What is it like to not have health insurance?
It’s frustrating, scary, worrisome, demeaning, humiliating, demoralizing and in the end it leaves me mad with frustration and crying from shear sadness that I can’t afford insurance, that I cannot get medical help without bankrupting us.I fall into the “family glitch”, my husband makes to much to qualify for subsidies and not enough to add me to his employer plan. The plan offered through in employer is affordable to him only and we can afford to add our one child. Adding me on is exorbitant and would leave us with very little money for food, gas and incidentals, copays and prescriptions. If I consider a state marketplace plan, it would only be slightly less than the employer plan.How do you propose someone should pay for health insurance that cannot afford it? When that person has explored every possible option to find affordable health insurance, has even considered getting divorced to get insurance, but without an income, it’s a no go. I have applied for many jobs just to get insurance, but have not had any luck finding one. I get offers for short term, part-time or seasonal work, all with no insurance and not enough income long term to commit to paying for health care.Many of these answers are obviously from people that have insurance and are not qualified to answer the question, they just preach how one shouldn’t go without. Until you are standing in my shoes and counting pennies, don’t tell me I should have insurance no matter how much it costs, even it means not feeding or housing my family. Sorry, but feeding and keeping a roof over our heads is way more important.
Why is car insurance mandatory, but mandatory health insurance is "unconstitutional"?
Very few people actually understand how insurance works. The insurance company doesn’t maintain a separate account where it holds your premiums until the day you make a claim. When you make a claim the company pays with all the money it has collected from all it’s insureds.Suppose you are a 30 year old with no dependents and pay $200/mo for health insurance. You thus pay $2400/yr. Let’s say you have had the policy for 5 years and have paid a total of $12,000.You have the misfortune of having a heart attack. How far do you figure that $12,000 will take you? Not very damn far. The cost of a less severe heart attack is about $40,000 (direct and indirect costs). A more severe heart attack, where surgery is required for example, could easily double, even triple, your cost. The only way the insurance company can pay that is to pay money it has collected in premiums from a whole lot of people. The only way health insurance works is to have a whole lot of healthy people paying premiums they will never use so the company can pay the claims for the few who do.BTW, you now have a preexisting condition and the insurance company increased your premiums from $200/mo to $1,200/mo. You will pay that for the next 32 years until you qualify for Medicare.If you aren’t insured you can either work out a payment plan with the health care provider (probably paying that same $1,200/mo) or declare bankruptcy so you are just passing on your liability to everyone else.People who are opposed to the ACA (a/k/a Obamacare) don’t know dick about insurance. Yes, I’m looking at you Washington.
I don't have health insurance, should I get AFLAC?
AFLAC sells supplemental health insurance policies. If you don't have any health insurance, What are you supplementing? You will pay for a policy that will not pay the major claims you incur if you have a serious ill or accident. because AFLAC is only going to be "supplementing" a major medical policy.. AFLAC is fine is you already a health insurance policy. AFLAC has all those advertisements about paying out money per day if you are sick or injured but they are not paying your medical expenses. I policy that pays when you are sick or injured is a disability policy. Again, either an AFLAC supplement or a disability policy (which is more expensive and pays a higher benefit) it is more important to get basic health care insurance. Insurance is regulated by each state so you can do a search engine by the state you live in and "individual health insurance". The policies are affordable if you are currently in good health. The rates are depended on your age, gender, height, weight, medical history, whether you are a smoker or non-smoker and the plan benefits you select.
Should Health Insurance be mandatory?
health insurance is an oxymoron, why make the insurance companies richer than they already are? I say close down every single health insurance provider, and all the money given them for something they don't provide should then go into the general fund to pay for universal health care for this country's citizens. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness includes the right to health, how can you have any of the others without health? After dismantling health insurance robbers, take the life long free health care away from the senate and the house, take away thier lifetime full pay retirement, and you will have the money to take care of every citizen's need for health care. These guys are supposed to SERVE US, instead WE are paying for them being served. I am tired of being a SLAVE to my government and not being supported in my right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I am a Registered Nurse, and I cannot afford what my employer is forced to asked of me to pay for health insurance, right now at least, I don't HAVE to, but if I am, then I will have to quit and go on welfare, I won't be able to AFFORD to work to support myself.
I have pink eye but no health insurance, what should i do?
Hard to say, I think it is possible that it could heal itself. I don't know about blurring vision either. Is the eye kind of sore? Does it drain a lot? Do you wake up with it stuck shut because of the dried drainage? I know it sounds gross but these are characteristics of pink eye. I have had a light case that went away by itself but I've had bad cases the did require antibiotic drops. I don't remember having blurred vision but with excess drainage I'm sure that could be likely. I don't think you'll go blind from it but I'm not a doctor either. I would say just watch it and if it seems to get worse and not better over the next day or two then you should go in. If you have a doctor that you've seen before they may be willing to call you in a prescription for some eye drops if you explain that you just can't make it in. Even without insurance I don't think the drops are too pricey; I'd say $20 or less.
Do I need to carry my health insurance card on my person?
Yes you should! And as one ad say, 'Don't leave home without it!'. Like an identification card, you should have your insurance card on your person at all times. Too many times I have seen patients arrive for a doctor's appointment or to the Emergency Room (ER) without their card and when asked to produce it, states 'It is in the (computer) system'. Some believe that once information that they are insured is in cyber world, every health care provider has access to that information. My friend that is furthest from the truth. Though this the dream of President Obama, such a lofty ideas have not come to fruition. Some hospitals have the ability to access that information if they purchase special software to do so, but not all do, it is a very expensive investment. Let's say you have to go to the ER and you don't have your card nor are you in the state of mind to inform them that you are insured. Sad to say, and a little in-house dirty secret, not all the test that would have been 'routinely' administered you would be given. Referral to an outpatient facility is often given once you are discharged. Yes patient are treated irrespective of their ability to pay when visiting the ER, but they are not 'treated' the same. Another thing, if you are treated and you are directly billed by the provider for their services, it is months of headache to get that bill sorted and squared away with the provider and your health insurance company.