Health Insurance

[rshoffer]

How many of you out there are a) under 65 and don't qualify yet for Medicare and b) are not on a retirement benefit health plan and c) had to purchase health insurance when you moved here? BTW, the question describes me and my wife. We both decided to keep working part-time in our careers and, as long as one of us works 30+ hrs a week we get health care benefits. Now we're talking of "phasing into retirement" which means less than 30 hrs and no more health benefits. What options exist to purchase health insurance coverage?

[molddude]

This has been one of our biggest concerns. We would need coverage for the next 10 years and more. My wife is Type 1 diabetic and will not be quoted. We have been looking into this: http://www.guaranteed-health-insurance.com/index.htm

Not the best, but at least something. The owner of this firm is named Unger and seems to be a straight shooter.
You can "stack" a few plans for decent coverage.
WE are also waiting for the new: "cover Florida" plans. New laws, passed this year, and 9 firms have submitted quotes.

http://www.bradenton.com/business/story/818370.html

I will be listnening too


Marty

[molddude]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/business/epaper/2008/08/18/0818insure.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=6

Just looked at my email and found this one

Marty

[ConeyIsBabe]

If you have any preexisting health issues - finding and being accepted for private health insurance is a nightmare ordeal, not to mention very expensive :yikes:

[gonzy]

We did the cobra from my wifes teaching job for about a year but it was an hmo and very expensive upwards of $1600/ mo. We recently switched to United American Ins Co. for about $550/mo but nowhere near as comprehensive coverage. We tried many other companies but were rejected due to pre existing conditions. Took us at least 3 months to find someone who would take us. Every company makes you pay the first months premium when you apply then when they reject you it takes 3 months to get your money back go figure. Not a fun experience.

[rshoffer]

Yea... and who in the world in their late 50's doesn't have a pre-existing condition? Our countru HAS to fix this problem!!!

[Shirleevee]

I will not move here permanently because I have BC/BS NY which I pay a forture for. I have a pre-existing condition and my monthly medications would cost me more than the $800. plus I pay for healthcare. I have checked and cannot find anything cheaper here.
Thank God my husband has SSD. All options are costly. Do I think that the new regime will help...........nooooooooooo.....

Shirleevee

[tkret]

Children in some sections of our country go to bed hungry EVERY night, seniors wonder how to pay for needed medications, parents spend life savings to send their kids to college. Homes are destroyed by natural events and residents wonder if the government cares.
Never could understand why so many of our citizens take a back seat.

Ah, but someone is a foreign country gets an ingrown toenail and our politicians send billions just as fast as they can.

"The Mouse That Roared"

[Shirleevee]

So sad.....it makes me angry.

[rshoffer]

Folks,(and I'm as guilty as the rest of us), we need to make more political noise about this mess. There is going to be an ever increasing number of American citizens due to the boomer wave who have worked their tails off for the past 35 to 40 years, who are not yet 65, who "retired" and now have no health insurance. They've done everything right in life but now are prisoners of our health insurance mess. Sadly, we've allowed this issue to disappear from this elections headlines. It amazes me how 4 years ago this was a hot button issue. All it took was for gas to hit 4 dollars a gallon and healthcare was no longer a hot topic. The inequities are so unfair. If you were a gov't worker your set for life. Why is that? I was/am a very successful professional and worked 50+ hrs a week and paid a fortune in taxes for decades but now I have to grovel and beg for health insurance coverage. How in the hell did this happen and why isn't everyone 50 years old and older really po'd about it?

[Becky]

I am so glad to see this topic. Only reason I am not fulltime in TV is health insurance. Tried every way to get private insurance but because of pre-existing it's a no go. Hopefully this issue will be raised more and something done about it.

Molddude thanks for the links! Well research them more!

Becky

[rshoffer]

A pathetic twist in our society is that the "elite" have been re-identified not by degrees, education, business accomplishments... but rather by the good fortune to have landed a government job that came with a golden parachute of endless health coverage after retirement. These are the new elite in our culture.

[rjrex]

A pathetic twist in our society is that the "elite" have been re-identified not by degrees, education, business accomplishments... but rather by the good fortune to have landed a government job that came with a golden parachute of endless health coverage after retirement. These are the new elite in our culture.


