Just curious to see how many people have health insurance.

Being in the military, my Uncle (Sam that is) pays 100% for me. He pays all but co-pays on prescriptions for my family, since I am considered in a 'remote' location right now (not near a military base).
But this is why I'm concerned, nay...scared of socialized health care. If it would be run anything like Tricare, we're all in trouble.

I have what is called an HSA. Health Savings account.

My family and I are all very healthy and hardly ever goto the doctor for anything at all. So an HSA works well for us.

Like it says it is a savings account. This type of plan has a large deductible(2500-5000) but is perfect for my family.

For example I contribute roughly $400 per month into the HSA. $130 goes towards my major medical policy and the remaining goes into the HSA account. You pay for doctor visits and drugs through your HSA(tax free) and these payments go towards your deductible. Anything you don't spend grows in an IRA type account of 4%.

We had great care through UPS, but were trapped there and stuck in a financial trap because of fear of the lousy policies being offered these days and the prohibitive cost of decent plans (We have one 19 month and a second in the crock pot). We got very lucky with a new job for me which allowed my wife to finally make use of her vauable operations experience.

I have health insurance. Mine is ocered 100% but the added cost for family are prohibitive. My wife's is a partial pay but it is cheaper to add the kids on hers so that is where they are.

I was largely uninsured from my mid-20s until I was around 33.

My wife was on state supported health insurance when I met her (Tenncare) and its benefits/coverage/and low copays were extraordinary considering it was free. It was much better than our present coverage.

My employer pays 100%. I have a $25 co-pay for scripts, $15 for doctors visits and no co-pay for medical procedures.

They also pay my dental and life insurance.

Well, I'm going to go ahead & answer "Yes, my employer pays 100%" even though it technically doesn't kick in until August 15th. I've earned this as a benefit of having been with my job for two years.

My employer pays for some of the insurance, I have paycheck deductions, co-pays and deductables I have to pick up.

My employer offers medical insurance, employee pays half. I had it for a few years and it was pretty poor compared to the amount of money spent. This is a huge dilema facing small businesses today.

I opted out when my wife thankfully hooked up with the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Catholics know how to take care of each other...their coverage rivals the old teamster plans.

I do not have health insurance. Which is ironical because I manage the health (and pension) plans for the company I freelance for. I blame my lack of health insurance on the fair state of NJ. I would have a medical savings account-MSA (sounds similar to Sleeper's HSA, prob just a different acronym for the same type insurance) but due to the regulations placed on insurance provider's the (required) catastrophic insurance costs about 50% more then the worst HMO. Oh btw, I sometimes contemplate moving to a state that is not so restrictive, any suggestions??

You are absolutely right, small businesses and the self employed are at a disadvantage when looking for affordable health insurance. California is even rougher. I think there is only one other state (Florida?) that has the same age and area banding requirements when determining a rate. For example one zip code in LA can pay 20% more for their health insurance premium then another zip code in LA. So on top of trying to find a rate that is manageable they have to juggle different rates for different employee's. Makes administration that much more difficult.

I have health care coverage under my wife's plan and with it comes all the usual co-pays, deductions and restrictions. It's a pretty good plan and with two kids I can't imagine how people do without some kind of coverage.

My wife has arthritis in her knees. How could she afford the doctor visits and therapy without insurance. I'm a Type II diabetic. Without coverage I couldn't afford my medicines and supplies.

To my mind the right to health and healthcare is a fundamental and basic human right. The fact that 44 million Americans are without healthcare is a national shame and scandal.

http://covertheuninsuredweek.org/media/doc...ease050504.php3
http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org/FAQ/fq...htm#thatserious
http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/uninsured.html

Bush's inaction on this issue for the last four years is one of my primary reasons to oppose his reelection. I couldn't disagree more with you Dontreadonme.
The American people deserve healthcare coverage just as good as our leaders in Congress receive.

For anyone who thinks national healtcare is too risky to implement I hope you always have insurance if your child wakes up at 2:00 a.m. with a temperature over 100 degrees and all you have in the house is a half-empty bottle of Robitussen.

At my current job, I have health coverage I pay into at a very reasonable rate (yearly equivalent is about equal to 3 months of paying for insurance on my own). I was uninsured for about 3 years prior to getting this job. It is a scary feeling. I've had instances where I had to go to emergency when I was uninsured. Not an experience I EVER want to repeat, and darned expensive too!

I'm getting to be of an age where good health insurance is a must. I've been battling excruciating back pain for years, and just now have been able to get it checked. Turns out I have a herniated disk, disc degeneration, stenosis and osteoarthritis. Oh boy.

