How Important Is Health Insurance?

by SodaHead Living Posted 2012/07/11 22:47:54

Related Topics: Health Insurance, Important, Insurance, Health

929 votes
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	Very important	708 votes	76%
	Somewhat important	144 votes	16%
	Not very important	39 votes	4%
	Not important at all	38 votes	4%

Signing up for insurance can be a pain the neck, but without it you could end up footing a bill you can't afford. Health insurance has taken a prominent spot in politics lately as the government attempts to get basic coverage for more people, but good coverage will never be completely free, and selecting a plan that's understandable and affordable can still be a chore. Let us know your thoughts on insurance with this six-question Quick Poll. We'd love to hear from you!

Brought to you by 2insure4less.

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overzero 2012/07/12 15:37:37

Very important

+7
Here in Britain we have the National Health Service, which is a state run health insurance scheme established after the end of WW2. I know right wing Americans like to rubbish it, but it provides access to some of the best teaching hospitals and consultants in the world. I underwent emergency neurosurgery 18 months ago for a very rare brain infection; without the NHS I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be pushing up the daisies - I owe them big time but it won't ruin me financially (which is just as well, as the illness has cost me my job).
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More polls by SodaHead Living

Bannor Haruchai 2012/08/08 22:30:51

Very important

Air, shelter / water, food, healthcare, in that order.

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Obamarules2012 2012/07/23 14:39:05

Very important

If you discover a malignant tumor without health insurance, it becomes pretty important.

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mneiai 2012/07/18 21:39:11

Very important

+2
The only people who say health insurance isn't important are the people who've been blessed enough not to need it (or have their loved ones need it). My mother was incredibly healthy and in her early 50s suddenly came down with a very rare autoimmune disease, the cause of which is completely unknown. If she hadn't had health insurance, we would have probably lost everything paying for her medications and surgeries. And if we hadn't done that, I would have lost my mother while I was in middle school. Those aren't good choices to have.

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edlie 2012/07/17 06:45:35

Very important

you never know what will happen to you in the future.

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Maiko 2012/07/15 22:20:43

Very important

It is very important. However, not to where people are taxed to hell for it, or penalized for not having it and/or penalized for refusing government ran insurance programs.

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amoobrasil to Maiko 2012/07/22 22:13:10

That does not happen and will not happen under Obamacare. Do you disagree? If so, why?

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Dave 007 2012/07/15 11:50:48

Very important

Unfortunately it's very important.

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Skar 2012/07/15 02:12:10

Not very important

+1
Paying out of pocket for most things is cheaper. However, emergency room visits, surgeries, etc are usually better suited for insurance if you don't have a lot of cash or credit available.

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Obamaru... to Skar 2012/07/23 14:41:31

If you develop a serious illness and have a serious injury, which I hope you don't or never have, you may change your mind about its importance.

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rikonjohn 2012/07/14 22:00:38

Very important

+2
You'll find as you get older decent healthcare isn't just an option like when you were younger.

And by "decent" I mean high quality AND affordable.

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tristarr 2012/07/14 04:02:52

Very important

+1
insurance is a must have.i have had an occasion or 2 where i wished i had it.now i do and i don't mind spending a small amount to save a small fortune in case disaster strikes.

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MS PRUD 2012/07/13 23:09:46

Very important

+1
You never know when you are going to need it. My last hospital stay was over a hundred thousand - if I had to pay out of pocket for it - I would be living on the street.

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concerned 2012/07/13 18:49:40

Very important

+2
SO we thank Obama for Obama care ...

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MS PRUD to concerned 2012/07/13 23:13:34

No one knows what Obamacare will really do, including him or Pelosi (she said sign it thru an we will see what happens). You may be paying more taxes than you are paying for health insurance.

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amoobrasil to MS PRUD 2012/07/22 22:14:33

Check out the CBO report that shows just the opposite will happen. It should allay your apprehensions.

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MS PRUD to amoobrasil 2012/07/28 18:38:49

I hope you are right - I will check it out - but since congress is exempt and Pelosi is making her friends exempt - I wonder how wonderful this is going to be.

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amoobrasil to MS PRUD 2012/08/20 13:43:09

Exempt from what, Ms. Prud? A retired IRS employee with the same health care system as Congress (FHSB), I know for a fact that all federal employees will have to carry health insurance under Obamacare. Since Congress has legislated the system we have now, we are covered under insurance offered by our employer, the Federal Government/taxpayer. However, if we somehow opted out of such coverage (not recommended--a "conservative" Congressmen coming into office for the first time complained that he would have to go a week without coverage), we would have to pay the penalty (or whatever) for carrying no coverage.

