Yes, yes, YES! I am 3 or 4 years older than you and I remember my first couple of jobs where there was no copay for anything. What’s the justification for these increases? And what makes me really fucking mad are these idiot “death panel” scare tactics, because, let’s face it, the insurance companies ARE the death panels already. You can be denied life-saving care because they don’t want to pay for it. I wrote a story about this back in 1996 in college, and I think it has gotten much worse since then.

Our health care system is looking pretty damn third world.

How did it come to this? Why is money more important than life in this country? How does the other side manage to push the fear buttons time and time again and people continue to believe?

I know, I’m not helping. I have had very minor health issues over the last 18 months, minor. I have missed less than a week of work total. But what would I have done if I had had to pay for those things out of my pocket? One out-patient surgery was over $5,000.

Sad times.

I hope someone gets to the bottom of your issues and SOON.