The Husbear has mostly recovered from his bout with the flu. I am finally starting to feel a lot more mobile. Hard to imagine one could get tired of lying on the couch, but I’m pretty darn past that point.
I wonder if this guy makes house calls? I bet he could make me feel better.
lick to embiggen
I have no idea what to even do at a gym to think about looking like that!
But back to what I was writing about….
This is the first time I’ve been seriously sick since I left the employ of Wal-Mart. And the first time I’ve had to pay for medications that weren’t covered by health insurance in some part. Holy crap! Non-insured medical and pharmaceutical costs are horrific. $65 for one office visit (discounted because I paid cash), $120 for the Husbear’s medications, and $165 for my medications. I’d hate to think how empty our wallet would if something serious happened! Or how maybe we’d be refused medical care because of that.
I know some of this is the Husbear and my own “doing”: we are both self-employed. That’s one of the trade-offs that is hard to offset by being your own boss. But health insurance should not be one of the things that you have to trade away. The Husbear hasn’t had health insurance since we’ve been together, which for the most part hasn’t been a problem because he rarely gets sick or injured. I lost my health insurance when I chose to become self-employed.
It’s not that we haven’t looked for health insurance that covers visits and medications. It exists. But not at what I would consider any “reasonable” price. It seems you have two choices: either pay “low” premiums for what I would call “disaster coverage” that covers only catastrophic situations, or pay extremely high premiums to cover regular visits and medications. And don’t even get me started on dental or vision. No wonder so many people in this country don’t have health insurance! At least the self-employed people. Or people who work for small businesses that cannot afford a group health plan to offer their 10 employees.
I know all insurances are really just a gamble, but the older we get the better our odds are that we will need it. Any suggestions from any readers out there? Is anyone who my blog self-employed and have decent health coverage?
Until next time...
I feel your pain.
I too am self employed (Realtor). I pay $183 a month for Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance. I have since September 2005. Since that time I’ve been to the doctor once–I had gotten into chiggers and the itching was driving me crazy. None of the OTC meds helped.
My partner works for a LARGE corporation and pays $79 every two weeks for health insurance. They do not offer domestic partner benefits.
I guess I could get a sham marriage to a woman just to get on her insurance, but hey, that would be – Legal? But I can’t get on his insurance simply because we’re honest about who we are and his company doesn’t appreciate that.
I agree insurance of any sort is a gamble; we haven’t had home insurance for the last couple of years by choice though I am considering taking it out again now as next door got flooded from a neighbour so even though we may be careful others might not and we’d be stuck with the bill too.
With that in mind, even if you guys don’t often get sick, you may be involved in an accident caused by someone else which could cause injury.
I wish I knew some organisations that could help, and I hope public healthcare comes sooner rather than later in the US. (You really do need public healthcare over there. Its long overdue. I couldn’t live in any country that didn’t have it having seen the cost of medical bills you would have to fork out in person.) As you say with aging comes more health problems, however careful we are.
Oh, and re the photo, if he makes housecalls, does he travel abroad too?
I think I need to have him take my temperature with his rectal thermometer. (giggle)
Both of you recover fast. And take your vitamins and exercise. I’ll need you two to be very healthy when I come to visit…ahem….
Randy had catastrophic coverage when he was a contractor for IBM. The first couple of years were cheap but as he got older the premiums soared (and he never had a single claim), thank goodness he finally got a job that has health coverage.
Alas, I do not have easy answers or any recommendations for you. Good luck with this.
In this day and age of skyhigh health care costs, I don’t see how anyone survives without some sort of insurance.
I didn’t read your post, but he’s perhaps the sexist man alive