I am on COBRA until December, then I am on my own until I turn 60 which is when my military reserve retirement kicks in. Cost will be about $500 per year to cover me and my wife. The approx. $1100 per month retirement check will be nice, but the medical coverage was the primary reason I stayed in the reserves after my active duty.
After my Cobra runs out, I will purchase major medical only to cover me in the interim.
My wife is covered by her school district, but to add me would be over $500 per month. She will be retiring in 2 years, just after my military retirement benefits start. The timing is perfect.
Someone told me that major medical only coverage is relatively cheap, and even cheaper if they know that you only need it for a short time, which describes my situation. I will be finding out soon enough.

I checked "other", since I live in Britain so I am covered by the National Health Service. I pay for it out of my taxes, but it is free at the point of delivery.

The constraint on resources means that sometimes I might need to wait a while for an appointment - perhaps a day or two to see my GP, or an hour or two if I visit a hospital ER without a real emergency. For elective surgery I might need to wait up to six months depending on where I live and what condition I have (This used to be potentially much longer, but the current government has tried hard to cut waiting times. Sometimes the emphasis has been too much on this and not enough on quality of care, but that tends to be the exception rather than the rule.)

I'd guess that over 90% of patients have a completely satisfactory experience, which most likely compares favourably with the private US system. And all this happens on a rather smaller percentage of GDP invested in healthcare than the USA.

The military covers us 100 percent if we are near a base to receive care there. We do have a lot of difficulty getting covered while traveling, though. Tricare isn't widely accepted by doctors, so if my baby is sick (as he was at six months old when I was visiting the in-laws), you might have to travel over and hour to receive care. If you end up in the emergency room for a REAL emergency, it covers most of it, but if it isn't an emergency (a 103 temperature for a six month old is not considered enough of an emergency), it doesn't cover any of it. All-in-all, it isn't bad if you're near a base.


We would go bankrupt if we transitioned to universal healthcare and didn’t adopt the no-fault style policies of Europe with them, and I would certainly not look to Kerry to change any of this. The primary spokesperson on behalf of the trial lawyers is the "Center for Justice and Democracy”, heavily funded by the trial bar, whose president is Joanne Doroshow (a Naderite), and was started with seed money by Michael Moore, who is on the board. Which candidate do you think this group endorses? And Edwards his running mate? Some of Edwards's biggest wins came from cases suing doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies for medical malpractice.

There might be a lot of talk and “feel your pain” sentiments during the next four years if Kerry becomes president, maybe even a team of 500 lawyers paid to analyze the possibilities (sound familiar?), but nothing will truly be done to cover American healthcare, and no measures toward tort reform (the root of the problem), will be made.

I checked Pay for it myself because I'm self-employed. I get pretty good coverage for myself and two children through The National Association for the Self-employed group policy.

My company contributes a good portion, but its far from 100%. The co-pays are semi reasonable and in the case of surgery (in my case for an achilles rupture), the plan worked as designed and covered nearly all of my expenses.

Dental and vision are another story.

Doc

This is one of the issues I will have to confess that I have been brought around to the left's point of view. It is a shame that a child should be unable to receive health care because of the financial situation of their parent, and ditto for adults. I think everyone (except maybe the staunchest conservatives among us) recognizes the problem. The issue, to me, is what to do to solve it? As Mrs. Pigpen points out, that is a very difficult question to answer.



The compounding factor is that the conservative viewpoint on this issue also has merit, that being that I have more than enough trouble to pay for my own health care, I shouldn't be burdened with also having to pay for someone else's as well. So, basically, to get to what I think most people would agree to be the 'best' solution, will require that some aspects of each party's platform be utilized, both philosophically and as to their particular PAC's. Unfortunately, that seems to require more cooperation than our politicians (on both sides) are willing to put forth.

I don't have health insurance because my employer (a small business) doesn't offer it, and the cost of the most basic individual insurance plan for my partner and myself is prohibitively expensive.

Unfortunately, I recently had to make a trip to the emergency room for a minor ailment, and now I'm looking at a $2000 dollar bill. Please excuse me while I cry.

It's seems like the cost of medical care just keeps going up and up, and there are more companies that are not offering insurance as a benefit.

I answered too poor for health insurance becuase im too poor to afford it. Im 18 and live in my own apartment and all that, away from the parentals, and I work minimum wage jobs that dont have bennys. I;ll probably get health insurance through an employer when I move to go to college, but right now Im poor and without it.

I am also without health insurance. Woo hoo!

I have health insurance - as does my "domestic partner" - through my employer. It's not 100% coverage, but I only pay about $12 per week for both of us. Until four years ago, though, I never had health insurance and, were my employer not virtually paying for it now, I still wouldn't. My partner and I are only working four or five jobs between us, so there's no possible way that we could afford it otherwise.

Of course, for nearly two decades, I didn't need health insurance. I lived in Ireland and paid nominal taxes. A lot of basic health care was covered - and what wasn't covered was highly affordable. An eight-day stay in the hospital (in a semi-private room - with numerous tests and so on) cost me about £600 a few years ago. Here, that would cost about as much as a small farm.