I doubt that 20 years in the military would make anyone part of the "new elite". You are so unhappy.

[ConeyIsBabe]

And then there are the illegal aliens who are DEMANDING hospital care for free :dontknow:

[rshoffer]

I doubt that 20 years in the military would make anyone part of the "new elite". You are so unhappy.
I spent 9 years in the US Army and I am NOT referring to servicemembers who earned all of their benefits and deserve them all. However, you are correct that there are a LOT of VERY unhappy people who also have worked very hard, perhaps harder than the town clerk who put in 25 years in Podunk USA and now has taxpayer funded healthcare till age 65... Yep, were not only unhappy... were furious,

[Boomer]

Last night. A little late. For me anyway. I came back into this thread with the intention of continuing my purposeless rant about how somebody needs to solve this healthcare mess. I view the whole healthcare coverage meltdown as a big picture. I have never been good at worrying about just myself.

So anyway, I was in here, trying to climb back on my soapbox to do a little addendum to yesterday morning's tirade. Well something happened and I lost it. Not my temper. My thought provoking addition to my post.

I told you in some other thread recently about my Folgerian slip when I spilled coffee all over my keyboard. I don't think I managed to resuscitate this thing completely and the keys stick sometimes. I really need to confess to Mr. Boomer so that he produces a new one for me from his basement computer components museum. But I digress.

Anyway, here is what I think about sometimes:

Why can't somebody figure out how to do an early Medicare buy in for early retirees?

It would cost the early retirees some money, but the access to a good plan would be there, without all the roadblocks that catch so many who are of an age.

And I know I harp on hating ridiculous taxation, and I know a subsidy to such a buy in for early retirees would probably have to add a little tax to everybody. Maybe? Maybe not? Better than subsidizing a bridge to nowhere, at least in my book.

And did you notice I said BUY IN?

It seems to me that this would be a big picture solution for a few across-the-board reasons:

1. People would not try to hold on to jobs when they really want to retire. Holding on for healthcare insurance can be pretty miserable.

2. If an early BUY IN to Medicare were available to all, can you imagine the stress related illnesses that could be headed off at the pass. It seems like that would be a no-brainer good thing for the overall healthcare system.

3. And just think of how what's left of American jobs that could open to our kids and our grandchildren, too.

OK. So maybe make this buy in available starting at 55. Well, I guess I will let them negotiate me up to 58. That seems to be an age where a lot of people I know want out. But at 58, you still have all that 7-Year Itchin' to do until 65. But being able to buy in to the system for those years would sure help a lot of people who are out there trying to navigate those shark-infested waters of the individual plans.

Why wouldn't business like such a plan?

Oh, and TV could sell even more houses.

I really do not know why business would not approve, but I am sure there are many reasons that somebody can haul out.

And besides, like I always say, Boomer is but a bumpkin anyway. A bumpkin who thinks too much.

So, gimme that soapbox, "Aaannnnddddd, if I am elected. . ."

Boomer the Bumpkin

[Villages Kahuna]

...and it probably should.

Healthcare insurance is one issue. Finding a doctor to treat you is another. Good docs are in short supply around TV. Why would we expect otherwise? TV annual population growth is at a rate larger than the towns that many of us came from. In fact TV population grows by 3X the size of the Chicago suburb I lived in...each year!

Combine the health insurance mess with the fact that fewer smart kids are opting for medical school and fewer still choosing internal or family medicine, and you can see the problem.

Any doctor who comes to TV will have to decide beforehand that he's willing to make his living on Medicare assignments. With the payments to doctors scheduled for substantial decreases in the next few years, you can see why many doctors are shying away from taking on any new Medicare patients. If you're paying attention, I'm sure you all know many family members or friends who have been shut out from doctors who will no longer provide treatment to Medicare patients, whether or not they have supplemental coverage.

Yep, this is almost certainly a subject for the political forum.

[Sidney Lanier]

Any doctor who comes to TV will have to decide beforehand that he's willing to make his living on Medicare assignments. With the payments to doctors scheduled for substantial decreases in the next few years, you can see why many doctors are shying away from taking on any new Medicare patients.



This is true not only for Medicare enrollees; it's true for virtually all health insurance companies who negotiate a payment rate with physicians and other medical service providers for how much to pay for what.

