It’s Very Unhealthy To Go Out Naked

US health care is being ruined by the unfair and predatory practices of the insurance industry. Once again insatiable greed trumps the purpose the market was supposed to solve. Our current policies favor the insurance companies not US citizens. The government should force insurance companies to cover ALL CITIZENS at a fair rate. I paid into the system for 30 healthy years with few claims. Now in my 50s I need to insure myself. A few aging factors and I am forced into an absurdly high price bracket. Why aren't the years I paid in while healthy not counted towards what I pay now? It is unfair and a big part of the problem. Since these health insurance companies put profit before people's health we are now in this precarious situation. In the USA even we who are willing or able to pay our fair share are targeted for exclusion when we need insurance most. Insurance companies need to be forced to serve all Americans with a fairer system. It is time to put some things right in this country and health care coverage needs to be at the top of the list! The greatest country on earth can't even take care of its own? What is that? We can bailout huge banks but we can't send people to the hospital without them losing their houses? WTF?

The health insurance industry is ruining health care in this country. We need to stop them. Their profit driven business practices are unfair and predatory. I worked hard and paid into the system for 30 years while healthy and using claims very little. Now in my fifties I have absurdly high costs because of natural aging conditions that I must pay on my own. It is a simple fix - a law to force the companies to standard coverage of all applicants at a FAIR rate.

Emleel- Here in the states you can spend that long in the emergency room here also, It happens all the time.
Why is it that we send money to countries all over the world but watch people in our own country suffer from simple "luxeries" like being able to afford medicine. Nobody is putting America in a bad light....this is a very serious and widespread problem, I live close to the Canadian border, I don't hear anyone complaining about being able to get the help they need.

In my house, we could retire early - except - for the cost of health insurance. That is our deal breaker. I have seen the problems of the uninsured and underinsured first hand and it is horrible. I am very lucky to have insurance. People tell horror stories about Nationalized Health Care, but they are forgetting the horror stories happening here everyday to people in America that have no health insurance. Could you afford to treat cancer or have heart surgrey without insurance. I think Bill Gates could - but - not the rest of us.

This is yet another argument for single-payer health care. People from places like Canada and Europe shake their heads in amazement that Americans put up with this kind of thing. Sure doesn't seem very much like "freedom." Quinn is right: health insurance is a HUGE barrier to early retirement (a common dream for many people). If they don't get rejected for PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS (something McCain wouldn't do a thing to prevent!), people in the 50-65 range could face monthly costs running well into the four digits and be paying a lot more for health insurance than for a mortgage (if they have one). Many people have to give up their dream of early retirement once they see those numbers.

There's one other option Quinn didn't mention: Move away from the U.S. Costs in the U.S. are so bad that it's possible in some countries, like Thailand, to get good-quality care at one-fifth to one-tenth the U.S. costs. In other words, paying 100% there is cheaper than co-pays in the U.S. Some insurance is available against catastrophic costs, and the more advanced developed countries have facilities that can handle things like MRIs, PET scans, heart surgery and cancer (often with U.S.-educated doctors). Your biggest "gap" might be the most expensive, most cutting-edge treatments, but these are ones insurance balks at very often in the U.S. as well.