Just had a shock, re. health insurance premiums

**tmjsquared** · 01-09-2012, 03:22 PM

There are pros and cons to both private and universal medecine. I think we need to have a hybrid here in the US. Universal should be offered, and then companies can offer private healthcare as well. There may be long waits for procedures, but at least people will not be without such vital services. I lived in Australia for 8 years, they have a system like this. I rarely heard a complaint from my Australian friends. It is appalling the posts I am reading where people have to pay $12,000 per year or more and then have to deal with deductibles in the thousands.

The healthcare situation in the US is just not sustainable for many people, especially during this recession. I think we do have personal responsibility to eat better/exercise/reduce stress to help prevent diet related illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune disease and cancer - however I do believe the government (us) needs to take care of our citizens by providing universal healthcare/socialized medecine, whatever you want to call it...

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**Peaches** · 01-14-2012, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by tmjsquared

There are pros and cons to both private and universal medecine. I think we need to have a hybrid here in the US. Universal should be offered, and then companies can offer private healthcare as well. There may be long waits for procedures, but at least people will not be without such vital services. I lived in Australia for 8 years, they have a system like this. I rarely heard a complaint from my Australian friends. It is appalling the posts I am reading where people have to pay $12,000 per year or more and then have to deal with deductibles in the thousands.

The healthcare situation in the US is just not sustainable for many people, especially during this recession. I think we do have personal responsibility to eat better/exercise/reduce stress to help prevent diet related illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune disease and cancer - however I do believe the government (us) needs to take care of our citizens by providing universal healthcare/socialized medecine, whatever you want to call it...

My soapbox

Thanks

You can buy private healthcare in the UK too and lots of people have it, often at a discount through their employers. I don't have because I don't feel I need it. We live quite healthy lifestyles and there seems to be a real shift in focus on to preventative care, to avoid costly medical procedures later on. What peanut was saying about the elderly in Canada is also true here. Twelve years ago when my MIL (in the U.K.) was dying, the hospital made her comfortable but no real effort was made to save her life. In contrast, when my mother (in the U.S.) had a heart bypass go wrong, all kinds of life saving measures were taken and at one point she was connected to no less than 14 machines keeping her alive. I disagreed with this because I knew it wasn't what she wanted, but my brother was the decision maker, not me, and she had great insurance that would pay for it so the hospital went ahead and did things which they admitted were experimental. whatever needed to be done to make her well.

There are pros and cons to universal versus private health care, but in my opinion there are more cons to private health care than pros. If I call the doctor, I'll be seen the same day. Medication isn't going to bankrupt me, nor is hospital treatment. My self-employed younger brother lost his house because he couldn't pay a hospital bill. I know this will never happen to me in this country and I am thankful for that.

**bookwormpeg** · 01-19-2012, 01:46 PM

Health insurance is a must for me. Between my husband and I, we pay $1400 a month. That is why we are poor. I pay it and try not to complain too much as I know many, many people without it.

**dancemommy** · 01-19-2012, 03:23 PM

We paid $1200 a month for health insurance up until 6 months ago. My husband is self employed so that is what we could get. Not bad coverage, $5000 deductable 20% copay. It originally was $700 which I was fine with. $1200 was not affordable for us- it is more than our mortgage. So for the time being we have catestrophic insurance through United Health plans. To insure our healthy family of 6 it costs $160 a month with a $5000 deductable. But it is only temporary. My husband banded together with some other self employed people in the same line of work and formed a corporation for several reasons, one of which is to get a group insurance plan. It will still cost us about $700 a month....that being said, we are thankful. I am not a supporter of "socialized medicine". I am a supporter of insurance reform. There is a lot of waste and the insurance companies are very inefficient. I think it is odd that insurance is tied to jobs. If we could just all go out and purchase health insurance like we do car insurance or house insurance I think it would bring the plans to a much more realistic level. I really value having the health care system in this country that we do. We are healthy, but I appreciate the fact that we have great doctors available to us if something were to go wrong.