As the wife of a physician, I can say that he has no knowledge of the cost of anything. It all runs through the billing agency and is controlled by hospitals and insurance companies. He works from 5 am to midnight almost everyday and would not have time to deal with the billing side. Doctors are buried under paper/computer work required by the government and insurance companies. The requirements are constantly changing and too much time is spent trying to jump through the hoops in order to be compliant. He would be thrilled if the system went back to the days of paying out of pocket when you see the doctor and taking the insurance company out of the mix (aside from catastrophic events).
@mompop Exactly the reason, I’m trying to talk my kid out of becoming a surgeon. Too much work and too little $$. If your husband was being paid overtime, it would be a crazy amount.
People think doctors are the beneficiaries, they are not. It’s a convoluted system with lots of excess. Going back to pay as you go and having insurance for catastrophic occurrences is the best bet. Don’t think we’ll ever have that option again.
Speaking of shopping around… Mr. got a prescription and tried to fill it at his regular pharmacy. Nope. Not covered. $230. Insurance requires a lengthy approval process… Mr. went to Costco and inquiried how much - without insurance. $24!!! Same generic crap. What a racket. And I recalled that when our niece was taking a college class here and had a health emergency, her prescription was quoted at $600 at a RiteAid. Same stuff at Costco - $140 or so. Her school insurance would have eventually reimbursed some of the cost, but she just did not want to pay that much out of pocket upfront!
@BunsenBurner, wow! I will have to keep that mind.
That alone pretty much paid for our Costco membership. Makes you wonder who makes the extra $$$ here… let me guess - highly likely, it is not the drug maker.
FYI, some states have laws that require Costco to fill prescriptions even to those who are not members of Costco. Maryland is one of those states. I don’t have a Costco near enough to me to make it worthwhile to join (bummer!). However, years ago when a now deceased cat of mine was prescribed medication also given to humans (obviously my cat is not covered by my health insurance), the vet mentioned I could fill it at Costco for much cheaper than a regular pharmacy. I took it to the nearest Costco, had it quickly filled and then after that, used their online service to get refills.
I don’t know which states also require Costco to fill nonmember prescriptions; I couldn’t find a list. I live in MD which is how I know MD is one of them.
One can always call the nearest Costco and ask if they fill non-members’ prescriptions.
I too used to buy insulin and syringes for my cat at my Costco pharmacy. Was so much cheaper than at the other places.
It does seem as is shopping around is something we should all get used to, but yes…it’s hard and would take a lot of time if you have to have something with multiple components/providers such as a surgery.
For now, I shop around on CTs and X rays. I get CTs every 5 years and go to an independent place where I pay $220 cash. If I went to a hospital and had it run through my insurance, I would pay the entire cost of $3000 because my DH is self employed and we are on a high deductible plan (that we also pay dearly for each month). Having kids, I’ve also determined where the cheapest x ray places are in town, and they vary widely. This is through my insurance but I pay 100% of lab/test costs until we hit that high deductible, which we never do, so it makes sense to shop around.
Another lesson learned…make sure that all of the adults in your family know how to look up what providers are in your network. I was disabled with a severe migraine on vacation once, DH asked for the best/nearest hospital and took me to it, it was out of network and the cost for the pain med injection, about 30 minutes of active care (after hours of waiting) was $2000 higher than at home in network.
There are companies that will fight high bills for you for a percentage of whatever they reduce it by, I tried this with that migraine (I was billed at a much higher trauma level than I am at home, same diagnosis, same treatment) but after gathering all the info they didn’t take my case. Just posting it though, in case anyone else wants to try.
There are also websites where you can compare prescription costs.
Yep…and what DO you do when the health insurance company doesn’t approve your doctor recommended surgery because someone at the insurance company who has never seen you decides it’s not needed?
Can you tell, I hate the state of health insurance at this point.
GM. From the last round of contract negotiations
“UAW President Dennis Williams … has said the union’s active workers pay out of pocket for about 6% of the health care they use. The average American pays about 15.2%, according to data compiled by the Health Care Cost Institute.”
You’ll find a long list of employers that pay the bulk of health care premiums by looking at any roster of large and mid-sized companies.
When I left my teaching job, we were paying 20% of our premiums. Now the staff is paying 35% of their premiums. There have been years when the take home pay went down because salaries didn’t keep pace with the increased costs of insurance, taxes, or whatever.
“You’ll find a long list of employers that pay the bulk of health care premiums by looking at any roster of large and mid-sized companies.”
Do large and midsize companies constitute the majority of the US employers? Nope.
https://sbecouncil.org/about-us/facts-and-data/
I am leaving the governments (federal and state) out.
Whatever portion an employer pays, it ultimately comes out employees’ paychecks. The only difference is when an employer picks up bulk of the premiums, it’s more equitable for lowly compensated employees. On the other hand, highly compensated executives in larger companies likely have their own separate policies.
https://www.bls.gov/web/cewbd/table_f.txt indicates that employers with over 1,000 employees employed 40.39% of private sector employees in 2018, and those with 500-999 employees employed an additional 6.95%. The general trend is that employers over 1,000 employees have been increasing the share of private sector employees (was 35.69% in 1993 and 37.50% in 2005).
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/cspan/households_and_businesses/20120720_cspan_hh_bus_slides_13.pdf suggests that there is about 1 government (national, state, local) employee for every private sector employee. That does not include those in active duty military service.
Since there was a discussion on medications. When your insurance doesn’t cover use https://m.goodrx.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8svsBRDqARIsAHKVyqHr_hbAFrJuYgHBQAGIEARKS5Esi7u-ohuKXRqAS0e7tyPaOOZHCcoaAomAEALw_wcB
It will show you where to go for the cheapest refill. It’s not always Costco. But drug prices like change daily a bit so do it on your way to the pharmacy.
Most pharmacists will match the Good RX price just bu asking. They can look it up also
UCB - not the number of employees, the number of employers. Apples and oranges. Plus, there is nothing in those links that says how many of those employed by large businesses actually get family coverage subsidized by the employer.
But back to the most important topic - shopping for coverage. Need an ultrasound. The clinic called and asked where I wanted to get it done. Definitely NOT at the hospital which was offered as one of their choices. 
The double whammy is HIGH premiums AND HIGH deductibles.
I remember rolling my eyes as a young employee at major corporation (with spectacular coverage in the good old days) when others complained that “boo hoo… we have to pay for our own eyeglasses”.
The eyeglasses market seems to have split into a very expensive segment (where EssilorLuxottica has a near-monopoly on branded frames and lenses sold at opticians) and a low cost web/mail order segment where the desired (off brand) frames and lenses are made in and shipped from (usually) China (but many EssilorLuxottica frames are made in China also).
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/10/the-invisible-power-of-big-glasses-eyewear-industry-essilor-luxottica
https://theweek.com/articles/784436/secretive-megacompanies-behind-glasses
Stop whining. I have two kids who pay 100% of their health insurance premiums for high deductible policies with less than stellar coverage. I think either of them would gladly pay a %age for group coverage. Neither is working where that is offered.
For eye glasses either Costco (where I got my Armani frames for less then nice frames) and /https://www.warbyparker.com/?bidkw=warby%20parker&dvc=m&network=g&mobile=1&searchntwk=1&content=&creative=334875486617&adposition=1t1&placement=&target=&keyword=warby%20parker&matchtype=e&mkwid=s&pmt=e&pdv=m&product_category=&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=warby%20parker&utm_campaign=newengen_-Brand_l_ME1_69d3&cvo_campaign=newengen-_Brand_l_ME1_69d3&cvo_adgroup=56719857530&utm_term=56719857530-kwd-21647972016&utm_content=334875486617&singular=124__g__1617319909__56719857530__334875486617&gclid=CjwKCAjwldHsBRAoEiwAd0Jybcp_fJs6vUC3B4ymgFCul5FEDgeicluMtZbuJWv0K4W8idX4TUyepBoCNhYQAvD_BwE
Yikes, sorry about that link. Problem is I can’t find anything at Warby Parker and they have “live” stores where I live but nice frames and over all decent pricing. I just might not be cool enough for them ?