American Family Homeowners Insurance Sucks

The health insurance fear

In July 2008 I was at LP's family home in Northern California. I was winding up a year of travelling with a couple of months in the USA as a tourist: unemployed, stationary, lazily whittling down my savings to zero.

My health insurance had lapsed. One day not long before returning to NZ and our cocoon of socialised medicine, LP and I were up sorting through boxes in the attic of a barn out the front of the house. To get down, I had to climb awkwardly over a wobbly railing, slide across a bit and swing myself on to the ladder to get down.

For a brief second I lost my footing. I panicked and instinctively yelled out, "I DON'T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE."

Quickly, I recovered myself. I looked up. LP was quaking with laughter. She didn't let me forget about that one easily.

This time I spent living with LP's family in 2008 was the first time I had properly considered the deeply entrenched differences in our national attitudes toward healthcare.

My consistent retort to anyone's tale of medical woe - be it cold, sore foot, or stomach complaint - was a sympathetic, "you should get that checked out". This was met inevitably with dismissive retorts, rolls of the eyes and occasionally, laughter.

There's a deeply ingrained cynicism in American attitudes toward their healthcare system.

All of this was bought up in my mind by an op-ed in the New York Times this Sunday by Ezekiel J. Emmanuel, in which he lays out how objectively expensive healthcare is in America in comparison with the rest of the world.

It contained some terrifying bits of information that provided perspective to this issue. Americans spend $2.6 trillion on healthcare each year. This is equal to the GDP of France. 

According to the OECD study cited in the article, the average American spends $7960 on healthcare each year. America spends 35 per cent more per capita on healthcare than the next highest spending countries, Norway and Switzerland.

The Housing Bubble Blog » Putting The Cart Before The Horse

8 News Now reports from Nevada. “Short sales now account for half the properties on the Las Vegas market. For some people, it means putting their lives on hold. ‘It’s complete chaos sometimes,’ Cortney Wood said. She lives life half-packed, half-unpacked. She bought her house in 2008 for $285,000. She and her husband lost their jobs and her new business, making custom cakes, isn’t bringing in the same money. They opted to do a short sale after their bank’s mediation offer fell far short.”

“‘When we finally went to mediation, they finally offered us a modification. A dollar off our payment,’ Wood said. ‘We were figuring out where we were going to spend it. People really need to just let go of it and make the best of what their situation is. Move on. It’s just a house,’ Wood said.”

The Deseret News in Utah. “America’s suburbs, a long-time iconic symbol of middle-class prosperity, are now home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the country. In Roy, cars line up in the parking lot of a local strip mall once a month, waiting for volunteers from the Utah Food Bank to heft big boxes of pasta and vegetables into their trunks. Sandwiched between a big SUV and an old, broken down Toyota that’s holding onto its bumper with a mess of twine, there’s a shiny silver Pontiac. Inside, a prim little grandmother in a smart cardigan and pink lipstick shyly admits, ‘Once upon a time, I was middle class.’ Her husband’s insulation business crashed during the recession. The couple lost their house in the suburbs and are now living with their daughter.”

“‘You see people in all these nice cars lining up to get free food,’ said Jennie Probert, volunteer coordinator for the Utah Food Bank for Roy and Layton. ‘You’re quick to judge, ‘Can you afford that car?’ But it’s just a sign of the times.

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