Medical Insurance: Do without & hope?

John stated he finally had to have cataract surgery. The sunlight is what bothers him most. He said it's like looking through milky glass with a bright light on it causing a glare. He's a salesman who drives Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma. There's no questioning his judgement.

We have no insurance so there was a bit of panic when he finally made his decision. Not a lot but enough to force me into shopping for insurance and begin getting estimates to have the surgery done.

The biggest thing; the most important thing I found out is if you have high blood pressure and/or are diabetic you can be assured medical insurance will cost you $500 a month. No, his company does not offer group health insurance. But, they do pay him $300 a month to go toward insurance.

Besides not being able to live on his salary minus the $300 per month, I did the math and discovered cataract surgery for both eyes will cost $3,000 to $3,400 plus the cost of pre-surgery testing; EKG and blood work. Those costs are less than what we would annually pay for insurance. And understand that I'm not even counting the deductible we'd have to pay on top of it all if we DID have insurance.

John argues that we'd have no insurance to pay for hospital stay, maybe surgery, meds, or a doctor if one of us have a heart attack. Yes, that's a chance we are taking. After all we are in our fifties. Hopefully we have a few more years before our bodies begin falling apart. Hopefully we'll make it to the age for Medicare coverage. We might possibly be able to afford a supplemental then.

Still, I have to wonder. With the government forcing insurance down our throats, the likelihood of health insurance NOT skyrocketing is one chance in a gazillion, I'm thinking. Individual coverage is not for the poor or middle-class.

I'd rather take my chances... With the way time is flying it won't be long before I'm covered by Medicare.