On Feb 11, 2008 7:43 PM, Mary Jo Sminkey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There's a big difference between job loss due to medical reasons and > eventually ending in bankruptcy...and just losing a job.
Not when we're talking about medical insurance. > Of course not...the point is that most people simply cannot afford to get > sick and handle *those* costs on top of personal bills. Agreed, but what does it have to do with health care? > Why? Should you pay less in taxes for your fire or police service if you > haven't been robbed or had a fire versus someone that has? Again, there seems > to be some blame being put on people here for medical problems, and the vast > majority of people have no such control that you seem to be implying. We probably pay the same tax for county hospitals but it might depend on the cost of the house. As for Insurance YES, If you're house gets burgled or burned all the time you need to make some changes for an insurance company to take you on and I don't blame them. > Sorry, but it's not so easy for many people. Insurance costs even for the > insured continue to rise, having a job is no guarantee of financial safety > (again, refer to that article link I posted). I remember when I could get a > job and have good coverage at no cost (being single). Those types of jobs are > few and far between these days. My point was my dad gave up $40k a year self employment job for $23k because he was getting old and wanted security. Ironically he broke his hip because someone waxed the wrong floor and now can't work. I was trying to say if payments are overwhelming we can make tradeoffs. > Luckily I can afford it for now, but this sentiment is exactly why small > businesses are having such a hard time these days (among other reasons) and > very few people able to be self-employed and truly be safe from bankruptcy. > You can be denied individual insurance for pretty much anything and if you do > get it, the cost is quite substantial. But the biggest problem is that it's > such a huge risk. I really do worry about what is going to happen if anything > really serious happens. It could wipe out my life savings, if not worse. It's > the main reason I do still do a lot of preventative, diagnostic stuff every > year or two, since my reflux does put me at high risk of some types of cancer. > How do you feel about mandating that small businesses provide insurance or pay it in taxes? Then there's mandatory child coverage, nice to have but if people are struggling now where's the money going to come from? All of us have to pay one way or another. So the struggle is medical bills or taxes either way we have to pay. > Wrong, it has nothing to do with making someone else pay. If I felt confident > that what I paid now would protect me in the case of serious illness, I'd be > satisfied. It's a lot, but it's still not such a huge part of my income that > I couldn't deal with it. The problem is the cost goes up every year, and in > the case of something serious happening, the coverage quite simply is not > sufficient. > My insurance is $600 a month with $1000 deductible per person (that's 3k) a year. It's mainly for catastrophes but they do cover a lot of preventive checkups so it's good. I have a friend whose family plan went up because he didn't visit the doctor enough. > Again, you're not getting the picture here. The costs of meds is a totally > different issue, it ticks me off that I have to pay so much when people in > other countries get the same meds for a reasonable price, not that I think > someone else needs to pay for them. But it also frustrates me that people on > company plans get decent prescription plans, the same should be available to > everyone. Why should company plans have decent prescription plans and > individuals not be allowed the same benefit? The same way that I should be > able to deduct fully my health insurance premiums before tax the way that > corporations can (it gets included when you calculate self-employed tax.) > If other countries paid their share we wouldn't have to subsidies the world with our drugs and we'd all pay a fair price. I read years ago contractors were forming an insurance group so they could have the same advantages. It only makes sense that if you take all the people that aren't in groups, group them together, you have the largest group with the biggest influence. Why doesn't that happen? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:253948 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
