Healthcare

[Buslady]

Oz has free medical & dental as well.


anyways, yeah dental insurance means nothing. I dont have it. i have a $4600 bill for two crowns, a few fillings and cleaning. This $#!+ is expensive!
and i'm not done yet. after i get this paid, i need surgery to remove 5 teeth, one is nothing but roots...2 wisdoms and 2 broken rotting things. that'll be what? my leg arm and ear?

[AristaNiara]

As many of you know, I moved to Alberta, Canada due to my job which I ended up getting laid off of.  I'm living with a friend of mine now and money is REALLY tight.  I'm trying so hard to find a new job out here which will allow me to stay here.  Especially after I had gotten some REALLY bad news...My endometriosis has flared up and at the moment, I need to start seeing a specialist and there is a high possibility that i will need another surgery to burn off the endo.  I also found out that my window to have kids is closing rapidly.  I don't have a choice in this matter.

If I were to come back to the US like my family wants me to do, I wouldn't be able to get the surgery for several years.  The first surgery put me and my family in the hole $1500 and that was WITH insurance.  That's not including all the other doctor's appointments that had followed just to keep it under control.

If I came back to the US to get my surgery, I'd have A LOT of issues with insurance since some insurance companies won't cover the surgery due to many companies not feeling "extreem pain" is no basis to get surgery.  They'd rather say "Here's some prescription pain killers to get addicted to for your pain."  Hey, pain killers are cheaper to hand out than to give someone a surgery roughly every 5 years.  So the surgery might end up getting paid for out of MY pocket so paying back college loans + MAJOR money for surgery + missed pay from work, I'd be as many would say $#@&ed.

If I stay in Alberta, endometriosis is completely covered.  Now you all know why although I've had nothing but trouble up here, I'm trying to stay up here.

[Machias_B]

I Hate healthcare with a passion...

I got laid-off back in May, and was put onto COBRA insurance. I've had problems with this since day one.

1. They put me on Retirement. At 24? I wish...
2. They overcharge me while undercovering me
3. A couple months back, out of the blue, I received a refund for ALL of my payments made from May up to Sept. About $1,500.00  Confused, I call up the benefits people, TWICE, and they assure me, "Oh yes, this is fine... you should have been on Severance. Our mistake..." Both me and my mom's spidey-senses were tingling... so I cashed the check and put it away.

So, I'm not receiving any letters, no bills... I"m thinking "This is GREAT! that's 300$ a month that I can use for other bills and stuff.." One night, I just happened to go onto my internet information about my billing, Just out of curiosity. Imagine my surprise when I read, "You owe us $2,600+ Now, or you lose your coverage from the start of May on.."

I call them again. "Oh I'm sorry... because you weren't there a full year, you owe us that money back PLUS the months after that. We did call you about it." When? Really... cuz I was HOME all day. "We'll call you right back about what to do."

So here I am, three days before that cancel was going to go into effect, low on cash and losing my mind. The DAY BEFORE... I finally get a call. They put a hold on my account, and put notes in so that I could pay everything in a couple months. YET... this gets better.

I receive my first piece of paper document from them in about... 4 months. THIS bill... marked the day after talking to these people on the 4th.... I get it One week before Christmas. "Pay by January first, or lose coverage."

Needless to say, I wanna go set fire to their building. Cleaning out all the money and accounts I had wouldn't pay off the whole bill. I ended up getting a loan from my brother, and just barely got it there in time.

So now, I am my brother's slave, AND I am trying hard as hell to get a job so I can drop this garbage coverage.

[Lisardo]

Scratch what I said before.  Got laid off from my job and am now unemployed.  But now I don't have health coverage either....sweet.  Thankfully I'm pretty healthy and rarely go.  But still, it's the security of having it....gone now. 

[BubblyShell22]

I totally feel your pain, guys. I'm unemployed at the moment because there are no jobs out there for me to get. I graduated from college on May 19, 2008, and this May 19 will be a year since I've graduated. I honestly thought that having a college degree would make my job prospects easier, but I'm wrong about that. Plus, I was worried because in December I lost my health insurance because they changed the date. It was originally supposed to be gone when I turned 26, but they changed it to December 31. So, I'm panicking because in the summer I have to go to three eye doctors, and I didn't have insurance. But luckily that has changed. I now have a good insurance plan which actually covers my prosthetic eye, something my dad's insurance didn't do because they deemed it as cosmetic. So, I'm very relieved. I'm sorry you guys are having trouble with things, but at least I know I'm not alone.

[Machias_B]

Well... we had an interesting new development at work today...

Apparently our insurance (CIGNA) is Mandating that all insured people provide their Blood pressures, cholesterols, blood sugars and BMIs to be put into a database. IF you decide not to do it, they will withdraw 15$ our of each paycheck UNTIL you do it. And no, the money is not given back...

The thing I don't like about this is, the insurance companies do this 'database' in order to create high-risk pools where if the people in these categories do not 'conform/improve' their current conditions to the 'satisfactory level', they will either raise your costs sky-high or deny coverage. the rep said they're not doing this 'yet'.

My brother dealt with the same thing at his job. They check your blood sugar, cholesterol, BP, and your neck measurement. the ONLY thing against him was that he's overweight. The company said he had to get a document from his DOCTOR saying he was not too overweight to DRIVE a BUS. THEN they re-approved him for his job.

This whole situation at work just Screams HIPAA law violations....

[Raphael]

That just doesn't seem right that they can do that...