i never get sick, ever.  my wife however, stayed sick for the first years of her life, still has a pre-existing mild heart condition.  my little boy was born with a narrow pulminary artery as well, had to have surgery to correct it but is perfectly fine now as well.

my question is this:  will i ever be able to afford private health insurance?

i have a great job now, my wife wants me to take one at valero that will pay about the same but will screw me in actual hours on the job.  but with valero i get health insurance, which i dont have now, and a 401K, which i dont get now.  my little boy will cost about 5,000 per year for heart check-ups and im  trying to decide whether or not to change jobs??????

what do yall think?

It looks to me like you will have to do whatever is necessary to keep the wife and child insured.

Not an ideal solution but ideal is kind of hard to find.

Good luck.

Dennis Jenkins

Unfortunately, you will never be able to afford private insurance with you son's condition. Your premiums would be astronomical for the pre-existing condition or they may write a policy with no coverage related to the ailment. Your only option to getting affordabl insurance is probaly  group with a job that has it as a benefit of employment. I don't think they could then deny your son coverage. I had an employee, a single mother with a son who had a defect in his heart and had autism. Her medical bills averaged about 5-8 k a month for all the visits and surgery. Luckily her son qualified for medicaid due to her being a single mom. Insurance really sucks. Its expensive and you don't use it 95% of the time but when you do it is often like parting the red sea to get them to pay for things (all insurance not only health) and then they want to jack your rates or drop you. Nobody likes working for less money, but in your case it seems like it would be prudent to get a job with health benefits for your family.
Best of luck.