To most of you, this may seem like no big deal. Who cares, right? Just stay healthy, right? Wrong, friends. It's wrong to think that when you break your foot and are in a cast for three months; it's wrong to think that when you come down with a serious cold, and can't even go to a doctor to make sure you're not dying from the swine flu outbreak.
It's wrong to think that way when you're not sure how healthy you are at all.
After I graduated college, I was pretty sure I would get a fulltime job and be set with my life-plan. I'd have benefits and a salary - two things that every college graduate aspires to. Yet when I graduated college, the economy was in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and companies worldwide were cutting the amount of employees they had. Even though I've been able to find temporary jobs to help pay the bills I have, I am forced to live without health insurance.
You don't realize how important having health insurance is until you don't have it. Back in June, I broke my foot and had to go to the emergency room to have X-Rays and diagnosis done. Unfortunately for me, this all happened before I realized I had been dropped from my parents insurance thanks to the earning of my college diploma (my health insurance only covered me until I graduated). I was sent a $1,000+ bill from the hospital and realized just how difficult this was going to be.
Of course there are ways to stay as healthy as you can. You can buy vitamins and eat more fruits and vegetables. You can dress warmly when the cold weather comes and you can get plenty of rest. But there is no way to prevent the unexpected, which is why health insurance is so crucial.
I am hoping that sooner than later, I will be able to find a job and get health benefits... so I can finally get my cough checked out.
Are you living without health insurance? How has not having health insurance changed your daily health routine?
Comments (95)
Me too! "But I'm young and healthy" the ignorant said. LOL
My mom had to cancel her health insurance recently. Thankfully she hasn't gotten sick. I noticed how now that she cant afford her health insurance, her opinion on Obamas' health care reform has changed. How strange. I think I will wear a smug look every time it comes up now
I had health insurance through my mom until she died. My dad is eventually going to get me health insurance. I am not for public health care though, but that's just my opinion.
I don't have health insurance, either. My last trip to the emergency room was for an ovarian cyst that had ruptured. My hospital bills from that trip alone are well over $5000. I'm going to be paying this off for YEARS. I'm only twenty years old, and this affects more than just my daily health routine. College is going to be that much harder to pay for. In order to go now, I'll have to take out a student loan for far more than I planned, and rack up even more debt.
Vitamins, daily excercise, and dressing in layers are a staple, of course. But there really isn't much you can do to prevent an accident, or something totally unexpected. Things like that change your whole life if you don't have health insurance. I know it's changed mine.
Everybody should live with health insurance
I like Lil_Firefly am not up for public healthcare either. Don't people realize that SOMEONE is going to have to pay for it? It's not totally "free."
When I was a younger I went to the doctor, and was told I had some kind of sinus infection(long time ago, can't really remember), and the next thing you know we go to walgreens to get the medicine I needed, and was told we couldn't get it because the company wouldn't pay for it. My mom lost it, was mad, and the medicine I guess was extremely expensive, because we wound up buying something OTC.
I didn't have insurance for a long time. My dad wound up putting me on his bill after my mom called him, and told him she couldn't afford to keep me on her plan.
Healthcare should be for everyone. JMO.
Health care in this country is not the problem. It is the best in the world. It is paying for it that is a problem. Ever ask yourself why we need insurance? Why are the bills so high? It started with lawyers suing Doctors and hospitals for malpractice, and winning huge awards. This forced them to raise their rates and have malpractice insurance. Then they went after nurses, orderlies, drug companies, anyone and everyone they could. This forced all areas to raise their rates. Pretty soon, no one could afford regular health services without insurance. Then Dr.'s and hospitals began charging one amount if you didn't have insurance, and a higher amount if you did. The rationale was to offset the losses incurred when those would couldn't pay didn't. The Federal govmnt made a law in 1967 ( I think) that all emergency rooms had to treat you whether you had insurnace or not. You could not be denied health care. And that is still the case.
I recently had a blood test for cholesterol, lipids, etc. One blood draw, the lab work, and the bill was about $60. I think that is very reasonable. My cardiologist installed 3 stents in my heart a year ago, his bill was $3,000. Again, I thought quite reasonable, considering his years of study and college, his investment and expertise. Who else can do such a thing? Who studies for over 10 years to learn such things? I didn't have insurance, and I didn't have an extra $3,000 laying around. So they let me pay whatever I could monthly with no interest. They could have insisted I get a loan and pay them off.
The hospital, on the other hand, charged me nearly $80,000 and I was there less than two days. 46 hours, I believe. It was $17,000 for each of the 3 stents alone. When they learned I had no insurance, they lopped off about $20,000 from the bill. Just like that. I had a little independent insurance policy that paid $25,000. Now I owe about $30,000. I am negotiating with them to see if they will further reduce it. It has been a year now they have been working with me on it, no interest, no strong-arm tactics, etc. If it turns out I have to pay the whole $30k, then I will do that monthly as much as I can afford. Do they need it? Not really. They are a non-profit that made over 44 million last year alone, mostly from collecting from insurance companies with inflated charges. They do that to help cover costs for those who cannot pay.
