For Middle Class, Health Insurance Becomes a Luxury

Au
Au, my son has been unemployed for a few months due to an injury. I got the following e-mail from his wife this morning:

We applied for Kaiser Steps Program 5 Months ago and today we received a letter that we have been Approved. Kaiser received our application on June 12th. I had been on the phone with them for nearly 4 months trying to find out what has been going on with our application. They kept telling us that they are far behind, at least 3 months. After nearly 5 months of waiting and many many calls and complaints to them we finally got approved.

This is a tremendous relief for us seeing that we have been paying our cobra payments of $445.00 a month and the kaiser steps program is $81.19 for the both of us.

I hope this means they won't have to refinance their house mortage to survive until my son is allowed to return to work. I've been able to help them when their savings ran out, but its really tough with the high cost of health care.

BBB

The devil is in the details
New National Drug Plan - The devil is in the details:

Leading Senate Democrats, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., have been critical of the details of the legislation as they have emerged piecemeal from the closed-door talks. "I remain deeply troubled that this plan will undermine the reliability and affordability of Medicare for our nation's seniors," Kennedy said in a statement issued after the agreement was announced.

"We've not seen all the details, but it sounds like a bad deal for seniors and a good deal for the big drug companies and HMOs," added Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20031116/D7URODQ00.html

BBB
I have not seen the complete drug plan. However, from that which I have seen it appears to be a ripoff and will add an additional burden on a majority of the Medicare recipients.

Here's the short version of the new drug benefit:
15 percent savings in 2004 and 2005.
$35 monthly premium starting 2006. $275 deductible. 75% up to $2,200.
No coverage between $2,200 to $3,600.
After $3,600, insurance covers 95 percent.
There will be a low income subsidy.

BTW, with the increasing numbers of people losing their jobs and health insurance, many middle class people are strapped to pay for private health insurance coverage - costing over $1,000 a month for families. Not a good sign for MediCare when the baby-boomers begin to retire in about ten years.