Comments on: Health Care When You Lose Your Job

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:47 +0000

Very relevant post for the current times. Thanks for sharing!

By: Davender

Davender — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:49:37 +0000

Wow – I echo what Wendy says. Being self-employed in Canada gives me easily a $10000/yr + advantage over my US colleagues, plus the ease of not worrying about healthcare (as if we have enough to worry about being self-employed!)

The whole US concept of health insurance is out of whack. What the US fed govt should have done instead of the “stimulus” is to simply pay the health insurance premiums of the self-employed, freeing them up to focus on creating value for them and their clients! (I know this is dreaming).

By: future generali

future generali — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:30:06 +0000

First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:22:19 +0000

Wow. Stories like this remind me of how lucky my family and I are to be in Canada during this economic down turn.

America needs a universal, government-run medical insurance system as exists in Canada and much of Europe. Yes, there are flaws to this system, like wait lists for some specialized procedures if you want the government to pay -- but you can see any doctor you want when you're sick, free.

And, if you lose your job, you don't lose this basic medical care access.

By: Bill Clevenger

Bill Clevenger — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:49:42 +0000

Your circumstances appear to be such that you could better benefit from looking into a health savings account oriented plan. While your friend from NASE will not be able to offer one, most companies do and there are significant benefits to be had:

A Health Savings Account allows people to pay for qualified medical expenses now or in the future with pre-tax dollars.

Pros:
Money contributed and removed from the account is not taxable.

Money in the account earns interest and rolls over each year.

Proactive care is typically fully covered.

Cons:
HSAs are only available if combined with a high-deductible insurance plan (which you have said you prefer).

Money withdrawn for non-medical use is taxed and charged a penalty fee.

There is plenty of material about this on the Internet and you can even discuss with your local bank.

By: Dave Atkins

Dave Atkins — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:25:03 +0000

Thanks. Yes, as every parent should know, antibiotics are only effective when administered for a full course of treatment. You can’t just pop a couple cephalaxin when you feel sick. But with the eyedrops and ointment, in particular, you usually have plenty left over to re-treat. And if the amoxicillan is still unexpired, again you may have enough for 7 days. Ideally, you could just call a doctor familiar with your family and take care of this over the phone (an option under my new insurance plan) but for the uninsured…who are you going to call?

I’m not recommending people self-treat here, I am acknowledging that the lack of health insurance forces people to improvise. It illustrates a larger issue of the bad choices people make when financial pressures compromise health judgment. When my father, uninsured, suffered a stroke, he refused a CAT scan because it would cost $1000. He refused to be admitted to the hospital and then somehow managed to drive home (he was living alone). We will never know if he should have been admitted or if that would have made a difference, but I believe his lack of health insurance–and our system of “personal responsibility”–led him to make a bad choice that cost him his life.

By: Bernard Farrell

Bernard Farrell — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:52:23 +0000

Dave

I heard the WBUR article on your search for work. I wish you the best of luck.

Can I just point out that taking a partial dose of antibiotics, as you describe above, is a bad idea. This is how folks develop drug resistant infections. My guess is that you're just illustrating and not doing this in real life, but you might want to change the example or point this out.