Uninsured face avalanche of health costs

[Old Coot]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Jim Hann learned he would be laid off, he scheduled surgery to donate a kidney to his wife.

Steve Drake rationed his asthma medicine after he was let go while two-time cancer survivor Roberta Furchak had to draw on precious retirement savings to ensure her tests were covered after she lost her job.

All three were trying to compensate for losing health insurance in a country where unemployment often means going without coverage.

With unemployment rising to its highest level in more than a quarter century, more Americans are confronting the double crisis of losing both their jobs and their employer-sponsored insurance, which covers 177 million people.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE54Q63B20090528

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REAL health care reform is drastically needed. Depending on employers is no longer practical. And, private policies, if you can even afford it, is not available to everyone. Congress: Please get affordable insurance for all!

[KT2000]

1. "Wait and see"

is often the recommendation for some illnesses - especially protate cancer indications.
I know someone facing this while their employer of 30 years appears to be going down the tubes.
Does he have radical surgery now in case he gets laid off or should he wait and hope that he manages to keep his job or find another one that has health insurance?
What a racket.

I would not doubt that insurers keep data on companies that may go under.

[L0oniX]

2. The only good thing about this is that everyone who gets laid off is going to be for SPHC....

unless they are crazy or a repuke ...which is the same thing ...My bad.

[truedelphi]

3. Hey I know some repukes who are totally understanding the vital necessity of

Universal SPHC.

I think it is age and illness dependent. A young republican (Or libertarian for that matter) might not be for it -as they are immortal, right?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Or a rich old Republican

The biggest shill for insurance companies on the Minneapolis paper's online comments is, judging from his comments, a rich older man, totally out of touch with reality. This does not prevent him from arguing like a Republican (if you're losing, change the subject).

[No Elephants]

4. Not only the uninsured, either. A nurse who led the demonstration in D.C. for single payor had

insurance, but she went bankrupt anyway, when she got cancer and her husband got another catastrophic illness (heart disease?) at about the same time. It was shortly before they were to retire, too, if I recall correctly.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Right, one serious illness would put me straight into abject poverty

and that's with the much vaunted high-deductible insurance, the one that's supposed to save so much money. Only my deductible is so high with such a high out-of-pocket cost that I wouldn't be able to absorb it. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to have it, since I'm screwed either way.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. But Are They Bankers?

No?

Then they get what they deserve.

:sarcasm:

[Delphinus]

6. Let's get health CARE

not health insurance.

[nightrain]

7. health CARE, not health insurance. Correct.

Looks like unless we set some sort of fire under Obama, that he's going for private health insurance, and maybe a (probably watered-down) public option. Crappy. Particularly when we know that SINGLE PAYER would be a FAR better option. But way scarier to confront the HUGE health insurance corporations, not to mention pharmaceutical corporations!

I'll be damned if I HAVE to buy health insurance. That's a travesty!

[graywarrior]

8. I need gallbladder surgery and can't get it

Well, I can but I can't afford it

[madrchsod]

10. same here..

i need a second surgery because i caught a staph infection from the first one but i can`t afford the 5000 that will be the 20% the insurance won`t cover.

totally sucks does`t it.

[graywarrior]

15. Yeah

I thought I could handle the $100 a month medication, but I feel so crappy I know I need the surgery. Plus, because I'm not feeling well, I can't work. What a dilemma.

[SHRED]

9. If we judge the USA via health coverage of it's citizens...

...then we are one of the cruelest countries on earth.

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[Faygo Kid]

11. We kid around here at DU. And sometimes we are self important. But this is it.

No BS, no debate. People's lives - whole families' lives, however they are constituted - are at stake here.

Hell, I mourn my dead cat of 17 years, and know that while that is legit, there is a HELL of a lot more at stake.

What the hell kind of country do we live in that allows our fellow citizens to go through this? Tonight I will go to bed and read a book about Lincoln, and wonder where we are now.

[AlphaCentauri]

14. sad to see so many people at risk and we can be next n/t

[defendandprotect]

16. It's criminal that Americans don't have Medicare for All -- we'd better get working on it---!!!