Health insurance

[bigoltool]

For my 3500th post I thought I would go on a rant. So here goes.

I have been in my current profession for 20+ years and my current employer for the bulk of that time. Things are tough all over and in the last year or so my department has lost over 30 people who left for greener pastures most of whom were friends. Recently I have had very little enthusiasm for the job and the rapidly dwindling herd and all time low morale have made me start looking around to see what else is out there. Well my wife sends me emails daily with job openings and the other day she sent me one titled "the perfect job for you"! And in fact It was right up my alley so I polished up the old resume' and applied for it. They responded immediately and I made arrangements for an interview. Well they offered me the job on the spot and they agreed to pay me a good deal more than I currently make! I was so amped I couldn't believe it. But then the reality of it all came crashing down. The Health insurance benefits are a far cry from my current package and the monthly cost of Health insurance would have gone up approximately 3 fold! The cost of the insurance would almost eat up almost all of the wage increase I was so excited about only moments earlier. So my wife then started looking into private insurance for her and my kids and it was almost the same price but actually better coverage. So I am now faced with one tough decision. Take this job and make more money only to fork it back out to cover the health insurance or stay the course with my current job and hope things improve. The state of health care in this country is epidemic and I can only imagine it will get worse before it gets any better. I am just sick to my stomach thinking about it right now. We recently watched the movie Sicko by Michael Moore. Now don't get me wrong I cant stand the dude but the movie really hit home. It looked in detail at health care in this country and socialized medicine in several other countries. It is a real eye opener and I would encourage anyone reading this to watch it. I know it is a one sided view of the situation but it is compelling to say the least. All the sabre rattling by the presidential candidates lately hopefully will result in positive change though I don't at the moment see how.Perhaps some of the members of this board outside the USA that do have socialized medicine can comment on the pro's and cons of the systems in their countries. I would be really interested to hear the down side to it?

Stay healthy out there!

 

[delbert]

shid, sorry bro cant help on this one. good luck what ever you choose

 

[Strife]

How secure is your current job? With the way the economy is right now Is it really worth starting fresh at some place else? How secure is the job you gonna apply for?

I have a friend in Canada and from way he describes it is you go on a waiting list to see the doc. if it's not life threaten then you wait your turn. Plenty of Canadians here can give more/better info. He had Dental work done that came out of his own pocket.

 

[kml]

I have a friend in Canada and from way he describes it is you go on a waiting list to see the doc. if it's not life threaten then you wait your turn. Plenty of Canadians here can give more/better info. He had Dental work done that came out of his own pocket.

I had a melanoma, the socialized health care services in Canada paid for two surgeries, all the drugs, and living expenses for the year I took off work due to the heavy drugs. No cost to me or my employer. My mother has alzheimers and the drugs are paid for as well as her two hip replacements, my fathers wheelchair, his skooter and his hip replacements.

I make an appointment to see my doctor and I'm in the next day. No charge.

I know, now you are going to say "but your taxes are so high." Well, I'm just a chef and I have enough disposable income to put Ohlins on the Busa. So, it can't be all that bad...

cheers
ken

 

[kml]

I have a friend in Canada and from way he describes it is you go on a waiting list to see the doc. if it's not life threaten then you wait your turn. Plenty of Canadians here can give more/better info. He had Dental work done that came out of his own pocket.

I had a melanoma, the socialized health care services in Canada paid for two surgeries, all the drugs, and living expenses for the year I took off work due to the heavy drugs. No cost to me or my employer. My mother has alzheimers and the drugs are paid for as well as her two hip replacements, my fathers wheelchair, his skooter and his hip replacements.

I make an appointment to see my doctor and I'm in the next day. No charge.

I know, now you are going to say "but your taxes are so high." Well, I'm just a chef and I have enough disposable income to put Ohlins on the Busa. So, it can't be all that bad...

 

 

Good luck Bigtool!

cheers
ken

opps! double post... sorry...

 

[dilligaf]

I have a friend in Canada and from way he describes it is you go on a waiting list to see the doc. if it's not life threaten then you wait your turn. Plenty of Canadians here can give more/better info. He had Dental work done that came out of his own pocket.

I had a melanoma, the socialized health care services in Canada paid for two surgeries, all the drugs, and living expenses for the year I took off work due to the heavy drugs. No cost to me or my employer. My mother has alzheimers and the drugs are paid for as well as her two hip replacements, my fathers wheelchair, his skooter and his hip replacements.

I make an appointment to see my doctor and I'm in the next day. No charge.

I know, now you are going to say "but your taxes are so high." Well, I'm just a chef and I have enough disposable income to put Ohlins on the Busa. So, it can't be all that bad...

 

 

cheers
ken

I doubt that the taxes are more there than health insurance plus taxes here.

 

[dilligaf]

I'm sure there are people that say quality would be less, but what do you think of the military, police, or fire departments? They're all government jobs.

