What have the US done for me lately?

[valarltd]

So, the new healthcare thing started taking effect this week.
And, of course, there were screams of death panels and removal of choice and all the other talking points.

What does the current situation mean to me?

Bun can stay on my insurance for 8 more years. That's 8 years to finish her schooling and get a job with insurance of her own. 8 years of bipolar medication and birth control to keep her a functioning member of society.

Bun, Obi, Jonner and Oli cannot be refused for insurance now. The long-healed heart murmurs, the bad ears, the mental illness, those will not be used as reasons to refuse to cover an illness.

If my squamous cervix decides to bloom into cancer, the company cannot rescind my policy in mid-treatment. Nor can they cap the cost, deciding in mid-stream it is too much to keep me alive.


My premiums will go up. And they will go up by more than my $10/week raise.
My premiums have gone up every year.
Including 2003 when they tripled.

Comments

[moons-storm.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's been a single year in my adult life when our health insurance premiums didn't go up. At one point, it was so expensive, it ate into half our monthly income. And, the one time we lost the group health insurance and had to pay for COBRA, it was financially crippling just to meet those payments.

But, there's this sad voice in my head that says, "I'll pay whatever I have to in order to ensure I have even so-so medical insurance just in case." *sighs*

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I net 725 a week.

My health insurance (including dental and vision) is 104.
My taxes are 109.
I stash $36 in the 401K (5%)
About $2 goes to extra life-insurance.
And $4 goes to the legal plan.

The other 466 is deposited.

The sad part is when I worked for the university, I literally did spend half my check. (that was where the premiums trebled)

[moons-storm.livejournal.com]

I admit, I'm extremely lucky that my husband has a well paying job in this economy. We struggled for a bit when the health insurance premiums doubled without notice, but then the company switched from BCBS to Humana, and it dropped the premiums down closer to what they were when he first started working for the company.

When he worked for my father a number of years ago, we were forced to live with my folks because he'd gross just over $800 every two weeks, but health insurance was over $500, so we didn't have enough money to live on our own. It was insane. I don't know how we were expected to survive.

Right now, we pay $255 twice a month to cover health, dental, and life. We allow them to take out $50 more twice a month towards taxes so we overpay that (I learned to that due to way too many HR errors that led to us owing taxes in February). Our company doesn't do 401K, and we don't have anything started on our own (though we know we need to).

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky in that I get free health insurance for me through my job w/ the state. However, if I was able to put Matt (the boyfriend) on my plan as a spouse/partner/whatever, the cost would immediately become about 1/3 of my paycheck. I think it'd be worth it, though, because at the very least, we would finally be able to get him in to see a cardiologist, which he desperately needs to do.

Deferring much-needed treatment/preventative care because of finances/insurance really, really fucking sucks.