The medications I was prescribed were all $4 a month at Walgreens, with the exception of one, Plavix, which was $140 a month. Yet I was able to buy that from a Canadian pharmacy for less than 1/2 that. $46 a month, I think. Why can I buy the same product from Canada for $46 when it is $140 in the U.S.? They have to pay for research and development of new drugs and products somehow. $4 hardly covers the cost of the manufacturing, bottles and packaging. Most drug companies have programs that reduce the cost of their meds if you simply ask them.
The problem lies in the insurance and lawyers and billing. That is where regulations need to come into play. Our Congressmen and Senators need to be directing their efforts there, not in re-creating our health care industry. The "public option" will not work. Government does not do things efficiently or effectively. They have run Amtrak for over 40 years and have never turned a profit. Medicare is going bankrupt rapidly, and Social Security is right behind it. They are at a crisis level now, but with all the hoopla over health care, you are not hearing about it. Even the recent "cash for clunkers" program...it cost 3 billion to put that program on, and when it was all done, about $375 million was paid out for the clunkers. Cost 3 billion to save $375 million.
And you want government to run our health care.
I live in Canada where we have national health care, and contrary to how the American media has portrayed our system, it is a system that works. It's not perfect, but it is pretty darn good. No one in our country is denied access to health care, because if your citizens aren't healthy, all other aspects of society will start to break down. When we Canadians converted to national health care many years ago, our citizens were just as upset and worried as the Americans are now, yet in retrospect, all that worry was for nothing....we ended up with a viable system. Please look beyond what the mainstream media is saying about your proposed health care reforms, and find a way to make it work so that everyone in your country can be healthy. It saddens me when I hear that the #1 cause of bankrupcies in the US is due to health care bills, I know from experience that it doesn't have to be that way.
Good luck to our neighbours south of the border!
I am right in the same boat with you!
I had a fulltime job until I got laid off earlier this year....luckily I'm still in graudate school "furthering my education" until something else comes along. Anyway, even when I worked I was having a hard time paying for health insurance. I ended up dropping half of it before I got laid off because it was almost costing me more than I was getting paid--which is crazzzzy!
Now I just hope and pray nothing happens to me before I land my next job with benefits. Right now though if I do get a little sick...at least I can go to the campus medical area....even though I'll still be charged out of the ass for as much as bottle of cold meds.
I don't have health insurance. In fact, I've lived most of my life without it, because my parents rarely had it, or could afford to use it when they did have it. It totally sucks. You kind of learn to self diagnose, or to use the saying of "you're not dead yet- you're fine" which is something I grew up with. Now that I'm on my own, not having insurance sucks, but it's normal for me, anymore. I have learned to eat better, when I can afford it, and to try and stay healthy. I don't stay around sick people, and I do my damndest to find natural cures to common ailments.
Fortunately, both Taiwan and Canada have national health care
At my last job they offered really crappy insurance so I went with Aetna on my own. It wasn't amazing but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.
i hear that. i'm kinda self-employed at the moment and even though i have received offers to cover my health insurance for self-employed at the moment (acutally i'm not sure self-employed is the right term, i'm doing freelance), i just don't have enough at the moment to cover it.
i can sympathize. my husband continues his insurance through cobra through blue cross (he has no other option since he had a heart condition) and his insurance is $600/month but he HAS to have it.
i have a $40/month plan through blue cross but it has a $500 deductible (which i haven't needed to pay yet, thankfully) but it doesn't cover prescriptions.
Sorry to hear of your frustration. I definatly understand what you're dealing with. I've researched every medical coverage option that I believe exists in my area. Growing up with parents who worked for the state we had FREE and fantastic insurance, then when I moved out I was able to still sneak benifits by remaining unmarried to the father of my children through DSHS medicaid. That covered my planned pregnancies and during my 2nd pregnancy allowed me to actually get married while still being covered. However, 2 months post pardom my coverage ended and our income was too high for adult coverage. So, I put myself on the 50,000+ person waiting list for the state funded Basic Health program. It will be over a year before anything happens with the list and the program is rumored to be cut completely due to lack of state funding anyway.
Insurance through my husband's employer is too expensive for me to be added to the policy. $500+ per month PLUS high deductables and coverage gaps. I tried to apply for indivual coverage through a couple different providers (even though I couldn't afford the premiums in the first place) but was shot down by all of them due to pre-existing conditions. Apparently I'm too unhealthy for them to take a risk on. Basically they don't think they can make more off of me than they will have to spend.
