Ugh!!! The US should have some sort of universal health care available!

So I have a daughter, she's turning 4 in a couple weeks. I hop onto the Wyoming state website to see if I can get her signed up for the state health care offered to children. Now I have a temporary job with the US Census Bureau, this runs until June of this year. Our insurance runs out at the end of this month. My husband will receive unemployment (at it's max payout, which is 1/3 of his previous take home pay). With the unemployment money, and the money I am making from this temporary job I can't put her on the state insurance!

So here we are in that gray area again. The area where we make to much money to qualify for any help, but not enough money to pay out of pocket for health insurance, COBRA (which will be $1,200 a MONTH) is too much as well, and since there are NO family doctors taking new patients in my entire county any time we have to see a doctor we have to go to an urgent care facility (which is closed 3 days a week and the hours are 8-4... what crappy hours huh??) or the emergency room. Now to give you an example of what an ER visit costs here, my daughter had a very high fever earlier this year. We took her in, and all they did was take her temperature, check her throat and ears, give her medicine, and send her on her way saying it was a virus. Cost? The hospital itself cost $348, then the doctor charges seperately, his charge $179! We had insurance, so it wasn't too bad ($150 instead of $527). Our only other option would be to find a doctor in Utah that's willing to take us without insurance, a job, or money. Haha, that's a freaking joke.

Sorry, but the health care system in this country SUCKS and I'm so tired of bending over and getting raped by it. I don't get how ANY family can get ahead with the insane cost of medical care.

Oh, and I forgot to add that the state of Wyoming does not issue checks, just debit cards, for unemployment. These debit cards come with fees for using them! And the state of Utah, where my husband pays child support for his son, does not have way to lower his child support amount while on unemployment without getting the case reviewed (which takes about 3 months, and hopefully by then we won't be getting it anymore) so HALF of his unemployment will be going to the ex for child support. (To her benefit, though, she's trying to see if they will lower the support as she thinks it's unfair. She's got a steady job in healthcare and her husband is an accountant and it's tax time, so he's OK for now as well.)

lisan24 wrote:Sorry, but the health care system in this country SUCKS and I'm so tired of bending over and getting raped by it. I don't get how ANY family can get ahead with the insane cost of medical care.

I agree.

Yet metion a national health care system, the like of which we have here, and you will be burned on a pyre.

It's a mindset.

There are a lot of rich Americans, and for them, the cost is not an issue.

And they really don't give a toss for the others.

Now, in their arrogance, they will say, 'Hey, you should go out, get a better job, then'...

Uh huh.

So let me get this right.

If all the refuse collectors, sewage workers, etc, etc, suddenly decided, feck this, I am going to go back to college, and learn to do something that pays more, for less hassle, then who would make sure our bins got emptied, and that our sewers were managed?

The complacent rich never think of that, do they...?