"US Unemployed face HIGHER HEALTHCARE PREMIUMS": Yahoo!

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   fishskinfreak2008posted 14 years ago

   Unemployment here in the US is at record levels right now. This is why we need government subsidies, both for the unemployed and the disabled

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2. 61

   nadine_stowneposted 14 years ago

   I can see how you would see that as such.
   
   Might I remind you to also consider the fact that the government is already printing up money extra money to try and help those who are suffering during this financial crisis. But that money isn't backed by anything concrete like gold or precious jewels that do not lose their value. From an economic point of view, this means that the money they are printing isn't worth anything.
   
   With debt piling up, the government doesn't have the money to give subsidies to all of the unemployed in the nation. It is a harsh, cruel reality, but it's true. Unless the government continues to print money that has all of the economic value of monopoly money, they cannot give you what you seek. And if they do continue to print it, then our economy is going to crash further and our dollars will be worth less worldwide.
   
   I'm afraid we're all on our own from now on. We should be relying on each other, helping each other and looking out for our nation's best interests instead of expecting others to do it for us. I'm referring to myself as much as anyone. Since I currently have a job, I help others who aren't as lucky by buying groceries for their families and helping them find work. This is what I can do for the unemployed in my community. How about you?

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      brimancandyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Here is a loser goverment program that needs to end. Paying american farmers not to grow crops, so that the price of food can remain high, while many nations are starving to death, with hundreds and thosands of acres of american land could be used to grow crops to feed them, while our grocery chains buy produce from foreign countries anyways, because they can profit more from it. What's the point of that? And why aren't we exporting our crops more if our standards are aparently so much higher than everyone elses? Do american food producers have some kind of right to control the export of food? They certainly don't seem to have any problem bringing it in.
      
      Here's one that really pissed me off. A program to give vouchers the wealthiest americans, so they can buy themselves a new boat. Apparently some boat manufacturers are hurting, and some congressman came up with the idea, to stimulate the ship building industry. pretty much the same idea as cash for clunkers, only the people who end up buying the boats wouldn't have to pay a dime. The government pick up the tab. I'm pretty sure that got shot down, along with paying fisherman in Alaska
      not to fish to keep the price of seafood high.
      
      When they are coming up with crap like this, to help out corporate america, why not dive into healthcare head on.
      I persoanlly think health insurance is fricking worthless.
      
      I was supposed to have top of the line health care at $49.00 a week at my former emploer. Well, I ended up with tendonitis, and stomach problems, and needed lots of medical treatment. and, you should have seen how much trouble I had to go through to get my so-called great insurance to pay for it!
      
      The hospital sent me the bills, every time my insurance denied it. I finally told them, do I need to get a lawer to stop getting these bills? And low and behold...no more bills. I don't trust the insurance companies. If anything regulation will keep them on their toes.
      
      One reason why I think the republicans are trying so hard to fight reform, is because they don't want the people who got them into office to get upset. And, I think they see a lot of them closing their doors, just so that they do not have to face being regulated...but, that just means that the ones that are really in business to provide quality care will stay open, and expand, and new companies will emerge to replace the losers that were only in the business to make money to begin with.
      
      I'm kind of skeptical about this reform, but, any change will be better than what we have. There is a window of hope.

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3. 68

   MikeNVposted 14 years ago

   Consider this:
   
   If the typical family premium is $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year then it's more than the cost of a 2bd apartment in most (but not all) USA Cities.
   
   That's a lot of money.  Lets say a typical family Doctors Office Visit is $200.  So you could go to the Doctor 5x a month all year long for what most people are paying for insurance.  Does that make sense?
   
   It's stupid.  No one would spend like that... but because their employers - or in your suggestion the government is footing most of the bill they do.
   
   What is needed is to get insurance back to doing it's job of insuring and not budgeting.
   
   Families should purchase Catastrophic insurance for when expenses go above and beyond the $10,000 point in a calandar year and pay for the few Doctors office visits they truly need out of pocket.  It would actually save them a ton of money.  Then is things got out of control they wouldn't have to worry.
   
