My wife and I have been with Humana Health Insurance for fifteen years.

Fortunately, apart from doctor's office visits at reasonable intervals and one hospital stay for my wife's pneumonia, we have used very little of our benefits under our comprehensive plan which costs about $600.00 per month for the two of us.

Our surgical deductable remained fairly reasonable but with steady incremental increases.

Last year I was diagnosed with a rotator cuff injury and scheduled for surgery.

Reporting this surgery in advance to the insurance company as instructed for certain authoirizations, I was told the deductable for surgery had been increased for 2005 to $3000.00 per individual or $6000.00 per family.

The entire cost of the surgery was about $3200.00 so the insurance company would have paid only $200.00

The deductable was prohibitive for us so I had to decline the surgery and wait a year until I can get on Medicare, meanwhile hoping my shoulder would not deteriorate beyond repair.

Having paid out over $100,000.00 in premiums over fifteen years and receiving only a small fraction of that back in benefits seems unbalanced.

A non-profit government insurance plan with reasonable premiums and deductables would have prevented me from having to burden the taxpayers
with my medicare bill.