Exhibit A: Rock
Exhibit B: Foot
Exhibit C: Broken
I just spent $800, with health insurance, to take care of my VP debate party toe trauma. My injury was inflicted, on accident, by my 5-year old and gravity.
That $800 is the monthly cost for our family’s health insurance, which does not include the bill that will come from the hospital for my share of what insurance did not cover.
Senator John McCain’s ‘Victory Chairman’ Carly Fiorina guest posted on BlogHer not too long about her candidate’s big health care overhaul. She tells me under the McCain plan my family would get $5000 to purchase our own health care. For the whole year. $5000.
Ummmm. We spend $9800 per year, right now for just myself and my kids. That does not count co-pays, xray bills, procedures, drugs, labs, and anything else that pops up.
So we’re missing a family member under that figure AND that’s just monthly with no real costs that happen over the course of a month.
I fail to see where the overhaul here.
Help me out.
Note that I did not even get into the 5 hours I spent in my neighborhood emergency room. 5 hours.
I encourage you to read the comments over on Ms. Fiorina’s BlogHer post and tell me what you think of McCain’s plan. I have to go ice my toe and take another pain pill that cost me more than I really care to go look at right now.
This is one of the reasons that I put up with living apart from my Naval Officer husband while my house isn’t selling. 100% free medical insurance. No copays, no cost for prescriptions – they’ll even pay for Motrin and Tylenol and other OTC’s if needed. It’s also one of the reasons I am so supportive of him staying in for 20. Tricare for life. So many friends and family only see the negatives of his military career. Health insurance is one of the huge benefits.
Oh, and I hope tht your foot feels better very soon!
Name your cupcake, any cupcake, and I’ll drop them off on my way through. Maybe I should invent a brandy or rum laced cupcake. DaYum. That is some serious toe injury. OUCH. Freaking OUCH. *hugs*
Glad to hear your input of the $5000 McCain Health Plan. I had wondered how that worked for others, because I know it’s not a treat for me. So far, everything that has helped me to regain strength & rebuild my health has cost ME thousands of dollars each year. With NO medical insurance help. Getting medical insurance is one trick, getting to cover what you actually NEED a total other game. $5000 would buy me a square or two on jeopardy. lol
Hope the toe recovers soon!
They must be talking major medical. That’s the only excuse. We pay around 1200 a month for myself and two children. Stupid!
Angie (from over at http://www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)
I don’t have any health insurance. My husband is covered under medicare but I fall in between the cracks.
I try not get sick or injured thats my health care plan.
Vote November 4th, 2008 for Barack Obama
I am continually amazed at how much my neighbours south of the 49th pay for medical insurance, and how little value for their money they get. Sure, Canada’s system has its own issues (like wait times for certain surgeries, waiting lists for specialists in some cases – but not usually specialists like oncologists) – but I can walk into any hospital or clinic in my province and not worry about how to pay the bill. I cannot be denied medical care.
And all of that for $56/month. And I’m in the highest premium bracket.
Like I said, I am continually amazed, and saddened at what goes on so close to home. I may have a bit of a paternalistic view of government, but what else is it good for if it can’t take care of its population? As a Canadian citizen and a taxpayer, I expect my government to take care of me in times of need. And I don’t think that’s an unreasonable explanation.
I hope your foot heals quickly: elevate it above your heart level, ice it and drink some wine (or whatever your beverage of choice is :))
I wish you a quick toe recovery, and…
I don’t want to go read Fiorina’s post. I know that anything coming out of McNeoconland is crap. I recently read that the way McCain will pay for that $5000, is by TAXING employee healthcare benefits. So, if you work for a corporation and part of your compensation package is healthcare, you will be taxed for that benefit. I don’t have a link to back this up, so take it as a rumor for now.
