US health insurance unaffordable?

[gordo]

Saw this article and was shocked. Does it reflect your experience? Is this really what goes on with the cost of US health care?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other...000/ar-AAHPRKp

 

[AP90]

I feel like this would be the worst case scenario. Like sole proprietor buying insurance for whole family etc.

My wife and I are in our 20’s, We get insurance through her company. Pretty good stuff. I think we pay $320ish/month for a $600 deductible and $6000 max out of pocket. They offer a higher deductible plan but we felt this was a much smarter choice.

 

[Mark]

I was paying more than that and with a higher deductible. On wifes' plan now which is much better.

 

[Joe]

My insurance is ciovered by my employer but I have to pay 100% for my wife's coverage. That costs me about $15,300 per year. And that plan has a $5,000 deductible per person. So yeah, that, or worse, is really what goes on with healthcare in the US.

 

[DCurry]

My brother-in-law is a real estate agent and although he works for a respected brokerage in our state, he gets no benefits. He pays in the neighborhood of $3,000 per month for an Obamacare plan to cover his family of 5. I don't know what kind of deductible there is but that is $36,000 per year!

 

[OffsetStorefront]

Pay $10,000/year for my young family of 3 and that's before any actual medical costs. And since everything is priced sky-high so as to gig the insurance companies out of as much $$ as possible, stuff that does eventually get billed to us is outrageous. Just had my first kid, found insurance had been billed like $600 for things like "reading" a routine blood test result. We should cut out the middle man =)

 

[DYP]

It all comes down to lack of competition and third party pay. Can you imagine what we could charge in the printing industry if we had no competition, and our customers had someone else paying for it.

 

[DCurry]

It all comes down to lack of competition and third party pay. Can you imagine what we could charge in the printing industry if we had no competition, and our customers had someone else paying for it.

We might actually make money!

 

[gordo]

It all comes down to lack of competition and third party pay.

I’m not sure. A US study that compared prices between areas that had little competition vs high competition showed that the low competition areas were 3.5% - 5.4% higher which, from a patient point of view doesn’t seem to be much of a difference. ( https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-ne...hers-find.html )
From any commodity vendor’s point of view (e.g. gasoline, groceries, retail stores, dentistry etc) competition is simply a matter of “price match guarantee”. That allows them to claim there is competition without actually having to compete. Also, I’m not sure how one could set up a system that would enable patients to shop around without service providers using that information (which they already have anyway which is why there’s no competition ) to settle on shared common pricing. Providers in less serviced areas could still charge more since patients have little or no choice while areas that have many service providers would simply standardize their pricing. That’s what happens in other business sectors so I don’t see why it wouldn’t apply to healthcare.

 

[AP90]

We might actually make money!

I think printers are worse than farmers when it comes to talking about making money and everything. Its funny sometimes but its like everytime someone makes a post now about money printers complain about not being able to make any. To me its getting annoying. Am I just missing some long standing joke in the print industry? lol

 

[curiosity]

I've had my family covered thru my employer for nearly 30 years. Currently paying nearly $4500/year, not including deductible. However, first $2,000 of deductible costs is covered by my employer. Haven't used it all yet.
I've read that this cost is similar to many countries, and yet the benefit here in the U.S. is service (both what can be done and speed at which it gets done). For example, my first son had open heart surgery at the age of 4. When it was determined he needed it, we were in and done in less than 4 weeks. Then my other son had knee surgery (ACL and meniscus) scheduled and done just 5 weeks after the injury.
Is it true that some other countries can wait much longer?

 

[noelward]

This is not an unusual number in my experience. When we had both kids at home and on a moderate plan we were paying more than that ($18K-$25K) when you factor in deductibles and other out of pocket costs. OK, it was more because I'm a sole proprietor and had to pony up all the money, but it only dropped about $3K annually when I took a full time job for a year and a half. Laying out the equivalent of a mortgage every month for a couple decades totally killed our retirement and investment opportunities. Friends in Europe and Canada are speechless when I roll out these numbers.

 

[gordo]

I've had my family covered thru my employer for nearly 30 years. Currently paying nearly $4500/year, not including deductible. However, first $2,000 of deductible costs is covered by my employer. Haven't used it all yet.
I've read that this cost is similar to many countries, and yet the benefit here in the U.S. is service (both what can be done and speed at which it gets done). For example, my first son had open heart surgery at the age of 4. When it was determined he needed it, we were in and done in less than 4 weeks. Then my other son had knee surgery (ACL and meniscus) scheduled and done just 5 weeks after the injury.
Is it true that some other countries can wait much longer?

In Canaduh you may go on a waiting list if your condition is deemed elective. But if not then treatment can be swift. I was involved in an accident (fell into a rocky ravine - don’t ask LOL) and in emergency got stitches and an X-ray of my chest for possible fractures. They saw nothing and so released me. A week later I got a call to go in for a cat scan as they saw a shadow on the X-ray. I was in the next day - no waiting. The shadow turned out to be nothing. Total cost $0. My monthly premiums are $26. I could tell you other similar stories of friends who have had gall bladders removed, knee and hip replacements, eye surgery, etc and the story would be similar.
i would never willingly give up our system for a US style system.
Note that in Canaduh the hospitals are private businesses they are not government facilities.

 

[Joe]

One thing the US healthcare does for you is it limits you wanting to go to a doctor unless you are mortally wounded/ill. Even then it is cheaper to just die. And if you do die your healthcare provider will thank you.

You know how much U.S. politicians pay for healthcare? $0. $0 deductible too. Yeah they don't see any problem with the way it is now.

 

[gregbatch]

I pay $300 a month for a personal Obamacare plan that costs $1,100 a month. $4000 deductible. Everything but PCP ($60) is out of pocket until deductible is reached. After deductible it's 30% until $7000 max out of pocket. Basically, it covers me if I'm hit by a truck and survive. If I had a family plan, especially if I made a few more dollars each month, it would cost more than my mortgage.

 

[AP90]

I guess I can consider myself lucky hearing everyone else stories. Like I said, we pay $320ish/month for our healthcare, and we already have the family plan. So once we have kids it will stay the same. $600 deductible per person with max $6000 out of pocket. But After we meet our deductible we only pay 10% until max is reached. I figured it out and we would have to have $54000 in medical expenses to reach our max. If we have that much in medical expenses then I will gladly pay up to $6k because we have some serious issues that are being taken care of. Im pretty pleased and feel pretty secure with our healthcare coverage.

 

[Correct Color]

From any commodity vendor’s point of view (e.g. gasoline, groceries, retail stores, dentistry etc) competition is simply a matter of “price match guarantee”. That allows them to claim there is competition without actually having to compete. Also, I’m not sure how one could set up a system that would enable patients to shop around without service providers using that information (which they already have anyway which is why there’s no competition ) to settle on shared common pricing. Providers in less serviced areas could still charge more since patients have little or no choice while areas that have many service providers would simply standardize their pricing. That’s what happens in other business sectors so I don’t see why it wouldn’t apply to healthcare.

In the US, the answer is the difference between health insurance and car insurance. Car insurance companies can compete across the US and across state lines; they compete on the basis of cost and on the basis of service. And they advertise constantly for customers. I myself use the car insurance company I use now in main because I was very impressed with their level of professionalism and service after one of their insured ran into me.

I'm also sure in the end it would cost everyone less money if they paid for routine health care out of pocket and insurance was for emergencies, similar to how we care for our cars. But at present it is a mess, billing and payment-wise, in many ways a combination of the worst aspects of several systems. However, I will say that I've had more than my share of serious health issues over the years, and I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world.



Mike Adams
Correct Color

 

[gordo]

Mike
I don’t think it’s about where you want to live. It’s about whether it’s the best system for delivering health care to US citizens.

 

[Correct Color]

Gordo,

I don’t think it’s about where you want to live. It’s about whether it’s the best system for delivering health care to US citizens.

So am I. Or at least this US citizen in particular. As I said, I've had more than my share of health issues. I unfortunately know several doctors on a first-name basis; and while, yes, a combination of forces has made healthcare billing and pricing a bit of a nightmare these days, I'll still take the quality of care here over anywhere in the world.



Mike

 

[gordo]

Gordo,



So am I. Or at least this US citizen in particular. As I said, I've had more than my share of health issues. I unfortunately know several doctors on a first-name basis; and while, yes, a combination of forces has made healthcare billing and pricing a bit of a nightmare these days, I'll still take the quality of care here over anywhere in the world.



Mike

So you're thinking that the quality of care that you've experienced would suffer if the current healthcare financing system would change?