"Ed Huntress" wrote:

Well for that matter, if you are permanent reduction in force, how do you
pay for
continued health coverage under COBRA?

By robbing all your piggy banks. I was paying a COBRA plan at the rate of
$12,500/year (family of three), a year ago last summer. I felt like I'd
opened a vein. And I'd be paying the same right now if not for my wife's
plan.

It's murder for people who are unemployed or self-employed at a moderate
rate of income.

Yes it is but as badly as I need a home, car, and healthcare I pay for it myself and don't
ask you or others to do so. Even though I don't actually write the check for my health
care plan atm, it comes out of my compensation pool.

Health care costs real money. Some we can argue is wasted. I'll never try to tell you
our health care / litigation system is efficient. There are a lot of resources wasted.

When you get down to nothing the government steps in via Medicaid. For someone with
nothing, life as usual, someone that busted arse and is driven into the dirt that has to
hurt like hell.

So what is the balance? If government provides healthcare it will be at a level. It
likely won't be at a level that will pay for your heart transplant if you need it. It
will be average health care. Or will it be the two level system, peons and those with
resources?

I think some people that support national health care think they are going to get the gold
plated health care a CEO of a Fortune 100 or a Senator gets. No, I think it will be
closer to health care in a welfare state.


Oh, you save money against a rainy day. Cobra
wasn't an option for me when my employer of 20+ years folded so I fell on
the insurer of
last resort in my state that had to take me because I had a paper that
said group
insurance wasn't available under Cobra (former employer was in bankruptcy
and self
insured).

Currently we have a system consisting of Cobra and the fallback I paid
into for 8 months
while I was out of work. Failing to maintain continuous group coverage
scares the chit
out of me. That preexisting condition bravo sierra can kill you.

For three years I couldn't get insurance at ANY price because of it. And I
was only 31 years old at the time. Now, even without COBRA, I'd be in a
statewide pool. But the rate would be higher than $12,500 for a family of
three.

I know that sucks. That is where the idea of mandating coverage as in you got to buy it,
even if you don't want it at a young age comes in. I'm a free market type, if you haven't
noticed. Insurance companies want good risks or they want to price risk.

Most everyone needs a car to get to work. Convicted drunk drivers need insurance to be
able to drive a car. They can get it but the risk is priced in. By the standards of
current schemes that we all have to have insurance w/o any notice of risks that drunk
driver should get insurance at the same rates I have with a clean driving record.



When you are working, don't spend everything you earn. I don't care what
you make, I bet
I can find someone getting by on less because they have to. You may have
to provide for
yourself and family.

We may in the end. But I think we'll have universal coverage in this
country...about the time I kick the bucket. d8-)


I don't know how old you are but I have a feeling we will be on our way in some form in
the next 4 years. A mess created by government will now only be able to be solved by
government. Sounds like the financial crisis as I reflect on my previous sentence.

I'm planning to hang on until I get my money back from my SS payments. I just hope my
brain and body holds up for the next 15 years so I can retire. I hope you are not looking
the reaper in the face, I'd really miss you.


Wes