care in the whole world provided by the state for everybody with much less cost than you there. My "incurable" cancer was cured 15 years ago and I hardly paid anything for it (except the taxes, of course).
Like John, being self employed has required me to purchase my own insurance...for the past 27 years. When my wife had a suspicious mammogram, she was kicked off our policy. When my daughter had asthma, she had a rider that precluded her from coverage for anything asthma related. This was before Obamacare.
Since Obamacare was passed, both my daughter and my wife are back on my family plan with no riders. Prior to Obamacare, my premiums would increase an average of 2 times each year. After Obamacare passed, my premiums, get this, have been REDUCED 3 times. And...I have received 3 refund checks from BCBS due to the 80% provision in Obamacare. So tell me naysayers, how is Obamacare a bad thing? I know a lot of y'all just detest the government, but when we had the shutdown, I'm sure y'all weren't one of the people complaining bitterly about National Parks closing, or any of the other things the shutdown caused, right?
When Social Security and Medicare were brought into law, people complained bitterly about it. Now, try and take somebody's Social Security and Medicare benefits away from them and see how that goes. Don't judge the benefit of a law based merely on a poorly designed website, or what your Republican politician says. Website doesn't work? Call the toll free number. There are numerous ways to sign up. Still a hater, well, just pay your $95 penalty and go uninsured. But when you wind up in an emergency room, don't expect anybody to have much sympathy for you when you're presented with the bill. You say you can't afford insurance, but tell me how you're going to afford the $1,500 ER visit (average cost to get past triage). If you need a CT scan as part of the diagnosis, add on another $8,000 for the scan. Need 2 scans (with contrast) for possible trauma? Add on another $18,000. You decide which is the most prudent approach.
America, home of the $500 bandage.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2012/december/09/mri-cost-price-comparison-health-insurance.aspx
Howdy folks,
Everybody's arguing about HEALTH-CARE YEP, that's a little-bitty piece of what' B...h' Pelosi was quoted as saying, "PASS IT then READ IT" to know what it says... Every Politician IS A LIAR and WANTS YOUR MONEY, PERIOD.. THEY DO NOT WORK or get their hands dirty or calloused, except from picking YOUR POCKET !!
The MOST IMPORTANT part of the ACA
is the STEALING OF YOUR RIGHT TO A FREE SOVEREIGN NATION !!!!
OBAMACARE IS A SMOKESCREEN TO HIDE THAT PART OF IT FROM YOU!!!
I've been told all of my life, "there ain't no FREE LUNCH", NOT even with the EMPEROR'S OBAMACARE..
From Greg in California,
Before ACA all the people I've talked to with a policy paid for by their job could care less about people who couldn't afford health care. I don't believe that Christ would want just the rich to have good health care, do you John?
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Nobody will read this because it is being posted well after the initial blog date.
That is okay with me.
First, most of the folks living in the Big Bend are doing so as a way to claim their life back! I don't believe that for a minute. Some have very good reasons, most are just doing so as lark and will be back in some town or city in time.
John stated he wanted to test various methods of substaining his existence off the "electrical" grid. His choice of locale could not have been worse for such an experiment. Reason, simple, no water. Doesn't rain enough to supply even drinking water, much less showers or any crop for the table.
As for not buying into the Affordable Care Act, that is just plain dumb. Anybody can have health insurance at a decent price. My young just married friends found out, had no insurance, she became pregnant, didn't know what they could do. Signed up for ACA insurance, now the birth and related costs are covered.
Even my young wife, 38, thought she didn't need health insurance, worked at a place which didn't provide any. Finally, I convinced her to change jobs, when that company failed to provide coverage as promised when she was hired. Long story, short, she developed fibroid tumors on her uterus, rushed to the emergency room, a day later the doctor removed five tumors which weighed six pounds. The total charges were in excess of $40,000.00, our portion was about $2,000.00.
Needless to say she is a believer now.
CT Dunn
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We, as a country cannot afford it. Since it appears not nearly enough young and healthy folk are signing up in the non-medicare risk pool (80% of the few sign-ups that have occured to date are medicare NOT the normal risk pool) there will have to be payments made from the government (you and me) to the insurance companies as porvided for in ACA to cover their losses since not enought premiums will be paid in to cover the costs of benefits.
A $6000 deductible is an improvement for a plan that costs 250-350 a month? you've got to be kidding.
The point of the ACA is to kill the private market and move to a single payer system.......
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