Insurance for people with pre-existing conditions isn't insurance

Single payer keeping prices down? Hilarious!

I won't defend health insurance companies though. They tend to work hand in hand with the government to keep prices high. Why do you think there are all sorts of asinine state mandates that people never use? It's because it allows insurance companies to charge for something that they will probably never have to pay out.

I don't smoke, I exercise and I watch what I eat. If we actually had a free market in healthcare my health insurance would be incredibly cheap compared to what it is now. A previous poster was right, what we have now is prepaid healthcare. Why on God's green Earth should something like a doctor's visit be covered by insurance? It should be completely out of pocket.

Mtn Dew wrote:

I don't smoke, I exercise and I watch what I eat. If we actually had a free market in healthcare my health insurance would be incredibly cheap compared to what it is now. A previous poster was right, what we have now is prepaid healthcare. Why on God's green Earth should something like a doctor's visit be covered by insurance? It should be completely out of pocket.

And it would rise exponentially as you aged, coinciding with the fact that you'd be making less money at that time.

By then, you'd be thankful that the government has a program like Medicare in place.

Look, health care is dirt cheap when you don't need it, and bankrupting when you really do need it. Exercise and lifestyle habits are great, but mean nothing when you develop Alzheimers and your family burns through their inheritance to care for you. Or when you get in a car accident due to someone else's fault, and you can't work and can't care for yourself. Then you're in trouble.

Isaac Newton wrote:

The single payer system works for fat ugly people. It doesn't work for thin attractive people.

Just another example of how fat ugly people get all the breaks.

Small socks wrote:

I'm an American in Sweden. Sweden covers everyone while spending half of what we spend on healthcare.

That's because there are few fat ugly people and many thin attractive people in Sweden.

Mtn Dew wrote:

Single payer keeping prices down? Hilarious!

I won't defend health insurance companies though. They tend to work hand in hand with the government to keep prices high. Why do you think there are all sorts of asinine state mandates that people never use? It's because it allows insurance companies to charge for something that they will probably never have to pay out.

I don't smoke, I exercise and I watch what I eat. If we actually had a free market in healthcare my health insurance would be incredibly cheap compared to what it is now. A previous poster was right, what we have now is prepaid healthcare. Why on God's green Earth should something like a doctor's visit be covered by insurance? It should be completely out of pocket.

I am not sure what to make of your question. Maybe you are young or are so healthy that you have never had to go to a specialist. Two years ago my wrist swelled up for no reason, and it was so painful that I couldn't lift anything heavier than a sheet of paper. I had to be referred to a rheumatologist. The initial consultation was $275. I was prescribed drugs and had follow-up appts. every two weeks. Each follow-up was $175. By the fourth appt. I got my "estimate of Benefits" from insurance. None of the visits were covered.

Do you have $800 to spare each month for something like this?

Blowing.Rock Master wrote:

My insurance company is in a football stadium?

I am only talking about the cities that actually have insurance companies in them. While Blowing Rock has agencies that sell insurance, no self respecting insurance company would even think about locating in that cesspool that is called Blowing Rock.

While unfortunate for you, I'm sure that there is more too it. Perhaps you are in an HMO and the specialist that you went to wasn't in the network; perhaps you needed a referral or maybe the gov't doesn't think that this should be covered, therfore there isn't a fee schedule for your problem. If it is a group plan, I'd go to HR and inquire as this denial is atypical. I'd fight it because it is probably a clerical error.

Backwords is right. HIPAA requires, among other things, that group health plans offer coverage to individuals, even those with preexisting conditions, so long as they don't have a break in coverage. Thus, if you move from one job to another (and one health plan to another), the health insurance offered by your new employer's plan can't impose preexisting condition exclusions on you, as long as you haven't been without coverage for more than 63 days. So you are contradicting yourself.

Capitalist wrote:

backwards wrote:

Ever hear of HIPAA?

I work in medical billing and deal with HIPAA every day. I assure you that there is no contradition there.

Son of Dad wrote:

And it would rise exponentially as you aged, coinciding with the fact that you'd be making less money at that time.

By then, you'd be thankful that the government has a program like Medicare in place.

Look, health care is dirt cheap when you don't need it, and bankrupting when you really do need it. Exercise and lifestyle habits are great, but mean nothing when you develop Alzheimers and your family burns through their inheritance to care for you. Or when you get in a car accident due to someone else's fault, and you can't work and can't care for yourself. Then you're in trouble.

Medicare is bankrupt. Anyone pointing out how great it is isn't looking at the whole picture. It's easy to provide healthcare via ponzi scheme, unfortunately the scheme falls apart. Medicare won't be around for me I'm sure.

Son of Dad wrote:

And it would rise exponentially as you aged, coinciding with the fact that you'd be making less money at that time.

By then, you'd be thankful that the government has a program like Medicare in place.

Look, health care is dirt cheap when you don't need it, and bankrupting when you really do need it. Exercise and lifestyle habits are great, but mean nothing when you develop Alzheimers and your family burns through their inheritance to care for you. Or when you get in a car accident due to someone else's fault, and you can't work and can't care for yourself. Then you're in trouble.

So just transfer the burden of your care to someone else and all your problems are solved, right?

It's funny how the supporters of ObamaCare are slamming the high admin fees of private and for profit managed care companies when the Feds created much of the costly legislation that adds to the admin costs. For HIPAA alone, add the cost of training a 'privacy officer', additional security and storage facilities, off site storage fees for years worth of documents, changing the way that a doc and insurance company does business to ensure patient privacy. Add to this the additional costs and frustrations that members have due to privacy practices with divuldging info, etc and this is the beginning. Do people realize that your wonderful Feds who birthed HIPAA protect a dependent for privacy issues before he/she get's a drivers license? These same Feds helped bankrupt Borden Corp because of COBRA and allow an employer to add 2% to the COBRA premium for an admin fee to cover some expenses, etc. There are so many downstream screwups that they don't even realize what the ramifications are for years to come.