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When you talk about a high deductible, you are really talking about limiting insurance to nothing but big-ticket and catastrophic. Who needs that? Americans need basic health maintenance insurance. Why would anyone waht to pay $5,000 a year for insurance, which doesn't cover anything until they pay the full bill out of their pocket up to another $5,000? What's the good of that?
I would propose a two-tier system. Tier one would be completely free, paid entirely by a single payer, up to a lifetime cap which could be, say, $100,000. Anybody who wanted to have more catastrophic coverage than that could do what they are doing now---buy it at the going rate from the private sector. Lower income people unwilling to pay the high price of more complete coverage could just cross their fingers and hope their 100K gets them through their normal lifetime.
Our present approach is exactly the opposite. Everyday medical costs for health maintenance, to hell with you, let them gouge you. Liver transplant, well, don't worry, that will be taken care of. It's things that you happlily blow off as deductibles, which many people can't afford out of pocket, that reflect our health as a nation.
The public mandate for general health care is not one that keeps terminal patients alive for a few more days. It is one that keeps us all generally healthy, with prescriptions for antibiotics and lab tests for troublesome diagnoses. It's at that front end where we are all obliged to keep out entire society healthy and well, for our own collective good.
That is exactly what most people had thru tehir work that wqas ca;;ed major medical. Insurnace that cover doctors visits etc is relatively new .To mnay that are young disaster insurance makes sense.Its liie homweowenrs use to be called fire insurance for a reason.
Look, I'm busting my butt to try and make 50K this year. I'm hardly rich or elite.
So, you make almost exactly four times what I make. Do you think I can get by on a quarter of what you live on, without exercising any personal responsibility? I'm "busting my butt" to get by on 12K.
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My Screenname? Picked not so much as support of Bush rather to irritate the far left. I hate middling bible thumpers and far left anti white, anti man commies equally.
If you're so fair, why don't you hate the far right equally?
People think nothing of signing up for five years for a new car, or thirty years for a house that's bigger than they need. But for some reason, they seem to think that paying out money for medical expenses is terrible.
Do you have car insurance and home insurance? Why not go bare, and if you total your car or your house burns down, just replace them from your savings.
When the government tells me that I have to pay XXX amount for health insurance, that amount is too much. I don't give a damn if it's twenty-five cents.
I'm perfectly willing to pay tax for services rendered by the government (whether national, state, or local) in the citizenry’s behalf. The way I see it, this amount has been exceeded many fold by spending tax dollars on foolishness and services that are far removed from the essentials that should be provided (basic services, roads, basic education, standing military, police, justice system, etc...). I do not want anything from the government beyond those basic needs. That includes forced medical procedures whether free or otherwise.
To answer the question, and assuming the government has no part in it, I would be willing to pay about what I pay on car insurance… around $24 per month. Actually that is a bargain for the insurance company, because I can count the times I have been to the doctor over the last 30 years on one hand. I have always paid for the visit out of my own pocket whether I was insured or not. Oh... but what happens if I develop something that would cost two million dollars worth of medical treatment? I die. We all do. Hey, is there any law against being your own death panel? Or is it just the government who will have the right to unplug granpappy?
That is EXACTLY the kind of health-care coverage I want - though I'm not going to pay $400 per month for it.
My wife and I are healthy people. I haven't been to a doctor in over 10 years.
I can easily handle $1,000 - .
What about the people who cannot easily handle $1,000 a month, because their entire take-home pay is only $1,000 a month, and their kids tough it out without any antibiotics, because the minimum office call for a doctor is $150, and he won't even write the Rx without a thousand dollars worth of lab tests to cover his ass or boost the profits of a lab he is part owner of. What kind of health care coverage do you think those kinds of people want? Do you ever think of anybody else, or is that un-American?
What about the people who cannot easily handle $1,000 a month, because their entire take-home pay is only $1,000 a month, and their kids tough it out without any antibiotics, because the minimum office call for a doctor is $150, and he won't even write the Rx without a thousand dollars worth of lab tests to cover his ass or boost the profits of a lab he is part owner of. What kind of health care coverage do you think those kinds of people want? Do you ever think of anybody else, or is that un-American?
Do you ever actually read what somebody writes, and respond to it logically without going off on your asinine rants?
I didn't say "I can easily handle $1,000 per month."
First... Go back and READ what I wrote.
Second... Respond to WHAT I WROTE.
Third... Stay on topic. Enough of the absurd diatribes already.
So, you make almost exactly four times what I make. Do you think I can get by on a quarter of what you live on, without exercising any personal responsibility? I'm "busting my butt" to get by on 12K.
Maybe if you didn't spend all day every day ranting on City-Data - and all the other forums you're on - you could go out and earn more than that.
Do you ever actually read what somebody writes, and respond to it logically without going off on your asinine rants?
I didn't say "I can easily handle $1,000 per month."
First... Go back and READ what I wrote.
Second... Respond to WHAT I WROTE.
Third... Stay on topic. Enough of the absurd diatribes already.
You said:
"I can easily handle $1,000 - provided I'm not paying almost that much for a monthly insurance premium."
You specified no time frame at all, but mentioned monthly in the same sentence, and monthly is on topic as the title of the thread.
Pease save your "rolleyes" emoticons for the third-grader forums, where other posters will think it's cool.
To keep costs down a plan needs to have high deductibles or people couldn't afford it.
I disagree. If health plans were non-profit only, and if it were illegal to kick people off their coverage as long as the premiums were being paid, AND if it were illegal to have pre-existing conditions clauses in health plans, the premiums would go way down. It's done that way in many countries with good results. What you're paying is INSANE. I was self-employed for 9 years with an expensive pre-existing condition and I never paid more than $350/mo, because I used a non-profit Blue Cross plan.
You said:
"I can easily handle $1,000 - provided I'm not paying almost that much for a monthly insurance premium."
You specified no time frame at all, but mentioned monthly in the same sentence, and monthly is on topic as the title of the thread.
Pease save your "rolleyes" emoticons for the third-grader forums, where other posters will think it's cool.
You are wrong again - proving once again that you don't bother reading what others write before you go off on your oft-unintelligent diatribes.
Again, I'm going to STRONGLY suggest that you READ before you RANT.
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