What if you don't have health insurance in America?

Discuss culture, living, traveling, relocating, dating or anything related to North America. For those looking to relocate within the US or Canada, discuss your experiences and pros/cons of each domestic region.
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Contrarian Expatriate
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Post by Contrarian Expatriate »

I have full health coverage via my employer, but it is not cheap because I have to pay about $90 a month for it.

Most other Americans get their coverage from their employers too.

I have to tell you that those without coverage who objected to "Obamacare" are about as dumb as boxes of rocks. They permitted politicians to convince them into something against their own best interest. When they finally get deathly ill, and are turned away due to not having coverage, they stand to get a little bit smarter (but not a lot).

Nobody wants to pay health insurance until they absolutely have to have it. I could invest that money in the stock market, but my health is more important than a few extra thousand dollars over the long haul.
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MrPeabody
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Post by MrPeabody »

I am self insured. In Mexico, I can visit the doctor at the local pharmacy for about 5 dollars to get simple prescriptions. Also, one thing I like here is that you keep all your tests. They don't store anything. So, for example, I have all my blood tests and even ultrasounds. This is useful information that you never see if you go to a US doctor. There is suppose to be an exception to Obamacare for people who live outside the country. But, I am not sure of the details of how you prove you are outside the US. It would be useful to have this information here.
gsjackson
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Post by gsjackson »

MrPeabody wrote: There is suppose to be an exception to Obamacare for people who live outside the country. But, I am not sure of the details of how you prove you are outside the US. It would be useful to have this information here.
Would it necessarily involve anything more than just submitting your tax return with a foreign address? Right now the only enforcement mechanism for the forced purchase of insurance, as far as I know, is witholding any tax return due. Simply ask them on your return to note the address outside the country.

Detecting people who might do this fraudulently is one of many foreseeable enforcement problems with Obamacare. It's also foreseeble that a whole new layer of money-draining bureaucracy will be created to handle enforcement -- another potentially large cost of our "system," to go along with the enormous layer of bureaucracy in the insurance companies set up for the sole purpose of denying coverage.

It simply is not possible for this country to do sound public policy any more. Calling Obamacare reform is a joke. It only entrenches even further the insurance companies that are the heart of the problem.
targetguy
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tax enforcement

Post by targetguy »

:wink: The way i understand the new healthcare law is that if people dont have health care coverage the government will take the money out of their tax return and it will be strickly enforced that way also. If people dont pay their taxes they can expect to go to prison, sad to say america is getting closer daily to a stazi type society with satallite terorism and prison time for no health care.
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zboy1
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Health Insurance Premiums Sky Rocket Ahead Of Obamacare

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targetguy
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outrageous health care costs

Post by targetguy »

8) Most people cannot afford these high health care premiums and hopefully somone will come up with catastrophic coverage only for this obama care. myself i have veterans coverage but a family is not included in that. MOST PEOPLE IF THEY WATCH THERE DIET AND HAVE NATURAL CURES DONT NEED DOCTORS.
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Winston
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Post by Winston »

Check out this Michael Moore documentary called "Sicko (2007)" where he reports on the horrors and corruption of the healthcare industry in America, and compares it to other countries. I could only find one that had Korean subtitles.



I don't understand something. Why does healthcare in the US bankrupt people but not in other countries?

Why can't the US have national healthcare, like Hillary Clinton tried to enact? Is it because the medical industry has bought off all the politicians in Congress? Or is there more to it than that?

Why make Obamacare mandatory? Why not just let people who want coverage pay for it? It doesn't make sense.

How come in Taiwan, taxes are very low, yet people have national healthcare? According to US politicians, that's impossible. So how did Taiwan achieve it? I thought national healthcare required people to pay 50 percent of their income in taxes, like in Sweden. How does Taiwan get around that or afford it? Momopi?
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gsjackson
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Post by gsjackson »

Winston wrote:Why can't the US have national healthcare, like Hillary Clinton tried to enact? Is it because the medical industry has bought off all the politicians in Congress? Or is there more to it than that?
It's not so much the AMA's opposition anymore. Many doctors would prefer a national single-payer system, after years of the nightmare of dealing with insurance companies. Health insurance companies and Big Pharma are the main political obstacles to any kind of rational health care system, and they shell out some big bucks to keep the pols in pocket. Hillary Clinton didn't propose a single-payer system. She was playing ball with insurance and pharma. The Clintons have made their careers out of accommodating the powers that be.
momopi
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Post by momopi »

Winston wrote: How come in Taiwan, taxes are very low, yet people have national healthcare? According to US politicians, that's impossible. So how did Taiwan achieve it? I thought national healthcare required people to pay 50 percent of their income in taxes, like in Sweden. How does Taiwan get around that or afford it? Momopi?
...while you're enjoying the fruits of TW's national healthcare system, have you considered those who had to pay the price and work hard to provide it?
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-776292

"TIMMYHSIEH
April 19, 2012
The whole healthcare system in Taiwan is a biggest fake success in the world.
CNN reporters who said Taiwan National Health Insurance system is a wonderful policy are stupid and senseless.
They nerve touch the core and nucleus of this system, because they only got the official propaganda and attended the government brainwashing conferences. They never visited and talked with the young physicians and nurses.
I am a doctor. We called ourselves the medical slaves. And the dirty things run everyday in this dirty system. For example, reuse something that can be used for single use. Only VIP has the right to use the brand new medical material.
Wake up, CNN reporters.
Stop believing Taiwan official propaganda. I treat that like North Korea handbills."


If you watch or read the local news, you'd understand that TW's health care system is in deficit. By the next decade, they may need to increase premiums by 100% just to break even.

So, when are you going to stop wasting time asking about TW and go to China?
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Winston
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Post by Winston »

Momopi,
I would be wary of US propaganda. US politicians lied about Canadians having bad healthcare. In the documentary above, Michael Moore interviewed many Canadians and they said they did NOT have to wait long at all to receive treatment at the hospital, and that they were fully covered and were never refused treatment. Same in the UK, France, and even Cuba.

Listen to what real everyday people tell you, not lying politicians and media.

Momopi, I've asked you MANY times but you refuse to answer. Do you understand that politicians and media LIE very often? If so, why do you believe everything you hear from corporate media?

Why is the USA the only industrialized country without universal healthcare? Even Cuba has it, and their citizens are happy with it. The USA lied about everyone else being worse off.
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