Rick, my comment was a FACT, used to defend against her very unfair and inaccurate assessment of our health care industry.

When people don't have FACTS to defend their position, they often choose to attack a person, and not the argument. Rick, if you want to debate Obamacare with me without personal attacks, bring it on.

Petey, wonderful post about personal responsibility.

Carrie, I am not going to go into my personal specifics on a public bulletin board, but if you would like assistance finding health insurance, then please feel free to message me.

In the meantime, here is an option that may work for you depending on where you live.

https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/plans/freelancers-insurance-company/2012/health/

Hi Island: Thanks for the link. Unfortunately there are not options for my state and zip code per the website.

This support group should be about support, knowledge and compassion. Even if we cannot relate to someone's particular life situations, it doesnt cost anyone, anything, to show some compassion and support. Support should be something that is reciprocated and offered freely. We are all in this together..rich or poor.

Carrie, If you pm me your state, I'll try to help you.

And regarding compassion, there also needs to be compassion on the middle class for being taxed up, down, and sideways to pay for everyone else. It has created dependence on the state and a sense of entitlement. This taxation is not compassion, it's socialism.

The key phrase you use is "offered freely." Obamacare forces the middle class to once again pay more than their fair share. It's not offered freely. Donating to charity is an example of offering freely.

Island- Thank you for your offer to help me find insurance. I do appreciate it. I was more interested in cost comparison based on personal experience but I fully understand that you do not want to share that. After all, I am a stranger. This all may be a moot point for me if I get hired at my local hospital since my intent is to change careers (Real Estate Appraiser to Emergency Medical Technician).

My comment of support and compassion did not have anything to do with politics, health care, obama care or any of the above. It meant that we are not here on this support group/website to argue about political views and what is wrong and right with our country. I come here to seek support and compassion and reciprocate the same to others on this site. Perhaps after all this time I may belong to the wrong online support group.

You are absolutely right Carrie. I apologize for my part in it.

I'm not sure what state you are in but I think you would have a hard time finding insurance without a high deductible that is realistically affordable. I researched abit to see if I could find a better deal than I pay to continue my insurance through COBRA. Nothing reasonable.

Marikay: By the way, congratulations on your retirement! :) My mom was an RN for 39 years in the OR and retired at 64 so she had to go with COBRA until her Medicare benefits kicked in this year (she turned 65). She is loving life in retirement after all those years of nursing service.

I love this group and this is the place I come to feel like I belong among like minds (fellow a-fibbers). I have learned so much here from the knowledgeable, well researched posts provided by various members of our group and found an understanding of what others go though when they share their personal experiences with A-fib.

As I am older than most on here and pay medicare and I am not on medicare as long as in Colroado. I Pay Rocky Mountain and am on that. Medicare pays some to Rocky Mountain for me too.

RM was the only other med ins I could find in this county. Totally I pay $225 amonth. RM guy said they would cover my lab cost inless really fancy tests and then only part. I was being charger a copay and I ask my ins why and they said because hosptal was billing an office visit. Told be ask the hosptal why. I did and they said they charged that for getting my INR test at thge clinic. If I would go to lab only my Ins would cover it. I called my Dr he would have to monitor me as I could not afford the clinic for test. He set it up with the local Dr to monitor me and put a standing order in to the lab. My RM Ins is covering it now. Some times you have to do things to cut costs. I could not afford the higher ins and pay that copay too. I do pay copays for Drs. visits.

I am still waiting to see what I owe for Dec when I had the flu. When you are so sick your are passing out you have to get help. Hospital has a billing company do it for them. They have been billing medicare and I am not on medicare. This is 7 months. RM has billed me so far $11 which I paid. When you are Afib hit you head like that you need to be check.

Joyce had lung cancer and the big city hosptai treated her with no ins or money. Here I can not get my drugs as cheap as other places. One pharmacy here and they do not do those $4 and $10 prescriptions. Still not that bad. Couple are almost $20 and other two cheaper yet. This little town does not have free clinic but big city has clinic that works with them. I would guess if you had no money or ins the clinic here would do something for you.

In town where I was the Drs office had sign up to pay your copay before service. Ins I have now is not that way. I pay all ins copays to the ins co. My ins situation is way different because of age.

I feel very fortunate to be on Medicare.
$104.90 is deducted from my monthly Social Security check. I'm on AARP's United Healthcare Medicare Advantage Plan.
In San Francisco we pay no additional monthly premium. My cost of Warfarin is $4/month. I go to the lab for blood tests. No charge. My doctors office calls me with the results. No charge. My PCP co-pay
is $5. Specialist co-pay $10.

Wow, glad I don't read posts here much. Always wondered what frequent posters were like if you scratched below the charm. Now I know. Byebyebyebye . Liljohny

Here is a website that Federally qualified health centers and lists them by state.

http://www.hrsa.gov/healthit/toolbox/RuralHealthITtoolbox/Introduction/qualified.html

petey

"that answers questions about" I left off...

Its great you can provide resources for CJ, and that is the use of this site. I wish to comment, tho, since I work in the health care industry and am quite familiar with health care policy. I also hold a PhD in social sciences, so (at the risk of stirring the pot) I just want to make a few observations.

(1) While it is somewhat true that "If you are sick or injured and go to a public hospital emergency room, they cannot turn you down" that is just for emergency care. It is not true for ongoing care, chronic care or complex care. Which, BTW, is often the case with longterm afib.
(2) Obamacare is not really socialized medicine. It is still based on a private, profit based insurance system (3) It is not true that US has the "best" medical system in the world. In many areas (infant mortality for example) we are on the middle-lower ranges. And it is no longer true that patients come from all over the world for care. What is true is that we have some medical "stars" that attract certain patients, but not our system as a whole. Much of Europe, Germany especially, has excellent care and less profit-based intervention. I have many medical colleagues in Germany and am very familiar with their system (4) Although we can argue "American exceptionalism" I think we would do well to examine why most countries do not support private profit driven systems for "social services" (education, health care, etc.)

I think its important to draw medical conclusions from experts in the field, not necessarily from political rhetoric and/or news sources. Since "Obamacare" (aka AHA) hasn't begun, we don't really know the costs.

All of us (myself included) with Atrial Fibrillation will need to keep abreast of the developments, and not to jump to political conclusions.

Yeah, we do know of the costs, which is why it's being delayed a year.
Under Obamacare, insurance companies will now be required to pay for things they never had to such as extremely expensive gastric bypass elective surgery, wellness programs etc. So guess what they'll do? Raise the premiums.

And they're charging an annual fee to health care providers. Theyre also imposing a 40 percent excise tax on health insurance premiums above $10,200 a year for individuals ( that would be mine) Think your company's health insurance will pay for it? Nope. They'll pass it on to employers who will find its so much cheaper just to stop providing health insurance and pay the penalty. So kiss your employer based health insurance goodbye. Now you'll be thrown into one of those lovely exchanges that you'll pay for.

And who is going to pay for Obamacare. You will. Your sky high taxes are about to soar even higher. There will be an increase on your Medicare taxes. There will be an annual fee to makers of drugs. You think the drug company will pay for it? Nope. Drugs will cost more. And ditto for medical devices. Then there's the floor raising of medical deductions on your taxes. And a new limit on how much you can put away tax free for your flexible spending account.

Then there are all the reductions in Medicare benefits.

And..
I never said the US had the best medical care in the world, I said it was among the tops, and that people fly from all over the world to come here.

Memorial Sloan Kettering patients read like a who's who... You don't want to go to the UK for cancer treatment. Check the stats.

And youve heard about the Canadian Premier who flew to the US to have heart surgery. You will note that he didnt fly to Australia.