I guess I am just a burden to society in the realm of health care. Others will most likely, but maybe not, have to cover the costs of my health care through higher prices to cover our medical expenses if any major health incident occurs in my life or that of my wife as currently we have no insurance. So the government is mandating via Obama care that others cover the costs of our health care, should misfortune befall either of us, though we will be contributing a comparatively small fine. Either approach suggests higher prices to cover losses. But who covers the costs of all the new hires, tens of thousands of employees (if not more), on every level public and private, to facilitate the functions of Obama care? We all do through our taxes or fines.
Even if Obama care survives the Supreme Court my wife and I will not be able to purchase an insurance policy and the fines, even cumulative over many years, will not come close to covering any major medical procedure a misfortune would bring, though Obama care declares otherwise. Maybe they will have more fines and penalties for us if we cannot pay. Will it be a crime to become ill? Most likely they will simply deny us treatment, costs being the issue, the driving force behind their logic.
We nickel and dime our way through life, hoping for future prosperity with part time jobs and running two businesses, only one currently bringing a profit. For not purchasing government mandated insurance under Obama care we will each be personally fined at 2.5% of our household income or $695 each, which ever is greater. They claim by violating the mandate to buy insurance that we are not actually breaking the law, at least until they say otherwise. At a now $30+K a year that would mean we will be forced to pay maybe $1,390 a year in fines, though I am not sure anyone could tell us what we will really be paying yet. This is less than what health insurance would cost us for one month at current rates. With self pay rates an annual trip to the doctor with no tests at all costs one of us nearly $400 already, and less than half of that goes to the doctor and his operating expenses.
We were carrying significant debt, with monthly payments on interest alone running just above and below $500. I was told some four years ago we were eligible to declare bankruptcy but we tried to fight it out. But we couldn’t make any significant headway on the debt, as every time we chopped it down some large expense such as a furnace or car repair would hit us. We filed for chapter 7, though 13 would definitely have been an option.
This debt was not overwhelming under my past salary when I worked as an architectural designer. A good portion of our past debt was run up pursuing alternative healing methods for which I was out of the country for over a month which resulted in my employment being unexpectedly terminated. That was seven years ago. We don’t take food stamps or other assistance and though some believe I could and should file for disability I would not even if I believed I was disabled. Rather than take unemployment I started a business. (and have I mentioned I wrote two books, available on Amazon)
We don’t live an expensive lifestyle. We don’t drink or smoke. We get to a few movies a year, often at a discount cinema. I attend and sometimes participating in a few mountain bike race events a season. We have skipped some major family events because of travel costs. I occasionally play in poker tournaments because I break even over any extended period of time. We go to the local casino on our birthdays for a $25 club credit we use for dining and drop ten or twenty dollars in the slot machine. We often walk away with five to fifty dollars in winnings because we stop if we get ahead. The city values our home at nearly $61,000 after the housing crisis. The realtor said it was worth $45,000 and in this current market we could maybe get $10,000 for it. My parents helped us pay for a new roof about five years overdue.
(yes I must be detailed. If by some small chance this post received any significant traffic…)
Now, after bankruptcy, we are currently taking care of obligations that we had deferred for many years, but hope to start building wealth next year. We can do this because we are not buying health insurance. We are taking the risk because we see no other way to get a head; to pursue the American Dream.
It is not that we will not try our best to pay our medical expenses should tragedy befall us. Hospitals are willing to take any payments, even $20 month, without charging interest. At one point in the past I received charity medical assistance. Over two years ago, with a bill of over $2,000, I filed for charity assistance again, hoping for some reduction in costs. But, the criteria for charity assistance for ‘small business owners’ had changed and we were not eligible. This, when Obama care was being debated in Congress.
We feel obliged to cover our debts. We always tried the best we could. What would allow us to cover our healthcare to a far greater degree than Obama care is something I suggested long ago on this blog and more than once. Let us form a tax deductible H.S.A. (health savings account) without an associated insurance policy.
Yes, there are MSA’s, Medical Savings Accounts for the uninsured, where you lose any excess funds in the account at the end of the year. Because there is never enough from the liberal perspective. There is Badger Care here in Wisconsin but when I inquired years ago we were not eligible or couldn’t afford it and now our insurance agent for home and auto no longer deals in health insurance; a growing trend.