I have health insurance paid 100% for both myself and my family, through my employer. Unfortunately, that's not the case for everyone where I work.

I work for a hotel, through a management company. They cover 100% of the insurance for the General manager, Asst. GM, and Director of Sales. After that, they pay for the other Sales Managers 100%, but only pay 50% for their families. Same with other manager types, like the hotel Controller, of Front Desk Manager, Head Chef, etc.

All of the hourly employees can get the insurance, but they have to pay for it themselves, 100% (both for them and/or their families).

The problem is, those hourly employees, of course, don't make enough money for the most part to pay for insurance, and the other little extras they would like in their lives, like shelter, food, or utilities. The last time I looked, the single premium for an hourly employee was about $250.00 per pay period, or about $500.00 per month. And that's just the single rate. Family rates add about another 150.00 to 200.00, if I'm not mistaken. Doesn't leave a lot left.

I'm in a temporary 6-month program while on a 6-month contract. The contract ends tomorrow but has been extended a month while EDS decides if I'm "Global Leader" material. Or rather, if the budget will support bringing on about six contractors as employees. Then I'll get split fee health insurance as a benefit, along with a more pressing need -- dental.

The temp insurance is only major medical, and only about 50% of payment. It's not much but something. Costs about $120 a month. It doesn't cover anything like a checkup or preventative care. Its greatest value is for ER work in case of a traffic accident.

Now if I don't get hired on, and if my contract doesn't get extended or renewed, I'll be back to no insurance. Except maybe Medicaid for emergencies.

Not exactly a warm fuzzy going on here.

I am a military reservist and I do not have health insurance unless on active duty. A kid in my unit blew out his knee training for a PT test...he did it at home though so well he is out of luck. I am no longer covered by mommy. Im healthy. I do not intend to get sick. I think I have some supplimental insurance.

For what it's worth...

I'm retired and drawing Social Security Disability, hence eligible for Medicare; but I still have to pay for health insurance for myself through my former employer in order to keep my family covered. Not being in the same city that I used to work, Doctors and Hospitals are not familiar with the insurance. Resolving problems usually involves email and the union. It seems that a large part of the correspondence from the insurance company is "We didn't pay because A + B + C... See explanations below.)

Drugs are covered through a mail order pharmacy which is randomly changed. Following each change, I get the same drill, "You can fill prescriptions with us easily as soon as you have had a prescription filled with us so that we have a prescription number with which to identify you." I have three prescriptions on my desk marked 2 refills, but none of them can be refilled and I don't know why...

Curmudgeon, your experience with medicare sounds very similar to my experience with tricare.

Though you would expect prescriptions to continue (we are only going from base-to-base, afterall), I must see a doctor to renew my prescription with every move...even if it's 'good for 5 refills' and I've only used one. The only way I can get a refill without seeing another doctor (which usually requires a long wait) is to go to a pharmacy outside and pay out of pocket, which is what I usually do...until I can get an appointment to see another doctor at the new base.

Even with insurance, it's doggone expensive to get sick! As I mentioned in the chat last night, I need some major back surgery, but because I haven't been at my job long enough, I wouldn't have any long-term insurance for the time I'd need for recovery (6-8 wks at least). And having a PPO means I have an out-of-pocket limit per year ($2,000 in my case) after which the insurance pays 100%. Our insurance at work is being changed for 2005-the out-of-pocket goes up to $3,000.

I've been jumping through medical hoops for 8 months now, and just now got the "verdict." So, if I don't have surgery by the end of the year, I can plan on forking over another $3,000 in addition to the nearly $2,000 I've already laid out this year. And I'm told (by the neurosurgeon!) that insurance companies get suspicious when someone schedules surgery at the end of the year when they generally have paid their total out-of-pocket. What a racket. And how it ticks me off to realize I'm stuck with the choice of either being able to pay my living expenses or having the treatment I need to fix my back! It shouldn't be this way.

I feel pretty lucky as I have really good insurance through my employer. My wife is self-employed yet is covered by my policy as well. She has definitely used the system whereas I have barely ever used it. I know for a fact that if I didn't have medical coverage that we'd be in a world of hurt, particularly when she broke her leg in six places. Now, that she has a titanium rod in her tibia I can call her my "cyborg babe" .

It saddens me to think of all the folks not covered who cannot afford it especially when accidents happen. It wouldn't surprise me if at least some of those uninsured (or nominally insured) are highly motivated to pursue the lawsuit "lottery" to cover their expenses.

I got it..I have been without it..I have lived under two different NHS systems....I have had it under a price control health insurance is mandatory but employers do not pay one bit of it system and I have even had State Medicaid.