health insurance or no health insurance??? - Page 2

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by Healthy Skeptic

We don't pay for insurance.

Our kids have state, but we don't even use it. I just keep it in case they sever and arm or something.

As for us, most hospitals will work with you when you are a cash patient. And most have grants for those who really need the help.

So many things we can take care of ourselves, so I try to keep up on the herbal and emergency stuff.

Not sure if this helps you.

Bolding mine.

Oh yes you do! Uh, taxes?

[babynatasha]

I never had insurance growing up and my parents still don't. The first time I had insurance was in College. Then I had no health insurance from about 23-27. At 27yrs I wanted to get pregnant so I took night college classes and got student health (around $900per yr). The next year my husband got a job that pays the health insurance, so we took them up on it.

Most doctors/hospitals actually are quite reasonable working stuff out. Visit to OBGYN about $250 at the place I go to in a major city (Very good place too). You go once a year and you save X amount. Insurance doesn't pay the things I want, accupuncture, naturapath stuff, so I pay that on top of insurance now.

People are often surprised by how much stuff costs if you pay cash.

Also some hospitals have like "scholorship" funds for people who have big things go wrong and no insurance. I'm not saying that it is for everyone and you certianly roll the dice with it, but it is possible to not have insurance.

[SageR]

We have MaineCare (Medicaid) and it's the best coverage I've ever had. It covers practically everything, we even see a naturopath for our pcp. I've never had a single issue over vaccinations. Our doctor has never even mentioned them to me, let alone harrassed me about it. And honestly, even if I did get grief I'd prefer that to the stress of not having insurance. You can be proactive about preventative healthcare but accidents happen. Both my babies were unplanned c sections - the bills were more than our house is worth! My dh has had several workplace accidents - relatively minor, but still, money we weren't prepared to spend. My dss has asthma, and his medications are twice my grocery budget. I could go on and on....

[claddaghmom]

We have catastrophic insurance. Anything coded as an emergency is 100% covered after a 2500 deductible for the year, including ambulance, hospital stay, prosthetics and what not.

If something was beyond natural self-care but not an emergency, I think we could cough up a $100 bucks to see our super great Naturopath.

I would not go w/o some version of coverage for accidents. A visit to the ER here is a flat $1500 not even taking into account any tests or treatments and a trip in an ambulance was $1200 last time I heard about someone going in one.

I would really like to see more discussion on the aspect of no-vax/system help. Sure, legally they can't refuse...but what is the reality? Are we talking about a lot of interference? Risk of anything?

[gini1313]

I maintain a part time job mainly for the health insurance, since dh is self employed. Some people told me I was crazy for insisting we not go without insurance, until I got cancer. It was hard working through treatment, but I am thankful everyday that I had insurance. Not only can you not afford treatment, but I truely believe you get better care if you are insured. I would love to stay home with my kids, but not at the expense of losing our insurance...

[gini1313]

Originally Posted by MrsMike

A hospital trip, 2 CT scans and 2 MRIs later we are $12,000 in debt. The hospital offered to help us try for "retroactive" Medicaid, something we fought for until this past month (went to court for it) and we lost. In the meantime, the hospital, knowing we were trying hard to get that medicaid coverage, turned it over to collections and now we have people calling 49858452390574532905 times a day. So, no, don't skimp on the health insurance.

Have you applied for charity care with the hospital? My friend, whose income wasn't too low, has been approved twice for that and had just about everything written off and the rest put on a payment plan.

[JoyfamMama]

We had ins. the whole time I was young. We had a few things that I'm sure it really helped with (I was really too young to remember it all). After my dad started his own business, the premiums were going to be over $1200/MONTH for our family (2 adults and 5 children). (At the meeting my parents went to, the company rep told them that they were paying for everyone else's drug rehab, lung cancer, and other crazy stuff They decided at $15,000 year, that would pay for a LOT of medical bills, so they dropped it. For some reason, we got to keep our eye ins, though - it was a dif. plan altogether.

We went to the Chiro regularly (which would not have been covered by ins at all, anyway), and researched how to stay well. Did we do without sometimes? Yes...I have acute chronic athsma - I couldn't afford Advair, Xopenex or Z-Pac for my lung infections, so I used Albuterol only and dealt with the shaking, and generic abx.

We weren't accident free, either. My brother had severe pneumonia once, and dad made a little too much to qualify for Charity care, but the hospital settled with us. Dad ground his thumb to the bone with a sander, and paid $450 to see the specialist for 10 min. - only to learn not to use peroxide, but rather baby shampoo.

I was in a bad car accident in July 2007 - totaled my car and severely damaged my neck/spine. My car insurance paid for every dime - including MRI's (Total of $8,000). In July 2008, I got SEVERE food poisoning (from Panera - still can't eat there ) EVERY PENNY (almost $6,000) was taken care of because I was old enough to be responsible for my own bills, and didn't have the income at that time.

All of the above cost us less than $10,000 in the 10 years that we didn't have ins.

Fast forward to now - my husband has group ins. Since we were married (Nov. 2008), I've been in the ER twice, and had an ectopic preg. scare - 2 vaginal sonos and hcg blood work twice.

Our bills have totaled well over $2,000 so far, and we haven't gotten bills from the ER trip for pre-term labor last weekend. My husband doesn't make very much, but we HAVE ins.

Long post - I know...but all that to say this - Insurance has good points and bad points. You have to weigh the benefits and risks for YOUR family. I know many, many families who do not have ins, and they take care of themselves as much as possible. Then when something does happen, all of them find a way to deal with it.

I hope you will know what to do...these decisions are not easy.

[1growingsprout]

Everyone keeps mentioning 'charity' and 'scholarship' programs and the like from dr's offices and hospitals... where do you think that $$ comes from?? That money comes from donations if they are a private institution or taxes if they are a public institution. You and I also pay in the form of higher fees and costs for services. Don't be fooled, the hospital isnt 'giving' you a charity case, they are getting those funds from somewhere else.
I feel very strongly on this, if you go with out insurance then be prepared to pay, do not expect someone else to pick up the cost of your care.

[JoyfamMama]

Originally Posted by 1growingsprout

Everyone keeps mentioning 'charity' and 'scholarship' programs and the like from dr's offices and hospitals... where do you think that $$ comes from?? That money comes from donations if they are a private institution or taxes if they are a public institution. You and I also pay in the form of higher fees and costs for services. Don't be fooled, the hospital isnt 'giving' you a charity case, they are getting those funds from somewhere else.
I feel very strongly on this, if you go with out insurance then be prepared to pay, do not expect someone else to pick up the cost of your care.

LOL! You will still pay that whether you have private ins or not! I agree that you take a risk and should be prepared to pay - your debts are your responsibility. But when it comes to feeding your family or paying your premium - as it does many times - what would you choose??

[1growingsprout]

Early on we made that choice, DH worked 2 jobs, I worked full time, we didnt have this many kids until we were financially secure and pretty confident we could afford it. I realize every day how fortunate we are. I just get irked sometimes when people thing assistance and scholarship cases mean they arent paying, when in reality it means everyone is paying.

Bowing out now before my BP starts rising LOL

[angie7]

I would do anything to keep it. Accidents happen all the time.