What is your advice?

[ProudLefty]

What! John Wayne is dead!?! Oh, no! When Ronald Reagan dies, there will be no one left, and America will be gone forever.

well, of course, that is the point from Republicans. Ronald Reagan is dead, and America is gone. TEA Partiers believe they can get it back by pushing granny off the cliff.

 

[ProudLefty]

The COBRA plan lets you take over the group insurance rate that your employer was getting. It was a life saver for me. It lasts for 18 months and gives you time to get an alternative plan.

I like the idea of a drug crime. If he demands Oxycodone, he could use it to reduce pain until the cops come.

So, what was your premium cost? Was it a single, double, or family plan?

 

[Lagboltz]

If someone is unemployed, $200/week might as well be $20,000/week. Neither is attainable.

Saying "He should have planned better" is just a silly suggestion.

You are right. I wasn't sticking exactly to Joe's scenario. But for healthy people it smooths the way from retirement to medicare (I was laid off at 62). There are a number of other cases where you are suddenly struck financially and are left with nothing. In that case you are screwed.

It's back to jail as the only option.

 

[Lagboltz]

So, what was your premium cost? Was it a single, double, or family plan?

It was only for me. My wife was working at the Red Cross with her own plan.

 

[ProudLefty]

It was only for me. My wife was working at the Red Cross with her own plan.

Stupid question. I am curious: Why didn't you just add yourself to her plan? (Please don't share personal information, but I am curious.)

 

[Lagboltz]

Oxycodone?!!!

See how little I know! I was just prescribed loads of Oxycodone (well, about 120 pills) when I had my recent surgery, and I just took 2 and hated it!

Just went down the toilet!

You mean to tell me that people actually pay premium price for that crap?
Only 2 upset my stomach for days!

WHAT!!! DOWN THE TOILET??? The street value for that much oxycodone is would be around $1000 or more. An oxycodone addiction is what caused Rush Limbaugh to loose his hearing.

Edit: Oops someone else already caught that.

 

[Openmind]

You are right. I wasn't sticking exactly to Joe's scenario. But for healthy people it smooths the way from retirement to medicare (I was laid off at 62). There are a number of other cases where you are suddenly struck financially and are left with nothing. In that case you are screwed.

It's back to jail as the only option.

I totally agree.

More to the point: This would NOT happen if we had universal health care!

 

[Openmind]

WHAT!!! DOWN THE TOILET??? The street value for that much oxycodone is would be around $1000 or more. An oxycodone addiction is what caused Rush Limbaugh to loose his hearing.

Well, I wouldn't give it to my own friends. I really hated it! And by the way, I kept a few (about 50) of the Hydroxycodone, which seem to not disturb me as much. Still, even in the worse of my pain, I could only take 1 tablet every four hours instead of the 2 recommended!

But. . .If I had known, I would have sent the whole thing to Limbaugh! Free of charge no less!

 

[Lagboltz]

Stupid question. I am curious: Why didn't you just add yourself to her plan? (Please don't share personal information, but I am curious.)

I just talked to wifey. My company allowed me to stay on their insurance till I was 65. It was my wife who went on COBRA until she retired early. After that she got private insurance for a couple of years and paid an arm and leg for it until she got medicare. (The hospital wouldn't pay for her loss of arm and leg because it was a preexisting condition ) My continuing insurance would not cover her. Thank God for medicare. Or maybe I should thank the Liberals for that.

If I were congress I would give everyone medicare.

 

[BigRob]

Joe made a bad error. It may not be too late for him to remedy it. Never, ever, admit you got hurt at home. Make it job-related. Some how, if you get hurt at home, get to work on Monday and have your "accident" there, preferably with witnesses.

Your advice is to dodge personal responsibility, and lie about your injuries in an attempt to make someone else pay for their issue? That is pathetic.

This is the real problem with society, is the death of personal responsibility.

 

[BigRob]

I totally agree.

More to the point: This would NOT happen if we had universal health care!

It also wouldn't happen if we separated healthcare from being tied to your job, and allowed companies to compete across state lines for your business.

 

[BigRob]

A 35 year old American, we'll call him Joe, has worked hard since he was 18 years old. Up until a year ago, he made a good living as a journeyman plumber.

Joe has a wife and two children. Since the children are not in school as yet, Joe's wife only works part time at a preschool. Her earnings are small, and she doesn't get health insurance.

A year ago, Joe fell while at home and ruptured a disk. He tried physical therapy, but to no avail. He needs an operation to fix the problem. The projected cost is $150,000. Since Joe spent his savings on a down payment and closing costs for his house, he didn't have much left in the bank, and that has been eaten up buying food while he was out of work.

Why would you spend your entire life savings on a down payment? That sounds like poor financial planning.

Since Joe has been laid up, he couldn't work and so lost his job. With his job, went his health insurance. Meanwhile, the house he and his wife bought back in '08 for $250,000 with 10% down is now worth $125,000.

Since Joe doesn't have a job, he has not been making the mortgage payments, and so has lost his house and is living in his brother in law's trailer.

The brother in law has also lost his job, and really needs to rent out the trailer.

Until he gets the operation, Joe can't go back to work.

Meanwhile, his former employer has gone out of business due to the lack of new building. There are many out of work plumbers where Joe lives.

Joe is about to run out of unemployment benefits.

Sounds like a tough situation.

Here's the question: Joe needs to spend some time in jail in order to get his health issue taken care of, then needs to be on probation so that he can have some help finding a new job.

Why does he "need" to do any of this? Has he looked into various government programs for help? Has he applied for Social Security disability? Has he done anything? You can call your Congressman and they can point you in the right direction for programs most people didn't know existed.

While Joe is in jail, the state welfare system will take care of the rent and food for his family, but they will miss him and want him back as soon as possible.

What sort of crime should Joe commit? He doesn't want to be in jail any longer than necessary, so it needs to be a crime that is serious enough to carry a prison sentence and probation, but not one so serious as to require him to be in jail for too long.

If you were Joe, what crime would you commit?

If I were Joe, I wouldn't commit any crime. I would spend 20 hours a day looking for other work...be it freelance data entry from home or anything else, just to make ends meet.

 

[Lagboltz]

Your advice is to dodge personal responsibility, and lie about your injuries in an attempt to make someone else pay for their issue? That is pathetic.

This is the real problem with society, the death of personal responsibility.

RESPONSIBILITY!!! Preach on. The insurance companies are so much out to screw you that irresponsibility is a term they invented. The whole idea of an insurance company examiner is to see how little they can pay you.

 

[BigRob]

RESPONSIBILITY!!! Preach on. The insurance companies are so much out to screw you that irresponsibility is a term they invented. The whole idea of an insurance company examiner is to see how little they can pay you.

A guy falls in his house, hurts himself, and the advice given is to blame his employer....and then you attempt to defend it with some vague notion of an insurance company ripping you off.

Their is no justification for attempting to rip off your employer...take some responsibility for your own actions.

 

[Lagboltz]

A guy falls in his house, hurts himself, and the advice given is to blame his employer....and then you attempt to defend it with some vague notion of an insurance company ripping you off.

Their is no justification for attempting to rip off your employer...take some responsibility for your own actions.

The notion isn't vague. Great idea to take responsibility. Maybe you are rich enough to be blase about who you pay for whatever, but when you are down and out you are desperate for options like rob a bank for a dollar. If you are in Joe's condition do you simply decide: Rather than being irresponsible I think I will just sit back and let my family and life deteriorate to nothing and suffer in pain while my wife and kids suffer too.