UNEMPLOYED FAMILY ????

1996xj · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 9:33 am

The new's just keep's getting better !! I was layed off as of the first of Nov. and now the wife's job at BEHR which makes AC parts for cars/suv's might get shut down for good !! They have a contract for health insurance that didn't pass the last time they voted like 800 to 40 FAILED !!! And now they want to vote again on the same health plan!!! If the union dosen't pass the new helth plan and some wage cuts they state BEHR "WILL SHUT THE PLANT DOWN". A family plan is basiclly 30k out of pocket before the insurance pays a dime.!!! Thats more than my wife brings home a year !!! :cry:

Im, thinking if her plant shut's down it might be time to move out west and get into some kind of offroad shop/ building / fab. work !!! :wink:

Boiler · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:56 am

1996xj wrote:

A family plan is basiclly 30k out of pocket before the insurance pays a dime.!!! work !!! :wink:

This is why I want Medicare for all. Maybe its not perfect, but there are lots of folks that have no health insurance because they just can't afford it. My work-provided insurance leaves me to pay $7000 in premiums per year, plus $3000 deductables for the first 3 people in the family that get sick. If we pay 3k for each, then the fourth has no deductable, we just pay 20% of the bills...

Basically on mine you could typically spend $10,000 to $16,000 per year before the insurance company pays a dime. What a racket. Spending all that money on medical is what has kept us scrimping for the last 4-5 years.

InCommando · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:16 pm

Sorry about the news, '96.

1996xj · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:46 pm

What really burns my booty, I have most of my bill's paid off and undercontrol, if someone in my house get's sick and has a hospital bill , we are in the hole again and it will take me forever to pay it off !! I figure if I get a bill from the health insurance co. I'll send them $10.00 a month for the rest of my life !! :lol:

Blue KJ in PA · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:59 pm

This is why healthcare reform should be revising healthcare to be like auto or home insurance...you only need to use it in case of accident or emergency. Costs would plummet and we'd all be better off. Routine healthcare like check-ups and such could be covered by pretax HSAs and such.

Boiler · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:59 pm

I got an X-ray, MRI, CT scan of my head and neck, CT scan of my whole abdomen, bladder scope, and a needle biopsy done all BEFORE finally having a biopsy done to find cancer in my bladder.

Should I not have done all that???

Sometimes the breadcrumb trail is long. If we all have to pay for our own, why not all group together and pay in equally, get equal output, and not have to pay profits to some grubbing insurance company? Free market my behind...people are hurting, cant afford to pay their bills because of medical costs. Time to get rid of the middle man.

03CDKJ · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 9:20 pm

Sorry about the bad news Scott....

Let's just start a shop here! I'll come work for you.

rokee1998 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:07 am

03CDKJ wrote:

Sorry about the bad news Scott....

Let's just start a shop here! I'll come work for you.

I guess he will need someone to clean the toilets, sweep the floor, and take out the trash... perfect job for Chris :twisted:

oddball · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:16 pm

Sorry to hear this 1996xj. Just remember, it gets darkest before the light of great things change for you. But I'd suggest you do your homework before packing up the U-Haul. Best of luck to you and yours.

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:18 am

Sorry to hear about that for sure, not good news for anyone!

And news is not good anywhere across the country, just sat through 3 days of sessions on the economy and things related at a conference. They ( the speakers ) are looking that it maybe well into 2012 before things get back on track from their projections.

I'm Union ( first time in my life, :twisted:

always been upper management) and this year we had to take a 2 year pay freeze, pay more medical and also have 10 cost saving days a year. 10 days wages I loose every year for two years, what a crock but we had to take it or go on strike and get nothing

THEN

5 of us who work in the outer areas of the state were told that we would basically never get a raise ever again due to the fact we make too much!
We did fiqure out that we will but it will be over 10 years before we do!

Bunch of crap, companies/ unions know that they have to cut and if you want to keep your job then you have to vote for BS and take whatever is left. I hope I can hold out 4 more years until I can retire and get the heck out of here!

