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I fully agree. I'm in that bind myself - I have a malignant brain tumor and absolutely need health insurance, and I am always afraid of making more than the $690 / month limit. If I get private insurance, I will be probably unable to make my co-pays (the chemotherapy drug I am taking right now is $4,200 / month) or won't be able to pay the deductible (or have great difficulty doing so). Even my state's "high-risk" insurance plan has a minimum $2,500 deductible - in addition to co-pays. That might be reasonable for somebody somewhat established in their career, but for an entry-level job it can be very difficult.
Minnesota - one of the healthiest states - has a program known as "Minnesota Care" for families with modest incomes who cannot get health insurance through their employer, but for a single person like me it only covers up to $10,000 in inpatient hospital expenses.
So, I basically have a choice: either work in a somewhat well-paying career that I know will fulfill my potential and run the risk of going into medical debt (or spend all my money on health care), or sit at home on C-D forums while leeching off the taxpayers and perhaps work a part-time job at a gas station or department store that is far below my ability. What a waste of talent!
We have an excellent health care system, but our health insurance scheme is messed up beyond all relief.
I feel for you. Actually my wife had brain aneurysm surgery over a year ago. I am unable to get private insurance for her unless I had it with a company and continued it with Cobra, which is very expensive. I carry her only, and take my chances until my next job.
Every time states/feds make further cuts to Medicaid reimbursements, fewer and fewer doctors accept it as a form of payment. Instead of reforming the program and adding co-pays, caps, co-insurance, and/or removing some of the covered services entirely, they just continue to cut reimbursements and expect the providers and hospitals to eat the cost. I cannot even fathom what will happen when thousands more people become eligible for Medicaid! Hospitals servicing predominantly poor patient populations will become insolvent and be forced to close. This isn't fear mongering, it's fact.
The fact is that those on Medicare are very poor (at least they're supposed to be). The income limit on it is set at 75% of the federal poverty line, so $690 a month for a single adult. You can't expect those people to pay 20% co-pays or $1,000 deductibles.
Doctors (and other medical professionals) have a well-earned right to make a living, but they also have a duty to serve those who cannot afford their usual rates. If you look at old Catholic moral theology textbooks, you will read that doctors are sometimes obliged in conscience to offer their services for free; they presumably fulfill that duty today by taking on Medicaid patients.
I would favor an expansion to Medicaid that does have premiums, deductibles, and co-pays on a sliding scale. Minnesota has a program similar to this (MA-EPD); however, it requires that you be judged disabled. However, counting on somebody struggling to survive to pay deductibles or co-pays is not realistic.
Anyone earning over 100k should get get the option of a government plan, and the closer you get to minimum wage, the less it costs. Anyone who has the tenacity to go out and work full time for min wage instead of doing nothing and getting a medical card should get a break in my opinion.
That's not a percentage. Would you support a minimum wage worker paying 12% additional payroll tax?
But then that person isn't around to be a good parent to their children. And who gets blamed for that when they're not around to tell their kids "drugs are bad, gangs are bad, drinking is bad, fornicating is bad," and the kids get in trouble for doing one or all of the above.
It's a vicious Catch-22, where the real solution is to decrease medical costs across the board. But "Capitalism" says that is a bad thing.
That's not a percentage. Would you support a minimum wage worker paying 12% additional payroll tax?
Payroll tax percentages would not be applicable for the plan I am suggesting, namely, buy-in government insurance. That would be the way to go for single payer government healthcare, but I am talking about a plan that might have a snowball's chance of passing.
If we had Medicare for all, instead of Medicare that starts at 65:
• we wouldn't need Medicaid.
• we wouldn't be fighting over the individual mandate, as Medicare is already a tax on your paycheck.
• everyone would have health care.
• hospitals wouldn't be adding the costs of those that can't pay to overhead of those that can pay.
• etc., etc.
Payroll tax percentages would not be applicable for the plan I am suggesting, namely, buy-in government insurance. That would be the way to go for single payer government healthcare, but I am talking about a plan that might have a snowball's chance of passing.
Who would pay the premium? How much would the premium for a single person or a family run each month?
Nobody I know does. I learned to cut my own hair and even if I had someone else cut it, I would at most pay $20. Right now, Holiday hair has a $9.99 coupon out..so, I'll be using that. I coupon, and scrimp and save and am very frugal and to me, $90 for a 10-15 minute visit is just too much. I wish we had one of those minute clinics around here, I think they run about $45 and that's more manageable. that would be for a quick run in to confirm things like a sinus infection and the like...common ailments...which shouldn't warrant a $90 bill and then a the script costs on top of it.
But the same person will pay $400 for a phone. $200 a month for cable.
In many cases you are paying for someone's expertise and at that point normal economics go out the window.
You also do know many lawyers charge $500 an hour?
I've never paid for a cell phone...always did the free phone option,and I don't pay $200 for cable, and I've never needed a lawyer and IMO that's crazy anyway.
I understand paying for expertise, I also understand price gouging
Who would pay the premium? How much would the premium for a single person or a family run each month?
(Hopefully) the government option would be much less than the private option. If everyone is mandated to buy healthcare, the government should at least provide the option of not bankrupting oneself to obtain it.
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