Saturday, December 20, 2008

A Story Problem....

There was a man, he had a job making pretty good money. He had a family - a very cute one - so he had health insurance through his job. He paid about $60.00 a month for this health insurance, which really wasn't a lot, especially since he had the money to pay it.

This man, along with some other co-workers, got laid-off! Not only did he get laid-off, but he didn't get any severance or anything! He did however get to keep his families health insurance through the end of the month.

Now, the important thing to remember here is the man now has NO INCOME, $0.00. Luckily he and his wife have very little debt and some savings. However, the man and his wife want to use the savings to pay the mortgage and utility bills and such, you know, because they probably don't want to lose their house or freeze to death.

The man's wife lovingly figured out what they need to do for health insurance. The 'nice' insurance company sent the family (literally, it was addressed to the entire family) a letter stating that they would LOVE to help the family out for $1,000.00 a month!

Now, for the story problem;

If a man has no income, how does he pay $1,000.00 a month for health insurance?

and....

Why is it that he only had to pay $60.00 a month when he could probably afford to even pay a little more?

*********************************************

Now, it is absolutely no secret that I have a major problem with the American health care system, no secret at all! Just put yourself in my shoes (if you know me well, this won't be hard), and think about how I am feeling about it now. Lot's of bad words are going through my head. Just thinking about it before made me frustrated, but now that it knocks on my front door.......

ARGH!
*%#^@!


When Christmas/Western Nut is over, I will be getting a job, but we all know that I am not going to get paid that well, but I will take a small pay for good insurance!

Aaron has a bunch of leads and contacts. We are praying that he will find a job soon. We have found that companies are not hiring right now, in the middle of the holiday season. Maybe after the new year we will have better luck. Keep us posted if you hear of anything.

6 comments:

Christa said...

I so know how you feel. Our insurance was terrible, it hardly covered anything, but it was $350 a month for just me and Chase... and we never used it. So we cancelled it, well now I'm pregnant, and Chase has kidney stones, and he still hasn't got his job promotion we had expected a month or two ago...ugh

I hope you find something with good insurance, or maybe we'll just get socialized health care and all be equals in the eyes of our care providers.

Tiffany said...

Is it Cobra? If so, don't pay it. You have 90 days before you have to "sign up" so don't waste your money in case you don't get sick and nothing happens. Weigh your options paying cash for an ear infection vs $1000. However, if something catastrophic happens in the 90 days and you incur major healthcare costs, you can then sign up and retro pay. We went through all of this exactly 2 years ago. (Almost to the day!) Call me/email me if you have any questions.

Tiffany said...

PS- "Cobra" is what the insurance company you had has to legally "offer" as "help."

UtahJenny said...

We did the same thing Tiffany just explained a few years ago while we were waiting for Bert's insurance to kick in - it's a tough situation. I hope a job is just around the corner. We are still waiting for announcements from Bert's co. - they have a huge project that HAS to be done by the end of the year and probably won't lay anyone off until after the project is completed. Pins and needles are not very comfortable to sit on!

Corinne said...

What a CRAPTASTIC time of year to be dealing with this. I have no advice because I hate health insurance as much as you do and deal with it as little as possible. We've been lucky that somehow we've always found something (mostly because we were in school for SO LONG we used the horrible student insurance and our kids were on the state insurance because we were so poor). Now they just keep increasing our rates every year. I should NOT complain to you. You are on my side - health insurance costs=LAME.

Amber said...

We pay around $800.00 a month for health insurance. I am greatful for it even if it is that much. Only because of Jaxon's issue this summer. We could be paying oh, around $40,000 right now. But on the other hand in the years past we barely even used it. Oh, and to top it off our out-of-pocket max is $6000 for family. We definately met that this past year. The insurance company I am sure loves us right now.Not really!