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F the American Healthcare system


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So with my dad's passing I had to get creative with my mom's healthcare solution since she was covered by his plan through his work (which wasn't all that good to begin with, but i digress).

She doesn't qualify for medicare because she's 61, not 65. The social security survivor benefit of around 2k a month is too much to qualify for medi-cal. Because my dad made too much money from this year she doesn't qualify for tax credits through covered california.So that leaves us with $800 premiums (which would suck up nearly half her income) through covered california for dogshit coverage, federal COBRA which is not gonna be any different really from covered CA, or the private insurance market. She doesn't qualify for disability, but is not currently working due to emotional distress and a host of other issues. A whole bunch of shit choices if you ask me.

So I did some research into something I heard a little about some years ago called direct primary care (there's a handful of doctors offices in the OC that practice this model). In a nutshell, it's like a membership to a family physician that totally ignores health insurance. $90 per month gets you access to old school, primary care with your doctor. No co-pays, unlimited office visits, prescription medicine at retail value (something like prednisone is like 16 cents a pill), next to instant service as same day or next day appointments are often available, wellness checks, etc. It's pretty interesting and I got pretty deeply involved in the research of it. Looking at doctor's message board to see what they think, reading articles on it, trying to understand every angle. Doctors are able to maintain the same pay or close to it with significant lower overhead due to not having to worry about all the crap that comes with insurance, not to mention a significantly better lifestyle, when me and my mom went to do a meet and greet with the doctor to learn more from her she sat and chatted with us for close to an hour. Totally unheard of at an office like Kaiser where they rush you out in 5 or 10 minutes so they can move on to the next person in line.

The only other thing that needed addressed was what happens in an emergency when you need to be admitted to a hospital due to a catastrophe. Your membership at the doctor you go to obviously has nothing to do with that. So then there are a couple of choices, a high deductible insurance plan or something like a healthshare ministry like libertyhealthshare.org. We went with the healthshare option, and I am hopeful it isn't a disaster for her. Did significant research into that as well, basically $299 a month with the plan she got results in a $1,000 responsibility for the year any medical 'incident', once you have paid $1,000 that year, any medical bill is covered up to a million dollars per bill. There are some restrictions since they're a non-profit Christian organization, like they won't cover the cost of certain things like lung cancer due to smoking, childbirth that resulted from a pregnancy out of wedlock, etc. They have a whole list of things they tell you ahead of time. People who've used them say it works amazingly, so...

All in all, a little under $400 a month seemed like it has all the bases covered for someone in a highly vulnerable situation. We'll see how this goes...

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3 minutes ago, Make Angels Great Again said:

 

Thanks. My older brother and sister have done their share also.

Just makes me want to plan for the worst a little more for my own wife and kids benefit.

For sure.

In a lot of families, one sibling ends up shouldering most of the burden when it comes to caring for parents. So it's great that you and your brother and sister are working together on it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Neither of my parents are living, but I often wondered what would have happened had my mother outlived my father. She didn't drive, didn't know how to use a checkbook or bank account (my father handled everything), and I was living over 1,000 miles away at the time.

My condolences, MAGA. I have been through losing a parent twice (lost my mother in her late 50s), and it's tough.

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Condolences , MAGA. You posted this on the day my dad passed away and I missed it.

Sounds like you’re doing what’s necessary to help your mom, and that’s a terrific way to honor your dad. Good on ya.

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3 hours ago, notherhalo said:

so after going to about 5 doctors over a course of several months, one doctor told me to get Flonase, I sprayed it up my nose 2x daily and my problems went away in a week

 

Shoot.  I could have told you to do that.  And I'm not even Mexican.  Although for those rough days, I might recommend spraying some white powder up your nose instead.

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