Boiler · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:44 am

At least you make too much before never getting a raise. Some of us don't make enough AND don't get raises. We've gotten two raises since 2002...

Time to look elsewhere...yeah right.

Towstrap · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:02 am

And the "International Offices", like we have for our work place know not to push on the companies very much because if the company closes than the 'International" loses a "customer" i.e. all the union dues they were getting, so they have to walk a very fine line. I'm not certain that we are getting any where near what we are paying for in union dues!

moose · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:54 am

I'm don't know about unions. I've never been in one, never will, and as a business owner, would close shop before I let one come in. I think some of you are missing the point or the big picture here. The whole notion of "Free Market" is that the consumer has the choices and pushes the economy. When government gets in the way and regulates too much, things get out of whack.

I agree that office visits should be out of pocket for everyone. Growing up with out health insurance, we never went to the Doc for a cold. My wife (suburban, dual-union house, back when assembly got $20/hr at the same A/C plant BHER now owns) grew up going to the Doc at every cough, and takes the kids in for everything now - after all, it only costs $10...

I also worked in medical devices for a while. You should see the BS that the FDA makes everything go through. I am never surprised now by the cost of medical devices or pharmaceuticals.

Look, I'm all for a safety net for society, but this social welfare state was tried in Russia and China in the 20th century and it didn't work. And if everyone, such as our current elected leaders in D.C., are so fond of the "European" model, move. This country is about individual freedoms, and with freedom comes responsibility. There is no guarantee that Ohio will have jobs to suite. Go back to school and get into something in demand; move out west and open a 4x4 shop; What ever you do, it's up to you to make it. I spent 20 years in school and worked hard and smart to get where I am.

Yes, I figure this might piss some folks off, but I do that from time to time (and this thread really hit a nerve - not the part about being unemployed, Nickie and I were both RIF'd in 2003 the same day from the same company; I do understand about being out of work, it's the healthcare). I'll still smoke you ribs at the next M&G though...

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:54 am

No way do most get out of Unions what they pay in IMO! Basically ours for example said " well at least you still have a job, deal with it" So why do I still have to pay you.......................... for nothing! :lol:

By the time we come out of this recession we'll all be back to 1979 wages and standards with 2011 prices

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 9:04 am

Boiler wrote:

At least you make too much before never getting a raise. Some of us don't make enough AND don't get raises. We've gotten two raises since 2002...

Have to remember I took an almost $5000 a year hit in pay back in June , so take 5000 off of the pay check per year, and now no raises for ten years at least does not make for a good setup. The reason we were told we made too much was due to 5 of us being a step 4 while all the rest were step 3s. I've worked 37 years to get to this point, you have a while to go to catch up :wink:

Boiler · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:22 am

Moose I'm not aiming this at you, it's more fired in the general direction of all of the rabid anti common man rhetoric I've been astonished to hear this last couple years.

moose wrote:

I think some of you are missing the point or the big picture here. The whole notion of "Free Market" is that the consumer has the choices and pushes the economy.

Yep, thats what happened last year. People allowed to go into massive debt, companies allowed to buy this debt in the name of bonuses for CEO's and 50 cents a share for stockholders, all the corporate greed at the expense of people's retirement plans, oh, stockmarket balloons and crashes. Yes give me more of this.

moose wrote:

I agree that office visits should be out of pocket for everyone. Growing up with out health insurance, we never went to the Doc for a cold. My wife (suburban, dual-union house, back when assembly got $20/hr at the same A/C plant BHER now owns) grew up going to the Doc at every cough, and takes the kids in for everything now - after all, it only costs $10...

