Study: 9 in 10 fail to buy health insurance

[spinbaby]

CHICAGO (Reuters) -- Nine out of 10 Americans who tried to buy their own health insurance failed, either because the price was too steep or because they were denied coverage due to a current medical problem, a study said on Thursday.

The findings by the nonprofit research group Commonwealth Fund come as more U.S. employers have stopped offering workers health insurance -- with runaway medical costs the most frequently cited reason.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/insurance_study_dc

[don954]

1. I tried to buy coverage from over a dozen companies

denied 'cause i was in the hospital for an infection last year.

[Warpy]

2. I've been denied since 1987

by everybody but Blue Cross, a company that managed to keep it way out of reach for an RN who struggled to work part time.

The choice was between shelter and insurance. I decided the shelter would keep me healthier.

[spinbaby]

3. I have a job purely for the insurance benefits

I could make more money somewhere else. I would probably be happier somewhere else. I stay because they have great health insurance.

[ThomCat]

4. I would never, ever be able to get health insurance on my own

because of my disability and pre-existing medical conditions. I'd be shit out of luck.

Any policy that insists people must buy their own insurance is designed to exclude a huge number of us. We're supposed to just quietly die and go away.

[Ravenseye]

5. I've said it before and I'll say it again

If everyone in this country had to find and buy their own health insurance (as opposed to just signing a form in HR or something) on an individual/family basis we'd have universal health care inside of 6 months.

There are ways to get around the denial of coverage due to a current medical problem. Anyone can get around that, with a little bit of planning. Still the planning doesn't help you if you can't afford the product that comes after that.

Don't even get me started on how fucked up it is if you move from state to state. If you're insured up in Mass. for instance, and move down to say Pennsylvania for work reasons, you'll have to get new coverage. The companies up in Mass. don't cover as 'in area' the hospitals down here, so you have to get new insurance...yet because you're an individual and not a group, there are preexisting conditions. So if you move from state to state you might lose coverage for a year on everything....no matter what...even if you stay with Blue Cross (because it's all different companies)...

Yeah...if everyone had to deal with it themselves we'd have universal health care within 6 months.

[ThomCat]

7. I doubt that.

A lot of people would have to die first. And the the first solutions that would be offered would be aimed at appeasing people with money. Poor people with medical problems would not be considered.

There is no reason to think that government would step in with universal health-care. The government has never in history gone out of its way to help the poor and the sick unless forced to by a mass movement.

People who are broke, and either sick or disabled (or both), do not make for a very good mass movement. We don't travel as easily as other people, many of us absolutely cannot risk getting arrested, and we are can't afford lobbyists.

[muesa]

6. High Health Insurance Costs Are Destroying Our Industrial Base

- read the links about the "end" of Ford Motor Company. Health Insurance.