"Due to the high cost of medical services in the United States, it is mandatory that you have..."

[uppityperson]

"Due to the high cost of medical services in the United States, it is mandatory that you have medical insurance coverage while attending Peninsula College. If you do not have medical insurance from your own country, it will be available for you to purchase upon your arrival at the college."

This is on our local community college website. I love the wording and hate that this is how things are. Edited to add that I know colleges want you to have insurance and offer it to you at a decent cost which is great. The wording struck me though, very straightforward.

[BlooInBloo]

1. I.e.: "Due to the fact that America has the worst health care system in the developed world...."

That's some top-shelf snark you found there - thanks!

[DeepBlueC]

2. If you hate this you are going to hate health care reform

[uppityperson]

3. If I hate how the "health care" system is run now, I'll hate health care reform?

I will hate that I don't get what I want, it won't be like I want it to be, but why would I hate reforming it?

[DeepBlueC]

5. your community college requires you to purchase insurance

so will the health care bill. If we are lucky a public option will be one of the choices we get to purchase, possibly with a subsidy, although it may be that the subsidy comes in the form of tax credits, meaning that you will have to pay up front and get some kind of reimbursement through the tax system.

[uppityperson]

6. $60/month is what they require for full coverage. I am fine with subsidized

mandated insurance.

For the community college, they require it so students will be able to do what they are there to do (learn) without going bankrupt if they get sick. At $60/month, they get decent coverage.

What I would really like is reforming the system, not only of who makes money (insurance companies) but health corporations that control so many clinics and hospitals, etc. I would like it more like schools, or police, or fire dept in that health care providers are paid a decent wage, and are then able to actually provide health care rather than be forced to shove people through as quickly as possible while ordering enough CYA test to clear them of liability.

[DeepBlueC]

7. Cops providing health care?

resuscitation by taser? Or a smack upside the head?

[uppityperson]

11. posts like yours make me dispare of people being able to communicate

perhaps it is just reading comprehension, but still.

[DeepBlueC]

13. posts like yours

make me despair of people learning to spell, or at least to use Spell-Check, which DU provides.

[uppityperson]

15. I'd rather skip spell check than reading comprehension or critical thinking skills.

Thank you for your concern though

[DeepBlueC]

17. is there some reason you need to choose?

[uppityperson]

18. Thank you for continuing to kick, even if you are just snarking

[DeepBlueC]

19. you are very welcome

[exboyfil]

10. When I was laid off in 1992

I went back to grad school and took the school insurance instead of carrying COBRA (or whatever name it had at the time). I can't remember the details, but it was far cheaper and helped to support my grad school venture.

I often wondered if it would be a safety valve again in the event that I am laid off. At 46 and two kids I checked on what it would cost cost now. It turns out to be $10K/yr from one of our public Universities so COBRA would be the way to go (unless wife was also a student and we enrolled in SCHIP for the kids - $2800 for our premiums and $500 for kid's premiums so a total of $3300). Consider annual tuition for two would be about $14K for a total cost including 12 hours enrollment of $17,300 vs. the $12,000 I would have to pay for COBRA. The Student/Spouse/SCHIP for children would be $14,200 (12 hours for one student plus insurance) vs. the $12,000 I would have to pay for COBRA. I don't know if I could leave my current employer with myself and spousal coverage for a reduced premium and also apply for SCHIP for the children? Interesting question.



At $66,000 income limit, I am not sure why anyone in school would not sign up for SCHIP. If I was near the edge of $66,000 without employer provided health insurance, I sure would try hard to stay under the $66,000 cap. I am not entirely sure SCHIP is constructed in the best fashion.

From the student insurance we can see that children's coverage has a market rate of $3300/yr versus SCHIPs rate of $500/yr for SCHIP.

[uppityperson]

12. I had prenatal and delivery/etc care on school insurance. It was good except it was through those

bastards blue cross/blue shield. Somehow they would not get the things I submitted unless I mailed them certified receipt requested. Then they would and would pay them. Otherwise they had NO idea what my problem was since they had NEVER heard of not getting bills from ANYONE else.

