You evern have an insurancen that says they cover you for something and then you find out that they dont, you ever have insurance that is so screwed up that it has no help for you at all. Health insurance here is so fing scrwed up its not even funny I have two specialized disorders and my health insurance does not even help me. God i wish i was rich like those who could have blue cross blue shield which is actually the one i need but cannot afford. Guess i am supposed to die or something. Health insurance stinks. Sorry for the rudeness folks but i have had my problems with insurance and i am at the end of my rope about to tear up my insurance card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have Highmark BC?BS and they do that to us. We are forever getting screwed by things that are supposed to be covered and then aren't, or are supposed to be covered at 100% and then I get billed for the amoung "above and beyond what the doctor got paid by BC...sometimes 3x as much. We are shelling out $650/month just in prescription copayments. This doesn't include the copayments to see the doctors or the amounts that the insurance says they'll cover then doesn't. This also doesn't include what my husband is paying from his paycheck to have this stupid insurance.

I live in FL, and are also running into being told that my family can't make any appointments until all unpaid balances are paid. The total is roughly 1,000 between the 5 of us.

I totally agree with you!!!

The medical system in the United States is little different from Dickens' Egland. If you can afford medical care you can get it; if you can't you can't.
A large inheritance is the best guarantor of good health insurance.

Universal Health care is the hallmark of modern Civilization...by that standard, the United States is a third world country.

we had Blue cross and I thought it was the greatest. My husband changed jobs and we have an HMO that I thought I hated until My husband came down with cancer.For the tests,surgery at a major Cancer hospital and Chemo all we paid out of pocket was $1500 and when the INS. CO saw we paid the hospital to much in a co pay the got our money back for us.If we had still had Blue Cross out of pocket would have been at least &25,000 or more.

I have the bc&bs I can only dream of being rich. lol. I have had alot of medical problems in the last 8 months, i've charged over 3,000 on my credit card, from my co-pay and deductible and meds.

That is what I remember about Blue Cross the deductible was always different for everything.Granted we never needed a referral like the HMO but my husband had cataract surgery and we had to pay out of pocket $2000. This HMO would be about $100 to the hospital and $35 for the surgeon.We pay a $15 co pay for our Primary and $35 for a specialest(sp).

just got a bill for 234.00 dollars , saying they didnt cover the tests I got two months ago.....damn I hate insurance

I won't get health insurance. It is a terrible investment for your money. Yeah, yeah, I know everybody has a story about a guy how was totally heathy and them BOOM! got sick and ran up $500,000 hospital bill.

But if you are a betting person, and I am, as long as you are in the healthiest 80% of the population, Health Insurance is a loser for you in the long run.

Health insurance isn't just about cost its about access. My company I used to work for wouldn't cover my nephew at all and private insurance was very very expensive. I called a couple up and they needed my nephews SSN and they knew his parents had died and they flatout told me over the phone they wouldn't cover him for anything that could be related to these events. Again they said anything that "could" be related. The one company that would take him on would cost me 3600/month in premiums along with a 10,000 deductable plus a co-pay for nearly everything. I'm sorry but even though I have that kind of money I sure won't be paying it anytime soon. So we were advised by our local state rep to file an application for SSI and Medicaid. Well because Chris had to be admitted into PICU this last week I just for fun called all the hospitals and asked them if they would take him without insurance and they all said they wouldn't take him unless he was on the verge of losing his life. Knowing what I know now if I waited he would be dead today so again its not just cost its being allowed the care.

What is even worse is that Medicaid will take another 3 weeks to make their judgement so sadly I now have a debt that is just under 300 grand. What is even worse is that Medicaid will only pay about 100 grand or so. So Medicaid only pays 100 grand while if I had no insurance you would think I would only have a 100 grand bill but no they charge me 200 grand more. Also this was the only hospital that would take him and I'm just hoping Medicaid will accept him because if they don't I sure as heck hate to pay 300 grand and even worse for this hospital to take him I had to put a cash downpayment of 25 grand.

So the fact is that I know first hand for a fact its not just about cost its just as much about access and this frickin government aholes just sit here and tell me Canada is worse than ours because ours is private. The fact is that most of the biggest private companies actually aren't run that well at all.