Insurance Is a Scam

If you aren't a full time employee for a larger more lucrative company you probably understand the struggle to obtain and afford health insurance.

I had 3 options this year.  Two of which would have cost me $1000 / month in insurance premiums just to cover me.  That is only a few dollars less than my house payment!  I honestly can't imagine actually paying that every month even if I never saw a doctor.

If I were dirt poor I could get free healthcare.  If I was upper middle class or rich I would pony up $1000 a month and not think twice.  I mean insurance is important.  I am a responsible adult.  I would feel irresponsible to just go without.  Hell, with my luck, I would surely come down with cancer if I didn't have insurance.  I do have a house and some saving so I could lose everything I worked my whole life for if I should get a serous illness without any insurance.

I figured out I could get my insurance through the ACA (Affordable Care Act).  Technically you are not supposed to use the ACA for insurance if you have other options.  But my other options weren't totally legit.

So....I signed up for the cheapest plan I could find since I haven't been to the doctor more than once a year for the last decade.  My cost is $550 / month, still high but almost half of the other options.  The catch is, it won't cover prescriptions and it has a $7000 deductible.  If I never need to see a doctor the deductible is not an issue.  I figured out that I could get my blood pressure medication from Wal-Mart for $20 a month with out insurance!

I thought the problem was solved.....

Then came the knee injury (of course it did).  With all the doctor visit (which I worked hard to limit) and the surgery the total expense is just a bit more than $7000.  I have no doubt insurance companies know that most people will not spend more than $7000 a year and thus they won't have to pay a dime.  On top of that they have tried to deny my MRI, my anesthesiologist and a bill for equipment used in surgery.  I will have to call them and challenge these denials.  I have learned the hard way that if you make a stink they will usually reverse the denial.  It's just another game they play so they don't have to pay the claims.  Imagine how difficult this is for people who don't have the time or the ability to make all the phone calls and put up a fight, old people, really sick people, people who don't speak English well, all these people are at a huge disadvantage.  Meanwhile the insurance companies make record profits and pay their CEO's millions.

This year I will spend about $15000 on healthcare between my insurance premium payments and all my actual medical bills.  That is 1/3 of my income.  That is an impossible amount to expect most people to pay.  I am lucky that I have savings and someone to help pay the household bills.  I can probably pull this off this year.....but what about next year?

At the same time JDK finds himself in the same situation with his knee surgery.   He is spending about $15000 out of pocket.  So that is $30k this year for our household and we had a couple of fairly simple, routine surgeries.  Imagine if we had cancer, kidney failure or some other major medical condition.  It would wipe us out.

I am truly fearful of how we will survive the next few years with this "insurance" system and even worse, what will we do when we are older or want to retire if things don't change?  Our parents have pension and guaranteed insurance from their life long careers, an option that is no longer available to most all Americans.  Thank God they are taken care of.

But, what will our old age look like?  Poverty despite our college degrees and a life of living frugally and making a good wage?  Why the hell do the insurance companies get to rob me of my life's savings?