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See my above post. We are in the same situation. Our monthly insurance premium is about the same as our mortgage payment. AND WE HAVE A $5000 EACH DEDUCTIBLE. OMG. It's killing us.
Yep, I know what you are talking about. I always believed in having good health care insurance. Our insurance did pay as promised when I almost died 2 years ago and I paid my deductible as agreed. The insurance policy was tailored to our needs.
Now Obamacare, my premiums went up $200 per month, my deductible is now $5000 (doubled) and at 55 I now have maternity care and dental for kids I don't have. Nice huh? Yep, we are paying the bill for the poor but can not get help should and since one of us did become poor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerseygal4u
Its like that for the current middle class working now.
Nobody cares if we have health insurance or not.
jerseygal, I was surprised to learn what you say is true. I know a girl who is working her butt off, she doesn't make much and can't afford insurance. I didn't ask the specifics but I thought Obamacare was supposed to take care of that?
You obviously don't know how Medicaid and recovery works. Yes a poor person CAN own a home through inheritance. And by the way, if they don't, the government pays a large portion of their rent, food, electric, and on and on.
YOU sir are in for a big surprise. The middle class DO need help especially if one becomes ill but even though they worked and paid taxes, (the bill for the poor). Help the poor politicians preach but when if the middle class person becomes poor through illness and need help the government will be deny the help they need. If the middle class are struggling to pay the bills now how in the hell can they be expected to pay additional medical and home care bills when they become ill? Think greywar, think!
With 2 people helping a family member stay home 40 hours each per week it would still cost $46,000 a year to hire help. I know, I was paying the bill before she went in and was going broke doing it.
Do you really believe a middle class person can handle that? While the poor get a lot of help and the family can be off doing their thing (in my cousins case.. getting drunk) the middle class family members go to work, run like crazy to help the elderly parent and are forced to put their own finances at risk to pay for help.
Petch, go back and re-read what I said. Thats kind of my point, the middle class aren't so middle class anymore. They are 1 medical issue from being poor. While telling me to think....you are missing that we are in agreement in many ways here. Middle class used to mean this sort of thing WAS affordable, but now? Now its only affordable to the wealthy. Those who have benefited the most in our unequal system. The money is there....its just all at the top.
It used to be that 1 person working could raise a household AND deal with medical issues like this. Now? Even with two people its not doable. And all the while its in a country where we as a nation are more wealthy then at any other time in our history.
Petch, go back and re-read what I said. Thats kind of my point, the middle class aren't so middle class anymore. They are 1 medical issue from being poor. While telling me to think....you are missing that we are in agreement in many ways here. Middle class used to mean this sort of thing WAS affordable, but now? Now its only affordable to the wealthy. Those who have benefited the most in our unequal system. The money is there....its just all at the top.
It used to be that 1 person working could raise a household AND deal with medical issues like this. Now? Even with two people its not doable. And all the while its in a country where we as a nation are more wealthy then at any other time in our history.
Came in to post this
Great Post!
They want us to die and not share our wealth. Corporations need more cheap labor, and they wont get that if the middleclass keeps spreading money around.
Through life and trying to take care of my elderly mom, I've learned that if you worked and paid your own way, you're out of luck when you can't work. In today's society it is better to have low income than it is to work to pay your own way.
My god, this is the saddest, most telling comment I've read in a while, on this topic. What a sad diagnosis this is.
I'm not saying it isn't true, but it's emotionally crushing for a middle class person to come to this realization.
Through life and trying to take care of my elderly mom, I've learned that if you worked and paid your own way, you're out of luck when you can't work. In today's society it is better to have low income than it is to work to pay your own way.
I'd also add that this is the very reason I give very little to the needy or poor. I feel bad about it, out of guilt, but I feel like the wealthy should share more of a percentage of what they have. By and large, I think they do.
I'd also add that this is the very reason I give very little to the needy or poor. I feel bad about it, out of guilt, but I feel like the wealthy should share more of a percentage of what they have. By and large, I think they do.
We have a family idiot, an alcoholic poor man who can't hold a job. My cousin (I'm ashamed to admit he is my cousin),
My grandparents gave him their house because oh poor, poor Ronnie is poor and needs help. His mom who had cancer paid his bills and to keep the electric on for heat because oh poor, poor Ronnie needs help. The cancer took her. The house is now boarded up because he made it unlivable, taxes and bills are unpaid.
When mom was healthier she took him in with the agreement that he stop drinking, welp, beer cans knee deep in his bedroom and getting verbally abusive with mom, when we realized what was going on we kicked him out and you should see the difference in mom's personality for the better after he left.
Guess what, this load on society will get all kinds of help from the government. He's poor and he blames everyone else, nooo, it can't possibly be his drinking problem, in his mind everyone else is crazy. I remember trying to help him and telling him he had to start with brushing his teeth to which he replied I don't care what anyone thinks. Years ago when he got into trouble he told the cop he had bad breath lol, he was getting backwind of his own breath.
