Medical Insurance???

[Beekissed]

The thing is, for people who can't get coverage through their employers you can at least get it through the state.

There are a select few who fall through the cracks on this one....I was one of them and so was one of the gals I work with.....make too much to qualify for Medicaid, not enough for Chips, and certainly not enough to buy the insurance at work.

Now we both have jobs with reasonable insurance, but this is the first job I've had with that option for the past 12 years!

 

[Wifezilla]

If it was a matter of eating well and taking vitamins then people wouldn't be dying of these horrendous diseases.

Did I say "just take vitmains" Heck no! I said understand the causes of the most common diseases. CARBOHYDRATES are the leading cause of lifestyle diseases including cancer and heart disease.

One thing people fail to realize is that insurance and medical care are NOT the same thing.

I can get medical care. The hospital puts you on payments. I have great credit with the city owned hospital.

I CAN'T get insurance.

As far as not being able to sleep at night if you don't have insurance...well....that's what insurance companies are counting on.

Every dollar spent on insurance is a dollar that doesn't go to medical care. Most of that is wasted on administrative fees and paperwork.

Get a health saving's account. Pay a doctor cash. Insurance isn't the answer.

 

[the simple life]

oh yeah, the carbs. My sister in law did that carb free diet too.

Insurance may not be the answer for everybody, but it has certainly been for me.
My insurance payments are only a fraction of what I and my family have used for medical.
Just my surgeries alone, do you think I have actually spent $50,000 in insurance payments?
No way. Not even close.
Then there is my husband and 7 children.
Three of my kids have had braces to the tune of $13,000 the insurance paid for half which is more than I paid in insurance and that is just the tip of the iceburg.
If you add up all the er visits, dental visits, well check ups, sick visits,surgeries for myself and other family members, physical therapy, mri , x rays, giving birth and all the prenatal visits and everything else its far exceeds any type of insurance payments I have ever made for the last 20 or so years.
I am sure we have used over a couple of hundred thousand.

As far as the I can't sleep at night if I didn't have insurance, absolutely, if I have access to it but choose not to get it then I feel I am being irresponsible to my family and I can't sleep if I feel I have done anything to jeapordize their well being.

Besides why would I want to pay the hospital for anything when I can get the insurance for a fraction of the price of the what the hospitals would charge me for medical care and then I don't have all these payment plans to how many healthcare providers.

Besides, I only go to to the hospital if it can't be taken care of by the family doctor or a specialist, such as an emergency.

As I said, in our state you are required to carry medical insurance.
One of the reasons it was implemented is to protect children who's parents do not seek the proper medical care for their kids due to the cost.
Not everyone wants to or can take on costly medical bills and it prohibits them from going to the doctor.
I am sure there are many parents who do not seek the proper medical care for their kids because they can't afford it, but if they are able to get on the state program, which they are required to do then they can seek medical attention
I also don't know of any college that lets you in without a medical insurance policy, if you don't have one then you have to purchase theirs.

If we have a choice in medical coverage or not why not car insurance.
Why should all these people who drive carefully and have perfect driving records have to have car insurance?
Why can't they just make a payment plan if they total their car or someone else's?

 

[Wifezilla]

I also don't know of any college that lets you in without a medical insurance policy,

Colorado colleges OFFER insurance (it doesn't cover much) but you aren't required to have a policy in order to go to school.

My insurance payments are only a fraction of what I and my family have used for medical.

If you aren't paying for the services you get, someone else is. When you make out, someone else gets ripped off. That's how insurance works. TANSTAAFL.

 

[reinbeau]

Natlie, one thing to keep in mind is that not every state has the same protections in place with regards to insurance as Massachusetts does (and that protection comes at quite a price, I realize). While I'm no fan of mandatory anything, at least here there are plans offered for those who can't get insurance through their employers - and those plans are available to more people, with a scale for income levels. In some states people can and are denied coverage completely for whatever reason the insurance company can dream up. That can't happen here. It causes insurance to be sky high, and now the state is going to have to figure out how it's all going to work, but we're covered. Others aren't quite so lucky. That would include you, Wifezilla, you couldn't be denied, no matter what your medical problems are.

 

[FarmerChick]

Well, as with anything SS, we would like to think that we are working towards preparation. As you said, its hard to prepare oneself for a catastrophic illness, but not impossible.


It bears pondering, as one doesn't want to try to come up with data and information while dealing with the realities of a bad diagnosis....just as one doesn't want to be gathering food and other perishable goods during an emergency like a flood, fire, tornado.

No, see it doesn't bear pondering FOR ME at all. I am not going to research a million different possible illnesses just to be prepared, and by the time I "might" get who knows what, I am sure treatments will have changed. They change day to day. So for me I am not going down this road. Of course it can be "so different" for someone else.

The time to think about treatment options and decisions that suit your lifestyle and family is when you are clear headed and emotionally stable...not at the height of fear, grief and anger. Especially when doctors are pressing you to make a decision on treatments while you are in their office for the consult~ after hearing the worst. As the incidents of cancer are growing and not decreasing, in our population, it bears some serious thought.

This is the one of the biggest decisions some families or individuals will have to make in their life....do they really want to only prepare or think about it if it happens?