Please avoid "news" sources like FOX, which won on appeal the First-Amendment right to "lie and distort" in reporting the news. Why would anyone trust such a source? Seriously--I would like to know why. Be sure that your facts an data are verifiable.

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MS PRUD to amoobrasil 2012/08/28 20:52:14

This is really scary to me - I have COPD and my medicine and equipment is over $400 a month . Thank you for the information.

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amoobrasil to MS PRUD 2012/08/28 22:36:05

I am pleased if the information helped you. I really wish everyone well to all who cross my path (I pray every day that I may be a blessing to someone and that someone may be a blessing to me).

Could you please tell me in what way you found the information useful.

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MS PRUD to amoobrasil 2012/09/01 20:05:26

I believed Obama when he said we would not have to change insurance if we had it already and now you have told me that is not true so I went and looked on the internet and I believe you and I feel Obama did not tell the truth.

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amoobrasil to MS PRUD 2012/09/01 20:53:35

I misled you; please tell me how. I will keep my Medicare/Blue Cross coverage because it already exceeds most of the requirements of Obamacare beginning in 2014.

As long as your current insurance gives you the coverage of alternative insurance and the insurer is not running an overhead exceeding 20%, you should not have to change. You may want to do so, however.

The good thing is that you will have more choice than that of taking or leaving whatever your employer offers you (if he does offer coverage).

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MS PRUD to amoobrasil 2012/09/09 20:29:11

Are you telling me that IRS federal employees who now have Blue Cross and Blue Shield and do not have to take OBAMACARE

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amoobrasil to MS PRUD 2012/09/09 21:11:49

You might start by finding out what it is. Any federal employee (including Congressmen) is under FEHBA, the same OPM-negotiated plan.

You are not uninformed; you are misinformed. I think it is safe to presume that you avoid what you call "liberal" media, preferring, perhaps Fox "News", which fought for and won the right to "lie and distort" in reporting the news?

The law ADDS choices; it does not peel them away.

Given the comprehensive care offered, I cannot imagine any federal employees opting out of FEHBA, but I do not yet know what other choices may become available.

My most fundamental objection to the ACA is that it does not offer a public option (like a beefed-up Medicare); if it did (and if I were not yet under Medicare), I would go for the public option.

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ajracestables1 2012/07/13 18:08:00

Very important

+1
The prices for medical procedures can and will put you in the poor house forever if you need surgury or a hospital stay without insurance. The medical profession actually charge people more if they don't have insurance. Kind of a backwards system don't you think?

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Jimmy 2012/07/13 17:21:46

Very important

+1
I don't believe there is any other country that gives there people a worse deal than the US. The US is the only country where they talk about how bad universal healthcare is, how expensive it is, how it'll bankrupt our country, how people need to earn their own money but then the US spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, not just dollar amount even in GDP and now we want to make it that if you choose you don't healthcare you're penalized.

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amoobrasil to Jimmy 2012/07/18 18:58:26

No blinders on your eyes, Jimmy. Thank you for this imnportant observation.

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cc 2012/07/13 16:13:46

Very important

most illnesses are self treatable, but man lemme tellya... one bout' of appendicitis and you're out 50k! Just like that! I don't know how insurance can pay out all the stuff they do but somehow the math works out. I'm just glad to have insurance. It's a good thing.
The government needs to get out of insuring most people and make it affordable for everyone. The government fixes prices and makes doctors limit the number and type of Medicare, Medicaid, and SSI patients they can recieve. I don't see that getting repaired in any kind of near future though.

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bonnie 2012/07/13 13:28:48

Very important

The last thing you want is to wake up in the middle of the night and have a medical emergency and you have to go to the county hospital and wait two days to be seen by a doctor.

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TheR 2012/07/13 10:49:19 (edited)

Very important

So how important is Church Insurance? There are many Hospitals that are run by religious orders.

http://www.redcrossofconstant...

http://www.sciencemuseum.org....

I would feel better paying for Hospital Care provided by the auspices of my Church. A type of Church Hospital Insurance, would be a good thing I think. It would then not be considered Government Provided. People should put more focus to their Churches any way, than to the Government. And there should also be Church based Funeral Insurance as well.

No one tries to reform the Church Hospital Structure that has been around for a very long time. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V gave the group formal recognition as a Congregation, and assigned them the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome, which they still maintain. In 1588 they expanded to Naples and in 1594 St. Camillus led his Religious to Milan where they attended to the sick of the Ca' Granda, the main hospital of the city. A memorial tablet in the main courtyard of the Ca' Granda commemorates his presence there.