I'm 25 and a stay at home mother of 2 young children. My kids are covered through DSHS because income limits are higher for children, THANK GOD. But, at my young age I've already been formally diagnosed with 2 life long, incurable conditions as well as the possibility of epilepsy and huntingtons (I opted out of testing for both so I could get life insurance). In addition I've recently been diagnose with cystocele (bladder prolapse), uterine prolapse, and rectocele (internal stretching of the end of the small intestine) and there is a strong possibility that all 3 will eventually if not very soon be treated surgically and have to be repaired over and over throughout my life. It's not cheap! I'm off to the doctor next week to be diagnosed for ANOTHER issue. The 3 top possibilities are fibromyalsia, lupus, or MS. None of them have a cure, are life long, and require treatment.
Just this morning I was approved for a temporary, charitable program in my county that will allow me 6 months of free coverage. It's not going to cure my problems but it might give me a better idea of what I'm working with at least. Who knows what they heck I'll do 6 months from now! Free and low cost clinics don't have the resources to treat my specific medical problems so some kind of insurance will be nessesary. Applying for disability insurance may be my last save when it comes down to it but approval can take 3 months to 2 years depending on their interpration of your 'disibility'.
So yah, this is kind of a heated subject for me. I eat healthy, I live a very clean life (drug, tabacco, and alcohol free) and research natural cures often. I hope no one assumes taking care of yourself is all it ever takes. And sorry, my comments tend to be longer than the blog post I leave them on.
I function, my spirits are decent considering, I LOOK healthy at a glance, but I'm miserable.
@haggynaggytwit@xanga - same. I am not for obamas healthcare reform at all...yeah, I mean of course Itd be great if everyone was taken care of but like you said....who the hell is going to pay for it???
I certainly do not want to have to pay extra taxes for someone else to be taken care of. I have myself and MY family to be worried about.
obama has all these "brillient" ideas on how he wants to change america. but tell me obama whos going to pay for it? and where are we going to get the money when we are in trillions of debt? we owe china so much money....
you want all these things but we have no existing system to do so....so what does that mean??? MORE MONEY to make them!!!!
i mean people dont u think presidents before us wouldve thought about universal healthcare before IF WE HAD THE MONEY AND THE MEANS?!
PS canada is not in war
I've been without health insurance for about 7ish years. Then again, I rarely get sick, therefore, rarely went to the doctor except for once or twice a year for check ups.
Agreed that one needs to plan for the unexpected. I always have made it a point to set aside a bit of every pay check for emergencies. I'm generally good with money making sure to only spend what I have to on bills and such and then the rest save up for emergencies.One trick that I've learned to monitoring your health while insurance-less:Pharmacies, churches, and some stores, will have health clinics where once a weekend, or whatever, they have people on hand to check your sugar, cholesterol, etc for free or a very small fee. I always take advantage of those. They save you quite a bit on check ups, too. Doing tests like that came out to about $400 at my doctor's office, doing it through one of the health clinics, it was only $25. =)I did. But now I have a job...I totally know how it feels.
But if you are young, maybe buy a cheap health insurance in case if you need a surgery, you don't have to sell your home or declare bankruptcy.
I guess this is why I'm for public option even though I work in a healthcare insurance company.
I just recently started going to college and in order to pay for daycare I may have to cancel health insurance on myself. I pay 300$ a month for myself, and I'm only 21. When I turned from 20 to 21 my monthly cost jumped 100$ a month, then I started getting a TAX on my health insurance, jumping it 3 more dollars. So now I am going to have to cancel it on myself, and hope I don't get in an accident. I'm keeping it on my kids, but even than is expensive.
Sorry to tell all you people this, but if we were a socialist nation we'd be far better off. This country sucks.
@kieri126@xanga - Your spelling gives me headaches.
You don't pay much attention to what is being said in regards to the health reform do you?
Read. It may improve your spelling and assist with clarification.
Also- no other president has done this because it is SOCIALIST, and that word scares Americans because they are all brainwashed to think that it's another word for Communism. Our country is still an infant and already failing. Take advice from countries that have been around far longer, and take care of your citizens. America is a giant selfish asshole. Most of it's citizens are uneducated and under false impressions about the rest of the world.
@AnaDance@xanga - I dont believe I forced you to read my comment. you did that willingly and then you bitch about my mispelling. And, this is xanga...calm down.
and if you think we are so selfish and we are all such ass holes. then leave.
noone is forcing you to stay here. If other countries are so much better then move there. Dont live and go to school here and then bitch.
No health insurance... my company doesn't offer it and WE ARE AN INSURANCE BROKER!!!! Talk about a CHEAP boss...
I don't have health insurance. Don't want it. Don't need it. However if I change my mind I can always get it.
Sorry about you not being able to get Health Insurance.Hopefully,you will get the career that you went attended school for soon and then get insurance. I don't know if you intended to start the "Socialist" argument in here,but it is in full force,lol.
I have health insurance through the military,as well as the bulk of my family and friends,so i really don't know what you are going through. Again..good luck !