Health Insurance

[turkaholic]

After many years of being self sufficient and paying well over 100 thousand dollars in the last ten years for insurance ,I had to cancel. My "plan" now cost 14 thousand dollars a year for my wife and I. That is with a seven thousand dollar deductible for each of us. Who can afford this crap? I am not all that good with math but that is about 30 grand for nothing. I know many who get a new knee and shoulder surgery and pay nothing. Sometimes I think I would be better off being a looser and not working. After 8 years of toilet flushing in Washington this is what we get. At age 57 I am now not insured, just when I might need it. Am alone here?

[guesswho]

I feel your pain.  I'm 56 and I'm in the same boat as you.   My premium alone is 14K a year.   Add my Wife and I'm right there with you.  And you drop your insurance you get fined/taxed at the end of the year.  And then some dope slinging cancer in society can get the same plan for $50 along with food stamps and help paying for his housing and utilities. 

[chadly]

I'm very thankful for the insurance plan we have though my wife's work.  With that said its getting expensive.  Every year it goes up.  It went up 41% this year.  Every year she gets a raise and every year its about the same as the cost of the insurance increase.  The net gain to us is nothing.  However not this year.  I sure hope some big changes can be made and quick. 

[SKYNET KC]

I'm very thankful my health insurance is paid for through my union. I can't even imagine how much it would be in the open market for my wife and I.


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[davisd9]

I work for the state I live in and compared to many we have great insurance, but it is nothing like it was a few years ago. Insurance and most medical places are nothing but thieves in my opinion, there are some good ones out there but seem few and far between these days


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[greencop01]

             Don't want to unfairly blame but the large ins. increases didn't really start until Obama Care started to take effect. Check the timing of large health ins. increases and the start of Obama Care. The govt. interfering with the marketplace.

[Swather]

The odd thing about health insurance is all the variability in the reports that you hear from people--working for someone else or self-employed--in insurance available, coverage, deductibles, the pharmaceutical portion, etc.  It is all a big mess. 

I recently was told by a self-employed fellow that his coverage prior to ZeroCare for his wife, daughter, and himself was $660 a month with a $1,000 deductible.  This year, his coverage is about $2,150 with a deductible of $6,500.

Health care expenditures have rocketed to 17% of nominal GDP now.  That is despite all the promises that more govt control would make things better.

We are at a junction right now, and things may change in a matter of months.  Rather than go completely uninsured, what you might do is consider a purely catastrophic coverage or something different like medishare (which I am informed meets the legality requirements).  If you wish to investigate:

https://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/

http://www.chministries.org/

http://www.christianflatshare.org/

https://www.libertyhealthshare.org/

[Swather]

I know for a fact that people have been getting subsidized policies by fudging.  They've told me they were doing it to bide their time until they hit medicare eligibility or Congress repealed ZeroCare.

Going with a medical sharing program would be a safer route.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/health-insurance-marketplaces-will-not-be-required-to-verify-consumer-claims/2013/07/05/d2a171f4-e5ab-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html?utm_term=.c7636331bf96


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-13/study-reveals-rampant-fraud-obamacare-exchanges-100-fictitious-enrollees-able-obtain

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/02/24/Obamacare-Fraud-Rampant-and-Unchecked-GAO-Warns

[SKYNET KC]

The health insurance market going bonkers was a few things swirling together to cause the perfect storm.

The requirement for insurance companies to cover you regardless of condition was one factor. To make up for all the money these people will cost the insurance companies, EVERYONES premium increases as a result.

With the majority of baby boomers now leaving the workplace and aging, they will be seeing the doctor a lot more. More doctor visits = more money out of the insurance company pockets.

Although I don't agree with the individual mandate, this was supposed to be the "fix". But because a large number of millennial are either staying on their parents insurance, or just choosing to be uninsured and pay the penalty, insurance companies are not recuperating that money.




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[Swather]

             Don't want to unfairly blame but the large ins. increases didn't really start until Obama Care started to take effect. Check the timing of large health ins. increases and the start of Obama Care. The govt. interfering with the marketplace.

Healthcare in the US has gotten worse every time the govt has taken further steps in it.  The widescale encouragement of free riders is a big problem; the standard is a 50% write off of all medical receivables and providers make up uncompensated care under EMTALA and govt cram-downs under Medicare/Medicaid it by passing on costs to insured customers and cash customers.  Costs have gone up faster than general inflation and the percentage of paying clientele has gone down.

The hospitals get jammed with all the uncomp'd and reduced cost care, and they engage in anti-competitive behavior by demanding legislation like certificate of need statutes.  Then they fight CON's for competitors.  The hospitals taking medi/medi hate clinics like Surgical Care Affiliates and Cancer Treatment Centers because the latter are not forced to take patients that cannot pay under EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment And Active Labor Act). EMTALA says that if you take payment under medi/medi, you cannot turn people away and just have to do your best to collect.

Markets are not designed to and will not provide a bunch of free stuff and free services.  One of the biggest problem we have is that so many expect free stuff and a lot of people wanting more power want to give it to them in exchange for power.

When things are negotiates, the price is known to the payer, the service provider gets paid, and the provider is not forced by govt to provide "free" stuff and pass that on to paying customers, a market can deliver:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114048909124578710

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/u-s-struggles-health-reform-amish-go-their-own-way-8C11345954

The cost for elective/cosmetic surgery is driven by a functioning market and price competition (with the exception of charitable cases for burn patients, etc.), and it is more affordable:

https://www.aei.org/publication/what-economic-lessons-about-health-care-can-we-learn-from-the-market-for-cosmetic-procedures/