Live Rich or Die
Matt Seinberg

For the last few years, our family has health benefits through where my wife, Marcy, works. Her employer always offered various health-care packages, with a good portion paid by the company. For the last two years, the company has offered the most options and open enrollment started on 9 October 2017.

This year, I'm going for a lower deductible, on our family health insurance.

Last night I logged on and the site showed me what we had last year versus what we can get this year. This year I went with a low $500 individual or $1000 family deductible plan; last year it was $1000 or $2000. Yes, it cost more money, but I think I'll end up saving money in the end.

You see, last March I got a bill from my cardiologist for almost $350, which was part of the deductible. I called, asking for a waiver or a discount. I wasn't expecting that kind of bill. The cardiologist had to approve it. I knew that wouldn't be a problem, as I've been seeing him almost seventeen years.

I got a call a week later. As a one-time courtesy, the cardiologist waived the bill. I hope, in 2018, I won't have that problem, again.

So the question that everyone is asking, if you don't have employer provided health insurance, what happens to Obamacare under President Trump. I'm sorry, I still can't say it aloud or fathom that this crazy, self centered, egotistical megalomaniac is our leader.

How dare this president sign an executive order denying thirty states the funds needed to subsidize medical health plans? How can this president legally bypass Congress to get this done? Congress has denied him not once, but twice to repeal Obamacare and, yet, he has the chutzpah to sign this order.

This president is hurting the very same voters that put him into office. Now, he's laughing at his supporters. Doesn't the public realize that he sold them a bill of goods and now they're paying dearly for it?

Income based health insurance works, if you qualify.

I have a friend at work that is going part time in November. He’s giving up the insurance that work provides. He found a better and cheaper plan on the New York State health insurance website. Child Health Plus covers his kids with zero co-pays and low co-pays for him and his wife.

He said that he's getting better coverage for at least $500 month less than what he was paying at work. He was able to get it because it is income based. Their combined family income let them qualify for a low cost plan.

At one point when I was out of work a few years ago, I was able to get Child Health Plus for my kids that cost only $18 a month. I was only able to get it for year, as I went back to work.

Why is this country able to offer a universal health plan like Canada or some European countries do? Is the insurance industry that powerful, in the USA? So powerful, they don't want fair, income-based health insurance to happen. Would their enormous profits dwindle from multiple billions to just billions?

As we age, the need to see physician more often and be tested increases every year. That's the main reason I went with the lower deductible and increased our Flexible Spending Account from $500 to $800 next year. I started using the account in June and it was gone by October.

This president makes it harder for you and I to get a fair chance when it comes to health coverage.

So don't forgot, open enrollment for your health benefits this year is much shorter than last year. Get moving. Stay as healthy as you can!

It may be time to re-think the New Hampshire state slogan, "Live Free or Die." It was coined in a different time, 31 July 1809, by General John Stark, when people cared about people. This president wants to recast that slogan to, "Live Rich or Die."