US Healthcare (insurance, house, go bankrupt)

[ian6479]

How does it work? Do employers pay for it? And if they do, do you have to pay anything towards it?

Just wondering, as I may move to California next year.

Thanks.

[rickers]

It's up to each employer to choose to cover or to not cover the cost of health care and even when the main premium is paid by the employer there is still a co-payment due at the time of service that is paid by the employee in most cases. In northern states along the northern border the hospitals and clinics treat many Canadians who don't like or trust the Canadian system and are willing to come south and pay for our much better medical services.
I don't have any medical plan but my Doctor only charges $40. for an office visit. He can do this because he doesn't carry malpractice insurance.

[SouthernBelle3]

It depends on the employer. Some employers pay the premium 100%. Others pay a potion and the employee pays the rest. There is no standard.
Most group policies for a family plan run around $600 - $800 a month or more.
However, most plans require copays for each visit to the doctor or hospital, and an annual deductible that could be as low as $250 or as high as $4000 or more. You pay the deductible first if you need medical care at a facility before the insurance company will pay. There are HMO plans and PPO plans. HMO's are usually cheaper but you have to use the doctors and facilities that are listed in the plan, which may not be close to where you live. PPO's are more flexible but you still have to use a network of facilities and doctors. HMO's usually pay 100% after deductibles, PPO's pay 70-90% of each medical bill which are copious for each procedure or stay at any hospital.
An example, where I work my company pays about 70% and I pay 30% fo a PPO. So I pay about $200 a month for a family plan which is considered a huge benefit by the employees. However, a couple of years ago, when a member of my family was ill and needed an expensive procedure, I ended up paying $5000 out of pocket for medical expenses that year.
That was for multiple trips to a doctor, a hospital stay, and a procedure that took about 45 minutes.

[Cali BassMan]

Originally Posted by ian6479

How does it work? Do employers pay for it? And if they do, do you have to pay anything towards it?

Just wondering, as I may move to California next year.

Thanks.

it does'nt work... Employers and employees pay enormous amount of money for everything from aspiran to operations.... More people go bankrupt due to hospital bills than everything else combined...You'd think that the world's richest nation would take care of it's citizens.

[jhassler]

Originally Posted by Cali BassMan

it does'nt work... Employers and employees pay enormous amount of money for everything from aspiran to operations.... More people go bankrupt due to hospital bills than everything else combined...You'd think that the world's richest nation would take care of it's citizens.

Let me preface this by stating that I'm not making a value judgment here (aside from last few paragraphs)...I'm simply stating facts about differences in society around the world...these are generalizations, mind you....

The United States of America is a capitalist nation. We pay significantly fewer dollars in taxes (personal income, corporate, lack of value-added in most cases), and subsequently, do not have as many state-controlled institutions...eg, healthcare isn't free, Ecucation is more expensive (in many cases) we don't have 'national' companies that are government controlled, they are held by private owners or owned publically by stockholders.

Much of western Europe employs a "welfare state" philosophy. Services like healthcare and other public services are in many cases provided by the government, funded by higher tax rates.

In a nation like the United States, healthcare is not viewed as a fundamental right of citizens...It is stated nowhere in the constitution... Americans may often-times open special health savings accounts (much like a 401k retirement plan..often tax-exempt) to help offset the higher cost of healthcare. Per the philosophy of capitalism, the responsibility lies with the individual.

I'm not stating that either way is good or bad...I don't necessarily think that the US government not providing healthcare for free for its citizens is because they simply "doesn't care about them" (by the way....the government is elected....by the people), there are simply huge costs involved, and a myriad of issues with privatizing the healthcare industry.

Another similar point can be made about perscription drugs in the US...

Although in many cases they are expensive, there are reasons behind that. Of course, generic drugs are often available....however, the companies making the generic drugs are not spending billions of dollars yearly to research new drugs. The drugs from big pharm aren't expensive to necessarily take advantage of consumers (any more than any other business), but to fund the often prohibitive costs of funding new drugs to cure new and existing illnesses.

Basically..my point is...there are often cultural, commercial, and more difficult explainations for why one government decides to subsidize something, another government something else...why goods may be more expensive (you'll find consumer goods to be much cheaper in the US) in one country than another.


START, 'VALUE JUDGMENT'...feel free to disagree, throw rocks, fling personal insults

Bottom line, if you have the kind of career that would merit moving to the US, your employer will probably take care of the majority of your healthcare expenses..that isn't to say that you won't have to take any responsibility for some of your own healthcare costs, however. If you're a hard-working, career-oriented, educated individual, the US is the best place in the world to live and work...

In America, we try to give everyone a (somewhat) even level of opportunity, however, WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THE OUTCOME...failures happen, but at least here you can pick yourself up and start over again...We can't guarantee that your PARENTS (<----important) will teach you the value of education, that they'll instill in you a good work ethic, that they'll keep you from abusing drugs and alcohol...We don't view that as the responsibilty of the state.. We can guarantee that you will have access to public education, and some opportunity to be better than what your parents were. Not in any way stating that it will be EASY OR GUARANTEED, but the opportunity is there...

[MovingForward]

It does depend, yes: on the state and on the employer. Some employers will pay 100%, but most pay a percentage and the employee pays the other percentage. Every visit requires a co-pay by the employee. My employer pays 80%. I pay 20%. My co-pay for each visit is $10.00. Nobody pays an "enormous amount of money for aspirin": aspirin is an over-the-counter medication, available without a prescription at any drugstore, for about $3.00.

My only experience with nationalized health care was in France. i broke my foot. Waited almost two hours in the ER--although there was nobody else waiting. Seriously. They took an x-ray of my foot: did not give me any lead protection, and the x-ray machine looked like it was old enough to be Marie Curie's. Gave me tons of medication, and a visiting nurse was sent to the house every evening to give me a shot of anti-coagulant. Upshot: medication constipated me and the anti-coagulant brought my period on two weeks early. I finally called my own doctor in the States, who asked me why they had prescribed anti-coagulant shots and then told me to stop them immediately, because why they may be necessary for an 80-year-old man with clotting issues, they were dangerous for me. She also told me to stop all the medication, as well, and that I should just take ibuprofen if I had any pain. Not one French doctor ever asked me if I was allergic to anything--in fact, nobody asked for my medical history at all. The thing about nationalized medicine--at least, in France--is that it's a one-size-fits-all system. Broken foot? Do 1,2 3, and 4--regardless of patient. Honestly, I would never wish the French medical system on anybody. After Princess Diana died, I remember there were some television interviews with American doctors, who all stated--as diplomatically as they could--that part of the problem was that the French EMTs kept Diana in the ambulance for 45 minutes, trying to stabilize her. They said that accident victims should NEVER be kept for that long in an ambulance because of the strong possibility of internal bleeding. And that's exactly what happened to her: she bled to death in the ambuland. Nope: I'll take U.S. medical care over nationalized care any day of the week. Having said that, I believe that free medical care should be available to those who cannot afford it otherwise.