how do US professional runners (like at least sub 2:16 marathoner types) get health insurance?

Mr. Obvious wrote:

So, if you use a lot of health care and expect your insurance to pay for routine maintenance type of care then you pay higher premiums? Shocking and outrageous, I tell you!

This is only supposed to be true for fat people. Fat people require more medical care because of their lifestyle choices, so the rest of us should not be expected to pay into the same pool and to defray their costs.

It's totally different when it comes to runners, though. Runners require more medical care because of their lifestyle choices, so everyone should be willing to pitch in and help defray their costs.

I had a pelvic stress fracture and my parents had to help me pay 4000 out of pocket for MRI ...true story

Haha yo (super cereal) wrote:

I had a pelvic stress fracture and my parents had to help me pay 4000 out of pocket for MRI ...true story

I don't want to sound like a prick, but what exactly did the MRI do for you? Honestly, I don't understand why runners feel the need to have expensive MRIs done on injuries. If it hurts that bad, maybe you shouldn't run on it.

If you're not sure it's healed, keep cross training until you're well beyond the standard recovery period. I've had teammates get MRIs because they had a little shin pain... it just doesn't make sense.

You want to know the actual cost of that $4000 MRI? About $200 after you've paid the salaries of all the people involved in having it done.

"Yes, but the machine costs millions and you have to pay depreciation."

True, but the average utilization ratio on medical imaging equipment in the US is about 4%. The system is horrendously inefficient.

The Track & Feld Athlete's Association has a partnership with New York Life -

http://trackandfieldathletesassociation.org/partners.php

Has anyone looked at that option?

I've talked to guys on the team and know that some were going without health insurance. The coverage is from working in the running stores and it is limited.

follow the Hansons wrote:

Although I am not a member of Hansons-Brooks, I did make a visit there 8 years ago.

HANSONS PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE.

In addition they have a Team Chiropractor, Team Physical therapist, Team Podiatrist and Team Orthapedic Surgeon. All of these are FREE and have no insurance limitations on number of visits.

They also have FREE (but limited) Massage and Bloodwork.

I thought that all of the "Training Centers" had these perks. I have since learned how wrong I was.

The two folks who say that getting health insurance is not a problem are either in their twenties, live in a state that regulates health insurance in some special way (that they're obviously unaware of), or are lying.

I know this from personal experience shopping for health insurance. I have *very* good health, and it was still a problem, at age 42. And I still end up with a plan that essentially does nothing for me until I get cancer or get run over. (And ... not everyone can or should be expected to have zero doctor visits as I typically do. Not most women, for example.)

Not wanting to get injured is always a background worry - I no longer ride a bike, for instance, because the one mountain biking accident I had cost $5K+ in care (covered by big company insurance at the time), and around here getting hit by cars happens to a lot of road bikers. Is that what we want? A country afraid to ride bicycles because they can't afford the consequences?

I'm not sure where you got your MRI, but I paid $500 out of pocket for an MRI when I didn't want to wait for an appointment with Kaiser.

haha YO (super cereal) wrote:

i dont care what the copays are, all i ask is that you let me pay them by including me in the group health insurance pool!

if you're not part of the health insurance pool and have to pay out of pocket, imagine paying $4000 out of pocket for an MRI when you have a stress fracture that you're not sure is healed yet? That's ridiculous

no to mittens the gay basher wrote:

The two folks who say that getting health insurance is not a problem are either in their twenties, live in a state that regulates health insurance in some special way (that they're obviously unaware of), or are lying.

I'm 49 and live in North Carolina. I've also bought individual policies when I lived in Georgia and Oregon. I'd like to know what you think they're doing special to keep down health insurance costs. Also, I'm not lying.

... And I still end up with a plan that essentially does nothing for me until I get cancer or get run over...

In other words you have health insurance. What do you think insurance does? Cover routine health maintenance? Does your car insurance cover oil changes and brake pads? Does your homeowner insurance cover new paint and furnace air filter replacement? Insurance is supposed to cover unlikely chance events - like cancer or getting run over. It's not supposed to cover routine physicals or massages because your legs are tight. And if you engage in an activity that makes it more likely you'll get run over, why would you expect to pay the same as someone who doesn't?

genetic_dysfunction wrote:

Many of us in the US do not think this is an acceptable system at all. There is strong, if not majority, support for a full coverage government run health care system. We have the worst of all possible worlds; we get all the bureaucracy created by the insurance companies, and with terrible overall coverage.

we do suck in many regards.

G_D

Are you f/ckin stupid? There is nowhere near a majority support for a full coverage gov't run healthcare system.

