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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (7292)	6/30/2009 7:39:30 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

Thanks. The example they gave of someone making good money and NOT being able to afford health insurance gave me a chuckle. He says he and his wife make 80k/year in Arizona, but can't spring for health insurance at $400/month, wants to have a baby, but won't because it will cost him 30k without insurance. Doesn't appear to manage his expenses very well, and apparently doesn't realize that he could be bankrupt with a serious illness. I wonder how many flat screen TV's he owns. <ggg> Regards, John But the new poll finds some uninsured people who make good money say they can't afford health insurance on their own. James Brancatelli is one of the 29 percent of uninsured people who told pollsters he would be willing to pay more — but only $200 a month, tops. "I haven't had insurance for the past four years," Brancatelli said as he made his rounds in Tucson, Ariz., delivering pharmaceuticals. He's self-employed. "Unfortunately, if I want health care, I have to purchase it myself," he says. "And unfortunately, for me and my wife, it is about $400 a month." He and his wife, Kimberly, have put off having a baby because of the cost. "We've looked into that," he says. "And to have a child, it'll roughly cost us about $30,000 without having insurance. So it's crazy." He says a hospital told them the charge for the labor and delivery room alone would be $7,000. Massachusetts has tried to come up with affordable plans for people with middle-class incomes. When Brancatelli's information was entered into a government Web site to see what he could buy if he lived there, there were 19 plans in the Boston area for people like him. The cheapest one, which has deductibles and co-payments but prescription drug coverage, would cost the Brancatellis $615 a month. "That still would probably be out of my price range," he says. The Brancatellis make $80,000 a year. Their fixed expenses total $3,500 a month. After gas, food and other expenses, he says, there's not much left. Under Massachusetts' rules, the Brancatellis would be expected to pay 10 percent of their income for health insurance. That's about $670 a month. "If there were some subsidy for that, we would have no problem with that, you know?" he says. "But since we don't have that, we just can't afford to put out $8,000 to $10,000 a year for health coverage."