How do you guys handle medical costs (health insurance) and the like? Most people in the real world have companies that provide them with medical insurance. Is everything cash or do you just have some sort of deal worked out with a health insurance company? I mean, that stuff is expensive...

You are thinking of players in the US? In my country, Norway, the government takes care of everything for free, even if you are a murderer you will get everything for free for life.

yeah, we don't have that kind of thing in the U.S....unless DN is on medicare...?

Daniel is Canadian. OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) is there for those Ontario residents in need. I am assuming he still resides in Toronto enough each year to keep this status.

In the US, murderers also get free medical. Interesting concept, isn't it?

It's the same question as any person who is self-employed.

If you start consistently winning enough to quit your day job (and assuming your wife or husband doesn't have medical insurance through her or his employer), then you can continue your old medical insurance under the COBRA program (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) for, I think, eighteen months.

Warning: This is more expensive than you may realize, because your company was paying a portion of your insurance; under COBRA, I think you pick up the entire tab... so it can be quite pricey.

If you don't need this much insurance (especially if you're young), many companies such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield offer reasonably priced individual plans. Alternatively, some organizations that you can join sign up for some form of group coverage; but my experience with trying this for a writers' organization of 1,200 people was that, unless you can guarantee that a certain percentage of them will opt for the insurance, the "group policy" you get isn't much better than what you can get on your own, as an individual.

For younger players, the best option might be to buy catastrophic care -- which is much cheaper than full care -- and use some of your poke to set up a medical savings account (MSA). The idea is that a huge percent of the insurance company's losses come from claims that are less than $5,000 (or somesuch amount). Thus, if they don't have to pay unless your claim is more than $5,000, they save enough money that the premium can be half or a third of what full coverage would be.

But that means you're responsible for the first $5,000... so you set up an MSA with before-tax money in that amount. You get to keep any interest earned; and when you have medical expenses -- probably even including annual checkups -- you pay from the MSA. That way, you don't have to pay taxes on the money you earn that you spend on medical care (be sure to consult a lawyer or accountant -- I am neither! -- for the tax laws in your state).

Whenever you have spare money, top up your MSA to keep it at $5,000 (or whatever amount you have selected). If you get into a bleary-eyed car wreck, after a five-day marathon tournament, and your medical and hospital expenses end up being $150,000... the first $5,000 comes from your MSA, and the catastrophic care insurance policy pays 80% or whatever of the rest. (Typically, if the expenses are even larger than that, catastrophic care pays 100% up to the maximum per patient/per lifetime payout, which is usually in the low millions).

The numbers will vary, but they always follow a format similar to the above.

I would guess this is the best option for a full-time player. The larger your MSA, the smaller your premium... but the more you have to pay out if you get hurt really bad.

Dafydd

No, He's Canadian. He doesn't pay a dime for health care unless he wants to. It's the Canadian way...... for now!

With 75% percent of your paycheck going to the government through various taxes I would hardly call it "free". Or it is free if you dont contribute much to society, but for people who make a decent income the hospital-stay has already been paid for because of the sick tax system we got.

Since he resides in the US and does not meet the residency requirements for Canada - he does not get the free coverage. He must carry some kind of health insurance on his own, if he wants it.

I think that's normal in european countrys....

Dude...you're an idiot. It's called standard medical insurance...blue shield, kaiser, etc. You don't HAVE to depend on your employer

So murderers are guaranteed health care in the US, but not the single mother working three part-time jobs. Interesting concept isn't it?

It is a difficult situation though. The government are responsible for the well-being of anyone in their care, and inmates are certainly in the care of the government. So even if this murderer is a piece of **** he can only be sentenced in a fair trial and according to the laws of the nation, and taking away medical assistance would be considered "cruel punishment". If you are in prison you have no opportunities to get a job or make money on your own, so you cant get medical insurance the way people on the outside can. It would be very cruel to let a person die from astma just because he happens to have a criminal record.

