9 ms·

How can a 72-year-old retire just get his health insurance revoked? What's even the point of health insurance when it only covers the young and healthy apparent

• RaptorJ 8y ago
  the point is to enrich hc industry shareholders, same as everything else
• onion2k 8y ago
  What's even the point of health insurance when it only covers the young and healthy apparently. The point of insurance is to make a profit for the insurance company.
  • Analemma_ 8y ago
    Not just profit, but ever-increasing profit-- Wall Street hates stagnant growth.
  • jjulius 8y ago
    And therein lies the problem.
    • tomp 8y ago
      Actually, no. An insurance that doesn't make a profit will eventually go broke. That's a mathematical fact (see "Law of iterated logarithm").
  • srean 8y ago
    I suspect you are being sarcastic. Making profit is fine, doing everything possible to maximize profit by defeating the purpose of its very existence is where things get in the wrong zone.
• crankylinuxuser 8y ago
  What's the purpose of an old person if they can't contribute to economic activity? Their domain expertise is out of date. Their body prevents them from doing strenuous activity. Their health prevents them from working long hours. They need medical checkups more often, and need more time off of work. More of their peers die, thus needing more time off work for funerals. Clearly, old people just suck off the resources of the young, and are worthless from every economic standpoint. Gotta love capitalism! /sarcasm
  • maxxxxx 8y ago
    Based on the downvotes it seems people don't get sarcasm. Or they have met enough people who actually believe what you write...
    • crankylinuxuser 8y ago
      I know, and it saddens me. I attended Gencon this last weekend. I had a great time. But one story is the following: We were staying with some friends 2mi away from Lucas Oil station. As much as I don't like Uber (1), I installed it and used it to get a ride in the morning so my wife and I could run games. We called a taxi - they were a noshow. So Uber it was. We get a gentleman who was in his upper 60's. He retired a few years ago, but medical bills meant he couldn't relax any. He instead had to go to "work". But who would hire someone at that age? Walmart greeter? There are no walmarts nearby in the 'hood. So, he did Uber. This wasn't some upbeat 20 something doing 'awesome rides in their spare time'. This was someone doing the dregs of employment without any protections thereof. Injured on the job? LOL you're not on a job. Work or die. Unemployment protections are nice.... If you were "unemployed". In the end, "gig economy" job-non-jobs only serve to make everyone poorer, except for a few in Silicon Valley. And when their stunt is up, the SV con-artists will move on to their next game of arbitrage. Who that next group who's made poorer is, is anyone's guess. (1) After giving him 5 stars, I uninstalled uber.
      • refurb 8y ago
        Your preference is that the Uber job wasn’t an option for him at all?
• wallflower 8y ago
  That does not make sense. Even if he lost his union provided healthcare insurance, the magic age for retirement in the US is 65 because after that age you are covered by Medicare. Medicare, if you were not aware, is available to everyone who is a US citizen over the age of 65.
  • cbluth 8y ago
    > covered by Medicare
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  • anoncoward111 8y ago
    I'm an insurance broker. Why this man didn't sign up for Medicare and Medigap ($300 a month for complete coverage of everything) is beyond me. Most employers often encourage seniors to go take Medicare asap. Someone failed this man, this is basic information.
    • PakG1 8y ago
      Why doesn't he get automatically signed up for Medicare and Medigap at 65? It's a simple matter of the IRS notifying the people who administrate Medicare and Medigap as soon as they process his tax return and see that he turned 65 within the last 12 months. Excuse me for not knowing what department that is, not American. Why would he need to sign up?
      • anoncoward111 8y ago
        No worries :) Medicare is divided into Part A and Part B. Part A is free, it covers hospital visits. Part B is like $114 a month and covers doctor visits. You need to meet some minimum requirements for work history, and sign up at medicare.gov. Medigap is sold by private companies and can cost up to $250 a month roughly for full coverage, all the way down to like $60 for coverage after the first $2000 in expenses. In our country everything is mostly done self service, social security is too. Oh well! I wish it was automatic, but the insurance lobbyists dont want that I think.
• pwthornton 8y ago
  It's insurance, not a payment plan. Anyone at any time can get sick, get hit by a car, etc. That's why everyone needs it. Technically, the utility of health insurance is greatest when you are youngest and least when you are oldest. Saving an 8-year-olds life could mean allowing them to live to 80. A 72-year-old that can't get medical care will have at least lived to 72. The U.S. health care system has it backwards. We should at least be giving heath insurance to the young. You could argue that it is moral to provide for health insurance for retirees, even if they spend way more on health insurance than everyone else and won't get much additional utility from it, but the idea that you would only give guaranteed health insurance to the oldest (and wealthiest age bracket) makes no sense.
  • cm2012 8y ago
    Yeah, but laws are made by older folks, who vote at 3-4 times the rate of younger folks in midterm elections.
    • wallflower 8y ago
      This is slightly off topic but I really rile up some of my more passionately Democrat friends when I point out that one senator from CT is responsible for not having a public option in Obamacare. Why? Because the senator was beholden to the donations of the insurance companies. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescriptions/2009/10/did_lieberman_just_kill_the_public_option.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescription...
      • dsfyu404ed 8y ago
        Insurance is big business in CT. It's his job to represent his constituents interests and a booming insurance business is certainly in their (they = the people in CT who control who gets elected) interest even if it screws the rest of us. It's a classic case of doing what the people who decide whether or not you get to keep your job want you to do even when it's not ideal for the big picture. Edit: Down-voted because this isn't how things work or just because it's uncomfortably true? If you think CA representatives won't side with the tech industry over the good of the nation then you're probably going to be proven wrong in the next few years.
• prostoalex 8y ago
  For whatever reason he chose to stay on his union's plan, not Medicare or family plan bought through an Obamacare exchange.