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Russia has nationalized health care?</p>
<p>Our latest premium increase has resulted in our finally dropping health insurance. Paying over $400 per month for a policy with a $15K per year deductible makes no sense when the payments have to come out of home equity.</p>
<p>"I don’t think we are going to save 31% with single-payor but even a tiny fraction of that in savings would make single-payor a huge improvement.'</p>
<p>If we had “Medicare for everyone”, it would be around 28% (which is also approximately the discount in my plan.) However, once the pent-up demand of the uninsured/intermittently uninsured is dealt with, it could be greater (as emergency room use declines, and there is better management of chronic conditions. My younger d., who has severe asthma, has a nurse on 24-hour call for asthma management. My plan doesn’t do this out of the goodness of their heart. They know that if they prevent even one emergency department visit, they’ve more than made back the cost.)</p>
<p>Consolation, sorry to read that. </p>
<p>At the very least, in this country, we should have a fall back affordable insurance policy for catastrophic health problems.</p>
<p>Maybe the first $15,000 would not be taken care of but all the rest. Something like that.</p>
<p>There is also something wrong with the billing for healthcare. I was hospitalized for 1 night after going through the ER. I am fine, btw. I had some minimal testing that was all negative (ultrasound, and CAT scan). I was out the door in less than 24 hours with pain killers and muscle relaxants for a muscle spasm. My hospital bill came to 15k for this, but because my insurance had prenegotiated rates and I was in network the bill was only 10% of that=1,500 total. Of that amount my insurance company paid a grand total of between $900-1000 so far. I have a $100 dedcutible for a visit to an ER or hospitalization. Now why would an uninsured person be charge 15k, and an insured person is being charged $1500 (of which the insurance company decided to pay only part of to date)? Isn’t this a two tier system, and why is this allowed to go on? I think it is wrong. If services can be provided for $1500, why do they charge uninsured ten times that amount= 15k?</p>
<p>Its actually the opposite…those who have insurance pay for the uninsured.</p>
<p>Isn’t all this cost-shifting just silly?</p>
<p>I had the same experience as northeastmom, a $30,000 bill that was cut to $3,000. Then I said to the hospital, if I pay you today, what kind of discount can I get? Paid $2,400 on a $30,000 bill.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to negotiate your hospital bill.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure my uninsured brother paid more when he had a kidney stone.
He has insurance now.</p>
<p>That is the whole point of being insured is to get the insured rate.</p>
<p>Our insurance has gone up too. Between that and the mortgage increase, we’ve been hit hard this year already.</p>
<p>A big problem is that we collectively don’t want to pay higher taxes, resulting in absurdly low rates. E.g., I just e-filed our taxes last night. Due to completely legal, vanilla deductions (TurboTax said our chances of audit are effectively zero, fully green on the left) our six-figure AGI has a federal tax rate of just 6.06%. I find this disgusting. No wonder the country is bankrupt; we’re just not paying for our services.</p>
<p>my AGI of just under 50K had an effective federal tax rate of 9.19%</p>
<p>Glad to see that people with 2x my income are paying less % than me.</p>
<p>No offense to the vossron, it’s not you, it’s the system that’s broken.</p>
<p>Sue, I agree completely. Totally broken. We are now paying the price of collectively not paying our way all these years.</p>
<p>It depends on one perspective. I never paid that low so I don’t think it’s broken, not for me.</p>
<p>Our medical insurance from my husband’s policy at work just went up $250 per month- without vision or dental, and he works for an insurance company. It is now $750 per month!</p>
<p>i work for an insurance company and deal with things like this all day… it isn’t fun to give people prices and hear their mouths drop… sometimes people have plans like you guys are mentioning where they are paying 1700 and then the price of 700 sounds wonderful to them… but for the most part people don’t realize how much it costs when your employer isn’t subsidizing all or part of it for you… i think my own coverage is like 450 a month or something like that before the company pays… and i’m 26… i pay about 100 a month for my portion and the company pays the rest…</p>
<p>I thought I was getting away…alas, my letter from Anthem Blue Cross-California came today…my premium is going up 27%. What really gets me is I have NEVER filed a claim in the 3 years I’ve been with them. Not one. Still, I’m 50, and just can’t “risk” being without…</p>
<p>i would suggest shopping around… I mean, all companies rates go up… but some companies rate differently then others and underwriting is different from place to place, so you may find a better deal elsewhere…</p>
<p>We are paying an outrageous monthly premium for my H’s retiree health benefit (its more than our mortgage) for 3 people, but to me, its worth it, as it is forever and unless this co stops offering this option (many are but I doubt this fortune 100 will stop) we will have healthcare. he works for a new company but chose not to take their healthcare plan as if we give up the retiree plan we cannot ever get it back, and I dont want to ever end up being unable to get or afford healthcare. I wish we could raise the deductible and get a HSA but thats not an option with this retiree plan. the company supposedly contributes to the cost, but if they do, its a joke (maybe 3%?) after working there for 20 yrs. I guess its better than nothing</p>
<p>I’ve done my shopping and research and the plan I hold is the best one (for me), and costs far less than the others that are being offered. It’s just irksome to me that the premium can be raised so dramatically with no claims filed.</p>