In general it's an exclusion.

It can be as high 20 to 25 cents on the dollar for administrative costs.

They key to keeping premiums down is to be accountable about your health, make healthy choices and be pro-active about any conditions you may encounter. Healthier people don't consume as many medical resources and premiums are moderated as a consequence.

When medical care costs go up, premiums need to keep pace with them.

The men's tanned faces, the faces of the women, bright with cosmetics, all suddenly appeared similar, as though wearing identical masks; hard, smiling, decorative, devoid of feeling. Not one of the seemed capable of expressing affection or pity or any of the softer emotions. They frightened her, these gay, hard, animated, worldly masks; she would always be a stranger among them, lost, ill-at-ease, out of place.

Next time, involve me in what you’re planning. How had I gone so easily from feeling excluded to doing the excluding? Did I dislike the reminder that I hadn’t always been on the inside looking out? Was I so relieved to be there that I didn’t notice the people who still wanted desperately to be invited in? Had I learned that the only way to be part of a society was to shun its outcasts?