Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 21, 2021

“Don’t blame us! It’s because we now have to cover pre-existing conditions!”

Ah, the cheerful inner world of insurance!

And if you’re in a car accident, we’ll deduct an arm and a leg.

This is why some companies self-insure.

I believe there’s a clause somewhere in his policy regarding his first-born male child.

I bought my insurance from a guy called Mr. Haney.

Ridiculous! Obama are fixed all this! And Biden made sure.

What is a “deductible”?

Living in the UK, my taxes help to pay for the NHS – I never have to worry about insurance premiums, or whether I can afford to see a doctor, or pay for my medicines. Similarly, if I lived in any other European country, or Canada, or virtually any other civilised country, I would have access to state-funded/provided healthcare.

Ah yes, the American insurance system. It works-if that is you don’t get sick! ;P

It’s all give and take.

Health insurances are such a health risk. They can cause stress, high blood pressure, even heart attacks. That stuff should be banned.

The plant looks like Larry Croc’s wife’s hair style ;-)

I’m covered under the wonderful tRump insurance plan.

Ponzi scheme

People call this the best health system in the World. So how come our life expectancy age keeps decreasing.

That’s what gets me these days. Even “good” health insurance from a generous employer still has a deductible that’s over the Moon.

Can Rat be classified as a pre-existing disease? :D

Wait until depreciation is brought in as a ruse to cancel even that.

He’s being greedy and they’re raising the prices?

I worked one place where they paid entirely for the health insurance, but the deductible was somewhere around $1,000; everything above that was covered 100%. They also encouraged anyone with recurring medical expenses or kids to sign up for the medical savings account program they also had; it was a pre-tax deduction so you’d save money there and you could pay any medical expenses with it.

Hang on, Pig. They’ll change up which insulin and albuterol inhaler is covered every few months so you have to jumps through hoops to get it. Lovely. Did your specialist order an imaging study? Oh, hang on. The PCP has to do the Prior Authorization even if they don’t know what the imaging study is looking for. Excellent.

Now in theory if nothing ever happens to you, this wouldn’t be an issue. But if you so much as break your leg, you’re paying for the full hospital bill.

A Medicare Advantage Plan!

MY beech about health insurance is that my treatment plans are regulated by some cube farm business adm grad that wouldn’t know a broken arm from a hemorrhoid.

Pregnancy is a preexisting condition, even before you’re pregnant.

Government health insurance isn’t insurance, it’s a premium fee-collection scam. Insurance pays claims.

Sounds like our current government: We’ll fix everything for you…_but_ we’re going in the hole by $4.5 trillion and you and your children and grandchildren will be in hock for ever!

Take the profit out of health care

Not so good

Fine. Just cancel my policy. Everything is free now anyway……

You ever heard the phrase “Too good to be true”? Well, there it is.

There’s always a catch.

Pig! This is ACME, and you should know NEVER choose anything by ACME.

Next step: bankruptcy.

This is not health-related, but it reminds me of what happened with my homeowner’s insurance when we lived on the Gulf Coast of Texas. When we suffered extreme damage from Hurricane Ike, all we had to pay was a $250 deductible for what amounted to over $30,000-worth of damage. After that, our deductible increased to $7,000. Fortunately, we moved further inland before we got hit by another hurricane.

Insurance companies are raising premiums and decreasing coverage on something laughably called Long Term Care. They do NOT want to be in that business ‘cause folks, in general, are living longer.

I wonder if they’ll change back since COVID has decreased Americans’ life expectancies?

Either way, LTC is only a win for them if we all die early.

Yeh Acme, tell me about it, my buddy Wiley got screwed by them in more ways than one!

Ha! That’s rich. An insurance agent saying don’t be greedy!

Now that’s funny!

It’d be funnier if you exaggerated.

I have one prescription that can obliterate by deductible with one refill.

They give one thing and take back 10!

If you don’t like you must be a commie.

OK, we’ll knock 3 million offa that; but you’re killin’ me here!

Insurance should not be needed to get adequate health care.

and it’s getting worst: specialist my doctor referred me to, only sees HMOs on Mondays….medical discrimination

So very true. I’ve had an experience lately with a provider that parallels what Pig just got. Little Guy never wins against Big Insurance….

While we are at it, we’ll take an arm and a leg.

Sounds about right with insurance, unfortunately.

As a European this makes feel a little smug. Was it not for US friends I would not even know what deductibles are. Thinks like going bankrupt over health costs or staying in a crappy job to hold on to an insurance is not situations we live.

I bought my insurance from a guy named Ned Ryerson