Can your children qualify for the CHIPS program?  My daughter had it for her kids when they were going through hard times.  It paid for all their medical expenses, even eye glasses and dentists.  We have Blue Cross through the state of Mississippi and it costs a small fortune.  Only good thing about it is now that my husband is on Medicare, there is no deductible from Blue Cross.  He never has to pay anything when he goes to the doctor.

I am still trying to gather the documents that will be required to apply for Medicaid or CHIPS.

LWolfT:

  Well, I'll update. 

We'll still have coverage through our jobs next year (I assume we'll have jobs next year, LOL!)  but just got word that the HMO we use will be going out of business. That company is moving to Medicare-only coverage.

    So, here we go again ... this happened a couple of years ago when another insurer pulled out of the HMO market.  No idea right now what plans my employer will offer, or what I'll have to pay ... I will be looking closely at prescription coverage, since that is a really weak point with the current plan ....

 Let me guess...you're in Indiana?
 

AgnesNutter:

Let me guess...you're in Indiana?

You got it...  you too?

 We don't pay anything for our health care benefits.  Employer pays it all; dh is a MEA/NEA unionized contract worker. The first time in 30 years we haven't paid out $100s and $100s monthly for coverage.

 Wow, Rolo! Even when employers offer paid for insurance here, they only pay the employee's cost of it. The difference on a family plan is paid by the employee.

We have health insurance, and we applied and were accepted for charity plan at a hospital that pays co-pays, this is where we had our last two daughters.If your income is less than 200% of poverty level you can use it. Last year we paid about $3700 for insurance, and about $6700 in out-of-pocket costs- co-pays for everyone- I had kept thinking we had a $5,000 cap, I think it is $5,000 per person-

Anyway, we definitely used our insurance, our last little one was about a $40,000 baby- she was very closely monitered due to being small- at one point 3% of expected size, our being hit by a drunk driver when I was 5 months pregnant, getting gestational diabetes, and a history of two second trimester losses-  as well as my age, I was 42, and had had 8 pregnancies, with 6 surviving children. I was induced due to blood pressure going up a little, and fast deliveries, and sure enough the doctor didn't make it to the room, nor did the kids down the hall.   The hospital charity plan helped a lot, our bills were thousands more than we had to pay.

We have about 9 prescriptions a month, I had filed out some of those forms for prescription help, but we do have coverage- for some prescription, like dh's blood pressure meds, we pay $46 instead of $119.  I don't think I can sign that we don't have coverage, but we just have a lot of bills- have sent in over $250 in med bills to our medical savings account for the last few weeks- 6 prescriptions, just normal stuff, dd age 8 had strep, dd age 11 has had the hiccups for 32 days, so I took her to the doctor to rule out renal problems, and ds had an x-ray of his arm after getting hit hard in football.   

I don't know what the answer for medical is- I know not having insurance would be very worrisome, Brandy when I was a single mom I bought insurance through my car insurance man- American Family, I think, they advertised auto, home, health, and the health catastrophic insurance was very affordable.  For two of us 19 years ago it was $81 a month. I do think if you're working and healthy and able to pay, you should pay some of your income for these services, but for some such as Melanie it is too high a burden.  I've heard Hawaii has a great plan, I've heard mixed reviews about Canada, about how long things take.  But here things can take a long time.  And maybe we need a little rationing, I heard that the average wait for a visit to a cardiologist for chest pains is 12-14 days, and the average wait for Botox is two days.  This seems to be a poor utilization of resources.  I also say open up medical schools, admit those people wanting to get in and qualified, train them, take care of our aging population, make it a profession that people can work and have a life- I think that doctors who could work a 35 hour week would be happier and better- and make it a career that is easier to parent and work at, a job that can flex with the needs of the workers.

By the way, Jeff, we take good care of ourselves, are active, eat good vegetarian fare, get enough sleep, but there is always something!  Dh works FedEx at night, a very physical job, and still has high blood pressure.   Ds has allergies and shots, dd has asthma, we were in a car crash, dd #2 has diminished motion in her neck due to that- I'm sure it'll keep going on- I have low thyroid, nothing serious, but requiring a blood draw and prescription, and when I'm pregnant it requires a few checks. So, even with maintaining healthy habits, you still have stuff!  And I'm sure as we age there will be other concerns. I think everyone should have access to health care that is good and relatively speedy.

Tracy 

We have insurance thru an employer. The company pays part and we pay part. We have a $20.00 co pay on all office visits. I had surgery this past year and it covered all but $1000.00 of the $10,000+ bill. It has a prescription benefit too, antibiotics are $15.00 and  you can get them wherever, all other meds you have to order thru a mail order facility at a reduced cost. However, I found that I can get my meds for $25.00 per month at Target, etc, and it is cheaper and less hassle than the mail order place. We have only had employee provided health insurance for the past 10 years. Before that we purchased insurance thru the state for a couple years. Prior to that we had no insurance. Thankfully we never got really sick and when we needed a doctor he was willing to take payments.

latenightleader, I don't know how you guys do it!   Stuff costs more here but people only pay that kind of money for medical unless they have major  cutting edge therapies not covered by medical.  For all the stuff you listed, if I had no extended medical (pays for prescriptions, dental etc) and paid just basic medical, my costs would be maybe $1-2000 at the most. I don't know want your prescription costs are. I know the asthma inhaller is about $80.00 if we had to pay full price. My only prescription lately was a 3 mth supply of the pill and the 20% I had to pay was 8.81 because we have extended medical. Most good jobs have medical and extended medical benefits.  For your pregancy..no costs here.

No copays at the doctors. People complain because there is a $5 copay on massages etc now.  If you are low income, you paid less. My mom's income is less than $12,000 per year at the moment and she pays $10 per mth. She has to pay for shots for varicose veins but you can claim it on taxes. Even if you buy personal extended medical for yourself. It is not nearly as expensive as the reg. US insurance seems to be plus we don't have the hmo's problems.  My neighbour slipped and broke her hip, had the replacement surgency, was in the hospital for a week or so, a few weeks for long term care, plus a homecare worker coming each day. No costs except the ambulance ride. She has been recovering from a stroke for the last couple years.  Now if you need a hip replacement you are on a long waiting list unfortunately but is doesn't cost you thousands.  I think it depends on the system you are used too. Our system started in the 60's.

 My Family's Interest- it seems dumb to say, but quite a bit of our debt was for basic medical stuff-it seems like we should be able to afford taking care of a healthy family with medical insurance, but lots of the time, I'll put prescriptions on the credit card, and the $25 copay for the doctor-

Some prescription co-pays

Metroprolol- $36, Lisinop-$27, Concerta- $35, Amoxicillin-$8 for one for caps, $12 for one for liquid, Ventolin- $35, glasses co-pays were $401, my crown at the dentist, copay was $485, I went to the chiropractor once $110, etc, etc. This past month we've had nine doctor copays, for $225-

How's life in Canada, heh?

Tracy