Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 21:36     Subject: Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
Anonymous wrote:Yep. Im a single mom of 2 and take home $7,300k.

Daycare is $2k
2 bedroom apartment is $2300
Health insurance is $1450
Groceries/touletries $550 if I coupon like crazy
Utilities, internet, phone, gas, car ins. Its all so much. My kids cant even do activities, we can only buy used clothes and shoes once per year 😒

And I make $125k which I dont think is too bad.


Can you get child support?
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 19:21     Subject: Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s better to go without insurance. Save the money to pay for the catastrophe.


This is just incorrect. My 16 year old nephew, an athlete and in wonderful health, was diagnosed with lymphoma (cancer). Without health insurance, my sister would have gone bankrupt. It is not better to not have insurance because cancer or something similar can hit anyone, any age.

You can't save enough to cover some kinds of catastrophes. You can hope it's not you, but you never know. And that's a gamble I don't think is worth taking


NP. The health insurance companies count on consumers thinking like this. In reality, insurance often denies quality care for catastrophic conditions too—transplants, cutting edge treatments for cardiac arrest. When you add up the premiums and the paltry coverage, the math shifts towards self coverage for many.


But just basic treatments -- the ones virtually everyone wants to try first -- have cash prices that will easily exceed 100k. For many, 250k. That doesn't include high-intensity treatments often covered by insurance like stem cell transplant. I don't see how knowing second, third, or fourth line treatments could be denied changes the calculus for anyone but the ultra rich who can legitimately afford to self-insure.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 19:11     Subject: Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s better to go without insurance. Save the money to pay for the catastrophe.


This is just incorrect. My 16 year old nephew, an athlete and in wonderful health, was diagnosed with lymphoma (cancer). Without health insurance, my sister would have gone bankrupt. It is not better to not have insurance because cancer or something similar can hit anyone, any age.

You can't save enough to cover some kinds of catastrophes. You can hope it's not you, but you never know. And that's a gamble I don't think is worth taking


NP. The health insurance companies count on consumers thinking like this. In reality, insurance often denies quality care for catastrophic conditions too—transplants, cutting edge treatments for cardiac arrest. When you add up the premiums and the paltry coverage, the math shifts towards self coverage for many.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 16:15     Subject: Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
Yep. Im a single mom of 2 and take home $7,300k.

Daycare is $2k
2 bedroom apartment is $2300
Health insurance is $1450
Groceries/touletries $550 if I coupon like crazy
Utilities, internet, phone, gas, car ins. Its all so much. My kids cant even do activities, we can only buy used clothes and shoes once per year 😒

And I make $125k which I dont think is too bad.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 14:27     Subject: Re:Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
Anonymous wrote:All of you who have employer based insurance should count yourselves lucky, even if it's pricey. I just had to deal with the MD health exchange, omg.. that is several hours over several days of my life that I will never get back.

That is the worst process and website I've ever seen. In the end, I had to call them to fix my application. Save yourself the frustration and just call them. Don't try to apply online. Worst website and process ever!


I definitely appreciate it. I don’t know what will happen with premium costs, but through at least the summer of 2028 my employer pays 88% of the total premium for an individual or 77% for an employee +.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2025 01:58     Subject: Re:Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
Anonymous wrote:All of you who have employer based insurance should count yourselves lucky, even if it's pricey. I just had to deal with the MD health exchange, omg.. that is several hours over several days of my life that I will never get back.

That is the worst process and website I've ever seen. In the end, I had to call them to fix my application. Save yourself the frustration and just call them. Don't try to apply online. Worst website and process ever!


Politics have really destroyed the health insurance exchange. They picked at it over and over taking out parts that were necessary for the whole plan to work, allowing shady pop up insurance policies that were gone within months. It doesn’t say anything good about this country that our politicians can’t work together to allow citizens decent affordable healthcare.
Anonymous
Post 12/30/2025 16:08     Subject: Re:Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month
All of you who have employer based insurance should count yourselves lucky, even if it's pricey. I just had to deal with the MD health exchange, omg.. that is several hours over several days of my life that I will never get back.

That is the worst process and website I've ever seen. In the end, I had to call them to fix my application. Save yourself the frustration and just call them. Don't try to apply online. Worst website and process ever!