Hmmm, I need to check and see how many credits a student would need to buy into their health insurance. Good thought there. Thank you.

[exboyfil]

14. The year I had the school insurance

we never used it. Young and healthy and scared to have kids at that time. I do wish we had our children three to five years earlier though especially when my dad passed away two years ago. It would have been nice for him to have seen them grow up more, and I would have more energy for them.

Sounds like everyone has problems with insurance companies (vultures).

[DireStrike]

16. I don't really see what business a college has with its students' healthcare.

[uppityperson]

21. I think they figure if they have spent the time and effort and money to get them

there and learning, that they don't want students to have to drop out if they incur large medical bills and have to drop out to work to pay them.

I don't think that tuition covers all the bills for the college and they have invested in the students financially as well as trying to keep them able to continue their education.

[Hannah Bell]

20. i'd be fine with any university-mandated coverage i've ever had.

decent coverage, & $720/year = < cost of cigarettes. most people could swing it.

[DeepBlueC]

22. you might want to have a look at this

How happy would you be with this model for subsidized mandated insurance?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6593942&mesg_id=6593942

[uppityperson]

23. I haven't studied MA thing enough but we have something similar here in WA

It is sliding scale, and has covered most everything. Copays were $15 (upping to $25), deductible was $500 (doubling), family of 3 (all under 55) with income of $2800/month had monthly fee of under $300 (doubling).

Of course, due to the economy the state is now doing the doubling thing, but it worked for at least 15 yrs I'm aware of.

Of course it won't be easy and I wish that it would not be giving insurance companies more profit and power. It will take a whole lot of work and politicians actually doing work rather than politicalizing it all.

[DeepBlueC]

25. the devil is in the details

and the MA plan doesn't meet the standard of what I call affordable. Read the OP

[uppityperson]

26. "Read the OP"? I wrote the OP. I agree that the MA plan isn't affordable.

$60/month for college students is. I REALLY wish politicians would be more interested in getting things done than in politicking.

[DeepBlueC]

27. OP refers to the link I posted

$60 a month for college students is an excellent deal but it is never going to become a national standard. College students get low rates because they are young and healthy enough to go to college. The premiums are based on actuarial tables. It is very unlikely that the college itself is insuring you. Compelling you to carry insurance is in fact a way of keeping the school at a safe distance from any perceived responsibility for the expenses of an uninsured student who incurs massive medical expenses. That circumstance would result in huge negative p.r. and that in turn affects donations.

The MA plan far from what we would think of as affordable, loaded with co-pays and deductibles that are designed to exclude most routine medical care and common prescriptions. Even scarier is the fact that it is becoming insolvent.

The model of police and fire departments (and in many though not all cases schools) is difficult to translate to health care delivery because all of them are under local jurisdiction, mainly municipal, and supported by property taxes for the most part. They serve only the jurisdictions that pay them.

[uppityperson]

28. Thank you for clarifying and I agree. The WA plan was great, will be interesting to see

if it can support itself better with increasing the rates. The money should not go to insurance company profits, but to provide health care. As far as fire/police/sometimes schools, they are public servants, paid for by taxes (for the most part). We ordinary people may not be specifically public servants, but can be paid for by taxes, if (and only if) they can figure out how to use the money they get better (for starters doing a major financial overhaul of all gvt spending). Use it wiser, not faster.

I know it is a "if I were queen of the universe" wishful scenario.

[TexasObserver]

4. Next, they'll mandate that ambulances must go to Insurance offices for uninsureds.

First, get the person signed up for insurance.

THEN to the ER.


Priorities.

[RC]

9. Then being denied for having a pre-existing condition.

Then being sent the bill of the ambulance ride.

[DeepBlueC]

29. they can do better than that ...

When you call 911 you will be taken through an automated menu in which you are instructed to enter your policy number or your bank account authorization code. If you can't do the first and the second doesn't show a large enough minimum balance or line of credit, you are automatically disconnected. So that saves money on emergency operators and on on the ambulance too!

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. Lots of Universities force the med insurance...it's in the fees you pay.

[merh]

24. Hell, it may be worth it to get a grant to attend college and be able

to get affordable health insurance.