You Do Not Have Health Insurance (Read this article to understand)

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.truthout.org/080709A

You do not have health insurance. Let me repeat that. You do not have health insurance. (Unless you are over 65, in which case you do have health insurance. I'll come back to that later.)

The point of insurance is to protect you against unlikely but damaging events. You are generally happy to pay premiums in all the years that nothing goes wrong (your house doesn't burn down), because in exchange your insurer promises to be there in the one year that things do go wrong (your house burns down). That's why, when shopping for insurance, you are supposed to look for a company that is financially sound - so they will be there when you need them.

If, like most people, your health coverage is through your employer or your spouse's employer, that is not what you have. At some point in the future, you will get sick and need expensive health care. What are some of the things that could happen between now and then?

Your company could drop its health plan. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (see Table HIA-1), the percentage of the population covered by employer-based health insurance has fallen every year since 2000, from 64.2% to 59.3%. *
You could lose your job. I don't think I need to tell anyone what the unemployment rate is these days.**
You could voluntarily leave your job, for example because you have to move to take care of an elderly relative.
You could get divorced from the spouse you depend on for health coverage.


For all of these reasons, you can't count on your health insurer being there when you need it. That's not insurance; that's employer-subsidized health care for the duration of your employment.

[silverweb]

1. All too true.

:kick:

[Sanity Claws]

2. The insurer could drop your employer

If the employer submits high claims, including one high claim from one employee, the insurer will dump the employer. Too bad for the employee.

[ihavenobias]

3. K &R n/t

[unblock]

4. even worse, a medical condition might lead to loss of employment

yes there are laws that provide some protection against firing but they're not universally applicable (e.g., small companies, or where your condition makes it impossible to do the job) and even still an employer might take their chances in court. in practice employers can almost always find an excuse to get rid of an unwanted employee, or at least push them out and make the ex-employee fight for justice.

normally you would be eligible for cobra for 18 months, but even if you can afford it having lost your job, it's still only there for 18 months. after that you're on your own.

[kimmerspixelated]

5. Thes best insurance

will be preventative self-care, and intelligent choices(being open to natural ways) for health problems. A LOT CHEAPER! You can get some kind of umbrella policy for general accident/health insurance, but I don't think it is necessarily a given that "in the future you will get sick and need expensive care".

[Skittles]

6. works, until a drunk driver slams into you

[kimmerspixelated]

9. Always carry accidental insurance for that.

It's usually always cheap. Geico's umbrella policy is one.

[AdHocSolver]

7. Best explanation of why we need a public option, preferably single payer, yet.

The bottom line: no job, no benefits, not a millionaire -- no access to health care.

K & R.

[MISSDem]

8. The thing is, at least this is my thinking, that even with this

single payor everyone is going to have to pay their part. Some folks don't want to pay anything. So how will that work? I have insurance where I work and have had some really big medical bills which the insurance has paid (I was diagnosed with breast cancer so I need say no more). And we have short term and long term disability if we cannot work and I also took out a policy to cover what this would not pay. But I could always loose my job, so...