Health Insurance Insanity
Did you catch 60 Minutes this weekend? Good segment on how the uninsured truly get it socked to them when they go to the hospital. Not that that is new, but the difference in cost is staggering. I was just looking at a lab bill I got today which was $320. Had I no insurance, it would have been $320. But since I currently have insurance, the contracted rate with the insurance company is only $20. Yep, you heard right - $20! And since it is still early in the year, I'll have to pay that full $20, rather than the $4 I would normally pay later in the year after my deducitble is satisfied. $4 vs $320 for the uninsured. What a friggin' outrage. Senator Grassley is supposed to do something about this - maybe. Write him a note and tell him it should be a fair playing field for all. It's also quite easy for the legislature to forget what hellacious premiums folks must pay if they work for a small company that doesn't offer benefits. Most end up doing without any as they get older, simply because they can't afford it. And I thought Bush talked about how the small business was the backbone of the country? Well , if it is and that is where everyone is working, I feel sorry for them.

Another outrage? When you move to another state, you have to reapply for insurance and if you have some sort of illness of a serious nature, like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, etc, guess what? Yeh, you guessed it - no insurance for you. Sometimes you can get a conversion policy if your insurance company has such a thing, but it is very expensive with less benefits than you might have now with your current individual plan. Instead of a 5 million dollar lifetime benefit , you'll more likely get 1 million. Sounds like a lot, until you get cancer or something.

Of course the insurance company tells us it is all the hospitals and doctors faults and that we are leading poor lifestyles, blah, blah, blah. Yeh right - fess up , you and the docs/hospitals are all hosing us.