To get decent coverage for $190/month, you not only have to be gainfully employed, you have to be employed by a fairly large corporation. Small businesses do not get such favorable treatment from the insurance industry.

Small business is the backbone of the American economy, the main source of all newly-created jobs, but small businesses get screwed every time their health-insurance renewal comes due. Being an employee of a company with fewer than 100 employees is tough enough when it comes to medical insurance; being the owner of a small business ~ one of the true heroes of American capitalism ~ is almost impossibly difficult for anyone who wants to provide his workers (and his own family as well) with decent coverage.

The whole stupid business by which health coverage is tied to employment is bizarre and inequitable. If you change jobs, or if your employer goes out of business, you're suddently a pariah, and can purchase health insurance only at a price many times higher than what a large corporattion pays for each employee.

I was fortunate enough to have decent HMO coverage when I was diagnosed with cancer last year. My out-of-pocket expenses were really pretty minimal. The costs I saw on the "this is not a bill" documents that appeared in my mailbox regularly were unbelieveable ~ there were single days for which the listed retail price of my treatments exceeded my annual salary. Of course, those figures were immediately cut in half (or less; often, much less than half) because I was an "in-network" patient, then the HMO paid some or all that reduced amount, and any remainder was simply waived ~ no problem! Makes you wonder what the real costs are.

People who are uninsured but are able to pay are the ones who really get the shaft, paying ridiculously inflated prices. Of course, those who enjoy adequate coverage also get to see those astronomical figures if they read every document to hit their mailboxes. It's little wonder that the wealthiest among us can be so easily mobilized to oppose any rational change to the status quo.