I remember an "interresting" incident in California a few years back where a person on death row needed a heart transplant, and even if he actually was going to be killed by the government later on they had to pay for the very expensive operation in order to keep him alive so they could execute him later on. The sad part is that there is a limited supply (well I gueess it is a good thing that healthy hearts is in low supply though) of heart, but a long line of people who need a new heart. So in order to keep the inmate alive so he could be executed someone else died while waiting for a new heart.

So yes, if you dont have medical insurance but a serious medical condition crime does pay.

Why would someone his age need or want medical insurance. Waste of money.

wait till:
A. you have kids
B. you are over 40
C. your wife is selling insurance and you want to be her first sale.

otherwise, yound males in America are mostly not going to get sick enough to need insurance.

And you also don't need life insurance until the 3 above reasons kick in.

"otherwise, yound males in America are mostly not going to get sick enough to need insurance. "

Your house is very unlikely to burn down, but I still see having insurance in case it does as a good choice.

Even the best pokerplayer should put away money for rent and normal expenses before he take his money to the casino, just in case something goes terribly wrong you are still in decent shape.

I like gambling, but to gamle on your health just because you are most likely to not become very sick is just stupid.

Wow - dangerous piece of advice if you live in the US. You forgot to mention D, if despite B you should end up requiring medical insurance you usually cannot get it (at least not without being fleeced) because of "pre-existing condition". I would advise you to keep at least some health insurance and keep it current at all times; then it becomes a lot harder to deny care because of pre-existing. And because of HIPAA, if you have health insurance and a serious medical condition, you can keep your coverage even if you switch to a job where you are covered. Then they cannot deny you because of pre-existing.

Unfortunately I know all too well first hand; I'm not even 40 yet but I got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer when I was 25 (over 10 years ago) - since I get a copy of the bills going to the insurance company I can tell you that I would have been out close to $500,000 at this point due to radiation, chemo theraphy and too many surgeries to count. Like you I never thought I would need it - I had been healthy as an oxe prior to my diagnosis; didn't live on top of a Superfund site and it just came out of the blue - much like somebody else mentioned; you don't think your house will burn to the ground but if it does and you don't carry insurance .....

Sorry for getting all personal here, but this is a pet peeve of mine - if you can at all afford; never go without health insurance in the US.

Regards
Erasa

So damn true, like I can't say anything else because you just hit the nail on the head, if I lived in the states, this is one expense that I would never go tight pocketed on. You never know when you can get hurt. No one ever said anything about young kids playing sports too how many injuries would a kid have from playing a contact sport? I played quite a bit of sports when I was young and was hit extremely hurt but I was luckly to come out of it all with 1 injury a seperated shoulder.

But I always saw my friends get concussions/broken limbs/bad bad cuts.

Well, I would say you only need life insurance if A. But, waiting till your 40 is ridiculous, as the price goes up every year. Hell, I got $1mil when I was 27 (right after my first child) and I only pay $700/year. If I got that now, it would be like $1200 or so. At 40, it might be $2000 or more.. Bad advice, I think.

medical insurance and life insurance are 2 different things last time I checked

I use to work for a small company and I was their office manager (and purchaser, and sales consultant, and service manager when ours was out sick or in jail, etc. etc.). Anyway, we hired a company that handled our payroll, benefits and 401k. Even though we were small, we had great health insurance rates. The reason... because we were actually employed by the company we hired. They even used the cafeteria plan where our health care premiums were pre-taxed. This is the company we used: http://www.achcorp.com/index.htm

Anyway, I am sure you can look on the internet for HR companies for small business. A small business can have as few as 1 employee. So, all you have to do is become self employed, create your company which is you and hire one o these companies. You will get great insurance rates and also the ability to invest in a 401K.

And Balloon guy... I am not a fan of insurance but if I did not have it right now I would have had to pay over 10K for the injury I have right now and my treatments are still not over and I still may need surgery. Health insurance is extremely important, even for the healthy individual because unfortunately, things can happen when you least expect it.

Worst advice ever. I am in the health care industry. Plenty of people under the age of 40 have major medical expenses. Without insurance, they are ruined financially for life. Also, as a group, young males tend to have relatively high rates of injury as they engage in physical activity that raises their risk.

