Mon, May 26, 11:40 PM

182 Insurance Companies are Bleeding Us Dry

I posted the following in a thread on Reddit, but it bears repeating. My experience with health insurance is that a large chunk of the people use it as a way to mitigate against unexpected "oh shit" events in their daily lives. Seriously. I don't know a single person who has ever used their health insurance to get out of work or get cheap access to pills. One of my coworkers has a son who is autistic. He incurs more than your average kid's worth of medical bills, and while I don't know any details, I'm sure he's glad the insurance is there. One of my coworkers got pregnant and had a baby last year. Her health insurance came through to ensure that her maternity costs were covered, and that her baby has good medical care. Me, I got bit by a brown recluse spider two years in a row. Once in 2006, and a whopping 5 bites from presumably a single spider last year. My health insurance guaranteed that I could get in to see the doctor, get a prescription for methylprednisolone and some expensive antibiotics, which of the $120 price they covered $20. That's right, two years in a row I had to pay $100 out of pocket for antibiotics, even though I was paying $120 a month to the insurance company. In 2006, it was Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. In 2007, it was Cigna. I only went to the doctor once each year, for the same thing both times. Twice I paid $1536 in premiums to the insurance company, and twice they paid $20 on a $120 prescription, leaving me to cover the $100 balance. Can you imagine why some people are bitter? I gave the insurance companies $3000. They paid for $40 of my prescriptions, and then balked. This year, the company's health care plan premiums were going to go up to $180 a month for me, a single guy. I said to hell with that, and found my own policy with Humana for $150 a month. While that's hardly cheap, I consider myself lucky. Those who were on the family plan (self plus spouse plus children) saw their rates go from $560 a month to more than $1000 a month. I don't understand how anyone can afford to have a wife and kids these days. It's one of the primary reasons that I choose to stay single. Maybe there are people out there who are abusing their health plans, and if they're the reason the premiums are going up, I say fuck 'em. But the way rates are rising, nobody is going to be able to afford a family in five or ten years. Something's gotta give.