An example: My wife gets a routine blood test from time to time which ordinarily costs about $26. Now with Medicare--but also pre-age 65 with the health insurance plan she had as an active employee--the lab gets about $3 for drawing the blood, sending it stat (immediately) to the lab for processing, generating results for her and her MD, and of course all the paperwork. How can they possibly do this for $3? When I asked, 'Why say the charge is $26 when you get paid only $3. Who pays $26?' And the answer? 'Why, the uninsured, of course, pay full freight.'

Maybe the uninsured have to hock their eyeteeth and their firstborn to pay.... Is this not outrageous? And yet this is how health insurance, whether Medicare or private insurance, works nowadays!

[efrahin]

It is a big problem when people want to retire in their 50's and the live expectancy is higher every year. If you can retire early than the required date for benefits, means that you have done well and you will have to plan to pay for the priviledge. There are some demagogues offering the public coverage for 40 extra millions people, of which 11 Millions are Ilegal Inmigrants; Who is going to pay for that??? We waited until 65 for our Medicare and bought the supplementary which cost us around $1,000 a month for both of us, but I budgeted that figure before my retirement. I guess that people get inpatient and dont want to wait, but you must make a choice. Socialized medicine does not appeal to me, we are used to go to the doctor we like and when we need a procedure we wanted it yesterday, well, that cost money. It is one or the other.

[linandvin]

Anyone know if Doctors in TV accept GHI (a northern health coverage)?? This would be an important consideration for us before moving.
thanks

[rshoffer]

It is a big problem when people want to retire in their 50's and the live expectancy is higher every year. If you can retire early than the required date for benefits, means that you have done well and you will have to plan to pay for the priviledge. There are some demagogues offering the public coverage for 40 extra millions people, of which 11 Millions are Ilegal Inmigrants; Who is going to pay for that??? We waited until 65 for our Medicare and bought the supplementary which cost us around $1,000 a month for both of us, but I budgeted that figure before my retirement. I guess that people get inpatient and dont want to wait, but you must make a choice. Socialized medicine does not appeal to me, we are used to go to the doctor we like and when we need a procedure we wanted it yesterday, well, that cost money. It is one or the other.
However, another component to this mess has nothing to do with paying for the coverage. There are a lot of financially well off people in their late 50's and early 60's who can afford insurance but who have "pre-existing" conditions". If they move here and they had a local HMO up North they often cannot find a company that will even sell them insurance.

[rshoffer]

Last night. A little late. For me anyway. I came back into this thread with the intention of continuing my purposeless rant about how somebody needs to solve this healthcare mess. I view the whole healthcare coverage meltdown as a big picture. I have never been good at worrying about just myself.

So anyway, I was in here, trying to climb back on my soapbox to do a little addendum to yesterday morning's tirade. Well something happened and I lost it. Not my temper. My thought provoking addition to my post.

I told you in some other thread recently about my Folgerian slip when I spilled coffee all over my keyboard. I don't think I managed to resuscitate this thing completely and the keys stick sometimes. I really need to confess to Mr. Boomer so that he produces a new one for me from his basement computer components museum. But I digress.

Anyway, here is what I think about sometimes:

Why can't somebody figure out how to do an early Medicare buy in for early retirees?

It would cost the early retirees some money, but the access to a good plan would be there, without all the roadblocks that catch so many who are of an age.

And I know I harp on hating ridiculous taxation, and I know a subsidy to such a buy in for early retirees would probably have to add a little tax to everybody. Maybe? Maybe not? Better than subsidizing a bridge to nowhere, at least in my book.

And did you notice I said BUY IN?

It seems to me that this would be a big picture solution for a few across-the-board reasons:

1. People would not try to hold on to jobs when they really want to retire. Holding on for healthcare insurance can be pretty miserable.

2. If an early BUY IN to Medicare were available to all, can you imagine the stress related illnesses that could be headed off at the pass. It seems like that would be a no-brainer good thing for the overall healthcare system.

