[ApplegateRanch]

As to health insurance...

The CHEAPEST general medical coverage my wife & I could find, when I quit working for wages in 97, was just over $5,000/year.

Then, the state of Oregon's legislature, under the guidance of the then physician-governor, UNANIMOUSLY passed legislation requiring ALL health insurance policies sold in Oregon to contain maternity benefits. That, plus another added "benefit" we did not need, and could never, lacking an unwanted miracle, added $75/month to the premiums.

We added up the outflow, looked at out-of-pocket before benefits would kick in, and decided that it was a bad "investment".

That was 9 years ago, and when we dropped, that was $6,000+/year not going down a drain. In the mean time, we have spent less than one year's worth of premiums on "covered" medical expenses, a net savings of well over $45,000 that went to things WE wanted to spend it on.

We are NOT wealthy, and we are uninsured, but not without medical care...the Democrats must hate us.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"We are NOT wealthy, and we are uninsured, but not without medical care...the Democrats must hate us."

I'm thinking of dropping our health insurance, too. We pay for it ourselves as small business owners and it costs us close to $5,400.00 year, too. I'm thnking of dropping me because I'm healthy as a horse, though DH has a few meds he needs and has had two spinal surgeries already with probably more in his future, poor guy. (Bad discs.)

It is a cr@p shoot, that's for sure. If we didn't have insurance when he needed his surgeries, we'd still be paying off over $100,000.00 in hospital bills, so I'm a little nervous to go completely cold-turkey, though I'd love to.