This Site Is NOT A Dr.- Rant.....

Scorpiomom222

I know this is going to come out the completely wrong way, and I really do not mean it to, but are you planning on getting some form of insurance? I live in Canada, so excuse me for my ignorance of the American medical system, but kids are covered automatically right? With one little boy and another on the way, I would be worried about the expense if something happened to them!

I only ask out of concern, things can happen unexpectadly, esp to a child. Heck my totally healthy (seriously, she is in better shape than I am) 45 year old mom has been hospitalized twice in the last 2 months - once with a concussion which became badly infected and again this weekend when she slipped a disk on a treadmill and started to get numbness in her legs (dad was worried she was having a heart attack). We were just commenting today that if we were American the co-pays alone for all the drs visits she has had (including her physical and such 2 weeks ago) would be astronomical!

Kids are covered automatically, but you still have to pay a premium for them, and it's several hundred dollars a month when you add them onto your existing plan. My son is covered on state care and this one will be for one year. Then we have to buy a middle plan for them - state subsidized but not free. But no, no intention of getting any for myself or my husband. Neither of our jobs offer it and anything comprehensive starts around $350 a month which is WAY out of our budget. The only thing we have ever had in the past is major medical (read, $5,000 or higher deductible) and expired every 6 months and you have to move to a new company. It's still about $150 a month for the two of us an only covers major trauma or surgery basically. If you get sick and your treatment lasts more than 6 months your insurance expires. I suppose you could then get other insurance since they have to cover preexisting if you switch from another, but it'd still be like $400 a month and they drop you if you don't pay it. At that point it would be worth it to start selling things to try to keep it, but at this point it's 10% of our income if we choose to get decent insurance and just not doable plus still having grocery and rent money. It's a two-fold bad situation. Health insurance is too expensive (rather unobtainable/ unaffordable if you can't get it through work), and medical treatment is too expensive. (really, it costs $350 EXTRA because your visit to the ER was before 6am? Just a "surcharge" to the treating physician simply based on the time of day!) My rant in response to this rant

Kids in Montana are not automatically covered. I don't know what part of the US you live in, but I have never heard of kids being covered automatically just because. You have to apply for assistance or add your child to your family's insurance policy. There is no automatic coverage to my knowledge?

karenjoy

Just even more reason reading this to think that America is barbaric and backward thinking. I am SO lucky and thank god for the NHS!!! Yay, it has it's problems I know, but it saved my life. and that of my son and I never once have to worry that I can't afford any treatment or worry about seeking advice from a Dr or the hospital. In fact I am going there in a bit with my son who has an ear ache. What sort of wealthy nation in this century wants to deny that kind of basic care to it's citizens. Wow is all I can say.

MisdemeanorM

Kids in Montana are not automatically covered. I don't know what part of the US you live in, but I have never heard of kids being covered automatically just because. You have to apply for assistance or add your child to your family's insurance policy. There is no automatic coverage to my knowledge?

There are stipulations. Kids are automatically added to a parent's existing coverage. But there is an added charge. They are not just included. If the parents do not have insurance at the time of the birth and the kid has something wrong, you will not be able to get any insurance. If the parents are covered, even if something is wrong they have to add them to your plan, but the price will go up. Also, if you are not covered for even 1 day then if you apply for new insurance they can decide not to cover anything preexisting - usually meaning anything that you have been treated for in the last 6 or often more years. Or, anything that a "reasonable person would seek medical attention for" so if you have had a hacking cough, get insurance, and 6 months later find out you have lung cancer, if your ins company can prove you had a bad cough before you got insurance, they can tell you they will not cover any of your treatment for it. And, most (all! though some the waiting period is 9 months) companies will not cover maternity unless you have had a plan with them for a minimum of a year. If you are pregnant, you are uninsurable. Hence state coverage covering or supplementing low income pregnant women. I am very thankful for that because my 1st son, just the hospital stay (emergency C-Section) was $26,000 - more than our income for the whole year!

amymeenieminymo

I don't see the trouble in asking around for advice or suggestions before going to a doctor as long as the person doing the search have the common sense to realize we're not specially trained. I don't think it's so much of wanting attention as it to wondering if someone else is or has experienced the same thing or something similar. If the problem risks your life or someone else then definitely go to the hospital or a certified doctor. On the other hand, if for example, you are experiencing cramps in your side every time you run then I think it wouldn't hurt to ask others. More often than not, other people have been there at some time in their life and can explain what they had to do to fix the problem.

I agree....I seem to have a lot of issues that makes me wonder, what the heck is wrong with me. I am not a hypochondriac, but if I went for the doctor for each of these things I would be, not to mention broke because I couldn't afford the co-pay each time nor do I have the time to sit in a doctors office every other week.

Last week I had a weird bump on my tounge that hurt like hell any time I scraped it on my teeth. I asked here, and around at work, and discovered it was an inflamed taste bud and that most people pull it off. So I tried it, the pain was minimal and I felt 100% better aftwerward. I would never have felt it was safe to rip it off unless multiple people told me they do it and it's fine. I'm also glad I didn't spend my entire weekend in pain, or with less money in my wallet for going to the doctor for something as stupid as an inflamed tastebud.

