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You forgot the coinsurance part of the quote. This is the percentage you still pay on the bill after your deductible is filled. Go back and double check.
Let me make very sure I understand your position: It is your position that no one should have to pay one cent on their health care - is this correct?
Emergency healthcare is here now . even drug abusers get the care.
Fire depts are funded by the public in city and town halls to the extent that the voters provide. Firemen act in an emergency only. They do not rebuild your house or provide you with temp sheltor.
Ma universal health plans woud be better if the govt did not have so heavy handed regulations full of reqirements amounting to one size fits all.
When your are young and healthy ; catatrophic might be for you vs the plan that provides all the bells and whistles.
No, tax breaks and loopholes for rich people and corporations is American.
For a while working hard and getting a fair wage to pay for a place to live (that doesn't have asbestos and rats) and food on the table was the American way. It isn't anymore.
I see the plan greatday. I still don't see how they are so great for guys making $15/hour as we have been discussing.
Say the guy is 35. A choice between $100/month and $5k deductible or close to $200/month plus $500 deductible , plus 20-40% copays depending on the plan.
You look at a family of four, couple in their midthirties and young kids and it is $367/month with a $5k deductible, or say $700/month with a $500 dedcutible plus 20-40% copays.
This would be tough but manageable so long as everybody stays relatively healthy.
Because of the skyrocketing unbridled health costs we have year over year, one serious illness or injury would put this family under though with the copays. evil wants you to take out another "health" mortgage or declare bankruptcy, which of course millions of Americans are doing, but seems from a common sense standpoint a tad outrageous, at least to me. Especially when you can go across the border and get the same surgery for tens of thousands of dollars less.
Let me make very sure I understand your position: It is your position that no one should have to pay one cent on their health care - is this correct?
My position is that health care is inflated grossly due to administrative waste, inefficient and outdated processing methods, and increasing profits for all involved. An operation in most of the world that is $10k costs $50-60k in US. So we need to either rein those health care costs in to get closer to what they really should be (actual expenses plus a reasonable profit), or lower copay percentages to make them in reach and affordable for working Americans.
Having to declare bankruptcy becuase you don't have the $50k in your pocket to help the insurance and pharmaceutical companies cover their inefficeincies and increase their margins is wrong, IMO.
My position is that health care is inflated grossly due to administrative waste, inefficient and outdated processing methods, and increasing profits for all involved. An operation in most of the world that is $10k costs $50-60k in US. So we need to either rein those health care costs in to get closer to what they really should be (actual expenses plus a reasonable profit), or lower copay percentages to make them in reach and affordable for working Americans.
Having to declare bankruptcy becuase you don't have the $50k in your pocket to help the insurance and pharmaceutical companies cover their inefficeincies and increase their margins is wrong, IMO.
Is it your position that someone should not have to take any money out of their pocket to pay for their healtcare?
B) The guy making $15 an hour can, with money management, afford health insurance
A) Yes if your copays for everything are through the roof. One doctors appointment $30, one perscription $45. Then any operation means debt for 3 years. Appendicitis......lost wages and $5000 deductible, unless of course the company managed to leave that off the policy in the 4 pt font at the bottom of the policy in legal language that you need to hire a lawyer to read.
B) Yes and he can save no money for when the vehicle breaks down, retirement, sickness let alone get to do anything with his life that might bring any enjoyment.
It also bothers me the gross inefficencies in our health care system is causing American companies to lose their global competitiveness.
Factoring in costs borne by government, the private sector, and individuals, the United States spends over $1.9 trillion annually on healthcare expenses, more than any other industrialized country. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical School estimate the United States spends 44 percent more per capita than Switzerland, the country with the second highest expenditures, and 134 percent more than the median for member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). These costs prompt fears that an increasing number of U.S. businesses will outsource jobs overseas or offshore business operations.
According to 2005 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the most recent official data available, employer-provided health benefits cover 175 million Americans, or about 60 percent of the population. Those numbers have fallen since 2001, when 65 percent of the country had some form of employer coverage, based on data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit focused on healthcare issues. Premiums have skyrocketed, rising 87 percent since 2000. In 2004, health coverage became the most expensive benefit paid by U.S. employers, according to a report by the Employment Policy Foundation.
Healthcare experts agree the people with the most control over what drugs get prescribed and what procedures get done have little incentive to lower these costs (indeed, to the extent that they get paid by the procedure, their incentives are often quite the opposite). Likewise, patients often feel little need to control the costs of their own medical care if it is covered by insurance. The system bears the brunt of the excess, and employers make up the difference in the rates they pay.
It remains to be seen what sort of political tidal wave it would take to force an overhaul of the system, but increased pressure from the business community has made the prospect of change increasingly likely. “Now you’re hearing it from the marquee CEO crowd in private industry that we have to come up with some comprehensive solution or they simply won’t be able to compete,” says John Sarbanes, the U.S. representative from Maryland. GM’s G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., for instance, recently chastised legislators on the need to find some “serious medicine” for the healthcare system. Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in January, CFR’s Gene B. Sperling argued the United States needs a universal healthcare plan to help its businesses keep up with competitors globally. What many executives and politicians alike now recommend is an expanded public-private partnership. Some countries, Rideout notes, feature top-down implementation and reimbursement programs. Britain, for instance, has implemented a pay-per-performance program through which physicians can increase their income by up to fifty thousand dollars a year by meeting government-regulated performance standards. Sarbanes says both sides of the public-private partnership could save money if the government provided more funding on the front end by “improving delivery models, broadening coverage, and setting up clinics and preventative care.” Similarly, Rideout says the government can implement programs to insure workers who do not receive coverage through their employers, footing an up-front cost but reducing long-term strain on emergency care, the most expensive form of medical care.
A) Yes if your copays for everything are through the roof. One doctors appointment $30, one perscription $45. Then any operation means debt for 3 years. Appendicitis......lost wages and $5000 deductible, unless of course the company managed to leave that off the policy in the 4 pt font at the bottom of the policy in legal language that you need to hire a lawyer to read.
B) Yes and he can save no money for when the vehicle breaks down, retirement, sickness let alone get to do anything with his life that might bring any enjoyment.
Then, I will ask you the same question I posed to another poster: Is it your position that one should not have to pay anything out of their pocket for healthcare?
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healthcare vs fire dept
