Share Your Story: What do preventive health services with no co-pays or deductibles mean to you?
Has cost ever kept you or a family member from getting preventive care? Has it forced you to make tough choices, like delaying a health screening despite family history or putting off paying a bill so you can afford to see a doctor? We also would like to hear about any success stories! Have you received a benefit with no co-pay? Whatever it is, we want to hear from you!
Thanks to the health care law, new insurance plans are required to cover certain women's preventive health services with no co-payments or deductibles at the start of their next plan year. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 47 million women will benefit from these new services. That's huge!
Tell us — what do preventive health services with no co-pays or deductibles mean to you?
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Your Stories
W James Hadden Jr
Austin, TX - Texas, retired
Anyone who faces decisions about freely-supplied health care should watch the BBC series "Call the Midwife", which is available via Netflix.
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Shree
, CT,
In CT it is very hard to get the doctors to bill for preventative care. I went for a new patient well adult visit and till got billed for a new patient with major problems. The doctors billing office refuses to use the right codes. For a well adult visit i ended up paying 270 dollars.
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Valerie Friedman
Orlando, FL, looking for work
Our medical costs, after copays and insurance, for our family of 3 is 30K per year. This year my husband made $45K. You do the math. Beyond that, realize that preventive care catches things early that saves a lot of time and money LATER for the insurance companies, patients, and hospitals where the underinsured and uninsured go to get free medical care -- at the taxpayers' expense.
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Robin
, CO,
My kids and I have no insurance. I am 41 and have yet to have my baseline mammo. Kids and I only go to the doctor when it's basically an emergency. We haven't been to the dentist in years. When my son broke his thumb, we had to take a loan on my husband's ira to pay the doctors because they don't do payment plans for self-pay.
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Polly
The answer is that it doesn't cost less ..if you don't csiendor what the employer is paying. That's why so many people think COBRA is expensive. COBRA isn't expensive, it's just that when you continue your group plan under COBRA it's the same plan, at the same cost (plus maybe 2% for admin), but it seems expensive because your employer is no longer contributing.Individual plans ARE CHEAPER than group because you can be turned down. In group plans nobody can be turned down, so the cost to cover all the health problems escalates.The biggest mistake people make is assuming that their work coverage is more competitive without shopping. It's not uncommon, especially for young, health people, to be able to get cheaper plans on their own even when the employer is picking up half the cost.Finally, most small companies will just have their employees buy individual plans because it's a fraction of the cost .though either way it's always nicer when someone else is picking up the tab., The answer is that it doesn't cost less ..if you don't csiendor what the employer is paying. That's why so many people think COBRA is expensive. COBRA isn't expensive, it's just that when you continue your group plan under COBRA it's the same plan, at the same cost (plus maybe 2% for admin), but it seems expensive because your employer is no longer contributing.Individual plans ARE CHEAPER than group because you can be turned down. In group plans nobody can be turned down, so the cost to cover all the health problems escalates.The biggest mistake people make is assuming that their work coverage is more competitive without shopping. It's not uncommon, especially for young, health people, to be able to get cheaper plans on their own even when the employer is picking up half the cost.Finally, most small companies will just have their employees buy individual plans because it's a fraction of the cost .though either way it's always nicer when someone else is picking up the tab., The answer is that it doesn't cost less ..if you don't csiendor what the employer is paying. That's why so many people think COBRA is expensive. COBRA isn't expensive, it's just that when you continue your group plan under COBRA it's the same plan, at the same cost (plus maybe 2% for admin), but it seems expensive because your employer is no longer contributing.Individual plans ARE CHEAPER than group because you can be turned down. In group plans nobody can be turned down, so the cost to cover all the health problems escalates.The biggest mistake people make is assuming that their work coverage is more competitive without shopping. It's not uncommon, especially for young, health people, to be able to get cheaper plans on their own even when the employer is picking up half the cost.Finally, most small companies will just have their employees buy individual plans because it's a fraction of the cost .though either way it's always nicer when someone else is picking up the tab.
The answer is that it doesn't cost less ..if you don't csiendor what the employer is paying. That's why so many people think COBRA is expensive. COBRA isn't expensive, it's just that when you continue your group plan under COBRA it's the same plan, at the same cost (plus maybe 2% for admin), but it seems expensive because your employer is no longer contributing.Individual plans ARE CHEAPER than group because you can be turned down. In group plans nobody can be turned down, so the cost to cover all the health problems escalates.The biggest mistake people make is assuming that their work coverage is more competitive without shopping. It's not uncommon, especially for young, health people, to be able to get cheaper plans on their own even when the employer is picking up half the cost.Finally, most small companies will just have their employees buy individual plans because it's a fraction of the cost .though either way it's always nicer when someone else is picking up the tab.
