What abt Mt Best fridge?

[Balanced View]

You already have a pretty good answer ... high deductible health insurance.
One important concept is to have SOME sort of coverage, preferably with an
established provider that has lots of provider contracts in your area. Those
provider contracts are pure gold. The idea is to avoid paying the "street
price" for anything. For example: When I get a blood test, the lab bills about
$500.00 for an ordinary blood test. My insurance company pays about $25.00 for
that same test. So even if I have not met my deductible, I pay $25.00, not
$500.00!

The system sucks, but it IS the system. Work with it.

Vaughn

Geez, $500 for blood work? I'm glad I'm in Canada, its covered under my
provincial hospital plan, as are all doctors visits.
I don't know why you guys put up with the system you have.

Mike

 

[[email protected]]

You already have a pretty good answer ... high deductible health insurance.

But...... I was denied such coverage on a permanent
basis! They cherry pick the people they want!

Permanent personal health insurance has a contractual
obligation on the companies [art to NOT drop you if you
get sick. Very important point there. Say I get
cancer.... they can NOT drop me. Now they may be able
to raise my rates sky high.... not sure

But with TEMP policy such as I have now.... its like
buying car liability insurance. I buy six month blocks
of health insurance..... and they will cover me for
THAT 6 month block.... but if I get sick while on that
block they will NOT accept me for another 6 month block
after that

 

[[email protected]]

I have a couple of chronic conditions including diabetes so my drug costs are
non-trivial. Currently I'm paying out of pocket

make sure you check Costco on these meds!!

Locally the cheapest I could find generic Zocor
(simvastatin) for was abt $130 a month

With a Costco membership its $20 a month

 

[[email protected]]

If you have chronic conditions then you may have to state-shop to pick out a state
that has the best low/un-employed medical benefits

hmm.... good idea

I'm not averse to moving out of Missouri

 

[[email protected]]

Geez, $500 for blood work? I'm glad I'm in Canada, its covered under my
provincial hospital plan, as are all doctors visits.
I don't know why you guys put up with the system you have.

we don't have a choice I guess

they say we live in a free market society in the US
(can buy what I want where I want).... but in reality
its only free market for "some" things..... mostly
manufactured goods

But try buying drugs from another country..... or
health insurance form another country... or even form a
state outside the one you live in!

 

[[email protected]]

Agent is worth its weight in gold for its Bayesian spam filter.

ok will look into upgrading then

 

[[email protected]]

Kewl. Thanks. I have a thumb drive but I'm still figuring what to do with it.

Its been pretty handy for me!

Don't have ANY PC at the moment.... may buy a laptop at
some point soon tho

But for now I can just plug my thumbdrive into any PC
at school that has USB port and use their Internet
connection....Agent, portable Firefox, etc

Get a big thumb drive tho.... they are cheap now

Mine is only half a gig

 

[Balanced View]

At least in TN, catastrophic hospitalization plans such as go with Medical Savings
Accounts are allowed to be underwritten just like individual plans. That means that
when underwriters hear terms like "diabetes" they choke themselves laughing as they
say "hell no".

I got far enough along to get price quotes from BCBS before they started laughing.
Premiums are only slightly less than for a $1000 dollar deductible, $25/35/50 scrip
copay PPO plan. Such a plan would make no sense to someone with chronic problems
since the MSA has no prescription coverage.

MSAs were a grand idea that got corrupted in the process of being implemented by the
usual suspects. For anyone who NEEDs insurance, they're worthless.

The drug discount cards are OK if you don't have any inside connections. For a small
fee a month, these cards let you pay negotiated prices for drugs - typically what the
insurance company would pay. Maybe half the "retail" price that predatory outfits
like the chain drug stores charge - perhaps 20% off what independent community-based
pharmacies charge to uninsured customers.

I have a better deal than that but my setup isn't a general solution. The discount
card is probably the best way to go for drugs until one can get on one of the state
plans.

I've been dealing with small group medical plan administration for well over 30 years
so I have a pretty comprehensive understanding of what is out there. I keep thinking
that there's some magic bullet that will give me relief from the predatory practices
insurance and drug companies use against individuals and small groups but so far I've
not found one.

John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
Multitasking: Reading in the bathroom!

Hi John,

My daughter is a type 1 diabetic, we have a program here outside the
general provincial insurance for drug coverage,
but still run by the province. The deductible is based on your income
level, if you drop below a certain income range
it's free coverage, above it the deductible climbs.

Mike

 

[[email protected]]

This is a very slick, well greased operation and as long as you buy drugs in
factory-sealed bottles you run little risk of counterfeits.

