# $700 Health Insurance **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 21, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986 "2010-06-21T15:22:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/81 "2010-06-22T22:12:55Z")
Well it’s been interesting. Got a quote that saves me a couple of hundred dollars, but does not cover one of my pre-existing conditions. Now I am looking at cheapest prescription costs which are all over the place. Anyone know the difference between Tab (SAN) and Tablet (ABR). Can I split the former easily? ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/82 "2010-06-22T23:18:20Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > How am I a higher risk if my total cholesterol is 150? I’ll that is lower than yours. Ha, I hit 250 a few years ago, then learned a week of oatmeal for breakfast brings it down to 142. Tests like that are pretty easy to beat. And I’m not really someone you want to compare yourself to considering I’m in the middle of training for an Ironman, with a resting heart rate below 50. Maybe if you got out for 100 mile bike rides every Saturday, and ran 18-22miles every Sunday, you could have cheaper health insurance. Or just get a job with a group health plan, or marry someone that does. See, there are always options. In Canada you wouldn’t get a choice, one plan for all. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/83 "2010-06-22T23:36:19Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > Maybe if you got out for 100 mile bike rides every Saturday, and ran 18-22miles every Sunday, you could have cheaper health insurance. > > Or just get a job with a group health plan, or marry someone that does. See, there are always options. In Canada you wouldn’t get a choice, one plan for all. I can’t tell if you are funny or just an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/84 "2010-06-22T23:38:49Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > This bears repeating. I suspect that anyone who insists that our current system is not broken has ever had to deal with buying and using individual insurance policies (or, for that matter, administering group policies). It’s amazing how puny you feel when you realize your life and well being depends on the whims of a for-profit corporation. It’s nuts. If someone can’t get other insurance they have to stay with the same company no matter how high they raise their rates. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/85 "2010-06-22T23:43:31Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I can’t tell if you are funny or just an asshole. And cut your hair you hippy! Can’t I be a funny asshole? At this point, I have heard your story from so many people I am simply numb. But some how 85% of Americans think their health care is great. So while I am sympathetic to your plight, there isn’t much more I can do. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/86 "2010-06-22T23:45:09Z")
Hey – anyone ever have a doctor reject you simply because you don’t have insurance? Even when you inform then them you’re going to pay out of pocket, right up front? That’s always a good feeling. :mad: If we have the “best system in the world,” I’d hate to see what the worst looks like. ---
**Author:** ![Heropsychodreamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@Heropsychodreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heropsychodreamer)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/87 "2010-06-22T23:49:50Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Because no one who has a pre-existing condition should expect to be self-employed or \ an entrepreneur who wants to start his/her own business, right? Those options disappear with any sort of health issue. As a matter of fact…if you cannot budget all of your personal expenses as part of owning your own business, then maybe you shouldn’t be owning your own business. Would I love to get out from under my employer and open my own place doing the same thing? Fuck yeah. Sadly, I cannot afford the start up costs of doing so. Those start up costs partially being health insurance for my family of 4. Should taxpayers foot his bill because he wants to be self-employed? So, I have sympathy for him, but he has options. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/88 "2010-06-22T23:53:50Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > If someone can’t get other insurance they have to stay with the same company no matter how high they raise their rates. _raises hand_ That’s me! The premiums that we pay have gone up 62% in the 3 years we’ve had the policy. No other non-high-risk insurer will touch me. We do have a high-risk insurer in my state, but from the research I’ve done, they will make me jump through hoops to get the most basic of care. At least the policy I have has been great at paying for things, and has never refused me coverage. Yes, I pay for it, but man-oh-man I’m happy I have it. Now I’m banking on reform bringing me more choices before the policy gets to the point that it becomes too expensive to keep. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/89 "2010-06-22T23:56:34Z")
OK, so new news, apparently it is the sleep apnea that disqualifies me even though I have a CPAP machine that eliminates it. If I had never done the sleep study I’d be snoring like the dickens, but at least I could get health insurance despite the fact that I would have been higher risk. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/90 "2010-06-23T00:00:00Z")
> [@Heropsychodreamer](#): > > As a matter of fact…if you cannot budget all of your personal expenses as part of owning your own business, then maybe you shouldn’t be owning your own business. > > Would I love to get out from under my employer and open my own place doing the same thing? Fuck yeah. Sadly, I cannot afford the start up costs of doing so. Those start up costs partially being health insurance for my family of 4. > > Should taxpayers foot his bill because he wants to be self-employed? > > So, I have sympathy for him, but he has options. For the record, I did budget for all my personal expenses before starting the business. What I didn’t budge for was a 62% increase in premiums over 3 years and getting a chronic disease. I did ask the company about expected increases in premiums, and was told they were minor and affordable. If you’ve got any helpful hints as to how to predict the onset of a disease, please let us all know. Additionally, you do realize that health insurance costs are rising for businesses as well, and many small companies either do not offer health insurance coverage, or are seriously cutting back on the coverage they offer. What do you suggest when we get to the point that the only way to get coverage is to work for a huge business? If small-to-medium businesses can’t afford coverage, and individual policies are too costly… what do we do? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/91 "2010-06-23T00:00:12Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > Or just get a job with a group health plan, or marry someone that does. Better yet, I could just use the emergency room as my primary care, refuse to pay, and let you pay for it in higher premiums and higher hospital charges. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/92 "2010-06-23T00:05:30Z")
> [@Heropsychodreamer](#): > > Should taxpayers foot his bill because he wants to be self-employed? What’s this “foot the bill” crap? Just having individuals pay the same rate as group would be enough for the entrepreneur in the example, or me for that matter. Then we could move on to reforms that would eliminate the costs for everybody. The US has the highest rates in the world right now. That’s costing us all. Even if you don’t want to help anyone else, it’s in your own interest to reform this crappy system. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/93 "2010-06-23T00:07:13Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > Maybe if you got out for 100 mile bike rides every Saturday, and ran 18-22miles every Sunday, you could have cheaper health insurance. That’s right! I hear that this regimen prevents thyroid cancer too! And I knew a guy who lost his leg in a car accident, but after some serious workouts, it grew right back! > [@emacknight](#): > > Or just get a job with a group health plan, or marry someone that does. See, there are always options. In Canada you wouldn’t get a choice, one plan for all. Or charity Spaghetti dinners. You can always raise money that way. Or pay your doctor in chickens. You just have to think outside the box people! The poor socialist Canadians just don’t know how oppressive their lack of choice is. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/94 "2010-06-23T00:09:04Z")
The very idea that health insurance is tied to your job is simply preposterous. We all have car insurance, which we purchase ourselves and is generally affordable. I wonder if health insurance costs ever would have gone the way they have if consumers always paid for it themselves. Maybe that’s just too simple. Yet it seems very evident that there is no connection between what the end user pays out, what the plan administrator pays out, what the provider charges or what the carrier accepts. It makes my blood boil when an ‘average’ person gets all upset about making changes to the system when that ‘average’ person has not felt the pain, frustration and discrimination that can befall someone so quickly. There is nothing efficient about our health care system. There is no accountability with our health care system. There are no market controls over our health care system. It blows my mind that anyone would be happy with maintaining this joke. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/95 "2010-06-23T00:38:07Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > Maybe if you got out for 100 mile bike rides every Saturday, and ran 18-22miles every Sunday, you could have cheaper health insurance. Yeah, like my college friend who, in spite of doing all of the above and more, had a surprise stroke at age 23 because of a congenital vascular defect in his brain that required emergency brain surgery and a ton of rehab. Lucky for him, he was working for a humungo company and had great insurance, but it pretty much limited his career options forever, even though he eventually made a full recovery. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/96 "2010-06-23T01:46:30Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > Or just get a job with a group health plan, or marry someone that does. See, there are always options. In Canada you wouldn’t get a choice, one plan for all. Canadian here. I’ve had jobs with group health plans and married someone with a group health plan as well. I’ve also benefited from 3 of at least 10 different Canadian health care plans over my lifetime. You haven’t got a fucking clue. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/97 "2010-06-23T03:13:37Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > It blows my mind that anyone would be happy with maintaining this joke. Because the government is incompetent! There’s regulations, man, _regulations_! Think of all the forms! And the bureaucracy! They’ll cock it up for sure! It’s 100% guaranteed they’ll cock it up! Plus, it’s a wealth transfer, straight up. Why should I have to give my money to some loser?? I took risks! I went to law school! I work hard! The markets! The markets! The markets will save us all! (These are not my arguments. These are the arguments I get to hear in my office every day.) ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/98 "2010-06-23T03:20:54Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > Yeah, like my college friend who, in spite of doing all of the above and more, had a surprise stroke at age 23 because of a congenital vascular defect in his brain that required emergency brain surgery and a ton of rehab. Lucky for him, he was working for a humungo company and had great insurance, but it pretty much limited his career options forever, even though he eventually made a full recovery. Well. You certainly tore a big whole in his argument. I guess we should all sit around and become big lazy slobs because your friend had medical problems from a congenital vascular defect. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/99 "2010-06-23T03:24:53Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Well. You certainly tore a big whole in his argument. I guess we should all sit around and become big lazy slobs because your friend had medical problems from a congenital vascular defect. Have you ever considered having your responses logically flow from what you’re quoting? I mean you might want to try it. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986/100 "2010-06-23T03:31:38Z")
I believe you divide a number with 72 to determine how many years until it doubles. So 20% rate increases mean every 3.5 years health insurance costs will double. I believe they went up about 130% in the last 10 years. However individual policy costs seem to have gone up much faster than 130% over 10 years. So the system is still destined to collapse. People can’t be asked to pay quadruple what they are paying now for health insurance in 15 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/700-health-insurance/543986.md?page=6)