>Hmmm, thanks for the info. I guess I work for a larger organization and AFAIK insurance is a flat rate to everybody. I guess I could be wrong though.

Most larger companies are working with group insurance (like my tiny company does). Group insurance is designed to spread the cost to all employees, and everybody pays the same amount.

health insurance for someone NOT on a group policy is a massively different story.

>
>>>Jay,
>>>Don't take this post the wrong way please. I'm just curious as to the circumstances of you not having health insurance. Is it because jobs in your field in your area are so scarce you have to settle for one? Quite frankly I take the hardline conservative stance that if a person doesn't have health insurance, it's their own problem. I'm looking for enlightenment as to why you don't have it because you seem like a smart responsible guy. Again, if I offended you with this question I apologize.
>>
>>I'll toss in my $.02 that after the bailout will be about $-500.00..
>>
>>I have kidney and neck problems. If I try to get anything other than a discount drug card w/o getting in a group policy, I'm looking at close to $1000/month for insurance for just me IF a company will let me have a policy. For a while, when nobody could tell just what was wrong with me, I could not get a policy from anyone.
>>
>>One of the reasons my wife and I formed our company was to be able to pick up group insurance. For whatever reason, even though we are as small a 'group' as you can get that will qualify for group insurance, that make it so insurance for both of us combined is about $650/month.
>>
>>Insurance is not a sure thing if you have existing conditions.
>>
>>>
>>>>Anyone have any personal experience with this condition? I have had 3 major episodes, and a handful of "minor" ones, in the past couple years. A few days ago was the worst one yet. I honestly thought I was going to die. So did the other people who came up to me and asked if they should call an ambulance. You know what kept me going? The thought during the whole thing that I had no health insurance. Ok, this isn't about not having health insurance, but rather about Pulmonary Edema, but I mention it because you were thinking to yourself that if it was that bad, I should have gone to the ER. Funny (strange) what we think about when we wonder if it might all be over. I've had 2 stents put in, and those were no fun, but this was a whole other thing. Very scary. I realize now that it is probably how I will die, and that is truly a bitch. Not being able to breath. Just wondered if anyone else was intimately familiar with this condition.