Unfortunately, young adults tend to think they are invulnerable. They tend to think that those bad things that can happen only happen to "other people." But they forget that those "other people" are people just like them -- who also thought that it would never happen to them.

Sorry guys, but health insurance makes its money from people that don't need it betting on getting sick.

At the very most you might get some catastrophic policy. ( I know ISAspelling) I pay $600 a month for catastrophic care for my self and family, I pay the first $10K of bills, then the insurance kicks in. $600 a month. Tell me that's not a reslut of frivolous lawsuits, and rooked doctors.

I do have a Health Savings Account, this is something EVERYONE should have because of the tax savings.


Here's the secret to beat the system:
Go to Mexico, get citizenship, then IF you get sick or injured, show the Mexican ID and you will get free health care. Try not to speak too good of the English.



If you are a generaly unhealthy person, get the healthcare

If you are in good health, skip it. You know who you are.

This changes with kids and age.

The odds are greatly better that you remain healthy than get a really expensive problem. You just never hear from the people that don't get sick, they are too busy watching American Idol.

If you do things that could cause injury and you get hurt, welcome to life 101. Don't act surprised if racing Motocross gets expensive when you don't hit the 3rd whoop just right. This is the only case of Darwinism I believe in.

And life insurance before 40 is just plain stealing from gullible people. What does a 29 year single person need to have life insurance for? To support his parents? Or to pay off his car? If you use Life insurance as a savings plan than you have been duped. you can get so many better rates of return on such a long list of options. Talk to anyone that doesn't sell insurance to find out which is right for you.



Health insurance has it's place. But it has gotten out of hand due to lawyers and until people get back to paying their own bills, we will have worse and worse problems with healthcare. The only way it can get worse is if the government comes in to fix it.



Or vote for Hillary and I'll be paying for your healthcare. Enjoy the lines

Ahhhh.... So you DO have health insurance. You have a catastrophic policy. That's VERY different than not having/recommending any at all. Yes, it's true that not everyone needs a policy that covers day-to-day routine expenses. Some people can get by with coverage for major medical expenses only -- but that's not the same thing as not having any coverage.

Also ... of course the whole insurance industry is based on the concept of shared risk. The lucky ones who never use the benefits help pay the expenses of those who do. That's the whole idea. We customers share the risk and pool our resources so that the unlucky "few" don't get destroyed by an unexpected catastrophe. We pay for the safety net the policy provides us even if we never use it.

Yes, I agree that the whole health insurance industry is a mess ... and it's all very complicated ... and no one knows how to fix it so that it is perfect. But that doesn't change the fact that having some coverage to prevent your financial ruin should you turn out to be one of the unlucky ones is a good idea. Young people reading these threads need to investigate the various kinds of coverage available and make a choice that is appropriate for their situation. For the vase majority of those people, a health insurance policy of some kind is a good choice. A single hospitalization can cost tens of thousands of dollars -- and a long-term illness or injury can easily reach a few hundred thousand. Not many people in their 20's and 30's have that kind of cash on hand.

As you and others have said, life insurance is an entirely different issue. Life insurance is designed to provide money to your heirs in case you die. If you have no one but yourself depending on your income, then life insurance is usually not necessary. As a single person with no children, I don't carry any life insurance (expept the small automatic policy provided by my employer at no extra cost to me) because no one but me is dependent upon my income.

Huh?? To support my parents? Uhh no.. To give at least 10 years of my income to my wife and kids in case I die. I have a $600k mortgage, car payments, bills, etc. If I die, I want to make sure my wife doesn't have to immediately move - thats what life insurance is for. Perhaps you don't understand the true meaning of it. In 30 years (the length of my policy) I will have paid like $21k. I will be 57 then - almost retired (probably already will be - we'll see). No way, I do I have a mil in the bank now (unless we sell our house which has that much equity) - does any of this make sense? The policy only gets worse the older you are. But to each his own. I'll believe what I did is right, and you can believe what you did is right. Perhaps both methods are right - like so many things in life - it depends on the situation.

