39%

I hate the state of our health insurance system with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

I just received notice from our insurance provider that the state of Colorado is shutting them down, effective at the end of the year, so we have to shop around for a new provider. Of course we loathe the American health care system in general, and my libertarian mindset has a real problem with the fact that every citizen is forced to purchase health insurance.

So with a heavy sigh, I went to the “marketplace” and did some preliminary shopping, where I found that the absolute cheapest plan available is going to raise our health insurance costs by 39%. Thirty. Nine. Percent. How is this “affordable health care”? Disregard the fact that we never use our insurance policies; in almost twenty years of being a family, we haven’t once asked our insurance providers for money… we’ve paid untold sums of money in premiums (well over $100,000) and never received a dime in services. But to see our rates climb year after year (25% in 2013 and 45% in 2012) is staggeringly frustrating.

Argh.