How important is medical insurance?

[aaglo]

Albert Speer -

Just move into any civilised country, and you won't be needing any medical insurance.

[problem_child]

[rah]

I too would recommend some type of catastrophic insurance. If you're willing to accept a real high deductible, policies are very very inexpensive if you're young and healthy.

[CerberusIV]

The insurance company are betting that if they insure 1000 people against a particular illness or injury only 5 get it. They have access to the statistics and are usually right. The premiums from the 1000 are set to more than cover the cost of the medical care for the 5. (figures for illustrative purposes only, they work on much larger numbers in RL).

If you don't have insurance you are betting that you are one of the 995 who don't get sick not one of the 5 who do.

Information about genetic disposition to particular illnesses adjusts the odds in your individual case.

Do you feel lucky?

[Al B. Sure!]

well let's see... there is no family history of any genetic illness except baldness, near sightedness, and possible insanity (think i'm playing)... i have never had any serious disease besides chicken pox nor have i been too sick to go to school in the past several years.

what i'm worried about is something like i break something. last night, i even had a dream where i broke my arm and was mad i didnt have no insurance... thats my concern but is such things as that truly expensive?

[Sava]

National perspective.

According to a national study (Melissa B. Jacoby, Teresa A. Sullivan, and Elizabeth Warren, "Medical Problems and Bankruptcy Filings," Nortons Bankruptcy Adviser, May 2000) at least 40% of bankruptcies in 1999 were due at least in part to medical debt. Additionally, among debtors 65 and older, 47.6% of personal bankruptcies were due primarily to medical debt.

The study also found that seniors and women, as well as families headed by single women, were the groups in bankruptcy that were hardest hit by medical expenses ("Medical Bills Play Bankruptcy Role," The New York Times, 4/26/2000).

According to a recent study entitled "The Fragile Middle Class" (Yale University Press, 2000), "behind most bankruptcy filings lies misfortune, not profligate spending" ("Bankruptcy Borne of Misfortune, Not Excess," New York Times, 9/3/2000). "Bankruptcy is a solution invoked one at a time by families who have fallen through the social safety net."

"Economists have predicted for some time that bankruptcies would reach new highs in 2001 as the recession too a toll on the finances of consumers and corporations alike. Some experts expect the surge to continue this year" ("2001 Bankruptcy Filings Set Record," New York Times, 2//20/2002).

Local bankruptcy data.

Data source and analysis. Local bankruptcy data presented in this report reflect bankruptcies filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois during December 2001. Statistical research was conducted by the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation.

Total bankruptcy filings. There were 279 bankruptcy cases during the month of December 2001, and approximately 3,200 for the entire year.

Percentage of filings that involve medical debt. Approximately 58% of the studied bankruptcy filings involved medical debt. This number does not include medical debt that was paid for with credit cards or by borrowing from a loan company. A greater portion of bankruptcy filings in December 2001 in Central Illinois (58%) involved medical debt than the national average (40%) from 1999. Among consumers who had any medical debt when filing for bankruptcy, medical debt accounted for 10 to 25% of the total debt owed.

Distribution of medical debt in bankruptcy filings. Approximately 20% of bankruptcy filings involved a medical debt of less than $1,000. Almost 40% of bankruptcy filings involved a medical debt of less than $5,000. These figures indicate that even small medical debts can have a huge impact on people's lives and contribute to bankruptcy. At least 11% of bankruptcy filings involved a medical debt of over $10,000.

This is not surprising, as just one serious medical incident, such as an accident or a bout with cancer, can easily cost over $10,000 - plunging ordinary people suddenly into deep debt. And some bankruptcy filings involved medical debt exceeding $50,000 or even $100,000.

For more information, contact:

Champaign County Health Care Consumers
44 East Main Street, Suite #208
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 352-6533 or cchcc@prairienet.org

http://www.prairienet.org/cchcc/med-dp2.htm

Health insurance IS important, or else it wouldn't be a big deal that 40 million Americans, over half of which are children, don't have any insurance.

[Japher]

Speer, doesn't your school offer student medical insurance? I would take it. It really sucks when you need...

Kind of like how a cop is never there when you need one, but is there when you wish they weren't... Insurance is the exact opposite.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
well let's see... there is no family history of any genetic illness except baldness, near sightedness, and possible insanity (think i'm playing)... i have never had any serious disease besides chicken pox nor have i been too sick to go to school in the past several years.
my concern but is such things as that truly expensive?

Then again, there were the incidents you reported here about your mother beating you unconscious.

[Al B. Sure!]

i never once said she beat my unconscious... i said she held me at knife point and beat me with belts and clog shoes (where she got clogs, i dont know) when i was younger... but **** that. i'll never live with her again so it's all in the past

[Al B. Sure!]

and that was very rude... talking about child abuse with such a mocking attitude.

[monkspider]

Don't get health insurance unless your job pays for it. It is prohibitively expensive otherwise.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
and that was very rude... talking about child abuse with such a mocking attitude.

Don't push your luck. While your attempts at personal revisionism might impress the more recent arrivals, I've got a long memory. You'd be amazed at how many of your little tirades from 1999-2000 are safely stored on my HD. Unless you want the past to start coming back to bite you on them arse I strongly advise you to think very carefully before you try claiming squatter's rights on the moral high ground.

[Dis]

stored on your harddrive?

I think we got a classic case of the internet personality- archivist

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I only keep moments of truly breathtaking stupidity. Some posters are just more productive than others.

[Mordoch]

Originally posted by monkspider
Don't get health insurance unless your job pays for it. It is prohibitively expensive otherwise.

This isn't necessarily true for young healthy people. I recently investigated an individual catastrophic policy for myself, and its 65 dollars per month. (I'm 23 years old.)