I've always been in more than great physical shape. No hypertension. I've never smoked. I rarely drink. I swim 50 laps four times a week and until a few months ago I would also run between 5 to 10 K almost every day (currently, I'm recovering from knee surgery). I own three businesses incorporated under the same name in Nevada. Most of my employees pay for part of their group insurance. But I can't share in the same benefits with the same insurer even though I underwrite more than half of my employees' insurance.
Why?
I had colon cancer in 1990 which by now it's quite certain I'm in complete remission. At the time I worked for a large company and my part of my insurance premium was $98 a month for major medical. But I still had a $1,000 deductible after which Etna only paid 80% of all chemo, radiation, and physician followups. They denied my claim to pay for a colonoscopy after that particular year's period of coverage ended (I'd been covered with them for 8 prior years with no lapse in coverage). The next 12-month period after chemo and radiation they did everything they could to drop me. My employer's HR Department had to find a second health insurer (Blue Cross) who would insure those of us Etna used as an excuse to raise everyone else in the company's health coverage by charging double and sometimes triple the previous year's premiums. That was when I was 40 years-old.
Back in those days your medical record followed you around if you changed employers or insurance carriers. Supposedly, legislation enacted 8 years ago now prevents insurance companies from digging into a US citizen's health history. I doubt the law actually works, though.
I've now also had prostate cancer and appear to be in complete remission going on three years now.
Sure, I can get insurance in the USA if I want to pay a $1,500 monthly premium, with a $20,000 annual deductible, after which Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nevada will graciously pay 80% of my medical costs for a lifetime cumulative maximum of $100,000. You can't even get you're chest cracked for a triple by-pass for less than $200,000+ anywhere in the USA (except maybe a Veteran's Hospital). Fortunately, more than 40 years of regular cardio exercise and eating healthy have left me with a great heart and combined cholesterol down around 125.
I could also get insurance through the Nevada State Realtor's Association, but the premiums are even higher and with a similar limit on maximum lifetime benefits.
I'm still in excellent shape except for a relatively recent accident in which I injured my back while visiting in the USA. But rather than stick around and pay for substandard medical care at premium out-of-pocket prices, I dosed myself with narcotic pain medication (thanks to a kind ER doctor) and immediately flew back here to Barçelona where I'm almost 100% back to normal and my health costs have been zero because I'm an official, real Spanish Resident. I'm also still a red, white, and blue tax-paying citizen of the USA. And not only am I in great physical condition, I know without question that at 59 years-old I look a lot hotter and much younger than Wildgoosechase, who lives in a trans-fat bubble and suffers from hemorrhoids.
By the way, if I DID buy insurance (let's see, had cancer twice, I'm 59 and . . . oh yeah, I'm gay) I'm certain the monthly premiums would be a Hell of a lot more than when I got a quote back in 1999. And they'd still find some way to deny paying for necessary medical services.
I very happy to have Wildgoosechase pay for all his magnificent 25 employees as well as for himself and his family. But I'm much happier -- not to mention just simply damn fucking lucky -- to be eligible to partake in the benefits of another country's universal health care. A country with a higher standard of health care than the USA (the USA ranks 37th in the world). It's obvious my own country doesn't give a shit about me or millions of its other citizens; especially during these wonderful economic times.
By the way, even citizens of Argentina, where medical care is excellent and world class in Buenos Aires but spotty in other parts of that country, a citizen who tests positive for HIV is immediately put on the exact same variety of drug regimens prescribed by infectious disease physicians in the USA. The only difference is Argentines unlucky enough to have contracted HIV infection are given the medications, health care, and monitored for FREE. Sure, the Argentine government is paying for the drugs and physician/hospital care from taxes paid by all Argentines, but they don't discriminate and make people with HIV spend themselves into poverty simply to receive decent world-class care. Spain does basically the same thing for those with HIV.
Are you LSPG-ers aware that no person who is from another country and happens to be HIV+ cannot obtain a visa for entry into the USA? The State Department won't let them in the country -- no matter how rich or well-educated they are. But if a US citizen with HIV wants to travel to another country on vacation, there are only a handful of foreign countries who will refuse that US citizen a visa.
Health care in the USA is broken. Get ready to accept that it's not and has never been an equal playing field for all citizens in the USA when it comes to health care.
And by the way, Wildgoosechase is simply "anecdotal." There's every reason to believe he really doesn't exist. All the clues are there. :smile: