Just to add another data point, from where I sit Tamar's health coverage is amazingly expensive and yours is amazingly cheap. I have been experiencing the increase in health insurance deductions most other people have. In my last three jobs it has been in the range of $300-450/month for a family of four, with "reasonable" deductibles and copays.

He was crucified for it at the time but IMO Bill Clinton was absolutely right: we need to stop ignoring this mess and fix it. I'm not sure the federal government is the ideal administrator but I think a single payer system is the way to go. We spend WAY more on health care than any other country, and you can't tell me it's because our doctors are that much better than everyone else's. (Increasingly, it seems like our doctors *are* everyone else's, LOL).

If we attempt genuine health care reform it will be resisted furiously by the medical, drug, and insurance lobbies, just as it was in 1993. It's going to take someone strong enough to stand up to them.


>WOW. I pay alittle more now than I did at my last job but still it is low. 37.00 every 2 weeks with a maximum out of pocket expense of 2,500.00/yr. At my last job I paid less and had no maximum out of pocket expense (they covered 100% from the get go) With my daughter on it with me it is 52.00 every 2 weeks and for a family (unlimited # of kids) around 78.00 every 2 weeks which is still 2,000/yr. Why is yours so high?
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>Drugs are tiered: 10,20,30
>Dr appts: 20.00 a visit
>Specialists: 25.00 a visit
>Co-pay for emerg room is 50.00 unless you are admitted, then it is waived
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>I never heard of insurance so high!
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>>>>Then there's the issue of waste. For profit companies must answer for their spending, whereas the federal government simply spends at will.
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>>>I pay $36 per month for public health insurance. Note this is not mandatory, but so cheap that almost everyone pays it. My income tax rate is 31% (Federal 22% + 9%). Could you post your month costs (insurance plus out of pocket) for health care plus your income tax rate? If what you are saying is true, then you should be spending less than me.
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>>Wow! That's cheap. Our annual health insurance bill is close to $30,000. That's for the two of us and one kid. It didn't go down when our oldest aged out and had to get his own. (And I'll admit up front that we have really good coverage--%5 co-pays for doctor's visits and generic drugs, $20 for brand-name drugs).
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>>Tamar