I've come to dislike this time of year. Instead of the glories of fall and winter, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, the start of college basketball and the end of college football, now I associate it with finding out how your benefits are going to be ever so slightly reduced and the cost increased.
My husband got his company's new benefit information today.
I like the company my husband works for, more importantly, he likes it, and my complaints are not with them.
I'm not going to go into the intricacies of the plan, but the cost of our healthcare is going up 40%. 40%! How many Americans can afford a 40% increase in healthcare costs.
I used to be one of those small steps to get to universal health care is the way to go, now I say f*** that and we need it now. People are dying of treatable or preventable diseases. People are living and working in considerable pain forced to forgo treatment or meds because of their prohibative cost. Doctors are spending way to much time fighting for coverage for their patients rather than treating patients. Enough.
Sadly, I know from personal experience just how little coverage insurance can provide. And we had what was considered really good insurance. For about six months, I was paying out of pocket about $1500 a month for my own medical issues before the insurance company decided I actually needed treatment. I am lucky, first, my condition isn't life threatening and secondly, we could afford the treatment.
I'm terrified of the next edict of insurance companies. How long until they decide their are diseases they aren't going to cover because it's too expensive or certain types of people they won't cover.
My husband and I will be okay, but the customer care people, admins, and other people there making less than $50,000 are going to hurt.
How are you getting screwed by the murder by spreadsheet industry next year?