Pope Gregory XV raised the Congregation to the status of an Order, equivalent with the mendicant Orders, in 1591. At that time they established a fourth Vow unique to their Order: “to serve the sick, even with danger to one’s own life."[4]

Throughout his life De Lel...

So how important is Church Insurance? There are many Hospitals that are run by religious orders.

http://www.redcrossofconstant...

http://www.sciencemuseum.org....

I would feel better paying for Hospital Care provided by the auspices of my Church. A type of Church Hospital Insurance, would be a good thing I think. It would then not be considered Government Provided. People should put more focus to their Churches any way, than to the Government. And there should also be Church based Funeral Insurance as well.

No one tries to reform the Church Hospital Structure that has been around for a very long time. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V gave the group formal recognition as a Congregation, and assigned them the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome, which they still maintain. In 1588 they expanded to Naples and in 1594 St. Camillus led his Religious to Milan where they attended to the sick of the Ca' Granda, the main hospital of the city. A memorial tablet in the main courtyard of the Ca' Granda commemorates his presence there.

Pope Gregory XV raised the Congregation to the status of an Order, equivalent with the mendicant Orders, in 1591. At that time they established a fourth Vow unique to their Order: “to serve the sick, even with danger to one’s own life."[4]

Throughout his life De Lellis' ailments caused him suffering, but he allowed no one to wait on him and would crawl to visit the sick when unable to stand and walk. It is said that Camillus possessed the gifts of healing and prophecy. He resigned as Superior General of the Order in 1607, but continued to serve as Vicar General of the Order. By that time, communities of the Order had spread all throughout Italy, even as far as Hungary. He assisted in a General Chapter of the Order in 1613, after which he accompanied the new Superior General on an inspection tour of all the hospitals of the Order in Italy. In the course of that tour, he fell ill. He died in Rome in 1614, and was entombed at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

http://www.newadvent.org/cath...

(more)

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Swan Eshdeh 2012/07/13 10:39:48

Very important

+1
IMPORTANT

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beach bum 2012/07/13 07:25:49

Very important

very

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jgh57 2012/07/13 07:14:54

Very important

+1
I've had two MIs (heart attacks) and I'm a diabetic. My medications without insurance are over $1000/ month. With the meds I work full time and I'm able to live a normal life. Without insurance I could not afford the medications and I would either be dead or disabled.

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Ken 2012/07/13 06:13:17

Very important

It's just your responsibility to get it.

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rand 2012/07/13 04:51:35

Not very important

+1
Unless you live in the states where the greed of insurance companies, doctors, lawyers, health care worker unions, and pharmaceutical companies have drive it to be twice as much as any other nation though only 14th in the quality of services. So live outside the states.

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madsam 2012/07/13 01:51:12

Somewhat important

+1
This is a designed question.. What should be asked is
What would you rather loose:
1.Your job
2.Your health insurance

That would and really is the question..

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madsam to madsam 2012/07/13 02:38:44

+1
These questions are all pointed question to try to detract from the real issues..

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Jim to madsam 2012/07/14 01:46:38

Which are?

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amoobrasil to madsam 2012/07/18 19:00:46

No one in developed countries outside the US is faced with such a Hobson's choice. Under Obamacare (or better, Medicare for everybody), Americans will no longer have to face such a terrible prospect.

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mikewonaus 2012/07/13 00:28:55

Not important at all

+1
All 'insurance' is pure extortion! Being upheld in the US Supreme Court is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which neutralizes incentive to be part of the lifetime medical support through the Veterans Administration. The act is a tax which will never go away until repealed and it's law. While any attention toward repeal tends to distract from issues of social security, federal & state bankruptcy, the elections of 2012 are expected to overwhelmingly be in favor of the incumbent because there are no rivals able to produce the numbers needed to stop the bleeding. The ineffective yammering in the Senate & House of Representatives will have little or no actions aimed at 'PP&ACA;' to make any difference to the pathetic morale and moral problems affecting disenfranchised women, gay men, US credibility and world wide scorn. The futility of reneging all barriers to foreign automakers overtaking US manufacturing has destroyed any glimmer of hope of returning to a strong United States so the 2012 elections are hopeless & discouraging. The Ron Paul supporters are too few and the misguided are too many! But please be sure to have a nice day, anyway!

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RicardoCabeza 2012/07/12 23:42:49

Not important at all

+1
Dentists are not included in the ACA, and I have not taken any pharma since 1972.

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