Wednesday, August 5, 2009

How do you get your insurance?

How do Americans get their health insurance? Mine comes from my school -- but I'm going to graduate soon, and many of the entry-level jobs in my field (education) don't offer health benefits. This thread at Cynical-C has people sharing their situations and, most often, their resentments:

What are your insurance stories?


I had no idea that there were circumstances under which an employee wasn't eligible for COBRA, but Tom Woolf writes in:

"The company I worked for was the subject of a hostile takeover (”hostile” in this case making the Hatfields and McCoys seem like a petty disagreement). In the end, I kept my job, but it was very very iffy for a while. Because of that, I got my own health insurance. Folks who did not make the transition did not have Cobra as an option, and the original entity ended up going under, with all the assets being purchased by the takeover company."

The best way to get health insurance seems to be through Canadian citizenship -- I'm getting a little bit sick of the surprise and pity of Canadians that learn how bad the system in the US really is. They're particularly smug in these Metafilter comments:

Canadians pity USians!

Our system is perfect in one respect -- perfect for health insurance companies, who insure the well-employed, the healthy and the young, and leave the unemployed, the sick, and the elderly to be paid for by the government.

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