 

[Schism]

i would probably stay and hang with your current job. you must have seniority status that would protect you from potential "down sizing" right? sometimes the grass is never greener on the other side ,so if it were me i would tough it out. health insurance in this country just outright sucks and racks right up there with the oil industry and the pharmacudical companies. i hope they all die a slow and painful death. i saw "sicko" as well and it can be very depressing. my wife and i were ready to move to england right at the end of the film. good luck with your decision and i hope it works out for you and your family.

 

[Rocket_Man]

You cannot compare socialized medicine in another country to what it would be like here - apples and oranges. The best example so see what it might be like here is to look at the VA and how those hospitals and nursing-type homes are run. From what I have heard it is not what most of use would want (and many of these solders don't have a choice - it is disgusting the way some of our bravest are treated).

There are many other ways to fix our system other than socialize medicine, and I could go for hours (but not today). To start with, though, kick out all the illegals who don't pay which is forcing the rest of us to have cover that cost. hey, allow the cops to SHOOT-TO-KILL violent criminals instead of wounding them, hospitalizing them, going to trial, then prison -one or two well placed bullets is much cheaper.

 

[mofuggahere]

I have a friend in Canada and from way he describes it is you go on a waiting list to see the doc. if it's not life threaten then you wait your turn. Plenty of Canadians here can give more/better info. He had Dental work done that came out of his own pocket.

I had a melanoma, the socialized health care services in Canada paid for two surgeries, all the drugs, and living expenses for the year I took off work due to the heavy drugs. No cost to me or my employer. My mother has alzheimers and the drugs are paid for as well as her two hip replacements, my fathers wheelchair, his skooter and his hip replacements.

I make an appointment to see my doctor and I'm in the next day. No charge.

I know, now you are going to say "but your taxes are so high." Well, I'm just a chef and I have enough disposable income to put Ohlins on the Busa. So, it can't be all that bad...

 

 

cheers
ken

Yea, but you still live in Canada

 

[firebug]

You cannot compare socialized medicine in another country to what it would be like here - apples and oranges. The best example so see what it might be like here is to look at the VA and how those hospitals and nursing-type homes are run. From what I have heard it is not what most of use would want (and many of these solders don't have a choice - it is disgusting the way some of our bravest are treated).

There are many other ways to fix our system other than socialize medicine, and I could go for hours (but not today). To start with, though, kick out all the illegals who don't pay which is forcing the rest of us to have cover that cost. hey, allow the cops to SHOOT-TO-KILL violent criminals instead of wounding them, hospitalizing them, going to trial, then prison -one or two well placed bullets is much cheaper.

I don't necessarily agree with this. I can only speak for my local VA but they provide some of the best patient care I have ever witnessed.

 

[firebug]

If socialized medicine would function as well as the VA system then I say go for it. In reality I feel our society has too many individuals who like to abuse any free service they can. This combined with many other issues would make the system crumble.

I hope to see the day that every American has health care provided to them. However, I feel our current system is to corrupt for anything to change. For anything to change the power needs to be taken from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies

 

[Over_Easy]

Hmmm...maybe some of you should think why then when Michael Moorer and wealthy individuals from other socialized medicine countries need the best of care the get it here in the US.

Nothing wrong with individual health care. I'm appointed as an agent with a couple carriers on the side for my clients when their company's health benefit options don't meet their needs. I have Golden Rule (UHC) myself. It's 63% of the cost of my company plan but it is primarily an 80/20 co-pay plan compared to my companies 100% co-pay plan.

 

[firebug]

I agree we have the best there is. The level of education and technology we have will not be found in another country. If we had a socialized medicine system this would not be true.

 

[bigoltool]

So it has been a few weeks since I posted this thread. I thought now would be a good time to update.

After deliberating at length about this job opportunity I finally decided to say no to the new job. I called the guy up and said Thanks for the opportunity and advised him that the health benefits were the reason I had to say no. Well he would not take no for an answer and asked me to send him my figures. I sent it to him and it was right at $9700 difference between the two (health care only!) currently. This is completely aside from Life insurance, dental, vision 401-k etc. So he asked me to call him back in a few days. I called him and he offered to meet me half way (+$5k) on the cost of the insurance. I was at first flattered that they were so serious about me but at the end of the day I would still be leaving my wife and kids wanting in the health insurance department. So after waiting for 5 agonizing days (he was out of the office) I told him no again. Again he countered and agreed to pay the full cost of the health insurance. Well I was back to ground zero and my head was about to explode. He was offering me almost a 25% increase in pay!!! But that night the reality set in, even after all this the extra cost of the life insurance, dental and other benefits would have sapped almost all of the wage increase. I was absolutely floored! The wife was in tears and I was in turmoil. It was on the commute to work the next morning that I made the decision to stay put . Nearly twenty years at my current job apparently isn't all bad (though it sure seems like it right now) in the grand scheme of things. I had come to the startling realization that I am now working for benefits at this point. After a few days of deliberation I had to call back and turn down most likely the best job offer I will ever see for the third time! All because we have the most Litigation prone, profiteering, upside down health care system in the "free" world. I love this country but at times like this I truly envy my Canadian neighbors!