Doctors visits aren't the problem for most people, yeah, I could handle this to reduce the cost on the taxpayer, the point I didn't agree with was just having insurance for accidents and injuries. If accidents, injuries, and colds are what you guys are having to deal with, consider yourself luckly and reconsider slamming the door on the parent that has to limit the care for their critically ill child or for that matter the critically ill parent of three young children due to not being able to afford it. Or consider this: some people chose to pay the extremely high rates for insurance for their families in case they need care. At todays costs it can be tough to feed your family well, heat the house, drive to work, etc. Paying $10,000 a year for health insurance is near impossible for the average working family. If you disagree you make more than the average, whether you believe it or not. If you don't think the average working family should be able to afford to have health insurance, shame on you. Grow some apathy. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

moose wrote:

I also worked in medical devices for a while. You should see the BS that the FDA makes everything go through. I am never surprised now by the cost of medical devices or pharmaceuticals

I have no doubt, I deal with military equipment buyers and they make you jump through a million hoops and test and retest the sillyest things. There needs to be a balance between todays regulation of stuff and no regulation. Dial back from rediculously redundant to protective of peoples well being.

moose wrote:

Yes, I figure this might piss some folks off, but I do that from time to time (and this thread really hit a nerve - not the part about being unemployed, Nickie and I were both RIF'd in 2003 the same day from the same company; I do understand about being out of work, it's the healthcare). I'll still smoke you ribs at the next M&G though...

Tell me about it. I could go on about this all day too. Even this will probably get a lock and to 1996xj I'm sorry about that. Healthcare is like my #1 pet peeve. Freedom for the insurance companies to make money at the expense of people's health and children's health. Sorry, have to side with the people of this country over a bunch of suits. Let them insure something else or make their money elsewhere. I'm not talking about welfare, I'm talking about a not profitting on sick people.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:51 pm

Haven't seen a need for pop corn just yet Boiler :wink:

Digger is watching :shock:

InCommando · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:24 am

We all probably have the option of being voluntarily uninsured if we don't like the plans presented to us at work. And to expect no deductable/co-pay plans in today's business climate does not seem realistic. I honestly think that the real villian is not the company but a union that has failed its membership miserably at several plants while taking in millions in dues. Perhaps the union could get,register,& administer a better health plan for less money than a company without the monthly plan costing $32,000/yr, as alleged. I can COBRA our insurance for about 30% of that number.

And to some who may not appreciate companies making money : it is called capitalism and works great when you let it. Yes, companies are designed to make profits for owners, ceo's, stock holders, etc... That they require employees is a business expense, not an asset. It isn't pretty but it made us the strongest country on Earth and our failures can be linked to trying to fix what wasn't broken in order to satisfy someone's ideology.

The insurance industry is just another industry and, as above, is for-profit. That is how it has always been here. If someone doesn't like how an insurance co. works, don't do business with them. You have options. Some options really suck but they must still be worse then your insurance plan if you still have the plan you are complaining about. Make sense?

Boiler · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:27 pm

Capitalism as the only ideal with no checks gets you a few rich guys, walmarts destroying towns, and what happened last year in the stock market. Over regulation by the government did not cause the stock market problems and foreclosures and companies going under last year. Blind greed with no regard for the consequences did.

Free capitalism has worked great because in this country there was always room for something new, to expand. Now companies are to the point where they have to compete for every dollar, and the American people pay for it by having their jobs sent abroad or lost to non union, low paying jobs in other factories.

Capitalism is a good idea but it is not the only idea and can work with some regulation / help for the masses. Left alone it causes pain for most and Ferrari's for a few. I don't get why people think every program that helps anyone else is "socialism" and bad. The entire 20th century was full of programs like medicare, social security, welfare, small business incentives, etc etc. I think those are pretty good things to have. We can't have 20-30% of our population living in huts, kidnapping for money, selling their children, etc etc.

A good mix of capitalist ideals "work hard and get rewarded for it" mixed with "be your neighbor's keeper" is what we need. I think ensuring that all of our neighbors get medical treatment is a great thing. Turn on Fox news and you'd think any "socialist" program, like say Medicare or social security, is the first step to us becoming the USSR or communitst China. Makes me sick the propaganda they spew and how many people get it line to eat it up.

InCommando · **Posted:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:58 pm

The logical answer seems to be to not watch Fox it it makes you sick??? That is another choice we have: to turn that sucker off.

The union has approved the contract offer from Behr and it goes to a ratification vote Sunday 11/22/09 the last I heard. Looks like the employees control their future in this one.

UNEMPLOYED FAMILY ????

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