Aaaaaaaaaa- choooooo! That'll cost me how much?

As you may have noticed from my previous posts, I have been suffering from a mild plague over recent weeks.

Since I don't have health insurance, I have been unsuccessful in seeing a doctor about this. Usually when I try to go see a doctor it is just way to complicated I don't bother. This time around I called several community health centers trying to see a doctor and the response is the same "don't come here, go to an emergency room".

Yeah well, it wasn't an emergency, it was a cold and I was willing to pay cash, not the pound of flesh required by the emergency room.

Anyway, as it would turn out in Taxachusetts having health insurance will be a requirement beginning on July 1, if you don't get it you will be penalized unless you can prove you are too poor to afford it.

Which seemed like a good enough idea to begin with but then reality set in. It seems now that it is going to cost people about $380 per month for mandatory health insurance, about $4500 per year.

What the f*ck?!?! Really??

That is ridiculous.

And now someone let the cat out of the bag that the group of people assembled to put this system together all earn 100,000+ per year.

One woman, Rosemarie Day, is the deputy director. Originally she was making $195,000 but then she went to a four day work week so now she only make $175,500 per year.

Hmmm, so she only works about 208 days a year, makes about $100 an hour, gets health coverage with her job, and now she is going to try to get the uninsured of Massachusetts to cough up almost $400 per month for health insurance?

Most people work in jobs where they pay for employer-subsidized health insurance, which is lucky for them. Other people like waiters, writers, hairdressers, real estate agents, artists, baristas, to mention a few, don't get health coverage. And it's not because people don't want it, but because it costs $400 a month. And that's not even the state sponsored plan.

Plus, the state plan that'll cost $400 has to be subsidized and the plan is to make the health insurance companies pay more. Everyone knows that insurance companies won't pay, they'll make the customer pay.

So even those who get health care coverage through work will find that their contributions will probably go up.

I for one am hoping that they can figure out a better price. Otherwise I will be stocking up on plenty of vitamin C.