6 miles @ 10:23 pace...63F There once was a runner from Oklahoma Who loved the sunshine of Arizona So when the ice storm began He was smart enough to stay in He didn't want to risk a FOMA Break it down Ev-dawg

Erika, be really really thankful. As we / I have a $5000.00 deductible on our health Insurance now. Sure, it covers the small things like prescibtions and office visits, but the "middle ground" is all us. Then if the "big thing" happens we are...some what covered...I wonder if it's worth it sometimes because this is costing me over $300.00 a month. Leslie, hang in there...I feel your pain. Sue, continued Hugs for you Sweetie...you my fren are loved here at RA, for sure! TimBo GGTK

One thing that might be of general interest is the history of how we got to the current system. It descends from the WWII era. By era I mean plus or minus ten years (more likely minus) as I do not recall the exact details. Roughly though two events came together. One was the union movement. The other was the personal income tax which was finally high enough that people started looking for ways to avoid paying it by lobbying congress for loopholes. The unions wanted to get employers to pay for health insurance but they did not want to pay taxes on the implicit income. So, congress gave them their wish. That is why if your employer pays for your health insurance it comes out of pre-tax income and if you pay for it out of post-tax income. Hopefully, the following comment will not seem political -- this seems like a really crazy dichotomy to me. I would love to see all insurance payments, whether you pay directly or via your employer, treated identically by the tax code. Alas, that does not appear to be in the cards. One other somewhat interesting item. I have been told, but have not checked so take it for what it is worth, that prior to making employer paid health insurance tax exempt most policies were for what I guess we would call medical catastrophes. That makes sense. You cannot really provide insurance for small items (imagine "grocery insurance" and how inefficient that would be) since we all spend something on medical care each year. (You can mandate an account that could only be used to pay for such items, but that is not really "insurance." It is a way to reduce to zero the view peoplel have of the marginal cost of small medical items. That is good if you believe otherwise people will skimp on such care and then up spending far more and bad to the degree it encourages wasteful spending.) In any case since we do not all have major medical bills each year they are prime candidates for insurance. This is why things like car accidents and death are easy to insure. They occur infrequently in each person's life. Especially that death thing!

evryday rocks!