Health Insurance

Posts Tagged ‘thousands of dollars’

I’m 26 years old, unemployed, and haven’t been insured in about 8 years. I need health insurance now, and have no idea where to go. I filled out some forms online which was a huge mistake, now I have insurance salespeople from across the country calling my cell phone. Please help me, I just need affordable, personal health insurance.

I’ve spoken with a couple of the salespeople and I feel like I’m buying a used car!!! I don’t want a salesman, I don’t need name brand drugs instead of generic (I don’t plan on needing either one really), I just want to be able to go to the hospital if I need to without getting stuck with a bill for thousands of dollars.

I am currently covered by a state-enhanced version of Medicare; my family is extremely low-income and this health coverage is far superior to that offered by the private graduate school I will be attending this fall. However, the school is not accepting my waiver form saying that government insurance does not meet the school’s waiver qualifications (only employer insurance programs do). Can they do this to me and make me pay thousands of dollars I don’t have for redundant school health insurance I don’t need? Anyone knowledgeable enough to know whether this is something I can fight legally? The school and my insurance are in NJ.

1. Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.
2. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.
3. Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
4. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
5. Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
6. Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
7. Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Government = Reduced costs? Uh.. that’s never happened