The post on a catastropic policy along with a HSA was pretty good advice if you can afford a high deductible.

I am retired, but not old enough for Medicare and have a wife and 2 school-age children. I went shopping for this type of policy. In order to open a HSA, you must have a high-deductible policy that is "HSA-qualified". The maximum you can contribute tax-free to your HSA per year is the amount of the deductible, and the maximum deductible that can qualify is about $11K.

So I pay $300/month for the 4 of us and contribute the $11K to the HSA, from which I pay the premiums, plus any healthcare costs we incur. The tax deduction for the HSA contribution helps offset the cost of the insurance.

LOL, My friend was at work one day complaining about a stomach pain. His job told him to stay 45 min. later anyway. His stomach hurt so bad that he had a hard time driving home. He gets home and his parents say he dont look so good, and he goes to the hospital. He needs to get his appendix taken out. He didn't have health insurance, and now because of the surgery he is in 31,000 in debt, because of not having health insurance. Yeah I think health insurance is something everyone needs, because you never know what is going to come up.

Guy I know went to the doctor, after a long series of expensive test the doctors says he has 6 months to live.

Guy says: " Well I can't pay you for all this."

So the doctor gave him another 6 months.



To be clear: kids, family, age, these are reasons TOO get healthcare

Young single just say no. Yes some people will get the shaft because health care is stupid expensive, but most people will not need it. Most.


If on the other hand you are not in great general health, then get it before you get sick.

You can always try to plan your trips to Canada around the flair ups. They give the stuff away, and I've known people that got major sick and the hospitals there fixed them up and told them to just go away because the paper work was too much to worry about their bill.


We all know someone that proves the general truths to be false, let's stick to generalities that fit my agenda okay?

Um... Hospitals in Canada do not give away health care to non-residents because it "is too much trouble". They may have to write off bad debt when a patient is unable to pay, but be assured, they will use normal billing and collection procedures, and slipping out won't be an easy option. The same thing happens in American hospitals when a patient can't pay.

Insurance is hedging your bet. Lowering variance. Gamblers should understand that. Taking long odds when you can't cover the bet is a very bad bet. If you have to bet 10,000 to win a million, and the bet says "you won't be bitten by a dog today", you can't take the bet unless you have the 10K to lose.

Insurance suffers from the problem of adverse selection - people will engage in higher risk activity if they know they are insured. In response, the insurance company has to set premiums at higher levels to combat this. The result is that most people end up paying far too much for insurance of all kinds.

Because of this, there can never be a truly efficient market for insurance.

OK, now you got me started on another political discussion. I'll stick to the short reply for now:

The two biggest problems with medical costs right now are:

1) employer tax breaks for getting insurance for employees, but no similar break for getting it on your own. This prevents consumers from really shopping around -- just let the company narrow it down to a few mass-employee type packages, and we're good to go.

2) Mandatory coverages, such as requiring insurance to pay for annual checkups, mental healthcare, etc.

Why would we get insurance for routine events that we know we are going to get? The insurance company will not offer the coverage at a loss, or even for break-even prices, so insurance is *guaranteed* to increase the price of those things. If politicians really wanted to help, they would make it illegal to sell insurance for routine and predictable things. Not that I am recommending they do that, as I believe people should be allowed to be as stupid as they wish; but they should at least get rid of the laws that force insurers to pay for those things. Companies could sell two classes of insurance: whole coverage for people too stupid to figure out how insurance works, and limited coverage which only covered unexpected and especially expensive events.

MSAs are a step in the right direction solving both of these problems. Now if they would make them NOT deductible for employers, only for individuals and their families, we could get some real reform going.

I strongly agree that there should be tax breaks for people who purchase health insurance on their own. Yes, the MSA's are a positive development -- but they are so cumbersome! A straight-forward tax deduction would be better.

I am not so sure about your other recommendation. Many, many people would not get regular, routine preventive care and early diagnosis unless their insurance covered it. They would not get the $100 lab test ... or the mammogram...or take their kids to the doctor for a sore throat (that could be strep and cause permanent heart or kidney damage) .... etc. The failure to catch things early would result in many more cases of serious problems that would be more expensive for society overall. I haven't studied that aspect enough to be certain, but I suspect that eliminating the routing coverage would be more expensive for society in the long run. That would make an interesting doctoral level research project for someone. .