Maybe some support for a fraction of that, but nowhere near this European-style bullshit.

Actually there is a majority, and especially so among educated folks

HS Senior wrote:

genetic_dysfunction wrote:

Many of us in the US do not think this is an acceptable system at all. There is strong, if not majority, support for a full coverage government run health care system. We have the worst of all possible worlds; we get all the bureaucracy created by the insurance companies, and with terrible overall coverage.

we do suck in many regards.

G_D

Are you f/ckin stupid? There is nowhere near a majority support for a full coverage gov't run healthcare system.

Maybe some support for a fraction of that, but nowhere near this European-style bullshit.

I had a doctor make a mistake and diagnosed me with hip dysplasia. I dont actually have hip dysplasia - It's a mistake but it's still probably in my medical records. So even though I'm a competive distance runner who is healthy, health insurance underwriters think im going to get hip arthritis if I don't already have it, which is bullsht so I may be uninsurable.

Haha yo (Super Cereal) wrote:

I had a doctor make a mistake and diagnosed me with hip dysplasia. I dont actually have hip dysplasia - It's a mistake but it's still probably in my medical records. So even though I'm a competive distance runner who is healthy, health insurance underwriters think im going to get hip arthritis if I don't already have it, which is bullsht so I may be uninsurable.

LOL!

Say you're a 2:15 marathoner currently with no health insurance because you dont have a real job, and you didnt bother to get individual coverage because youre generally healthy (which you are). Then suddenly You find out you need to have surgery to remove a foreign body in your knee or you need Achilles surgery as Alan Webb did. What's so terrible is no insurance company will insure you now that they are aware you're going to have surgery within the next year. Why? Because they lose money of course. You could blame this shit on the athlete because he should've gotten coverage before he got hurt, but sometimes with a history of having seen doctors for various running ailments in the past, that counts as a preexisting condition and you are denied. And pretty soon you find out either you have to get a job or take some college courses and jump on a group plan or you're SOL.

Grown men being forced to work "real jobs"? The horror!

get a job, hippie wrote:

Grown men being forced to work "real jobs"? The horror!

. I worked for a year at a finance firm and saved up some decent sum of money. If I've got 100k in the bank in my late 20s, my parents have good money, and I don't want to get a real job and just want to run for fun to try to get fast, why can't I get some kind of coverage even of its high premiums? I'd rather live modestly on my money and not get a real job, train my ass off and pay premiums for a group plan, so that way I won't have to blow 4K for an MRI by taking out from my Roth IRA savings and stock investments just so I can be paying off the depreciation on an MRI machine when/if I get a stress fracture.

Why do Americans have to be slaves working 40+ hours per week to hop on a good health insurance plan if they have anything that counts as preexisting?

Why am I forced to be a slave to the old man?

I know ways around the system to get on a group plan, but it's a pain in the ass and it just makes no sense.

County Health Worker wrote:

Go to the county hospital finance office. Take 3 months bank statements to verify low income and local address. Take a gov't ID. File for APD. It only takes a few minutes. Then you have free health care.

I'm currently a full-time graduate student. I'm able to get a great Aetna plan off this, which now covers my running doc visits. Wasn't the case when I had a pelvic stress fracture.

The thing is... I have decent amount of money saved up from my summer internships and my first job out of college....so let's say I'd like to take a year or two or three off to run for fun, and explore the world or something. I have the money and financial backing for this. The problem is - you guessed it - getting decent health insurance. I have the money to pay for even high cost monthly premiums, but how do I get on a group plan or remain on the one I was on in grad school? I'm healthy now and I'm not disabled, but in the past year I was running up to 90mpw and had a knee arthroscopy and a sacral stress fracture. And as far as medical history and preexisting conditions, I saw a shriek roughly 3-4 years ago when i was an undergrad who diagnosed me with depression and put me on SSRIs once (which I no longer take). What options do I have? Aetna denied me from individula coverage before I enrolled in graduate school last year, probably because they saw I was going to need knee surgery and saw a bunch of running docs and possibly the history of depression.

Do you have any suggestions? My father and I are thinking of starting a company where I'll be on the payroll and eligible for a group plan.

if you had actually read what I wrote you would understand that I said there was strong, if not majority, support. That means there is not majority support. But I guess reading comprehension might not be your strong suit. You specialize in knee jerk conservative outrage. All polls indicate that there is strong, if not majority support. Go look at the polls, which are pretty consistent.

go to the link to see a wide sample of polls from a wide variety of different polling groups that clearly indicate very strong and often majority support.

http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Chart_of_Americans_Support

G_D