What have the US done for me lately?
Sep. 25th, 2010 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdSo, 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 07:32 pm (UTC)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).