The Emerald Rose

    For those of you following my blog this past year you know I had to get some plumbing adjustments, (triple by-pass, carotid artery clean out, lose a bunch of weight and get in shape,…and I always thought ’round’ was a shape, duh! Who knew “inverted triangular” was the ‘preferred shape’)

      Anyway you are also pretty much aware that the American Health Care picture is very bleak. Insurance companies and Doctors and pharmacists all doing triple back flips into the cash pool and living large.

      Well, like anything with that kind of “snowball” effect and addictive demands of “more, more,..more” Things eventually trip overload buttons and nastiness prevails. Hell I read one today where an Insurance Company actually denied coverage for a newborn at the time of his birth forward because he was clinically “OBESE”! (Bet you a ton of money he didn’t have a clue, and when he finds out he’ll really be pissed. Afterall the old expression says you come into this life naked and you leave the same way, but this lucky kid at the ripe old age of 2 minutes is now saddled with a freakin’ medical bill for his own birth! (Should have stayed inside kid, it was warm, cozy, free food no broccoli)

     Well, went to the mailbox today and there was my “Annual Medical Expense Summary” blowing smoke up my ass about how all my problems were easy because I had the companies health insurance plan coverage this past year. (First thing I’m guessing is they have a “commando team” sifting through all my medical records since I was born looking to “exclude coverage” because of a “previous undisclosed pre existing condition, thus violating the terms of the contract and relieving the Insurance company from liability for anything incurred since the policy went into effect in 1962” ….yeah right.

      Now kids, let’s do some simple math here and see what it yields;

      a) my Annual Medical expenses last year were, according to the insurance company detail,…..$470,894.16 (Impressive huh?)

      b) consider the fact that I first acquired my own health insurance in 1967 after I left the U.S. Navy where it was all free back then for me and my family. That is a term of 42 years

      c) under the current law of the land at 65 years old, (next Monday folks!!) you must go on the government program called Medicare which basically covers you for about $161 a month from there on, occasional increase but we’re talking 1 or 2 percent type increases

       d) in December my boss, “da kid” let me go so my health insurance expired December 31, 2009. So I decided to eat a lot of salad, chicken, and other “nothing but healthy” food, do NOTHING that would cause any incrementally large increases in my heart muscles work of pumping the blood around my body, and even skip sex for the month of January so as not to “kick” the heart into high gear and risk a blow out. AND take my chances for the month of January 2010 until my medicare kicked in on February 1st 2010. (Damn I’m still here and breathing fine!)

         Now for the math part. $470, 894.16 (last years expenses) divided by the 42 years I’ve been paying for the health insurance, it equals $11,211.77 a year (forget all the “prior years expenses”, We were pretty hearty stock so expenses were a “throw away” for this example)

        Now taking that $11,211.77 per year and dividing it by 12 (number of months per year), that yields $914.31 a month as the monthly costs of my 2009 treatments and expenses for 42 years. Remember that number for later.

        Now the year 2009 my health insurance cost rose to $2,200 a month from March through December or $22,000 for the year,  minus two months. Prior to that the highest heal insurance EVER cost me was $539 a month. SOoooo,… take the $539 a month times 12 or a total of $6468 a year, ….and then multiply it by the 41 years I paid for it you will find that I spent $265,188.00, plus the $22,000.00 for last year, that totals up to a life time cost, or expense for me to pay to have health Insurance of  $287,188.00.

       (Now back to simple math)

                 My 2009 Medical Expenses paid by Insurance …$470,894.16

                 My lifetime cost for having the Insurance…………$287,188.00

                         My “profit” on the investment ………… ………$183,706.16   

         N.B. To my insurance company, stop whining, if I had no problems you made out like a raped ape, but I did have problems the very last year you would have to be able to rip me off for $22,000 a year. So as my buddy Carl  says,…Put on your big boys pants and live with it!!

        Mr. Guinness

       (p.s. to the Insurance Company,……GOTCHA!!!)

       How’s that for putting your last dollar on the highest gamble in Vegas, and hitting for $500,000,000.00 God I love this country.

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