Re: Personal medical savings accounts

[Guest guest]

How do we make enough money to put into these accounts to pay for our care?

Yes, they're a great supplement to medical plans, but I don't think many

people could afford to get treatment from what they could sav e. It's

certainly part of the solution, but not all of it I'm afraid.

[Guest guest]

the plan actually has some merits dispite what some people think. this is

money that you are having to shell out for your medical expenses anyway,

like the co-pay on my insurance for example. if you can estimate how much

you are going to spend out of pocket, then why not save it in an account so

its there. also, this is taken from your gross check, and is not subject to

taxes.

dave

> How do we make enough money to put into these accounts to pay for our

care?

> Yes, they're a great supplement to medical plans, but I don't think many

> people could afford to get treatment from what they could sav e. It's

> certainly part of the solution, but not all of it I'm afraid.

>

>

[Guest guest]

> the plan actually has some merits dispite what some people think. this is

> money that you are having to shell out for your medical expenses anyway,

That assumes that you are able to work steadily, and have money to shell

out! I have been ill a lot since early childhood...often went without

insurance in my adult years because I lost jobs due to illness, and the

insurance that went with them, and did not always qualify for government

disability and insurance either, because I could not get an accurate

diagnosis, and was too chronically fatigued to fight for it.

Try getting diagnosed when you have to go to free or low cost clinics and

see different doctors every time! I couldn't get a diagnosis even when I was

still living at home, and my father's job had excellent insurance. Once I

was sick enough to be hospitalized, they went through 3 or 4 diagnoses,

before just eventually throwing antibiotics at me, and I got better enough

to go back to school. OTOH, If I had gotten that diagnosis sooner, maybe

none of the companies I worked for would never have hired me at all, due to

insurance issues, so I may not have been able to work even during my

remission times.

I think people who had this hit them later in life forget what it is like

for the long-term chronically ill. Lord help me and my children if we had to

qualify for benefits based on a program I paid into during my spotty work

career.

I cannot believe how much better I have been able to work and concentrate

since I started to feel the effects of the antibiotics on the brain fog and

fatigue, and pain. How on earth did I ever manage to work at all, or get a

college degree? Liz G

[Guest guest]

Cause like so many others on this list, you are one damn determined

intelligent woman and my hat is off to you and all the others who fight this

battle!

Mark

> From: " Liz G. " <pioneer@...>

>

How on earth did I ever manage to work at all, or get a

> college degree? Liz G

[Guest guest]

In the present system, the medically insured receive less medical care

than those on welfare and NO ONE but government

bureaucrats or impersonal insurance company clerks make the rules.

I beg your pardon but have you ever been on " welfare " ? The only welfare

there is available in the US is if you want to call it that, Social

security disability and retirement and SSI or ADC, aid to dependent

children. A person can only now get adc for two years, once in a

lifetime. If you qualify for disability or retirement and didnt earn

enough to get social security you can get on SSI, supplemental security

income. If any one else working is in your household you can not get

SSI. You go through the same long grueling process for disability on

either program, in fact it is the same process running concurrently.

With Medicare disability or retirement you get no drug coverage at all

and pay 40 some dollars a month premium, coinsurance and deductables.

Many doctors will not accept Medicare or Medicaid patients anymore. The

very poor on Medicaid now have to pay deductables on things too at least

in my state. This means that many Medicare and medicaid patients dont go

for care they need and with no drug coverage many many Medicare

recipients do not get the medicine that is prescribed for them. Medicare

and medicaid are administered by insurance companies (here its blue

cross) and they have just as many rules as to what isnt covered as for

any other regularly insured people. In most cases when they refuse

something the hospital and doctors who accept Medicare assignment cover

the loss.

These programs certainly help a lot of us who would be dead without them

but many also probably die because of lack of medicine and also care

given to these patients is ofton substandard.

There are now over 44 million working Americans who cannot afford any

health insurance. Millions of working people who live below poverty

level. None of these people could save anything to put into a health

savings account. This is ludicrous. Only those with a high income would

think this was a solution or be able to afford it. And as Liz mentioned

those who got sick at young age or havent been able to work steadily for

a long time certainly couldnt put anything away either.

Your statement probably is applicable to the many people who opted to go

on HMO's especially the Medicare recipients who are now being thrown off

of HMO's by the many thousands because they dont want older people who

are liable to need health care services.