youre a towel

speaking of healthcare

mzchristine:

sarahchristine:

robot-heart:

thenightdances:

I get so pissed off when the goddamn government is worrying about health care. If you care enough and you are over the age of 18 and not a full time student, then go to work and get fucking health care. There are services to people whose company doesn’t do the whole health care bit. Why is this country so fucking lazy? I know that you should have to work for what you have. This universal health care is pure bullshit. We will have longer lines for health care, doctors will not make enough money, and higher taxes. I don’t know about you but I don’t wan to spend SO much money on taxes. I hate paying the government for welfare and things that the government should not fix. We are supposed to be free. But hell we aren’t.

You are fifteen, so I’m assuming you have never done any of the following:

1. Held a job that wasn’t in a mall or some local diner.
2. Held a job that you depended on to pay your bills.
3. Had to pay any of the following bills: rent/mortgage, phone, electric, gas (for your house), gas (for your car), car, car insurance, food, clothing, health insurance, doctors, prescriptions, or any of the above for a dependent child. And those are just the basics.
   
4. Bothered to look at the average annual premium for health insurance for a family of four (over $10K/yr.)
5. Bothered to look at the average annual income for American households (around $40K/yr.)
6. Bothered to think that private insurance plans are far more expensive than insurance plans provided by employers.
7. Bothered to think that many insurance policies have annual deductibles of up to several thousand dollars a year, which means unless you have some sort of catastrophic health problem, you will pay for everything: full doctor’s appointments, prescriptions, and any lab fees which can quickly run into the thousands. That’s why many Americans, even insured, end up with tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills.
8. Bothered to think that for people who already have injuries or illnesses, they can be refused coverage by insurers, or only be allowed into high-risk pools where they can pay annual premiums above $20K/yr and have deductibles that are almost as high.

Your post shows a lot of ignorance about how health care and health insurance work, and even more ignorance about what things in the real world cost. At this point, you probably live at home with your parents where everything is paid for. If you do get a job, you probably marvel not only at how long you can make your paycheck last, what with all the shopping and movies and restaurants and fun stuff you get to do with your friends, but also how much money the government takes out of that paycheck, which you could be putting to much better use to go shopping or to the movies or restaurants with friends. (If you’re wise, I’m hoping you’ve started a savings account.)

What you don’t realize is that when you’re a grown up, most of your money goes out the door as soon as you get a paycheck, and not to things that are optional (restaurants, entertainment and shopping all fall into that optional category.) I’m college-educated (master’s degree), single, with no children, and make above the national average for households, and I still marvel at the end of each month that I don’t have money for a lot of the fun extras that you, at fifteen years old, probably get to enjoy even if you’re working a job that pays a third what mine does. For the record, I am very responsible with my money. I have an excellent credit score. I have a financial planner who is helping me to be even more responsible with my money. I am one of the most put-together 23-year-olds I’ve met.

All the same, I still feel very lucky my parents are carrying me on their health insurance plan for another year, because while I can afford coverage through my job, my company’s best plan will still leave me woefully underinsured. Unless I’m in a major car accident or develop a major illness, it won’t benefit me. My parents have fantastic insurance (one of the greatest benefits about being a state or federal employee), though, and under their plan, I can actually go to doctors when I need to, get the preventative care I need, and also afford medication when I need it.

Maybe you should try a month in the real world. Use monopoly money or something. Going on an average salary ($40,000/yr, with taxes, and you’ll bring home optimistically $3,000/mo.), try looking up a place to live in your area. Find out how much would go to rent and utilities. Ask your parents what a reasonable car payment would be and figure that in, along with the cost of insurance (mine is about $60/mo. and I have a good driving record, so you can use that if you like — although when you turn 16, your insurance will cost much more) and gas. Then ask your parents about how much they spend on you for groceries, clothes, health insurance, doctors payments, etc. Add in your cell phone bill, cable/internet bill, and then anything you do for fun: movies, shopping, going out to eat, going to concerts, etc.

I’m not even asking you to think about emergency spending or any of the other additional spending you might choose to take on (dental insurance, visual insurance, disability insurance, home owner’s insurance are the things that come to mind immediately.) I’m not asking you to figure in savings, or student loan payments, or credit card payments, or the cost of having a child or of owning your own home where something is always breaking and in need of replacement.

See how much money you have left over, and then I might listen to your lecture about laziness and how people need to be better at managing their money. Because coming from a fifteen year old who has yet to either pay her own bills or manage her own money, beyond perhaps making some extra pocket money for fun stuff after school, it isn’t very convincing.

Wow. Amazingly put. And you’re younger than me? C’est la vie.

Thank you robot-heart, I myself work full-time at a non-profit who somewhat insures me. I pay $40 to go to the doctors as a co-pay, I have no dental, or vision and my dear two year old daughter is not covered by my job and they don’t pay me an extra $300 to put her in private coverage so therefore I have to use state insurance and pay $15 month for her.

So I wonder what this child who talks about lazy people is saying???? My daughter shouldn’t get proper care or vaccines??? I should get another job? I WOULD FUCKING LOVE THAT, except the market is bad and as much as I’ve been trying to get another job with full benefits and better salary, it’s not happening unless the person ranting about lazy people has a job for me.

At the end of this month, I will, for the first time in my life, be insured completely on my own- medical, dental, life, car.  I get kicked off my parents plan 29 days after my company benefits begin.  I was ready to take the HDHP (high deductible- $2000) because I’m a “young, healthy, single, adult”.  Then my mom whipped out my medical bills for the past 2 years.  I forgot that out of nowhere 2 years ago I got a kidney stone.  While it cost us $35 out of pocket for that day in the emergency room, the total cost was upwards of $4000.  If i were to get a kidney stone next month, I would be paying $2400 of that.  This post could get reblogged around the country and I’m sure anyone who pays their own insurance would be singing a similar tune.  I’ll defend your right to say what you want, 15 year old, but everyone above me has a rock solid point.  You really have no idea how the world works until you’re on your own.

I'm not careful what I wish for...

brooklet14:

…what would be the point of wishing if I had to be careful or thoughtful about it?….

this morning as i was putting on my makeup i brushed an eyelash off my cheek, and forgot to make a wish.  then i started thinking about the last time i made a wish on a superstitious occassion and i realized i did it alot in italy (lots of fountains, 11:11, first star i saw at night, etc.) and every time i wished for the same thing:  to be happy.  just happy. in general.

so as im thinking about all this earlier this morning, i come to the realization that maybe there is a time for wishing and a time for doing.  wishing is for when factors are not within one’s control.  External circumstances will dictate the outcome regardless of one’s own actions, so all you can do is put it out there to the universe that you want it.

on the other hand, when something is within one’s control, action should be taken.  wishing won’t get you a brand new car, you’ve got to put away money, shop around, build up credit, and go buy that car.  or get on the price is right.  either way.

now you might say, ‘ok, so take action to make yourself happy!’

working on that.  My fear is that I’ll take every step necessary to secure happiness, but I’ll still feel unhappy inside.  To sum up my life pattern, my mother always said “it’s never enough for you is it?!?! nothing’s ever good enough!!!”

and i’m painfully aware that she may be right.  So lately I’ve been putting it out to the universe.