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Grupo
A lot of Americans seem to have the mistaken and urtltey silly notion that other nations have free health care. Nothing could be further from the truth, but some people don't want the facts. The costs of health care are rolled into much higher income tax and extremely high sales tax, to the extent that Americans would refuse to pay it., A lot of Americans seem to have the mistaken and urtltey silly notion that other nations have free health care. Nothing could be further from the truth, but some people don't want the facts. The costs of health care are rolled into much higher income tax and extremely high sales tax, to the extent that Americans would refuse to pay it., A lot of Americans seem to have the mistaken and urtltey silly notion that other nations have free health care. Nothing could be further from the truth, but some people don't want the facts. The costs of health care are rolled into much higher income tax and extremely high sales tax, to the extent that Americans would refuse to pay it.
A lot of Americans seem to have the mistaken and urtltey silly notion that other nations have free health care. Nothing could be further from the truth, but some people don't want the facts. The costs of health care are rolled into much higher income tax and extremely high sales tax, to the extent that Americans would refuse to pay it.
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cynthia kain
Paonia, CO, retired
5 years ago my nephews wife had partial hysterctomy for cancer. They hv 2 children and he pays $600.00 for her and 2 kids for healthcare, in addition to the $ his company puts in for him. Last month the doctor told his wife that her pabst smear was positive and they needed to do further testing but the hospital said he would have to pay 10% amounting to $200.00 before they would do the test. He doesn't have $200. $600 out of his $17.00 hour job raising 2 kids and his wife lost her job last year. I learned last week that he has been in severe pain with a knee for many months, working still but finally unable to walk. The doctor said his insurance would not pay for an MRI test until he tried doing pain medication, ice & anti inflammtories. Well, 2 months later, he is still sufferiring & now it is a workmans comp doctor and insurance, not even his OWN, & he has not been able to work for 3 weeks, waiting still for help. He is unable to pay his rent & is not getting paid for being out of work. If we had national health care, he could walk into a facility and be tested and cared for months ago.. he wold not be missing work, payroll taxes would be still going into our federal system..!!!! But believe me, his health insurance is still being paid!!! They get their $$ first.
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Terra
Madison, WI, Freelance editorial professional
To me, personally? Nothing. If I'm able to move back to NYC in a year or so and join a freelancer's union, it will mean a bit more. I fall into a group that is almost NEVER talked about or even considered: Fifty-five years old, single/never married, child-free, Working Poor. (I initial cap that last label, because it's fast becoming the newest American socioeconomic group, and will likely replace the vanishing Middle Class in the next decade or so.) I have no insurance and am in debt to a local sliding-scale clinic for thousands of dollars. I see a doctor only when I need to get scrips refilled. I haven't seen a dentist in a decade. (I will as soon as I can save up for the $100 deductible.) I live in a state that began offering "extra" care options to poor adults (M & F) without dependents only a few yrs. ago. That program, for which people had to apply and be accepted to, lasted about a year before the state Republicans shut down funding and put people on a waiting list. It's now about to be cut entirely. Tho I qualify for disability on several counts, I don't have the time, energy, and emotional stability to go thru the process of applying, waiting to be turned down, and then reapplying, nor do I have the money to hire a law firm. I prefer to keep working at a job I love rather than be restricted as to how much I can earn working part-time, be "awarded" a pittance to live on, and be subject to (mostly) substandard health care. (I have several friends on full disability, and this is their situation.) Their "benefits" have already been cut and remain under constant threat. And all because we live in a country full of bootstraps-pulling idiots who think it's morally right and economically feasible to continue the utterly outmoded, INSANE system of tying health care to a job. ---My main goal, if I live long enough, is to relocate to Europe, the UK, or Canada. I live in constant fear of growing old in our rapidly deteriorating republic without Universal Health Care for All. Even if I were able to make enough money to purchase the best health care money can buy, I don't want to live in a country surrounded by people who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves and their own families. That is what this country is.
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Monica
, Ca,
Equality. Difference between Life and Death.
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Ashley
Dallas, TX, Starbucks barista
I work at Starbucks and have been with the company for a little over two years now. I had a PAP in September of 2011 and was told that I had pre-cancerous cells and need to have a minor biopsy. I made the appointment but when I showed up for the procedure I was told that my insurance company considers the preventative care as a surgical procedure and I therefore had to fork over $250 on the spot, up front, before I could have the biopsy. I make $8.70 and hour, approximately 35 hours a week, and I have an autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia for which I have several prescriptions. I can barely keep afloat with my bills and my illness, so needless to say I did not have an extra $250 to spare. They refused me, saying I HAD to have the money, up front, in its entirety. I still have not been able to afford the procedure. I'm 26 years old and cancer runs rampant on my father's side of the family to the point that nobody in the family had died of anything else. I hope it's not too late for me.
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