2010 HMO Coverage cost

[brote]

I retired from management in 2001 and paid nothing for Health Insurance. Eight years down the road and my HMO
is going to cost me $800.00 per month. I cannot believe 31 years of service with numerous promises of what to
expect in retirement and we are now faced with these costs. Last year my insurance increased 37% and for 2010
an increase of 33%. My pension is small enough and now, in a very poor economy, I will have to re-enter the work
force to afford medical coverage for my wife and I.

Is anyone else facing these costs ????

Hank Brote
Atlanta, GA

[mendomann]

We are all facing increased health care costs. Whether it is drugs or other related health care issues, health care costs are rising more than inflation every year. The current state of affairs with the health care insurance industry is dysfunctional. Where insurance companies are making the highest profits they have ever made. Where CEOs make hundreds of millions of dollars in salary every year. Where insurance companies ration health care by refusing claims and drop people because they get sick. Where people are dying because they cannot afford health care insurance or cannot get insurance because they have pre-existing conditions. Where people like yourself have to return to work, after retiring, so you can afford to pay for your health care insurance. This is why we have to pass health care reform in this country. Real reform, not just reducing coverage and increasing co-pays, deductibles and out-of pocket charges. Pay less and get less is not the answer. Real reform is the answer and the American people deserve no less.

[fries]

This is why we have to pass health care reform in this country. Real reform, not just reducing coverage and increasing co-pays, deductibles and out-of pocket charges. Pay less and get less is not the answer. Real reform is the answer and the American people deserve no less.

Sorry I dis-agree, still-again. You Mendomann did not get reform - you got a buyout. All Harry Reid did is buy votes, for no real reform at all... If he wanted real re-form talks would have been held for both sides Dem & Rep. Your man Reid is a disgrace to this country... We are in very sad times for this country, as I grew up knowing it... Time are changing, to bad NOT for the better..

[brote]

I have to agree with fries "Our Congress" are a bunch of no goods. Health care reform is not what they are trying to pass right now.
It is more like "Insurance Company Welfare". Force folks to buy insurance or pay a fine to the IRS. This doesn't sound to constitutional to me (but I'm not a Congressman). A little work leveling the playing field buy allowing insurance to be sold across state lines along with tort reform would have gone a long way. This is not going to happen with as many attorneys who are in Congress. By the way, I have never seen anyone "Denied" medical help anywhere in this country. Goes along with the 100,000 veterans who live on the street that was attested to by John "slick attorney" Edwards. Pure BS ..............

I believe that what we had been assured of while we worked for the company should have followed through. We (retired employees ) are looked at as cost only.