Not having the Mexican border handy is one thing that I'm missing now that I've
become a mountain man

Hmm....I'm too far away form the border...... two hrs
north of St Louis

 

[Trygve Lillefosse]

Geez, $500 for blood work? I'm glad I'm in Canada, its covered under my
provincial hospital plan, as are all doctors visits.
I don't know why you guys put up with the system you have.

Remember, it's the land of the free.

You are free to be treated like shit if you do not fit into the
american dream..

Myself, I will pay a maximum of about USD 250 a year for medical aid.
Weather I have to go to hospital, the doctor or pharmacy. It even get
the taxi to and from the hospital/doctor covered if I cannot ride with
public transport due to my medical condition.

Even heard that the Norwegian health care is mentioned in a new moore*
movie.

But then again, I live in a socialist wellfearstate.

PS: Please dont tell anyone that we are mutch ritcher per capita than
the US.


*That somewhat fat guy who likes to blame everybody but himself.

 

[[email protected]]

I just do without insurance. The money I've saved more than pays for all
my meds, even my wife's mammography etc.... And I =do= have health
issues......
Health insurance companies are businesses designed to get more from you
than they have to give back. It's called capitalism. I choose to take my
chances; call me a nut, but it works for me. I refuse to give in to
Hillary's climate of fear.

Yo have NONE?! Zip?!

You do realize that one bad fall of a ladder could cost
tens of thousands of dollars in med bills right?

Do you have enough personal assets to pay out of
pocket?

Serious question...

 

[[email protected]]

I think that if I was a woman, and single, I'd set my sights on John.
The man and I share a brain.
I lived in a trailer, and tacked another onto it when the kids came. I
have never bought a new car. I own my home outright; and it is not a POS....
I remodeled it, and I am selling it for 10X what I've got in it. I am paying
cash for my new home next week. No mortgage, no car payments, no credit card
debt. My kids are home-schooled, all 4 of them. The average "broken"
appliance either needs a minor adjustment or a small part. I have fixed my
dryer twice, w/a $5 part each time; microwave was a cable unplugged.....
I only garden for the big heavy stuff, tomatoes, apples, peaches,
peppers, squash, cukes, stuff that'll fill ya up. I can like nobody's
business! Mason jars are the greatest thing since sliced bread. You can do
so much for yourself that does not involve living in Hooterville.... I have
a graph of my Kw/h use over the last 4 years; my recent conservation efforts
saved me about $65/month. You have to earn $100 to spend 65, so it's like I
got a $100 tax-free raise.
I am armed to the teeth; may God have mercy on the soul of anyone who
ever enters my property with malice.
To hell with what anybody else thinks of you. No law says you have to
swim in debt; it's all just advertising that makes you think you must....

I'm envious.....!!

I want to get where you are at..... but its gonna take
some doing

I don't own ANY land so would have to buy that....then
build a cabin..... acquire gear..etc

 

[Trygve Lillefosse]

I am armed to the teeth; may God have mercy on the soul of anyone who
ever enters my property with malice.

How can you be sure to hit a crook, and not a poor person who have
wandered astray at his/her camping trip?

 

[Trygve Lillefosse]

that rocks!!
hope it works out for you!

Me too.

I am am already halfway there. But it depends a bit on the property
prices. Hope they do not go down to mutch with all this economic
turmoil happening nowadays.

 

[Balanced View]

How can you be sure to hit a crook, and not a poor person who have
wandered astray at his/her camping trip?

It wouldn't matter, in some states all you have to do is claim you "felt
threatened" and fire away ;~)
A couple of years ago a lost tourist in Florida knocked on a door to ask
for directions and they
shot him through the door. Sick.

 

[[email protected]]

My nearest Costco is over 100 miles away in another state.....
WalMart is only 25 miles.

Understood

But the price diff between Costco and others is so
great it pays for the drive very easily

 

[[email protected]]

Life is not a bowl of cherries. You live, and you die. Everybody does.
We Boomers think the gubmint should provide cradle to grave everything and
'taint necessarily so....

what does this have anything to do with the government?

 

[Balanced View]

Beacuse we don't have confiscatory taxation like the socialist countries
that provide so-called "free" health care. But if Hillary gets elected.....
Mind if I ask a personal question?: What percentage of your income did
you pay your Federal government in income taxes last year?
Jim

Our taxes are not a lot different then yours, our top Federal tax rate
is 29%, I believe yours is 35%.
My tax bracket is 15.5% ( $37,179 or under), but after deductions I paid
less than $2000.00.

 

[[email protected]]

Not if you live where I do. You have no idea.....

well then explain

 

[[email protected]]

I REFUSE TO BE TERRORIZED BY HEALTH INSURANCE LOBBYISTS!!!!!!!

ok we agree on that

but le me ask you one question : How old are you?