I just got a letter yesterday, that my insurance premiums are going up...again.

Kingarthur, I wish you the best. I know the words are meaningless, but they're all I have. :(

Genuinely wishing you well and also wishing I were in a position to pick up the tab for your coverage. All of which counts for nothing particularly real, I know.

I dunno if this is like appropriate for me to do, and if it isn't I'm really sorry.

http://tinyurl.com/jqe6ym3

just sayin'

Best to you kingarthur. I went through 12 rounds of chemo back in 2013 and spent the next year in debt, even while with a great insurance plan! Health care in this country is as much of a racket as the casino industry.

I have Aetna through my employer. Our premiums have remained stable, but out out-of-pocket keeps going up. Thus year, I had to pay $500 out-of-pocket for a single test to confirm I still had a condition I fucking TOLD the doctor I had been diagnosed with already. That's literally more than a week's pay for me and that's BEFORE they take the money out to pay for my company health insurance. When I told the doctor I knew I had this condition, his response was along the lines of "Well, your previous doctor diagnosed that. We need to confirm it hasn't changed." If hasn't can I get that money back, asshole? No? Yeah, that's what I fucking though.

Incidentally, I had to switch doctors because my last doctor, with the threat of the ACA looming, decided to join some medical group that offers "concierge" service. That's where they charge you a monthly fee whether you go to the doctor or not that month. But, hey, you get up to two free office visits, depending on your plan and plans start as low as $150 per month.

And I swear the company is in on the scam. Our office visit copay has gone up $5 every other year since I started working there. If you're out sick for more than one day, you're required to get a doctor's note or they won't authorize sick leave pay. It's like getting a $50 fine because you caught a cold. If the copay keeps going up, it will be cheaper to just get docked a day's pay and get another day of bedrest. And based on other people's stories, I know I'm incredibly lucky to have things as good as I do.

But it's not like that for everyone. One time when I was out sick and waiting in line at the pharmacy o pick up my prescription, the old lady in front of me was complaining because she had to use her private insurance to pay for a prescription Medicare wouldn't cover the cost of.

I don't have anything to give but virtual hugs and the commiseration of my rabid dissatisfaction with the health care/insurance system, King Arthur, but I give those eagerly and freely. I hope you don't lose your insurance after all. Isn't it great that, when things start costing money, they can opt out? Should rob the damn insurance companies.

Sorry to hear this kingarthur, is there a fallback/safety net if your insurance refuse to cover it? It's horrifying that they can do this sort of shit :(

I wish there was something I could do to help.


Health insurance, as it exists in this country, might as well be organized crime.

Canada does not have "free healthcare". We have a single payer system.

I pay $150 to the provincial government on top of the approx. 30% tax rate I pay for both federal and provincial income tax. I get a big portion of the 30% back due to having children.

I have dental insurance through work that pays 80% for routine work and 50% for major work. My insurance through work covers most of the things that the government single payer system does not cover.

A single payer system means that nobody gets blocked from healthcare due to not having insurance because the single payer is the government and the government pays every health care provider regardless.

The kid in this story would get treatment immediately and never pay a dime.

Heya King Arthur, sorry to hear about this. Do you have a Paypal address or any kind of online fund we could contribute to help defray your costs? I can't donate a lot but I'm sure every little bit helps?

I'm so sorry, Kingarthur.

I got hit with $4k of medical bills this year because my wife and I have the cheapest insurance we can (self-employed). It was a shoulder injury I had absolutely no control over, and the urgent care doc thought I needed an MRI.

Those machines are really noisy on their own, but even that sound is drowned out by the sound of money being vaccumed away.

So, even with insurance, I'm on the American Healthcare Plan of "never get sick or hurt".

A few things to keep everyone updated:

1. I got denied for Medicaid because I keep getting accumulated and donated leave time as paychecks at work. The issue is that donated leave could run out at any time in the next year at a moment's notice and, once it does, I lose my health insurance. Medicaid wants to make sure you make less than $16,000 a year for an individual like me or else there's no Medicaid. They need five months of proof of this and then the 30 to 45 day processing period. So I won't really be able to apply again for another six months and if there's too much donated leave in that time, I'll be denied again.

2. I may have to get a $50,000 advance on my life insurance to pay for COBRA, meaning I will pay full premiums and all deductibles, copays, and coinsurance out of that money until it either runs out or I die.

3. I don't qualify for Medicare for another 19 months, by which time I'm told I will be dead and by which time the medical bills would have likely piled up.

4. I'm pretty sure not having insurance gets you the plan where they kick you out of the hospital ASAP to defray costs and you die home alone and in pain instead of in a hospital high on drugs.

5. It's not all bad: they shrunk my tumors way down and, though they'll eventually return, I get a few more months of life maybe.

Also, Binro, thanks for posting the link. People can donate if they want to, but I wasn't planning on asking for anything in this post.

Thanks to all you guys for being curious and staying positive. :D I really do appreciate it.

Hi kingarthur, you are in my thoughts, and I wish I was filthy rich. If you create a fundraising page, be sure to post it here.

Everything here just makes me cry. I can't even 5 star the video.

RIP King.

The cancer updates were always depressing. The comments were always uplifting. We don't suck as bad as I thought. That was his gift to us.

All I know about King Arthur is that he was a decent guy, and that he was honest, and courageous. But that's everything, isn't it? If I was God, I couldn't ask more of a person than to be decent, honest, and courageous. Everything else would be up to you.

wonder how old you were when you died