Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Health and Wellness > Health Insurance
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 12-25-2019, 04:01 PM
 
Location: 89052 & 75206
8,103 posts, read 8,286,045 times
Reputation: 19902

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by K12144 View Post
Are they putting money away each month toward medical bills? I mean, at $1800 a month, if they socked it away, those savings would have covered one of those $4k ER visits within less than 3 months. Now, anything huge is another story... But you don't say if they have another plan, or simply planned to wing it.




I thought the high-deductible plans *were* intended to be catastrophic?
Their $1800/month was high deductible. They don’t have another plan, they are just winging it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 12-25-2019, 07:58 PM
 
Location: The Bubble, Florida
3,357 posts, read 2,320,743 times
Reputation: 9877
They need to have an HSA, and contribute to it every single week, without fail. If either one of them has any kind of problem medically that lasts more than a few days, it could bankrupt them. Not just due to the medical costs, but because they'd be out of work until they recover. Owning a retail operation means you *cannot* be unavailable more than a few days in a row.

And what happens if their son becomes very ill, or has a sports injury? Will they just "wing it" with their own child? If they were poverty-stricken I'd say hey - stuff happens, you do the best you can with what you're given.

But they own their own business and are earning you said around $90k/year. That might not be a lot depending on where they live, but it's a significant enough chunk of change that they should be at -least- making sure their son is protected medically.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-25-2019, 08:09 PM
 
5,989 posts, read 6,750,246 times
Reputation: 18485
This is the problem with being self-employed, and buying insurance on the health exchanges. For 3 people, we pay about $1500/month with about an 8k per person deductible, 16k for the family. That mean that if no one gets sick, we pay 18K/yr. And if anyone gets sick, we could have medical expenses of about 35K for the year.

The fact is, we can afford it. It's not fun, but we can afford it. But if our income were as little as 80K, I don't think we'd get a subsidy. Then, the simple fact is, we could NOT afford it. I totally understand families in their situation dropping the insurance.

We need medical insurance for all paid for by taxes. Currently, those who qualify for medicaid get 100 percent coverage. Those who are on Medicare are covered. Those who are employed are mostly covered. Those who are eligible for a subsidy, or lie about their income in order to be eligible for a subsidy, are covered. But those who make more than the threshold for a subsidy cannot afford insurance.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-25-2019, 08:12 PM
 
Location: Camberville
15,837 posts, read 21,372,529 times
Reputation: 28139
My relatively uncomplicated cancer cost $500K, and I was only 23 when I was diagnosed. No surgery, no radiation. That was *just* diagnosis, 6 months of chemo, visits to the oncologist and a handful of other specialists, scans, and regular bloodwork. Do they have a few hundred thousands of dollars sitting around for an emergency?



Good luck to them if they want to go without health insurance. I'd restructure my life and employment to have access to a group plan if I couldn't afford insurance on my own - especially as a parent. Some people can't afford to be entrepreneurs.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-25-2019, 08:35 PM
 
13,113 posts, read 20,861,676 times
Reputation: 21318
With all due respect, these are 40's year old ADULTS! Let them make their own family decisions. Explain the danger of going without insurance and if they feel their budget just can't support the insurance or their decide other things are more important than health insurance, that's their personal family financial decision. If they get an illness or injury that financially ruins them, at that point you can offer some help but otherwise they need to be their own ADULTS and if that means panhandling with a cardboard sign on the street corner, that's the product of their own ADULT decision.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-25-2019, 09:12 PM
 
6,082 posts, read 4,447,134 times
Reputation: 13634
Maybe they felt paying $1800 a month and then not being covered for their needs would ultimately bankrupt them. I'm on the exchange and I work, but my job doesn't offer coverage.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-26-2019, 07:48 AM
 
5,084 posts, read 3,015,337 times
Reputation: 10944
Quote:
Originally Posted by oceangaia View Post
There's no reason a few x-rays and stitches should cost $4k. They need to go to urgent care facilities not emergency rooms. I'd drop an $1800/mo plan that didn't cover my needs as well. That will buy you a lot of health care.
Many urgent care clinics are now owned and operated by hospitals, and the bills are similar to a hospital ER. This family’s problem is typical with ACA plans, their business is too small for the group plans, and because of the business flow-through “income”, they get stuck paying the ridiculously-high, unsubsidized, ACA individual plan rates.

As mentioned above if they are able to qualify for it, joining a health-sharing ministry could be an affordable option with much lower deductibles.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-26-2019, 07:54 AM
 
23,177 posts, read 12,142,034 times
Reputation: 29347
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimAZ View Post
Many urgent care clinics are now owned and operated by hospitals, and the bills are similar to a hospital ER. This family’s problem is typical with ACA plans, their business is too small for the group plans, and because of the business flow-through “income”, they get stuck paying the ridiculously-high, unsubsidized, ACA individual plan rates.

And many are not. You need to know which ones in your area are an urgent care clinic and a free-standing hospital. You need to figure this out *before* you have an accident.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-26-2019, 08:13 AM
 
1,680 posts, read 2,542,305 times
Reputation: 3460
As someone who was single and owned a small retail business for 18 years, I sold the business when the risk of the business surviving if I was unable to work for several months became a possibility. The last ten years of my working life was working for a business that could offer reasonable health coverage.

The couple who bought my business had one spouse working for a company that offered reasonable health care coverage for the family.

I suggest your son and DIL consider having one spouse explore the possibility of working for a company that offers reasonable healthcare coverage for the family. The net money earned minus the cost of healthcare might allow the self employed spouse to hire someone part-time to work at their business.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-26-2019, 08:34 AM
 
7,997 posts, read 10,380,366 times
Reputation: 15007
Quote:
Originally Posted by K12144 View Post
Are they putting money away each month toward medical bills? I mean, at $1800 a month, if they socked it away, those savings would have covered one of those $4k ER visits within less than 3 months. Now, anything huge is another story... But you don't say if they have another plan, or simply planned to wing it.
The $4000 was what they paid WITH the insurance they were paying $1800 a month for. They only dropped the insurance AFTER those instances. Honestly, a plan for $1800 a month for 3 people is going to have really high deductibles.

The insurance system here in the US sucks. I know someone who had insurance still go into bankruptcy due to medical bills. The kind of insurance they had probably wouldn't protect them from that if there was a major medical issue. The person I know had breast cancer. She ultimately succumbed to the disease after a 3 year battle, but not before losing her house and filing for bankruptcy.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Health and Wellness > Health Insurance

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:12 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top