I just finished a meeting where our company screwed us on health care,

[4_Legs_Good]

and alls I can say is that the health care broker or whomever it was that gave the meeting should apply for a job in the George Jr. Whitehouse Press Corps, because he was the master of spin!

He turned "Basically you're getting f*cked" into "this is one of the richest, most choice filled plans out there".

Amazing

:grr:

david

[Warren Stupidity]

1. hey you got 15 different rape rooms to choose from

stop yer bitchin and bend over

[Connie_Corleone]

2. Are they health savings accounts?

That's what our company switched to. They said it was to give us more choices for our health care. Yeah, right.

[TayTay]

3. I agree

This costs me $400 a month more in costs. AHP sucks.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

10. That's what we got, too

Raised the deductible through the roof and slammed a huge chunk of the costs onto us, saying "now you'll really see what these perscriptions cost".
And "This is the most flexible plan out you could ever have!"
My premiums didn' change, but I went from $20 a month for perscription (co-pay) to $131 a month with $100 taken out of my paycheck (pre-tax) and put into my HSA.
Here's the kicker: they didn't even get the damn HSA working until MAY!!!
I had to pay over $500 out of pocket because our company held the money that was supposed to go into the HSA until May, when everyeone started noticing that their accounts were not getting any bigger.

[DBoon]

4. They raised the chocolate ration from 30 to 20 grammes!

Isn't newspeak wonderful?

Sometimes I actually find 1984 funny in perverse ways.

[4_Legs_Good]

9. Amen

It's amazing!

It may well bring the war within measurable distance of its end.

david

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. I got screwed on health care, and I'm self-employed

I've had to switch to a higher deductible to be able to afford the monthly premiums. :-(

Since I'm basically healthy, my insurance policy is even more useless than before, unless (God forbid) I get some catastrophic illness--and even then, I'll have to pay 20% above the deductible.

And that was the GOOD option.

[burythehatchet]

8. Good health planning

what I've found is that staying healthy is the best strategy. Completely cut out fast foods, exercise, and all the other obvious stuff. But not having good coverage still weighs on one's mind. Universal health care, its the only way.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Yeah, I do all that healthy stuff

plus, when I get sick, I don't run to the doctor unless I suspect complications such as pneumonia, which is why I never use up my deductible, which is why it's additionally infuriating to have the vultures add $90 a month to my premium just because I passed a milestone birthday.

In order to keep my insurance affordable, I had to triple my deductible, which means that now, I'll REALLY never use it. :grr: At least, I hope I don't get so sick that I use up that deductible.

The only thing that keeps me using that insurance is the possibility that I might get cancer or some other catastrophic conditions, in which case, I suppose, my premiums will then go somewhere outside the galaxy.

[burythehatchet]

23. Do you remember when Hillary tried to do health care, there was a chance

to pass a bill for universal coverage just for catastrophic illness. It would bring down costs of regular care and give people an emotional support that is priceless. Newt and gang killed it before it could see the light of debate

[barb162]

15. same here, know what you mean. And I bet they get you on

reasonable and customary. My friend and I were talking about this...I actually called the insurer and asked them for a list in my entire state of who made their reasonable and customary guidelines. It's just another way of making your coinsurance % higher without really trying.

[Tux]

6. What is the policy now?

How bad is it compared to your old healthcare insurance? And you have a job? Must be fancy. LOL. Stupid lack of jobs. Can't even get a temp proofreading job without 70+ people applying for it. I might write a book and bitch about shit (each chapter about something different).

[4_Legs_Good]

11. Oh it's not horrible

Basically we used to have a good HMO plan or a good PPO plan. Now they left the (reasonably) good HMO plan and said we could pay the difference for the PPO plan and they still talk about a committment to continuing to pay for 100% of the employee's health care.

I know people have shittier health care plans, but it's the ludicrous spin that really bugs me. Plus the fact that our semi-small company is kicking ass royally and has been growing every year with everyone doing their share, and still every year we get something shaved back on our healthcare plan.

I don't like being told that hamburger is filet mignon, if you wanna cut our health care program, come out and say "look, we want to make more money and grow faster and health care is getting to expensive so we're cutting your plan a little".

Anyway, what I wouldn't give for a Kucinich presidency, we could stop with these stupid meetings and changes in insurance companies every single year.

Gah!

Good luck with the book! :) And sorry about George Jr.'s idiotic economy!!! :(
david

[bleedingheart]

7. I work for a fortune 500 company and they are pushing

for people to use....the Catastrophic Health Care Plan.(premiums are cheap).. Deductible = $5000 in combination with a Health Care Savings Account...

But if you don't like that...there is some sort of PPO that only covers 80% of expenses and costs about $5000 out of pocket for the employee..

