If you lose your job, and your choice is between paying insurance and food and shelter,

[Skidmore]

which would you choose?

I lost my job 3 years ago, and I didn't have to make that choice. I was offered COBRA and couldn't afford it so my husband picked up a family plan at work instead. I was lucky. I think of this often. I would not have been able to pay COBRA at all since the premium was higher than our house payment and would have eaten into our grocery budget as well. Forget having $ for maintaining a vehicle to get my husband to work 25 miles away or to pay copays for prescriptions and for utilities. And we live fairly frugally.

Now, we are being told we will need to buy insurance under this proposed legislation. There is a whole lot of real life situations worse than ours.

If you gave me a choice, I would choose immediate survival needs over paying an insurance company. If I die sooner, then cremate my carcass and spread the ashes on the wind. Let me enjoy what remains of my life with dignity rather than grovelling to some vampire corporation.

[sandnsea]

1. That's why the subsidies are the most important part

As well as expanding Medicaid to 150% of poverty. So nobody has to choose between food and a health insurance premium.

[Raine]

3. Yes but can't Medicaid take your home?

All I see is those who are impovished ending up even worse.

[sandnsea]

11. Only for long term care n/t

[Raine]

14. Thanks nt

[onethatcares]

6. one hundred fifty percent of the poverty line.

what is that for a family of two, and with that, you're talking Medicaid, not Medicare. So the states are going to have to treat and provide healthcare while their budgets are based on real estate and income while the economy is still tanking and jobs are being LOST at a slower pace and properties are being devalued.

This is gonna work out just great. I can see it now.

[Hannah Bell]

8. not only that, there's talk of lowering the poverty line.

[sandnsea]

13. Medicaid is better than Medicare

And the bill allocates about 90% of the money required. More people in the states would have health coverage, which would pay the doctors and hospitals and help reduce costs to the rest of the system.

[rubberducky]

7. Try getting covered by Medicaid here in MI. I`ve been trying since June with no luck.

They are not accepting any new people.I do not know how long the system has been locked, but I KNOW it has been locked since June. No job, no money, no coverage. Maybe it`s just here in MI, but I get sick of hearing people say just go on Medicaid. I wish.

[sandnsea]

12. The current bill would EXPAND Medicaid

So you would have no trouble at all getting on, as long as your income was at 150% of poverty.

[optimator]

16. do subsidies come from magic fairies?

no it comes from taxes, so it is just a shuffling of the burden.
And subsidies for private insurance is grotesque.

[Mari333]

2. mandating people , forcing them to buy insurance is unconstitutional

it will end up in court.
fckin nazis.

[intheflow]

9. This is probably the plan anyway.

Then conservatives will hop around doing the "I told ya!" dance and those of us without healthcare will be back to ground zero.

[Cleita]

4. Been there and done it. I couldn't afford the COBRA.

I opted for food and shelter instead and kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn't get sick until I turned 65 and qualified for Medicare. Fortunately, my husband was already on Medicare so it was one less worry for us.

[StarfarerBill]

5. I haven't been able to afford health insurance for years,

so the choice after this last layoff was a no-brainer: food and shelter for my kitties and me!

[undeterred]

10. I chose shelter.

I have had no medical insurance for over a year. No job since June 1. All medical/dental needs are unmet or delayed. Food comes from the food bank. So far its hard to see how Obama is making a difference.

[TexasObserver]

15. Recommend

[SoCalDem]

17. Don;t worry, some insurance company will offer a no-frills bullshit policy

that you can "afford"...and it will somehow cost you just a smidge less than the penalty for not having any coverage.. now don't bother trying to USE it, because it's crap, but at least you won;t be fined for not having "coverage"..

That's how the mandatory auto coverage works in CA.. of course when someone with crap insurance totals a new Volvo, the rest of us pay through the nose, as out coverage costs all go up.

[Cleita]

18. We already have that. It's known as catastrophic insurance.

You have to pay a premium for it, usually lower than most insurance but not by much. A huge deductible insures that you will never meet it during the year before it starts again the following year. If perchance the insurance does kick in, it only pays benefits until a point that they run out or the year ends and your deductible starts again. Also, you must use their designated doctors and hospitals. Otherwise will result in denial. The only use it really has is that it gets you in the door of health care providers without having to pony up cash first. Making this shit mandatory is criminal.

[Skidmore]

19. I'm kicking my own thread today because this is what is at the center of

the debate. If you can't afford insurance now or you can't afford to pay for services now, what makes you all think that people will be able to afford insurance after this bill. I started out as a strong supporter of HCR, but this BS in the Senate seems to ignore the fact that there are a goodly number of people in this nation who do not make six figure salaries and who cannot afford what exists currently. No attempt to reduce costs and take away some of these outrageous profits in the healthcare industry, which profits from the misery and death of the poor, is unconscienable.

Period.