People like my wife and I will feel obliged to put aside money, even deferring other needs and obligations, to make sure we have some medical coverage. We recently started another savings account. But we certainly are not going to be starting an MSA and lose an average of $75 a year. We have IRA’s designed to meet a variety of situations and to serve a variety of goals. But no H.S.A.’s unless you buy insurance?
When our forefathers came to pursue the American Dream they had no financial safety net for healthcare outside of becoming prosperous or depending on the goodness of others. Healthcare facilities were made up of those interested in meeting the medical needs of their patients. Now a healthcare facility is made up not predominantly of doctors and nurses, but of bean counters (insurance company staff and the corresponding staff at medical facilities to handle all the filing not to mention staff to meet government imposed regulations) and possibly soon control freaks (the government and the IRS agents and others that will be employed to enforce Obama care). All this contributes to the cost of healthcare and shifts the focus away from care and towards profit margins. What kind of healthcare can one expect from such a system whether you describe it as private or public sector? Great! If you’re rich.
Am I wrong in saying that I would want to put my care into the hands of doctors and nurses, and charity organizations formed from the sincere desire of the well off to help those who are not, than into the hands of bean counters and control freaks?
The reality is even those such as Paul Ryan are not immune from special interest influence. Why are all solutions to healthcare, insurance based? Why cannot our government seriously cut our healthcare costs and give us tools to pay for it ourselves? Tort reform and allowing the sale of insurance across state lines are two reforms that everyone knows will lower healthcare costs almost immediately, yet Congress cannot get it passed. I am sure there are layers of needless regulations that add to costs that also could be repealed.
Mr. Ryan I know you are focused on the entitlement aspect of healthcare but there is no affordable insurance for many families like my own. The insurance system itself is part of the problem as far as healthcare costs are concerned. An immoral Congress that cannot act for the immediate benefit of the people, a government that piles on more and more regulation, cost, is the other side of the coin. And if health insurance were a good investment the rich wouldn’t do without it. Think of the tens of thousands a family puts into insurance each year and what that could do if invested.
But the government says we the uninsured are the problem. A problem the government will solve by making healthcare even more expensive, …so they can send the problem to government death panels.
Obama care tempts the public with the promise of removing financial risk. This is wrong in two aspects. First, nothing progresses without risk: society will stagnate. Second, it deprives the public of choice. Not only will they dictate what care you will or will not receive, the sky rocketing costs that anyone with half a brain and a conscience know will occur will drain away all disposable income one can currently invest in their future; in our case $500 a month.
I have several choices to cover any medical tragedy we may incur. I can buy life insurance that we could sell if I should become terminally ill and know approximately what my final expenses will be. It is far cheaper than health insurance. If I die suddenly it will cover funeral expenses.There are activity specific insurance policies that are very inexpensive that often come with membership in organization such as USA Cycling, where you are covered for any cycling related accidents. I can simply put money into a savings account. I could look to charities or family and friends. I can choose to do nothing and simply die naturally in the way mankind has passed on for thousands of years, leaving any assets for my family. Somehow in this tiny moment of time when medical science has advanced to a high degree the government suddenly wants to control the science and hand it out as it sees fit, declaring it a civil right. A civil right that only the government can bestow that trumps one’s religious liberties in the case of Catholic hospitals. Our forefathers believed our rights originated from God; the capital G.
Mitt Romney, if government sticks its nose into healthcare and requires everyone to buy a policy people like my wife and I will have no more choices and no more opportunity. Like that interest we paid on our debt for year upon year that kept us from paying off the balance, kept us in poverty, government mandated purchases (a tax but not a tax depending on the audience) will relieve us of all choice in determining our future as all our earnings will be spoken for via government mandate. But the risk will still exist as nothing will really have changed. The rich and well connected will be able to get the medical services they need and those without excess funds will be rationed to death. Many will decide to not even try to get ahead.
Risk and choice. Any parent understands that they cannot keep their children from risky behavior or from making poor choices. Any parent of merit understands they cannot control their child. The process is what makes one who they are. I know you understand this Mitt Romney. I heard that you gave away your inheritance and decided to make it on your own. Did you buy health insurance when money was tight? Why do you believe in mandating health insurance? Why do you think government can do what I parent would want to do but has the wisdom to realize that they can’t? Will this government hold the same compassion for the ill as a parent would for their child or simply deem them an unproductive member of society, an unviable mass? This delusion of the ability to control is the great arrogance of government that our forefathers tried to protect us from by giving us the freedom to take risks, to fail or succeed, to make our own unregulated choices.
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