3. And just think of how what's left of American jobs that could open to our kids and our grandchildren, too.

OK. So maybe make this buy in available starting at 55. Well, I guess I will let them negotiate me up to 58. That seems to be an age where a lot of people I know want out. But at 58, you still have all that 7-Year Itchin' to do until 65. But being able to buy in to the system for those years would sure help a lot of people who are out there trying to navigate those shark-infested waters of the individual plans.

Why wouldn't business like such a plan?

Oh, and TV could sell even more houses.

I really do not know why business would not approve, but I am sure there are many reasons that somebody can haul out.

And besides, like I always say, Boomer is but a bumpkin anyway. A bumpkin who thinks too much.

So, gimme that soapbox, "Aaannnnddddd, if I am elected. . ."

Boomer the Bumpkin



This idea is way too logical and makes way too much sense to be a gov't program

[golfnut]

efrahin, did I read your reply correctly??? you have medicare and pay $1,000 a month for supplemental coverage?????* I don't have medicare and pay $1,000 a month (for 2 people) for BCBS premier plus coverage.

[efrahin]

The figure was wrong because I included the Brand Name medications my wife needs. It is $500.00 for the Supplemental Insurance with United Health Care (AARP), $130.00 for the prescriptions coverage with Xpresss Prescriptions, $100.00 for the Dental Ins.(This is for both of us) which amounts to $830.00 monthly for the Insurance portion only. My wife takes two brand name medications which cost $195.00 each for 3 months supply. So as you can see is close to the $1000.00 monthly.

[efrahin]

rshoffer: You are right. We had previous coverage for about 20 continuous years and some clerk in the Social Security Office made a mistake and it has taken us more than a year to straighten it out. She wrote the wrong date for our starting coverage. Dealing with Medicare is the closest thing to hell, mostly because you impotent to do anything about and is no use to complain.

[Boomer]

This idea is way too logical and makes way too much sense to be a gov't program


Hey thanks, rshoffer,

Another point to add to what I said is that with an early Medicare BUY IN available to early retirees, those early retirees would actually help rates. They would be the young ones in the pool. Young ones in insurance pools help drive rates in the right direction. Maybe early retirees do not seem all that young, buy hey, everything is relative you know.

Oh well, I am glad you think my idea is logical and makes sense, at least. Although there is no hope for it I guess.

Oh well. . .

Ah. . ."I coulda been a contender."

Boomer

[serenityseeker]

Excellent points by many of you. I dearly wish we could get a groundswell of support from intelligent and well informed folks like those of you commenting here to make noise...and a lot of it because we have to have change in our present system and we are already so far behind in addressing the problems you note above and multitudes of others. I don't know how many folks realize that Medicare is essentially funded on borrowed money at this point(yes..foreign borrowed money like nearly everything else) and is in dire straights for some of the reasons noted by Kahuna, Lanier and others.
This is totally lost in this election at this point. We really need a massive cadre of people that demand intelligent responses and ideas regarding revamping this broken system we cling to.

[Shirleevee]

I don't have medicare and pay $1,000 a month (for 2 people) for BCBS premier plus coverage.

Please tell me where you live.........I pay $887.47 for BC/BS HMO, just for me (NY).

Shirleevee

[golfnut]

This coverage was written out of Michigan where I used to work.

[rshoffer]

Excellent points by many of you. I dearly wish we could get a groundswell of support from intelligent and well informed folks like those of you commenting here to make noise...and a lot of it because we have to have change in our present system and we are already so far behind in addressing the problems you note above and multitudes of others. I don't know how many folks realize that Medicare is essentially funded on borrowed money at this point(yes..foreign borrowed money like nearly everything else) and is in dire straights for some of the reasons noted by Kahuna, Lanier and others.
This is totally lost in this election at this point. We really need a massive cadre of people that demand intelligent responses and ideas regarding revamping this broken system we cling to.
What seems to be happening is that when one crisis surfaces the previous crisis goes quietly to the back burner. Example being the health care crisis. Everyone knows our health care system is broken and needs serious attention at many levels. However, once gas hit 4 dollars a gallon.... WHAM... T Boone Pickens got on the TV and suddenly alternative energy is the burning issue. In fact, Pickins is absolutely correct, however, the health care issue has been momentarily silenced. I'm curious to see if it comes up in the debates.