   The problem with insurance is it is so poorly administered and is ripe with waste.
   
   So to suggest the Government - who has proven unable to manage anything efficiently should be picking up the difference at tax payer expense is misguided.

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4. 0

   pgrundyposted 14 years ago

   This is a real hornet's nest. My better half has been very ill for over six weeks now with no end in sight. It started with an acute attack and a botched operation that finally ended in peritonitis that almost killed him. He was hospitalized 3 times over the course of six weeks and had two operations, and now, when he recovers, he will have to undergo extensive debilitating treatment for an illness they found while botching his operation.
   
   What I'm getting to here is, he HAS insurance and has worked for the same company for over 20 years, and he still has to answer the same damned questions over and over, often in the same day. No one knows what anyone else is doing. A visit to the doctor can take all day with labs on one side of town, meds filled on another, and reams of paperwork. Everywhere, those same 20 questions that he's answered at least 500 times over the past 6 weeks.
   
   The doctors and hospitals assign physicians to his case that are out of network and there's not a damned thing we can do about it. We are already getting bills in the thousands (he has insurance, but we still have to pay an out of pocket amount) from the October 12th operation that screwed him up. The bills are marked due in two weeks, in full. Right. Like that is going to happen.
   
   The U.S. health care system is hideously bad and badly broken.
   
   My advice: Don't get sick. If you must get very sick, move to France as fast as you can. Or Japan. But get as far away as you can from the United States.

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5. STAFF

   Fawntiaposted 14 years ago

   PGrundy, I'm so sorry. Our health care system is definitely broken. I wish you the best, and I hope your husband gets better soon.

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   pgrundyposted 14 years ago

   Thanks Fawntia. I don't think people really understand how bad it is until they need to use it. People think if they have insurance it's all fine, but just wait until they get very sick. Thanks for the good wishes.

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7. 69

   lmmartinposted 14 years ago

   This is a copy of my comment on the other forum, "President Obama all alone in promoting health bill." I should have posted it here I think, and I hope I'm not breaking any rules...
   
   But here's my take on this situation, and I've done a tremendous amount of research and written on this subject a fair bit.
   
   I live in the U.S. half the year and in Canada the other half though I've been married to an American for twenty years. Why? you ask? Because I can't get health insurance in the U.S., therefore need to keep my Canadian health coverage and residency. Why was I refused? you ask. Because I have rhuematoid arthritis, which is well under control and does not affect my excellent health -- but there it is. The condition is on the list kept by the insurance companies -- end of story. But even those I know with health insurance aren't protected should they fall ill. With the astronomical costs these days, even the co-pay (and let's not talk about treatments insurers refuse to pay for) they will face bankruptcy.
   
   How can an intelligent group of people and an advanced nation like America take something so simple and make it so complex? People need and should have medical care and in most places it's considered a right. Why do so many fight against their own best interests. My research into the subject shows the add up all the replicated administration of every insurer, hospital, doctor,state, then add in the cost of health care added to the price of goods and services by employers, then add in all the people already getting public funded health care -- the public servants, the poor and of course the politicians, and Americans are already paying far more than universal, single payer medicine could ever cost. In other words, the money is already being spent -- but very poorly.
   
   I just don't get it.

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8. 69

   lmmartinposted 14 years ago

   I'm back already. To Nadine I'd like to say, you are right -- the wealth of this nation has been piddled away by those in real power, not necessarily govt. power. But when it comes to providing the necessities of life to a populace, this country seems to have a strange set of priorities. Better to wage war, to maintain 780 military bases in foreign countries, use public funds to shore up industries still shifting what little manufacturing is left overseas, give banks money to assist the housing crisis and the banks use the money to buy up other banks -- well I guess you get the drift.
   
   Much poorer countries still manage to provide basic medical care to their population. But then, they make it their priority. A nations first job should be the welfare of their populations.

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