When I began running outdoors (as opposed to a treadmill) I started getting a shooting pain up my shins when I squatted down. My brother (who is a marathoner and iron man) said it's probably just the lack of shock absorption that I am used to since I was running on hard roads. A few others here said the same thing....after a week or two the pain went away. Sure, if it was REALLY bad or if it persisted I would have gone, but often times just knowing other people went through the same thing or knows what is causing it helps.

This site already has a disclaimer that no one here is a doctor or trainer (well some may be, but not sponsored by the site) so if some people use the advice as gospel and don't seek attention for something serious, there is really nothing anyone can do about it, but I think the free advice does a lot more good than bad.

kennedar

Kids in Montana are not automatically covered. I don't know what part of the US you live in, but I have never heard of kids being covered automatically just because. You have to apply for assistance or add your child to your family's insurance policy. There is no automatic coverage to my knowledge?

There are stipulations. Kids are automatically added to a parent's existing coverage. But there is an added charge. They are not just included. If the parents do not have insurance at the time of the birth and the kid has something wrong, you will not be able to get any insurance. If the parents are covered, even if something is wrong they have to add them to your plan, but the price will go up. Also, if you are not covered for even 1 day then if you apply for new insurance they can decide not to cover anything preexisting - usually meaning anything that you have been treated for in the last 6 or often more years. Or, anything that a "reasonable person would seek medical attention for" so if you have had a hacking cough, get insurance, and 6 months later find out you have lung cancer, if your ins company can prove you had a bad cough before you got insurance, they can tell you they will not cover any of your treatment for it. And, most (all! though some the waiting period is 9 months) companies will not cover maternity unless you have had a plan with them for a minimum of a year. If you are pregnant, you are uninsurable. Hence state coverage covering or supplementing low income pregnant women. I am very thankful for that because my 1st son, just the hospital stay (emergency C-Section) was $26,000 - more than our income for the whole year!

That is amazing to me! I can not imagine paying that! I had a miscarriage in 2009 right after I was laid off, its scary to think that we might have been bankrupted by the ER visits, ultrasounds, D&C etc from that. When you add in the cost of the infertility treatment we are currently undergoing and all the specialist visits and such, its amazing to me that anyone can ever afford to have children at all!

Here, as long as you are a resident, all dr visits to a family dr or ER are completely free. If you need to see a specialist, it is covered as long as you get a referrel from your family dr. There are wait lists, but nothing that most people cant handle. I think my mom waited 2 hours in the ER on the weekend, I waited with her 3 hours one day when she had an infection. My wait to get into an infertility ob/gyn was 2 - 3 months I think but the infertility clinic that we are going to is only a 3 week wait list when our testing is done. Drugs are not covered but supplimental health insurance is not crazy expensive.

When we do eventually get pregnant, everything from our midwife or ob/gyn to the hospital stay to the post-natal care for me and baby will all be completely covered. Plus any drugs given in a hospital are free as well. The only thing we will have to pay for will be getting pregnant (including drugs, it will cost between $6000 - $9000 for 1 round of IVF) and the cost of a doula if we dont have a midwife ($900). I can not imagine living in a world where you even have to think about money before going to see a dr, its sad that people die because they cant afford care.

Scorpiomom222

Kids in Montana are not automatically covered. I don't know what part of the US you live in, but I have never heard of kids being covered automatically just because. You have to apply for assistance or add your child to your family's insurance policy. There is no automatic coverage to my knowledge?

There are stipulations. Kids are automatically added to a parent's existing coverage. But there is an added charge. They are not just included. If the parents do not have insurance at the time of the birth and the kid has something wrong, you will not be able to get any insurance. If the parents are covered, even if something is wrong they have to add them to your plan, but the price will go up. Also, if you are not covered for even 1 day then if you apply for new insurance they can decide not to cover anything preexisting - usually meaning anything that you have been treated for in the last 6 or often more years. Or, anything that a "reasonable person would seek medical attention for" so if you have had a hacking cough, get insurance, and 6 months later find out you have lung cancer, if your ins company can prove you had a bad cough before you got insurance, they can tell you they will not cover any of your treatment for it. And, most (all! though some the waiting period is 9 months) companies will not cover maternity unless you have had a plan with them for a minimum of a year. If you are pregnant, you are uninsurable. Hence state coverage covering or supplementing low income pregnant women. I am very thankful for that because my 1st son, just the hospital stay (emergency C-Section) was $26,000 - more than our income for the whole year!

I have never heard of that. I had to go through a whole process to add my son when I was working. It was harder than getting state assistance! I'm seriously thinking of becoming a Canadian citizen. I love your guys' health care plan!!!!

MisdemeanorM

I have never heard of that. I had to go through a whole process to add my son when I was working. It was harder than getting state assistance! I'm seriously thinking of becoming a Canadian citizen. I love your guys' health care plan!!!!

I don't know the process itself, never having done it, but I know they cannot be denied addition to your plan if you are insured when you have them. Even if they require tons of health care immediately.