In the meantime, although I have no health insurance, as an American living temporarily in France, I have had two skin cancer removals and the total bill for each surgery, including pre and post surgery exams, the surgery itself, and lab work was: $250. Oh, and I had to buy my own surgical bandaids for about 10 bucks. Recently, I passed out in a restaurant and was sick for two days. My GP visit was 12 Euros or $18. She sent me to a lab for extensive tests. I waited, fearing that I didn’t have enough cash, at the lab for my bill. It was 108 Euros or about $150. I had the results in two hours – three and a half pages of them. I can’t imagine how much all those tests would have cost in the US.
We have two solid black German Shepherds and one of them weighs well over 100 pounds. Last year, I tripped over the bigger dog who was in stealth mode in a dark hallway. I knew my toe was broken. I thought I could just tape it and let it heal, but the pain was ridiculous. I waited until regular doctors’ office hours and called a podiatrist. He knew I had no insurance and I paid only $100. The doctor absorbed most of the cost of the visit, x-ray, hard shoe, gauze and tape. He even gave me Naprelan drug samples. I don’t know if he could afford to do that because of the huge markup that they charge insurance companies, but I’m choosing to think he did it because he is a kind person.
McCain’s policy won’t help families who are flagged as uninsurable. I will be voting for Obama and hoping that whoever wins takes on the pharmaceutical companies.
Be careful. You will be tired of the hard shoe and feeling better long before that toe is healed. I am now the owner of a barometer toe. Cool and damp = throbbing toe.
See you in DC.
I’m chuckling as I just received two bills today – $1,100 for the shoulder MRI and $7,800 for the day surgery to fix the shoulder. My four to six months of PT for the shoulder rehab twice a week will cost me a $20 co-pay with each visit. On top of that, I pay $1,500 per month to cover my family and one half of the one staff person in my company who has opted into our insurance plan.
I’m chuckling because I can’t believe that McCain’s folks can actually think that this spin is going to make me forget how much I really pay for health care.
I’m chuckling instead of crying, ’cause I can’t figure out how to keep doing this…
Gulp. My family of 4 lacks health insurance. I won’t even begin to imagine what a couple of broken toes would cost me out of pocket.
We have excellent health insurance through my husband’s union but I have MS and our 20% portion of one MRI ( I have at least 2-3 a year) is $1200. So $5,000 is an insulting offer when the purpose of universal healthcare is so that EVERYONE can afford healthcare and with McCain’s ridiculous plan not even those of us with health insurance would be helped that much!
I have health insurance through my husband’s employer, which I’m grateful to have. However, I’m $100 away from paying off my medical bills from 2007. I’m thousands of dollars in debt for 2008. I’ve got payment plans with so many doctors and hospitals that it’s ridiculous. At some point they are going to refuse to treat me. Probably in 2009…when I haven’t paid off 2008.
And still they haven’t found any treatment for my cancer. Yes, healthcare is great.
Sorry to hear about your foot.
Yup the McCain plan calls for taxing the health insurance. It doesn’t include any co-pays, deductibles or Rx costs. I added up what my former employer offered against the new plan and I’d be spending more than $3000 for the same coverage with the tax break under the McCain plan. What kind of tax break is that?! And I was on a political podcast after this 2nd debate arguing with another caller who keeps saying the Obama plan is socialized medicine and she doesn’t want Medicaid. she just doesn’t get it!!! I live in San Francisco where the Mayor introduced a City health care plan that is mandatory for companies with more than 10 employees and the business lobbyists are trying to kill it. Of course.
At one time, our family seriously considered moving to the USA (from Canada)-and at this point I’m so grateful we didn’t. I almost spit out my coffee just reading how much you paid for a broken toe, when recently my 12 yr old hurt his hand and we paid nothing for the stitches, ER visit, and meds. Nothing. I can’t even tell you how much I pay a month for health insurance, because it’s so little that I don’t even notice.
I hope that your toe heals up quickly. I’m with you-I don’t see how $5000 is going to make a difference. It seems like a tiny drop in a very big bucket, if you ask me. It’s too bad that big business and drug companies seem to be running the health care system there, rather then the welfare of the patients being the top priority.