"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
. ..
Ed Huntress wrote:

You're a lucky guy. My one ER trip was for kidney stones. I don't know
what you could do about that on your own -- especially since you're
doubled over and puking your guts out at the time.

I currently don't have insurance and next to a heart attack, stones are my
biggest worry. I've been that route 3 times, and I'd sure hate to see the
bills for those visits. Especially the lithotripsy for the last bout....
Did manage to pass one small one myself, without pain killers. I'd hate to
have to try that again!

I'll tell ya, Jon, I think it is absolutely nuts that working guys like you
and Larry and others here, for one reason or another, aren't covered by
insurance. The absurdity is that the country with the biggest economy in the
world doesn't have universal healthcare coverage.

There are a lot of reasons that people aren't covered. For four or five
years I couldn't get coverage at ANY price, until NJ changed its laws to
make insurance companies cover people with chronic conditions. Then, for
another three years, if I hadn't been covered by the company I worked for, I
would have paid three times the basic rate for coverage. At today's rates,
that would be around $38,000/year for a "full coverage" (pitoooeee!) PPO or
similar plan. The law then changed again so I get the same rates as everyone
else. I didn't dare go off and work for myself until that happened.

My heart attack came right out of the blue, with absolutely nothing to warn
me, and the cost was ungodly. There is no freaking reason in the world that,
in the US, guys like you are out on a limb, exposed to financial risks like
that. I don't care why; there are plenty of good reasons that individual
people aren't covered, as I've learned over the years.

Not having universal coverage is a social scourge and it puts a damper on a
lot of people's lives, not the least of which is that it discourages some
from pursuing their own businesses, which is exactly the opposite of what
would be desirable in a fast-changing global economy. We need the
entrepreneurship and new ideas.

McCain's plan is nonsense. Obama's is only a half measure, but something has
to be done, and it's a start. That's a major factor influencing me in this
election. And it's not because I need it for myself. I'm pretty well locked
in. I just don't like the negative effect that not having universal coverage
has on our entire society.

--
Ed Huntress