Different Universes

With a few exceptions as I first entered the working world, I've been self-employed.  Thus, for me, "benefits" were non-existent.  If I wanted retirement assets, that meant that I had to save what I earned.  If I wanted health care, I had to find an individual policy and pay for it.  My (second) husband did own his own company and paid for insurance for the two of us through that group.  But, when I was on my own, no "company" did anything for me.  I was "the one."

Have costs gone up dramatically for people like me?  Uh - to put it coarsely, does a bear shit in the woods?  As of my next pay period, my cost for health insurance rises to just over $750 a month for myself only.  Given that I am a struggling Realtor, you do not want to know what percentage of my current income this is.

"Why not go without?" you may then ask me.  Don't think it hasn't crossed my mind.  But - the "good news/bad news" is that I do have savings that I have accrued over the years.  So, if I remained relatively healthy with nothing dire arising, I would be far better simply forgoing insurance.  Yet - what if something awful happened?  One incident could be $50,000 - or far more.  Ongoing cancer treaments could enter the hundreds of thousands.  So - I write the checks each month, wince - and plan to do far more research in the near future to see what other options might be out there for me.

Thus.... when my friends who belong to unions or whose employer is government start to moan and wail about paying a portion of their income toward their benefits - please forgive me while I want to upchuck.

Thursday's news harks back to 2003, the last time Southern California grocery workers and their employers faced a standoff over labor issues. The 141-day strike and lockout that began that fall left many union members with staggering debts. It reportedly cost the employers an estimated $2 billion and gave competitors an opportunity to step into the gap.

Now, as in 2003, one key sticking point is healthcare. What's at issue is a painfully common refrain in corporate America: medical costs are rising.

Under the latest offer from the employers, grocery workers would pay $9 a week for individual coverage and $23 a week for a family, company and union officials said.

The grocers say these premiums are necessary to help offset rising healthcare costs and augment the amount Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons are agreeing to pay into a trust fund that purchases healthcare for workers. But union officials say that what the employers have proposed to pay during negotiations on the complex deal is far short of what is necessary and would ultimately gut the trust fund. Instead, union officials say, the employers need to pay more in order for the fund to be viable long term.

 $9 a week for health insurance, huh? I think one of my ancestors paid that in the late 1800s.

Comments

[Steve Oliver]

This is similar to what we have been through in Wisconsin with our public employees (especially teachers). They believe the taxpayer should continually ccough up enough for them to have no stake in their retirement or healthcare. The biggest problem with healthcare costs is that no one has "a dog in the fight" anymore. Someone else pays the premium in many cases, so who cares what it costs. And Obamacare won't make it better. In fact, I see an 80-20 chance of Obamacare making the problem worse and Socialized healthcare will make the problem worse by orders of magnitude.

Healthcare is not a human right, a civil right or even a natural right according to the Constitution. It is a commodity to be purchased. To take money from one at the point of a gun to provide healthcare to another is a bigger sin than being unable to pay for healthcare.

[wheels]

I know where you're coming from with the "one incident" concern. I tend to be a fairly healthy guy. Having spent a year out of work, and working now for about half of what I made three years ago, I'd been going without insurance - the lowest-priced insurance I'd found for someone my age was $200/month with a $10K deductible.

Then I broke an ankle. I ended up going with just a cast, for a total of about $3K in direct costs, including the emergency room. If I'd had the operation that was recommended, I'd have spent at least $20K.

All of those prices take a 40% discount for not having insurance into account.

[Moncler Jakke Dame]

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