I am glad insurance pays for routine items like annual health checks and stuff like pap smears, etc.

I unfortunately have procrastinated with medical issues in the past and if they were not covered, I probably would have put my head in the sand and ignore completely.

There is this guy I work with, he just started at the company about 6 months ago. He was self employed and never had insurance. 3 months ago he finally goes to the doctor and shows this lump on the side of his neck. It was cancer. He thanks God every day that he works for this company that provides health insurance.

As I have stated before, there are payroll/HR processing companies that can get you health insurance at a very reasonable rate. They also help with other things as well. Unfortunately, not many people know that these companies are out there.

Something along the same line....

If you ever travel overseas, look into travel insurance. This is something I never really even thought about. Then, last November, I was in Portugal and got hit by a drunk driver while going back to my hotel. These things happen even if your very healthy and being careful. I remember seeing a pair of headlights coming up fast from behind and thinking I needed to get out of the way. My next clear memory was 2 and a half weeks later when I came out of a coma.

The point is, no matter what shape you're in, there's someone out there that can hurt you with their negligence. And because the accident happened in Portugal, I have no legal recourse. (not even the fact the guy blew a BAC of .115 seemed to help my case.) Anyhow, after I came out of the coma I still had to stay in the Portuguese hospital for a few more weeks before flying home. My medical insurance is paying the tab (except for the huge deductables) But, IF I had had travel insurance (which was only like $60) I would have been flown home on an air ambulance as soon as I was stable enough to do so. Normally an air ambulance from Europe is 30 to 70 thousand dollars. So, while I hope an incident like this doesn't happen to you, it could even if you don't cause it. And a littrle insurance can be a big help.

To the people who responded as to whether insurance should cover routine procedures:

Making something more expensive DECREASES the chance of that transaction occurring. If you pay $100 for an office visit, the insurance for an office visit will be $100 + some amount, probably 10-20%. So mandating that insurance pay for things like routine physicals makes them less likely to occur, because 1) if you can't afford a $100 office visit, you really can't afford a $120 office visit, and 2) the people who CAN afford insurance will utilize those services more than they otherwise would, which pushes up prices (greater demand, same supply).

Insurance for predictable, affordable events is a bad idea. I will add, though, that if some people will only go to the doctor that way, they should be free to buy that as an add-on to normal insurance. The problem is when it is mandatory, by law. Increasing prices to consumers can never make healthcare more affordable. If each person could pick from the checklist of things they want covered, healthcare prices would drop rapidly. For example:

Routine Physical $100/year (Y/N)
AIDS treatment $400/year (Y/N)
Lung Cancer, non-smokers $10/yr (Y/N)
Lung Cancer, smokers $3000/yr (Y/N)
Psychotherapy $200/yr (Y/N)
Pregnancy testing $10 (Y/N)
Prenatal care $150/yr (Y/N)
Birth control pills free (Y/N)
etc
etc

Some of these would cause problems for the insurance company... for example, people would be unlikely to pay for prenatal care when they are unlikely to get pregnant, then add it when they are ready to start a family. So then the insurance company would have to charge basically the full cost to people who use the service.... but isn't that fair? Why should a 25 year old gay guy subsidize hetero pregnancies? Shouldn't people who have been medically sterilized get a break?

For people who are uncomfortable with those choices, the insurance companies could additionally offer a one-price-for-all plan. Choice is the key. It keeps prices low in every other area of life. When choice is artificially limited through laws, prices ALWAYS go through the roof.

I insure myself through my savings. No need to be beholden to some company making huge profits off healthy people: If sh*t happens, I can use my money however I need to. The co-pays are so high, health insurance only makes economic sense for people who habitually make poor lifestyle choices (smokers, the obese, drunk drivers, etc).

Ah yes: freedom versus security...the eternal trade-off.

lol...newbies....I think you missed the fact that he wasn't serious.