These are quotes for a 38 year old man, non-smoker. I chose this number because someone mentioned late thirties. If you cant afford the health insurance for kids, then you shouldnt have them.
If you read my post, it's about a castastrophic medical emergency for someone who had no trouble insuring their kids. It happens every day to someone.
I find it interesting that you have a problem with these people being bankrupted to pay for their own healthcare, but you have no problem bankrupting people who are not family members by making THEM pay for it (the citizens). Someone has to pay for it, and the correct person to pay for it is the person who needs it and anyone willing to help them (direct family). You cant wave a magic wand and have the government pay for it, because thats really just us paying for it, and why should I have to pay someone elses crazy med expenses??? If they didnt prepare properly with insurance, and made poor decisions in life so they have shit coverage, then they should lie in the bed they made and not rob me of my money to pay for them. I have my own medical to pay for. This is shortsightedness.
You already stated this coverage really already existed. The bottom safety net is there. If you are broke and go to an ER, you get care. Wheres the problem? If you have to burn thru all your finances to pay for your medical care before it reaches this point, then good. We shouldnt rob from other people to pay for you anyway. Thats exactly how it should be. You pay up everything you can, and only then the the safety net kicks in. The last thing we need is a medical welfare state.
If you can afford medical insurance for kids, then you already have great catastrophic insurance coverage. I can get catastrophic health insurance for under $100/month. This covers up to 5 MILLION dollars in med bills.
Co-pays are a rip-off if you're self-insured. And I'm guessing you have a low-deductible policy...trying to get as close as possible to "first dollar coverage." Another very bad idea, at least from an actuarial standpoint. Your premiums could be slashed way down...even more so if you were willing to move to certain parts of the country. And you can get up to $6 million/person max coverage for just a little more premium with some carriers. But hardly anyone ever spends $2 million in health care cost. Christopher Reeves was one of the only cases I'm aware of. Based on this, the rest of your post (national health care, etc.) should be taken with a grain of salt. Sorry, but I hope your trading involves more careful planning, calculations and due diligence than your health insurance shopping did...
First of all, I wasn't whining about our situation. We don't pay a cent for health insurance, it's covered under our compensation. That is what the company pays. However, we are unusual to have the company paying every cent for the best insurance available, because the other company employees have to choose their plan and pay out of pocket. If any of us got sick, we can and would go to the best specialist in the US for whatever it was. I wasn't talking about my own situation, but using it to illustrate how even people whom you would not think would be affected could be affected. I was whining for the middle class americans who don't have our options, which is likely most of the posters here. I guess when you get to a certain level of personal comfort, you care more about those who don't have it. When you're crawling up the ladder, you're more inclined to think only about yourself. Back when we were struggling, we were the most Republican, because we didn't care if the rich got a $500,000 tax break so long as we got $1000. Very shortsighted. When your own life is good, you want better for others too. And may those of you who don't feel this way be in a financial position to feel this way someday too. Only the most callous of the rich feel the need to stick it to the little guy, but they are out there, today's Republican party is the perfect example of it.
LOL! I just saw that little hidden insult in the last paragraph. If you go back on my notes, you will find that my first post on this forum said I was fully vested in this market...when everyone here was calling for a recession and yelling at the one bull posting, and calling for shorts. Yes, I do quite a bit of due diligence on everything I do. I'm up 400% for the last 3 years, and that's just going long. I'm up 20% on all assets for the last month (because I went all long 3 months ago). I'm also the one, probably the only one a week ago, who thought Nasdaq was due for the move more than the DOW. Thank you for worrying about my finances, I think I'm doing ok.
Try this link for an expanded look at what government funded research has started. http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=sr-108-2-2