Anyway when you're working hard and paying taxes and touting that we should help the poor, cuz Ronnie is on that roster. You work hard to pay for his sorry ass and many like him.
There is a guy I used to go to school with who says he wants to work but in truth he'd rather be smoking weed. When he gets a job he then b*tches he's not paid enough. He wants paid the same as people who've worked for the company for years. Well he loses yet another job or just quits and happy and high, then say's "hey I tried", damn corporations don't want to pay people. A year goes by and the same thing.
You middle class will be working hard to pay for both of their medical needs too and if you need help, you'll get nothing.
The middle class better start worrying about yourselves.
Yep, I know what you are talking about. I always believed in having good health care insurance. Our insurance did pay as promised when I almost died 2 years ago and I paid my deductible as agreed. The insurance policy was tailored to our needs.
Now Obamacare, my premiums went up $200 per month, my deductible is now $5000 (doubled) and at 55 I now have maternity care and dental for kids I don't have. Nice huh? Yep, we are paying the bill for the poor but can not get help should and since one of us did become poor.
jerseygal, I was surprised to learn what you say is true. I know a girl who is working her butt off, she doesn't make much and can't afford insurance. I didn't ask the specifics but I thought Obamacare was supposed to take care of that?
There are still a lot of people out there who tried to apply for a Health Care Marketplace policy, looked at the price tag WITHOUT the calculated subsidy, and decided it was too high. When you get the subsidy, it is PERFECT for the working poor (I'm one of them).
We act as if it is our right to live for the rest of our life in our homes, regardless of the cost and our medical need. We act as if our children and family can go off and live their lives and not help take care of older family members because all people have the right to live their lives, unencumbered. We act as if our value structure is better or right, while others that often we don't even know or understand, are wrong. We forget that people are living longer lives now, care is more expensive, and families are more split and less supportive of each other. We either decide as a society that we pay more taxes and the government helps more seniors to live independently as long as they can. Or we accept that life isn't fair. It is what it is.
If the government only has so much money to allocate, arbitrary lines will be drawn based on income. The government is also incredibly shortsighted, and STATE interests conflict with NATIONAL interests when it comes to how late in life care is paid for. Reform is needed there, no doubt.
We forget how health insurance works. I don't "want" to pay for prostate cancer, prostate exams, viagra and more since I am a woman not a man. But I want my father and uncles and cousins and other men in society to get this so I pay so that they cover my female specific needs. We forget that the only way health insurance can effectively cover me if I get hit by a car tomorrow, or develop pancreatic cancer, or develop dementia is to cover everyone for the unexpected because you never know what will happen. We forget that the amazing benefit from Obamacare that now you cannot be denied health insurance if you lose your job, lose your insurance and have a pre-existing condition is worth paying for. So healthy people pay, and sick people pay, young people pay, and old people pay. You never know when you will transition from one group to another.
Yes, health care is expensive. The burden of living in an amazing brilliant society that makes these incredible new medical discoveries, new drugs, new treatments is that we then feel like we have the right to have them all. That unfortunately, can't continue, but we are scared to admit this. THANK GOODNESS we have a political climate now where someone has the guts to try to reform it. It will continue to change as our current system is still not great so keep talking keep complaining but also DO something. Think critically. Listen to both sides. Talk to your politicians. Talk to your colleagues. And vote. Punish politicians that only want to do what keeps them in office and gets them to win their next election. We have to think about the long term and society and become a little less self centered.
The becoming a little less self centered is the hardest part.
Unfortunately, most others in society only think about these issues once they are affected themselves. We are not good planners. It will take time, but most families will eventually be affected by a health care crisis. The very rich in this country will always live a different path and have more resources that will shelter them, and unfortunately their money and donations to political campaigns carry a lot of weight. So speak up politically. And realize that life will unfortunately, never be fair.
We are learning the hard way that managing late in life care is challenging, unpredictable, expensive, frustrating, painful, and can be crushing to our ever evolving and weakening family structures. These situations bring out the best, and worst in people. Rather than ranting and alienating others and making sweeping generalizations that are misleading at best, we need to educate, think critically, re-evaluate our values and talk about what we want our society to be.
Well, I'm glad the working poor can afford health insurance. As the working middle class, we can barely afford it - and we get no subsidies. Not only that, many of us experienced our policy premiums DOUBLING - with less coverage. We're not getting a subsidy, we're paying other peoples' subsidies.
With no tax writeoffs for our charitable donation either. Just higher taxes in fact. On top of higher premiums. And higher deductibles.
There really need to be charities for the middle class who find themselves in this situation. It would help the economy if workers could continue to work while holding onto the bulk of their assets through life transitions such as these. There is enough wealth that this is doable. This coupled with really addressing the rising costs of medical care, which was made worse by government subsidized insurance.
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