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I'm paying about $230 for my company plan, with a $2,000 deductible. I'm in my late 30s, no major health issues. Under the ACA, I could get comparable coverage for the same price (or possibly less - I need to investigate further).
I'm a self-employed adult. Prior to May 1, 2014, I paid $241.54 per month
As of May 1, I am now paying $144.00 per month.
I went away from self employed because of the ACA.. But my experience would have been the exact opposite of you.. I also had a plan through Golden Rule that.. Could be considered catastrophic.. Mine covered prescriptions and a $30 co-pay for doctors visits, though.. And I was paying $150/mo give or take.
$10k deductible. No idea what the lifetime cap was.. And they pre-existing conditioned migraines on me.
Best I would be able to get through the marketplace would cost me $250/mo.. Yes, my deductible would go down by about a third and the pre-existing condition would be covered.. But.. It certainly wasn't going to be a wash. And I wouldn't qualify for any kickbacks...er..subsidies.
Anyway.. I left being self employed, and now I pay nothing per month. 100% employer covered health and dental.
Nowhere did I read that this was limited to those in the US, so I thought I would just mention how much I pay in Canada:
Medical: $0
- provincial coverage covers me for doctor's visits and if I go to the hospital (no "co-pay")
- supplemental benefits covered at 100% by employer. This includes full prescription drug coverage with limited exclusions (e.g. "lifestyle drugs," vitamins, etc.), and $350 annual limit for various practitioners (e.g. psychologist, naturopath, etc.)
Dental: $0
- all "reasonable and customary" procedures covered at 100%, no annual maximum
- orthodontics not covered at all (trying to fight this at next round of collective bargaining negotiations)
Vision: $0
- all visits covered
- lenses and frames covered up to $350 per person every two years
Oh, you're paying for it. Just look at that line about taxes on your paycheck.
Still working but over 65 so here I find myself on Medicare.
Part A (hospitalization) is free. Well, free if you don't count my paying in taxes over a 50 year time period.
Part B costs $104.90 every month and as I am not collecting social security I send a check, made out to "CMS Medicare", in the amount of $314.70 every three months. Just kicked one of these out the door today.
Every month I pay $141.94 for my Plan F which, especially if you have some medical issues, is the way to go in my opinion. Plan F includes:
Quote:
Part A deductible
Part B deductible
Part B excess charges
Preventative care Part B coinsurance
Part A hospital and coinsurance costs up to an additional 356 days after Medicare benefits are exhausted
Part B coinsurance or copayment
First three pints of blood used in an approved medical procedure (annually)
Part A hospice care copayment or coinsurance
Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) coinsurance Foreign travel emergency
What I like about the Plan F is I never pay anything out of pocket, not one thin dime for anything have I paid out of pocket for any doctor visit or procedure. It's insurance without co-pays or deductibles.
For pharmacy I pay $30.00 every month but my deductibles on medications run about $750 annually.
Dental runs $32.50 per month.
My total out of pocket every month for medical insurance is $309.34 and then my wife pays the exact same amount so our free Medicare runs $618.68 for a couple. That's $7,424.18 every year to which you can add another $1,500 for pharmacy co-pays for about 16% of what I estimate our combined retirement income will be.
Oh, you're paying for it. Just look at that line about taxes on your paycheck.
Or, if you don't work, someone else's paycheck.
Yawn!! That tired argument again?? Australia's percentage of its GDP from income tax is almost the same as the U$, yet look at what we get here in Oz for it!! No contest!!
Yup, this is why I agree with the health savings plans instead of the regular (must pay insurance), your premiums should go directly into a savings account. If you need the money it draws from there, if you overdraw then you just keep paying to make up the difference. Most likely though, you will go your entire life needing less than 5k out of it. Think of the money that could be saved by not only yourself but also your employer. It's a huge incentive for people to remain healthy. At a certain age you should be able to draw funds from it, after you reach a certain amount, say around 500k or so, anything after that should be able to withdraw, the 500k you don't use once you die should go to a dependent of your choice for their health care or straight withdrawal if they already have their own. Of course this would never happen. So, instead we will keep paying for peoples poor life choices.
A HSA is not insurance... What happens when you have a brain aneurysm or something with only a year's worth of "health savings"? The whole idea of an HSA depends on the *belief* that nothing serious will happen to you.
I pay nothing out of my paycheck because the state of Hawaii mandates that you can't put more than 1% of your income into health insurance. For my $36k salary, that would be $30/month, but most employers just pay the full cost themselves.
Yawn!! That tired argument again?? Australia's percentage of its GDP from income tax is almost the same as the U$, yet look at what we get here in Oz for it!! No contest!!
Like many wealthy countries, Australia provides universal healthcare for all of its citizens regardless of income through a taxpayer-funded system called Medicare, similar to Britain's National Health Service.
Australian spending on healthcare was slightly lower than the OECD average of 9.3 percent of GDP in 2011, putting it behind the United States at 17.7 per cent and a number of European countries including France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
But Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government argues that healthcare costs are unsustainable and must be reined in as part of reforms aimed at ending what Treasurer Joe Hockey calls "the age of entitlement".
"There is no such thing as a free visit to a doctor," Hockey said earlier this month.
"Government services are somehow deemed to be magically free but of course they're not free. They are paid for by the taxpayer."
It remains unclear which recommendations the government will adopt in the budget, but it has been widely reported that a A$7 doctor's fee will be instituted alongside increases in co-payments for medications covered under the scheme.
Another possibility is that high-income Australians could be opted out of the system through private insurance, moving it closer to the system in the United States.
Russell said the proposals ran contrary to global healthcare trends moving towards universal healthcare, she said, citing the reforms in the United States as a prime example
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by winkosmosis
A HSA is not insurance... What happens when you have a brain aneurysm or something with only a year's worth of "health savings"? The whole idea of an HSA depends on the *belief* that nothing serious will happen to you.
It is insurance. You can no longer get a HSA without a high deductible plan to go with it. Even if you have a heart transplant there is a maximum deductible of about $6,000 and a maximum out-of-pocket so they are paying a lot more than you will. The HSA is actually good because it can be used to pay for things that are health related but not prescription and they are pre-tax dollars
so what I put into that account from my check reduces my taxes.
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