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When I was diagnosed, I was making 35K a year in one of the most expensive areas of the country. A fair entry level salary, but even WITH insurance, incredibly difficult to live on with the costs of treatment. Just 6 months of treatment cost more than I would earn at that salary in 7 years. My out of pocket costs were put on a payment plan, but that made it no less difficult to pay.
So yup - I'm good with having insurance, thanks.
If I may, perhaps a more descriptive way of saying this is that you're "good with having high-quality affordable health care." Insurance is only one of several ways to achieve that.
Congrats on beating your cancer. Please accept my sincere best wishes for a long and prosperous life.
Obviously this country will never support a completely national healthcare system. But what if we just got rid of health insurance and paid for our healthcare out of pocket? I truly believe the reason healthcare is so expensive is because of the health insurance companies. If we got rid of health insurance, costs would probably drop by like 50 percent.
What about back in the olden days when the doctor would come to your house and then send a bill? Healthcare has just gotten way too complicated since health insurance companies go in the way.
Removing health insurance is a bad idea. But if you want private health care to work, then we need to go back to accidental insurance. There also need to be cap on how much you can recieve, just like other forms of insurance. Notice when you get travel health insurance they only cover up to a certain amount and thats it.
But the current system doesn't work very well. Currently insurance has a high deductible, but then after a certain amount you get full coverage and get covered for pretty much anything. That means they can take the most expensive medicines and the most expensive treatments. In other countries, expensive treatments are limited.
And thats the problem, there is no cost control. Currently the health care system benefits a few individuals who need a lot of treatment, and hurt the majority of the population.
Let's be absolutely clear here. Right now -- today -- this moment -- the insurance industry controls and profits from danged near every medical/healthcare transaction.
Truth-time -- Big-Insurance doesn't only control the cost of our individual/family health-care insurance. It also controls the cost of things that significantly influence the cost of our health-care in general -- and therefore help to determine the cost of our individual healthcare insurance. These include the general liability and malpractice insurance premiums that hospitals and other facilities must pay, as well as the general liability and malpractice insurance premiums our physicians and other healthcare-providers must pay.
In other words, should you or I even SNEEZE, the insurance industry has figured out how to collect for it -- not once, or even twice, but three-or-four-or-five times. I could say more but, in the interest of conviviality, I choose not to do so.
According to Bloomberg (!!), we Americans pay the MOST for our healthcare insurance while receiving the POOREST outcomes. This is not my personal opinion, but the outcome of the research. Anyone who knows/can access different, current, accurate and equally well-researched information, please post it now.
[Sound of crickets in the dark...]
Regards,
-- Nighteyes
Last edited by Nighteyes; 12-10-2013 at 01:32 PM..
Unforeseen consequences from the law "may not deny pre-existing conditions"
Encourage people to not buy insurance until one have pre-existing conditions.
If only people has(or near has) pre-existing conditions buying insurance, who is going to pay the bill? It is called share cost including insurers, hospitals(people and hardware and facility), medical doctors, nurses.... and insured people.
Since everyone is taking out more than they pay in, the scheme will not last long.
People never quite understand "free lunch" and "who pays the bills".
If everyone understands "someone has to pay for it", then we are all set to solve the problems.
Since everyone is taking out more than they pay in, the scheme will not last long.
Please do elaborate on this. My wife & I pay premiums totaling almost $16,000 annually, then we each have a $6350 deductible so we theoretically could end up paying $28,000+ annually before the insurance company pays a penny. The grand total of our out of pocket doctor appointments, lab tests, and prescriptions total no more than $3-4000 annually and have for several years running.
Exactly how are we taking out more than we pay? Seems to me that as relatively healthy seniors (ages 59 & 60), we're just getting screwed while the insurance companies profit from us hand over fist.
Please do elaborate on this. My wife & I pay premiums totaling almost $16,000 annually, then we each have a $6350 deductible so we theoretically could end up paying $28,000+ annually before the insurance company pays a penny. The grand total of our out of pocket doctor appointments, lab tests, and prescriptions total no more than $3-4000 annually and have for several years running.
Exactly how are we taking out more than we pay? Seems to me that as relatively healthy seniors (ages 59 & 60), we're just getting screwed while the insurance companies profit from us hand over fist.
Moderator cut: personal remarks The way things were structured before September 30th, NO ONE who paid health insurance premiums "took out more than they paid." Before September 30th, the instant the 'balance of payments' changed, the insurance company simply canceled the policy.
[Yes, for the purpose of promoting discussion I'm over-simplifiying. But you know what? I'm not over-simplifying by very much...]
OP, Ive been thinking this one for a while and I think this is where we need to go in the future. We need to get rid of health insurance. These companies make a bunch of money for doing nothing. They provide ZERO service. I propose we subsidize medical school and thus the young doctors come out of school without debt. All healthcare should be free or at a low cost to everyone. All medical care should be publically owned. Yes, I am proposing socialized medicine.
OP, Ive been thinking this one for a while and I think this is where we need to go in the future. We need to get rid of health insurance. These companies make a bunch of money for doing nothing. They provide ZERO service. I propose we subsidize medical school and thus the young doctors come out of school without debt. All healthcare should be free or at a low cost to everyone. All medical care should be publically owned. Yes, I am proposing socialized medicine.
I agree. Earlier in this thread I illustrated how BIG INSURANCE is at the very core of our progressive health care crisis. They control the cost of health care insurance, and they control the cost of things that collectively determine the cost of health care. In other words, they've got the system by the throat, and they're squeezing out every dime they can.
Every business (sole proprietor, professional practice, LLP, LLC, corporation, etc.) must have some form of general liability, product liability, professional liability and/or malpractice insurance. Now, consider how many of these businesses are involved in providing one fairly simple surgical procedure -- an appendectomy, let's say. Each compound, powder, liquid or chemical, each item of supply, equipment, medication, etc. has to be produced somewhere. Many of these, in turn, are composed of multiple items that must also come from somewhere, and are produced by equipment that is also composed of multiple parts. Because these items have to get from where they're produced to where they're needed, transportation insurance becomes a factor. Now let's add the hospital and its employees and staff, as well as the surgeon(s) and staff.
Each one of these businesses and individuals has insurance expenses. Each of these insurance expenses is passed along to the customers in some way. By the time we get to "the top" of this pyramid -- the successful appendectomy -- the cumulative insurance charges make up a massive portion of the cost.
Now let's turn to health care insurance. The insurance companies have already been charging the patient for his/her health care insurance. THEN, because they largely control the purse strings, the insurance companies tell the hospital and doctor(s) how much they will pay for this appendectomy. And FINALLY, they use their above-listed actions to establish the ADDITIONAL AMOUNT (co-pays and deductibles) the patient will have to pay. "Follow the money", as they said in All The President's Men.
Folks, there are no checks, no balances, or any real competition. Not long ago (as recently as the Eisenhower Administration) this would have been in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914. In 2013 the American people are finding it very difficult -- often impossible -- to sue their health care insurance companies for the most egregious acts.
We have absolutely no power or influence over what they choose, or do not choose, to do. All we can do is pay them whatever they demand, or try to do it on our own. For most of us that choice can quickly lead to bankruptcy and homelessness.
I'm not saying insurance isn't important; it is. I'm saying that we need to take BIG INSURANCE out of health care.
Last edited by Nighteyes; 12-20-2013 at 11:24 AM..
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