[rshoffer]

Here's a point to ponder.... This is a Hot Button thread. I can assume that all posters are fairly well off financially yet are being strangled by a faulty health care system. Now, picture yourself, a 26 year old air conditioning tech making 27 thousand dollars a year with overtime, married with 1 child... but, his boss (it's a 4 man operation), who pays him a good hourly wage, doesn't offer "benefits". There's 40 million uninsured out there.... Anybody got a suggestion?

[diskman]

Please ponder this thread i started recently

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/smf/index.php/topic,9821.msg89751.html#msg89751

[Boomer]

Here's a point to ponder.... This is a Hot Button thread. I can assume that all posters are fairly well off financially yet are being strangled by a faulty health care system. Now, picture yourself, a 26 year old air conditioning tech making 27 thousand dollars a year with overtime, married with 1 child... but, his boss (it's a 4 man operation), who pays him a good hourly wage, doesn't offer "benefits". There's 40 million uninsured out there.... Anybody got a suggestion?


40 million, huh? And that does not count those who pay prohibitive premium costs out of those paychecks, but who can be counted as covered. It's not those who refuse to work. They are covered. This is about the backbone of America.

If politicans do not truly acknowledge the problem then they do not have to deal with it.

And besides, the whole mess is completely overwhelming. Everybody wants to think about it tomorrow.

And those words, "NO SOCIALIZED MEDICINE" well serve the real purpose which is a knee jerk reaction from voters, many of whom, my guess is, have no access to affordable coverage. How's that for irony? But it has to be the case, simply because there are so many who fall into that category. The numbers make that irony so completely obvious. It simply cannot be any other way. Irony, huh.

The cost of gas has also become a part of the distraction from reaction to the need to address healthcare. When the guy that rshoffer is talking about in his post is worried about how he will be able to afford to drive to work, that becomes an immediate problem that cannot be thought about tomorrow.

So you know, it's all working out pretty well for politicians. Wow! Talk about entitlement. Lifetime pensions and healthcare coverage for those elected. Talk about entitlement.

You know, I do this rant from time to time about creating access for early retirees by setting up that affordable access through an early Medicare BUY IN. And then people write about how that would never work because of the system collapse or because it just is not right or whatever. Well, I still think it could be a start. Many early retirees have the money to BUY IN. It's just that there is nothing available worth BUYING into. And costs are out of sight, more and more each year. Affordable access is becoming impossible for so many.

But now that I think about this let 'em BUY IN to early Medicare thing I get so into talking about, a second light bulb just went off, right there above my head.

Maybe everybody who needs it should just be able to gain affordable access to a healthcare plan by being able to BUY IN to the plan that politicians have -- for life.

And I really do believe with every poor little brain cell that I have left that solving this problem of no affordable access to healthcare would give business a tremendous boost. And in many cases, even a lifeline. Especially for small business. You remember small business don't you? The American Dream.

Divide and conquer. That's what the politicians have done to us. This go round -- maybe more than ever.

What we as Americans are not getting is that in order to get a problem solved, we have to make it the problem of those with the power to solve it. And we are not doing that.

And I can tell you right now that covered or not, this healthcare issue is in everybody's pocket. Well, not for those in entitlement programs I guess. You know those programs, don't you? Welfare and career politics.

And here come the boomers. We hit early SS this year. And then on we go, slouching toward Medicare.

There is a book that I have mentioned before on here. The title is Boomsday. The author is Christopher Buckley. He based the premise on Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." The book is not all that well written, but it is worth maybe taking a look, maybe at least at the reviews that will summarize it for you. The book is categorized as satire. If it gets made into a movie, who knows? There may be some out there who think it is a great idea. And then it will become required reading. Maybe a textbook. No longer satire.

Wow! I sound a little grouchy this morning it seems. I promised myself that I would not write about this on here anymore. And now, here I am. Breaking that promise. Hey, maybe I should be a politician.

Boomer in the Morning

[Peachie]

I agree, Boomer, that is the scenerio:

"Divide and conquer. That's what the politicians have done to us. This go round -- maybe more than ever."

We the people need to stand up and change the rules and enact a law, from here forward
the health insurance that covers the polititians and their famililes shall be the same and no better than the coverage provided to those with the least or "no" coverage. :o Bet we'd have a solution in a big fat hurry!