I tell you...this is what will lead to a national health care plan.

[napi21]

12. I agree with you. I'm still not sure why so many people were against it

when Hillary proposed it 12 years ago or so. I know there were lots of people saying that it would end up being like Canada and that would be terrible, but I don't hear lots of Canadians complaining! I've actually been considering moving to Canada. I'm not only sick and tired of what's happening to health care in the US, but all the other shit that this "keep the Gov't out of our personal life" administration is enacting, and I don't know that I want to wait 3 1/2 years to see if it MIGHT change!

[4_Legs_Good]

14. The health insurance lobby is VERY powerful

and they would instantly be cut completely from the equation, so they have a tremendous amount at stake in staying in the game.

I can't stand when everyone says how inefficient a socialized or single-payer system would be. Give me a break! Is *this* efficient? Having to change carriers every year? Having insurance brokers? All the paperwork just to pay the bills? Having to find out who takes what? etc.

We need some kind of universal system!

david

[napi21]

18. I understand why the Reps and Sens were against univ. HC, but

most of the people I was hearing from were private citizens! If enough people insisted that their Reps & Sens voted for national health care, the ins co's would lose!

I just don't understand what so many private citizens have against it.

I don't know for sure, but I think, even in contries that have national health care, if you have enough $$, you can still buy private insurance if it's that important to you, so why the bog fight?

[4_Legs_Good]

21. It's because of the Health insurance/government propaganda

They've convinced regular people that if we had a universal health care system we'd all wait in lines for weeks while we slowly bleed to death.

An absolute lie, but the lobby has been sucessful at selling it to the American public.

sad really

david

[barb162]

24. I could write my pug US House congresswoman and get

absolutely nowhere with this. I've written that fucking bitch before on several things and never even get a form letter thanks. Citizens with good plans (pugs) are the ones contributing to the campaigns of these bastards and national health insurance will never get through.

[Ysolde]

25. Just as the others have said...

the people have been brainwashed that it's "socialism" and that's BAD. I have a friend here at work who gets totally hosed on benefits from our Fortune 500 company because she works less than 40 hours per week. She can't really afford to have them, so she is on her husband's plan. She has no choice, basically, but when I mention Canada (she's from there and her folks still live there) she complains about how long you have to wait for operations. Her dad had to wait 6 months for knee surgery! :sarcasm: I responded, yeah, but that's better than never getting it like here because you don't have insurance at all! She always has some example of how bad it is in Canada, but she never once thinks about the 45 million folks in the US who have no insurance at all! Makes me mad!

[barb162]

17. I suspect the insurers, drug companies and AMA got together

and decided to kill it off. They can make way more money when they are controlling the cash register.

[eridani]

26. Small insurers were against it

Health care activists were dissatisfied with it because it wasn't really universal and it left insurance companies in the mix--the largest ones only. It was essentially a bribe, as in "If we dump a whole buttload of public money into your coffers, would you pretty please insure more people?"

[4_Legs_Good]

13. Amen!

Gotta get that universal or single payer plan. This is getting rediculous!

david

[barb162]

16. disagree. Many of us are getting totally

fucked with these horseshit plans, but look at the people with no plans. It'll never, ever, ever, EVER get through a GOP controlled Congress.

[napi21]

20. I still think if enough citizens, in enough states demanded it,

the Ins. Co's would lose. The $$ is great for re-election, but it's the people who actually vote! There's only so many votes the ins owners & employees can cast, and as far as I know, the #1 thing on all those officials minds is re-election!!!

[newportdadde]

19. Our premiums went up 50% last year.

Still not as high as many by a long shot and we have a PPO. The only drawback is that we do not have a co-pay. So actually visiting the doctor is pretty damn expensive - 50+ but it covers prescriptions pretty good, 30/20/6.

We have sort of HSA type deal. We can voluntarily sit money aside to use to pay our prescription differences, doctor visits and other out of pocket. If you know your having a baby you can sit aside the amount you think you will pay for the birth out of pocket. The only bad thing is that if you dont use it all by the end of the year you loose all of it.

[Sgent]

27. FYI

That's not a HSA, its a Flexible Spending Account or Cafeteria Plan.

One advantage to it is you can use that money to buy things that aren't usually covered by your plan -- glasses, hearing aids, alternative medicine treatment, your doctor's visit, etc.

The use it or lose it thing is required by the IRS... since the money isn't just pretax but it is also exempt from social security and medicare taxes. Finally, if you set aside $1000 a year, that $1000 is available at the begining of the year after your first paycheck, even if only $50 was deducted.

Not saying it makes up for a full health plan (it doesn't), but it can be used fairly successfully to save some money if you have a good idea about what you might need via drugs or other issues.