I, too, wasn’t sure that the OP was talking about health insurance until I got about halfway through it.
I’m 35 and in the U.S., with health, dental, and vision insurance through my employer (who pays for most of the premiums). They also provide basic life insurance at no cost to me, and I could choose to buy a couple other kinds of insurance through them if I were interested. I could push it and say that I think of my 401(k) as retirement insurance.
I pay for my renter’s and auto insurance, and my mother still has the life insurance policy on me that she’s had since I was a kid.
31, In the Air Force. Totally covered on the health/vision/dental, etc. There are no premiums for me, but I pay something like $25/month for the family to get the same coverage. Life, home, and vehicle are all insured. BTW, if health care is free in Canada, then why are the posters from Canada paying for extra insurance?
I’m insured through COBRA after I got fired from my last job. It costs, well, a lot, but I’m on three different anti-seizure medications. One of them alone is $600 without insurance so it balanced out. I paid $80 a month when I was still employed. With COBRA I pay quite a bit more, but I haven’t found a new job that offers insurance yet.
-Lil
I’m 22. I work and live in the US, Carson City, Nevada to be specific. I do not have a college education. I’m a mutt, but mostly white. I make $10 an hour. I cannot afford the insurance my workplace offers - a huge sum for really shitty coverage. I have their dental plan, but I have to wait a year until I can get any of the work I need done (it’s all major work like extractions - I have horrible teeth, even though I take care of them, so I need most of my molars and one of my incisors extracted, and a partial put in).
It’s actually kind of sad. I work a decent job, but I live in relative poverty, despite that. If my hometown had a better bus system, I’d ditch my car and take that, but alas, it does not. If I could get rid of my car that’d be $400 a month I could save. And then maybe I could afford to go to the doctor when I’m sick.
Because basic health insurance is essentially free (I say essentially free because in many provinces like Alberta there are provincial health insurance premiums, but you have no choice about them unless you want to totally opt out which almost nobody does).
There are things basic insurance doesn’t cover (note that I am speaking as an Albertan; there may be slight variations province to province) - ambulance rides, private or semiprivate hospital rooms, psychologists, prescriptions, etc. Those are what you can choose to get insurance for.
I get $5000. Well, my parents do, for my “final expenses”. Although I am a little worried because I hear the voice of someone like Alex Trebek mentioning that the cost of an average funeral is over $6K. Luckily I just want the pine box kind.
20, female, US. Currently uninsured, and, aside from travel insurance (ie, they’d pay to ship my body home after my untimely demise but not a hell of a lot more), have been since December 2005. (Note: I spent six months of 2006 living and working in England. National Insurance tax was deducted from every paycheck, but being there on a temporary visa, I wasn’t covered under NHS - so if I needed to go to a doctor, I was basically screwed. Me? Bitter? Naaaaah.)
Come February I will be on my parent’s policy again, as I’ll be a full-time student again.
I personally believe that the American system of health care is a tyrannical joke, and it disgusts me.
25, male. Uninsured. I’m an intern at this job now, and I’ll (hopefully) get hired in full-time in May, after tax season. So in August sometime, I might be insured again for the first time in a while. I was insured for about a week earlier this year, but I couldn’t capitalize on it. I was insured for about 9 months roughly 4 years ago. Before that I was uninsured.
I’ve got wisdom teeth worming their way in. That’s not fun. I certainly can’t afford to pay for it, so I’m trying to hold on until August. I’m happy that I don’t get sick or hurt. The sickest I ever get is a sniffle. The worst injury I’ve had, other than back spasms (which are relatively rare, thank god) is a twisted ankle when I was a yoot.
Yeah, not having universal health care is faaaaaan-fucking-tastic.
The only times I haven’t been insured are for three months after graduating college before I got a job (under my parent’s plan before that,) and then for the six months after I quit that job before I went back to school and got the students’ insurance I have now. Granted, students’ insurance isn’t the best, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
Female/41. Yes. 100% paid for by my employer. I pay $800 dollars per month to insure my (soon to be) ex husband and my two children. It is pricey but well worth my piece of mind to know that if anything were to happen, we are protected and able to see any physician and go to any hospital we want.
