Ruined by Health Care: . . *Even with Insurance We Weren't Safe*

[annabanana]

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/135939/ruined_by_health_care%3A_my_family_learned_that_even_with_insurance_we_weren%27t_safe_from_financial_ruin/

excerpt:
"The insurance companies cannot answer the most vexing question my husband and I -- and so many others -- ask: if "health insurance" does not pay for healthcare when people need it, then what exactly do those words mean? And all this says nothing about the fact that my husband had the foresight to purchase long-term-care coverage. The problem is that it nominally covers long-term care but does not cover its actual cost.

I am often told there is a shocking quality to our story -- it prompts a realization that if this could happen to someone like me, it could happen to anyone. But of course there is little that ought to surprise us; political connections are bound to be of little avail in the face of a problem politics has refused to address."

[Orrex]

1. This is a sad and ugly truth

When I had full coverage, my eyes were opened to the problem of being insured but being unable to make use of it. With the deductible and out-of-pocket and copays and all the rest, anything but the most basic care was prohibitively expensive, despite paying thousands of dollars per year for our "insurance."

I suspect that my experience is not unique. The number of "unaffordably insured" is probably comparable to the number uninsured, and in many ways the two are the same; if someone has insurance but can't afford to use it, that's functionally the same as having no insurance at all.

We've been fortunate in that we haven't required longterm care, but it's disgusting that insurance is allowed to persist as a for-profit enterprise at the expense of its nominal beneficiaries.