Saturday, September 26, 2009
Insurance saga continues...
When we added Jack to the individual policy that M has it bumped us up to $538 a month out-of-pocket. When I see that number, combined with what we pay for rent, we could be paying a mortgage on a house of our own. It kills me. My whole family is healthy, we hardly use health care. October 1 is the renewal date for their policy each year. You want to guess how much the premium is going up this year? Try $91 in one year, a 17% increase. We're not rich people, folks. $7548 is a significant amount of money for us over a year's time.

We deliberated over this increase and decided to bump up our deductible and just keep enough in our Money Market to cover it. Our current deductible is $750. Now, guess what the next step up is, without having to totally re-apply and be underwritten again? $2500. Is it any wonder why people despise insurance companies? We did it anyway. We mainly need insurance for something catastrophic, but this is really driving that point home. By increasing our deductible by that much we get our monthly premium back down to $518, which somehow I can live with.

Don't ask me what happens when they do this to us again next year. And then there's this:
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.

Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot. Is this really what the Democratic leadership has in mind? Really?
Written at 9:42 AM by Highlandgal.
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