25 y.o. female. Insured (medical, dental, psychiatric, optical) through the State of California. Insurance is required by the University of California for all students in the system; it is provided through Blue Cross if the student doesn’t have anything pre-existing. When I graduate I can choose a gap policy as well. I also have the option of adding my husband (or other dependents if I had them).
Earlier last year I was uninsured. I was also in a car accident and paid for everything out of pocket, except for the hospital visit which charity covered. Being uninsured sucks and I don’t want to deal with it again under any circumstances. It is not at all unlikely though that I will have to at some point.
I’m 37 yo. Our family has had health, vision, and dental through my husband’s employer since 2003. Before that we were covered by my employer(s) since college, and in college I was covered by my parents insurance.
There was a brief period in 1996 where, after I quit my job, and before my new company’s insurance kicked in where I wasn’t covered by any employer. We bought short term emergency policies to cover the 90 day trial period.
Being from Spain, I’m covered for non-elective medical expenses by Spanish Social Security anywhere on the globe. I should have obtained a “European Social Security card” before coming here to Switzerland, but it just speeds up the paperwork, I’m covered without it.
Examples of elective expenses: Lasik unless you’re legally blind; cosmetic surgery.
Non-elective: Lasik for the legally blind; non-cosmetic transplants; reconstructive surgery.
In Spain I’d pay 100% for medication I take without a doctor’s receipt; 60% if I have a receipt (even if it’s OTC, if you have a receipt it’s “doctor’s orders”).
Glasses aren’t covered under SS. I can get my dental work through SS but prefer to go to private practice (more convenient hours).
I’m also currently covered under whatever coverage Swiss Social Security has. One of my mother’s cousins worked in Switzerland way back when, she gets retirement pay both from the Swiss and Spanish governments.
I’ve got life insurance from an old employer, homeowner’s insurance in my Spanish home, and the insurance for my car (also Spanish, it does cover me abroad).
27, Canadian, and like the other Canadians here I don’t think about medical insurance much. My employer provides the standard vision / dental insurance, (which reminds me that I’m overdue for both my eyeglass and dental exams… just gotta find the time!). I suppose there’s other medical stuff there too, but I’ve been lucky enough to remain unaware of exactly what.
My first though reading the title was for vehicular/house insurance. My car is fully insured, with a million liability (standard for AMA), and my mountain bikes ($3000 last year, and $1200 5 years ago) cost something like $50/year total for any damn thing at all, even (I recall being told) if they get backed over in the driveway.
I think if I kick off my brother gets 50 grand from some basic office plan, but since I’m unattached (take note ladies!) I don’t think about that either.
36, male, not domestically partnered/married, no kids.
Currently insured, though I was uninsured for the better part of my adult life. With the exception of a perm job between '93 and '96 (where I had insurance), I’ve worked a bunch of temp jobs or jobs that didn’t offer insurance. My current job is perm, but it’s technically PT, so no insurance for me there.
If it weren’t for my being a student, I’d have no insurance. Granted, it costs me over $2k per year, but since my diabetes medications would otherwise easily cost me north of $6K/yr (to say nothing of various lab tests and other diabetes-related care), I’m not complaining.
No car, so no car insurance. No house, so no homeowner’s insurance (though I do need to look into renter’s insurance). And, like I said, no spouse/dependents, so no life insurance.
Basic Health is covered through taxation (5% of gross earnings :eek:.) The unemployed, retired, etc… (including SAHP-s) pay ~$20 a month. This covers the paying adult and any dependents under the age of 18.
In addition, we (my family and I) all have additional coverage, which we pay for separately, because Basic Coverage is… well, basic. It doesn’t take much medical trouble to put you into heavy expenses if all you have is Basic Coverage. This includes additional payments for: [ul][li]Many medications that are not covered by Basic[]Almost any elective procedures[]Many non-elective (but expensive) operations (such as most transplants)[]Disability[]The list goes on…[/ul][/li]
We are not covered for Dental or Optics – or, if we are, I wouldn’t even check on it because I know exactly what the practitioners I’d be sent to by my insurance would be worth (hint: think of the number of times the Cubs have won the World Series…)
Of course, who has only Basic Coverage? Only those who can’t afford to pay extra for anything, of course. Social Justice in action… :rolleyes: :mad:
