Health insurance rant.

[debilorrah]

I am blessed. Completely and totally blessed. My employer pays 100% of the policy costs and my co-pay is $10, that they rarely collect. My Rx co-pay is on a 5-10-50 plan. Most of mine are either $5 of $10. I have been in many of these shoes posting here too. I fear what the new mandatory "coverage" may do to what I have now.

 

[satay]

Our Australian system sounds very similar to the Canadian one. Most doctors visits are free under medicare but some doctors do charge $40+ a visit i think.. An E.R or hospital visit is free but you may have to wait as it is priority seen. We do pay a medicare levy on our taxes each year that is based on what you earn.You can have the choice to buy private health care if you want also. Emergency operations, giving birth or having cancer and treatment etc in hospitals is free also. Dentists are not free and charge a fortune lol.
I don't fully understand your American system so my question is what if you go into labor, have cancer etc and you don't have insurance?

 

[PineappleMama]

Quote:

Used to that's what Mom, Dad, etc's jobs came with too. Is it just me or is anyone else BOGGLED that with the increase in 'benefits' healthcare has taken a decided turn for the worse? Okay, maybe it's just MY mom, and our teachers, and my Dad and my Grands, and my In Laws... maybe elsewhere things are still awesome like Deb... but I haven't heard of a plan that great in YEARS. Very lucky indeed Ms Deb.

Also included in the new bill is that mandatory doesn't include politicians.. THAT is very irksome... they got a raise but no COL adjustment for SS which pays your Medicare bills... ahem. AND bonus points for sneaking in the bit about any business that has more than 20 locations now having to include the calorie count of each item right next to the price... not good enough that the info is there to be taken by those who wish to see it, nope gotta have it blaring in your face. Is it really any wonder that other countries laugh about us... the hypocrites we've become? We've abandoned our own Constitution... ARGH... this is why years ago I was delighted to find lp.org.

 

[Organics North]

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Die or face financial ruin. Often times both.......................................
Yep, welcome to the wild west.

ON

 

[Organics North]

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BULL PUCKY...

The Euro is stronger than the dollar currently. How many TRILLION $ is the USA debt up to now???

Besides we are talking about a National plan.

ON

 

[geckobass5]

"BULL PUCKY...tongue2

The Euro is stronger than the dollar currently. How many TRILLION $ is the USA debt up to now???

Besides we are talking about a National plan.

ON"

You said it... how many trillion is the us in debt now? the national debt doubled since the new president was in. I want to stick to insurance issues not the individual. If the deficets are sky high and all estimates indicate that the national debt will exceed our Gross Domestic Product how can we justify keeping this plan. Sheer madness. I wish we could have a health care fairy pay for all the wonderful programs and nobody wiould get sick but the reality is this is so expensive that even the govt cant afford it. Fix the economy first THEN see what parts of a health care bill are reasonable ( somehow caring for those who never had insurance and now got sick, bad choice, getting insurance for those who lost it due to a job loss)
This govts policies are like watching a family in bankruptcy go out and buy new merceedes for the whole family. Sure the family likes it but how can you pay for it.

WAIT A MINUITE! WE CAN JUST PRINT MONEY LIKE WE DO NOW, THAT WILL SOLVE EVERYTHING. Just wait till the effects of that kick in.
It makes no financial sense.

This leaved out the fact that I will loose my choice in coverage and probably loose my leg to a govt stooge.

I used to work for the federal govt so I know about stooges.

Id love to feel good by taking on the burdens of the world, theres a cost we cant afford.

 

[cmjust0]

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I don't think we've ever broken through a deductible.. I actually have a bill sitting at the house right now for $211 -- for a single freakin' xray -- despite the fact that we're almost to the end of our plan-year and that our per-person deductible for this plan year was only $250 per person..

No kids.. We're in our 30's.. It's mostly just random/routine doctor visits, scripts, and trips to urgent treatment for oopsies around the farm. Anything can happen, of course, but I really don't expect our situation to change very much..

I was talking to someone else here at the office who had the 'high' plan this time around, and he's switching his whole family over to the core plan, too.. Looked at the cost difference of >$3,000/year and said...uh uh...even with two elementary-age kids, they barely broke their deductibles last year.

Betcha *everybody* goes to the core plan this time around, which will save the company -- since they pay half -- a TON of money.

 

[Wifezilla]

I don't fully understand your American system so my question is what if you go into labor, have cancer etc and you don't have insurance?

You go to the doctor and say "I am paying cash". And you work out a payment plan....often it is LESS than an insurance premium.​

 

[MoSo]

But deficits are high everywhere. In the EU, for instance, Germany can complain all it wants about Greece and the wages and benefits the workers get and how it's "unsustainable" - except that Germany is a net export nation, and Greece is one of their larger customers. So Greece will get bailed out, then go on an austerity program, cut wages and cut imports from Germany, who will then say "wait a minute...."

Sort of like us and China - since we aren't bound by a common currency, China announced that they are adjusting the value of the renminbi (yuan) and the net point of that is to make their goods cheaper to us so we'll keep buying more and supporting their economy (and employment numbers) as they prop up our economy by buying our Treasury bonds (and keeps our interest rates low which in turn fuels the consumer economy, because we're not smart enough to STOP BUYING when we're in a hole*)

We have our own internal Greece/Germany situation, too - there are about 8 states right now teetering on the brink of insolvency. The biggest, California - the world's 6th largest economy - is really struggling. If California was a country instead of a state, it would just devalue currency and tighten its belt. It can't do that, so the only thing it can do is cut spending and raise taxes, in about equal amounts. Since no politician in his/her right mind will suggest raising taxes in the angry post-Tea Party climate, cutting spending is the only answer, although I frankly don't think the state can cut enough without disastrous results.




*which includes me, because I just bought an iPad.

 

[cmjust0]

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Well, not to get too political, but it seems to me that health insurance companies are making pretty good money insuring healthy people while the federal government is forking out money hand over fist to provide medicaid to those the insurance companies have dropped.

See, that's how it works...if you're healthy and have a job, you get insurance through your work. When you get sick and can't work anymore, you get fired for not being able to work, which means your insurance gets dropped, and THEN -- once you have nothing left to pay -- you go on the socialized medical coverage the US already has: Medicaid.

Literally, Medicaid is insurance reserved for "customers" who are in terrible health and have no money. It's like running a grocery store and only allowing customers who eat too much and are completely broke...of course you're going to lose money!

As such, it seems to me that if the federal government started actually allowing people who are still healthy and actually have money to buy coverage through a program like Medicaid, then the federal government would actually find themselves in better financial shape than they are now. Would be kinda like that grocery store opening the doors to people who could actually pay for their groceries, ya know?

It only makes sense. Seriously, just stop and think about it objectively for one minute..

Ask yourself this question: if providing people with health insurance coverage is such a costly endeavor, then why do companies like BCBS, Anthem, Humana, and all the others even exist? For our benefit? Hardly... Obviously, they're making money right? Sure they are, tons and tons of it!! So if it's "so expensive even the government can't afford it," how is it possible that they still in business and still making money hand over fist?

The reality is that it's an extremely lucrative business, which is why insurance companies want to keep things exactly as they are at the expense of the American taxpayer.. They want you and me to foot the bill for the really sick people while they continue collecting premiums from healthier, younger people with money.. They're using us.

I, for one, have had enough... Have you?