My husbands employer (his parents farm, which employs aprox 100 people) quit offering Insurance as of October 1st. They sent a letter out with everyone's paycheck in the middle of July stating, "Due to rising costs and provisions now in effect as per the Affordable Healthcare Act, we will no longer be offering insurance as of October 1st 2012. Heres a number of someone we recommend you to call for private insurance."

Our insurance had already lapsed several times under the group policy due to rising costs..and our costs went from it being covered by the employer 5 years ago, to us paying almost 200/week by the time it ended. The deductible was 5,000/person and the prescription coverage was AWFUL. For the last 2 years I've been paying out of pocket rather than presenting my insurance as I would never meet the insane deductible anyways...AND if you present insurance the doctors charge more.

Case in point: My kids go for a checkup at a local Dr's office in December. By presenting insurance for my 2 kids for a Strep diagnosis it was 170 per kid. When I went in 2 months later with pneumonia, I asked if I could pay cash, and they charged me $65.00.

Fast forward to Labor day: My sons ear pain was horrid, so I found an urgent care center open. I avoid using urgent care around here because it's terribly expensive. I had to take him. I had no choice. I told the center, can I pay cash today as I do not have insurance (which I didn't as we ended coverage as soon as we knew it wasn't going to be available coming October) and they said sure, that will be $100.00. Now I've been to Mayo Clinics urgent care centers before and the bill was NEVER 100.00! Always 200 + per visit. It is absolutely INSANE how much money it costs to bill through insurance.

So for the folks with high deductibles like we had. Offer to pay cash...in the end you will end up paying FAR less than by presenting insurance.

I am voting for Romney / Ryan. I cannot fathom 4 more years of rising food prices, gas prices, and the insane burdon / regulations being put on farmers (only one example of a small business affected by backdoor regulations) like my in laws. These last 4 years on the family farm have been too stressful and scary to want to go through again. We need strong leadership both here and abroad...not some wimpy, apologetic, race baiter, who has a record of calling racism whenever someone disagrees with his policy.

Also - we need the press to TELL THE TRUTH, and QUESTION BOLDY. Not coddle the president (whomever that may be) on tough issues, or avoid them completely. I shouldn't have to watch 3 different news outlets, CSPAN (1 and 2), and read 100 different articles to get bits and pieces of the truth. Getting clear and concise information has never been harder for the average american due the 24 hour news cycle, extreme favoritism, and sensationalism. Much of the press will omit truth if it's inconvenient to their bias. What they have forgotten is that the truth is almost ALWAYS inconvenient, but at least it's the friggin' TRUTH.

This country needs to face the hard and cold reality that we are in debt, the debt is growing, and the dollar is being devalued by unlimited printing of money, no thanks to Ben Bernanke and the Fed. If you want to know what happens to a nation when the currency is severely inflated by unlimited printing - look up the Weimar Republic Inflation. It's scary stuff.