If we are talking living will and all that then yes I am prepared. Tony knows how I want to handle terminal illness and he told me his wishes. But that is common sense to discuss that---but not to research a million different possible treatments to any possible illness for me at this stage.


Not me. I've discussed all my health care preferences and treatments with my children and my mother. I want them to know, in the event that I am unable to make a decision, exactly WHAT I want to happen. I've written it down in a living will and we've also discussed what I will or will not do with a diagnosis of cancer or other terminal illness~and why. We've gathered data, read up on treatments, discussed the various aspects of these treatments and made our decisions on what we have found.

As I work very closely with cancer patients on a daily basis, I get to see the fallout of decisions made in fear or haste, I get to hear the voices of regret over certain decisions, and I get to see how such decisions affect the quality of life for these patients. Every single patient and their families wish they had been more prepared and had more information before they got their diagnosis. Not after.

I undestand what you are saying here but I am not at this point will to go above and beyond my ponderings right now. I can't and won't take this to become a main thought in my life. I am as well prepared as I need to be when it comes to this.


But I hear what you are saying in general. Prepare for illness is not a bad idea but you can't truly prepare too much cause you never know if or when or how or to what degree. So for me personally, I live life, prepare a little, and go with the flow.

 

[Wifezilla]

One thing to keep in mind is that not every state has the same protections in place with regards to insurance as Massachusetts does

Correct...the states have a wide variety of programs. MA is interesting in the fact that they went to the wall by requiring insurance. Only time will tell if this is a smart move or if it will force small businesses to pack up and move because they can't insure the staff and still keep their doors open.

Colorado has plans that cover kids and plans that cover indigent adults. Their plans for the developmentally disabled have a 7-10 year waiting list and it is currently being battled in court.

As for me, I want to pay for what services I get, and know what I am paying for BEFORE hand. There is so much mumbo jumbo and hand waving in medical, you don't know what you are paying for until you get a bill 6 months after you get care....that's when you find out it cost you $12 for 1 advil.

I do not see insurance as some panacea. Too many people i know thought they had coverage for everything until the bills started showing up in the mail and the insurance company told them this and that weren't covered. I have seen people not get the care they needed because some pencil pusher decided they were better and didn't listen to the patient or the doctor.

 

[FarmerChick]

I also don't know of any college that lets you in without a medical insurance policy,

Colorado colleges OFFER insurance (it doesn't cover much) but you aren't required to have a policy in order to go to school.

My insurance payments are only a fraction of what I and my family have used for medical.

If you aren't paying for the services you get, someone else is. When you make out, someone else gets ripped off. That's how insurance works. TANSTAAFL.

Insurance for me is not a scam. I hate the prices, sure, who doesn't. Insurance is just that! Insurance for "what if"----some will need it big time and reap the medical benefit payments etc....some will pay and not need those benefits and they feel jipped. Hmmmm....I would rather feel jipped after making my payments truly then to have major illness and feel I "got to use" my policy.

You gamble with insurance. It is a gamble that is a win for some, and a loss for others, Ummm...until like you really need it and then it is there.

Tony has racked up huge bills in the last 6 months. I have paid hardly nothing. I have 30 years of payments to insurance companies, and so does he.....I got my insurance worth and at the same time I needed that money now, at one lump time.....cause he is sick NOW.....not over the last 30 years we paid policies.

For me, I have to have medical insurance.

For me, I am not willing to take the gamble.

And for those without insurance and leave the hospital with a big bill in the end that they can not collect......who pays for that. Me. I pay when I have my procedures and my insurance is billed.

It is never black and white. There are shades of gray in insurance all the time. It is personal to everyone how they feel about it. Not everyone can truly afford it if circumstances fall that way.

I sound pro medical insurance don't I....HA HA HA....I am...LOL-LOL

just chatting and rambling.

 

[Beekissed]

Actually, FC, the medical field can only offer one of three treatment options or a combination of all three, for cancer diagnoses(not a million). In every state except California, you are required to adhere to these recommended treatments. Insurances won't pay for any other kind of treatments and, if you have a child diagnosed with cancer, you are required by law to pursue the recommended cancer treatments. If you do not, they can remove your child from your care and make it a ward of the state.

Surgery to remove the tumor~if possible, radiation, and chemotherapy. That is the only treatment that traditional medicine can offer for a cancer diagnosis.

Even if you go with a more holistic approach the options do not number in the millions. Nor will medical insurance cover them.

As the protocol for treatment of cancer was developed and recommended by the Merck pharmaceutical company~and incidentally, they develop a great deal of the chemo drugs~it would seem that there is a certain amount of money involved and a big conflict of interest. That they dictate treatment AND develop the drugs to treat, it would seem that we may be part of a big money making machine here.

So, what I'm asking here is....has anyone explored the possibility that we may be going right where they want us to go, financially speaking, when we don't explore other options and treatments when it comes to cancer?

 

[FarmerChick]

So, what I'm asking here is....has anyone explored the possibility that we may be going right where they want us to go, financially speaking, when we don't explore other options and treatments when it comes to cancer?


The answer is no for me.
I will just drop it at that. I can't debate this.....this thread just ain't for me. No biggie, I just can't continue in here...LOL-LOL