<p>After Blue Cross raised my deductible and co-pays a couple of months ago…saying this would decrease the need to raise premiums much…</p>
<p>I got the wonderful letter that said Blue Cross is going to raise my premiums as much as 26%.</p>
<p>I can’t really say what I would like to say here… ;)…</p>
<p>So I will just say…that health care costs although increasing…are increasing at a slower rate now than they have in decades…</p>
<p>I think the only way to end this is too eliminate all taxpayer subsidies in
health care…</p>
<p>We should end all employee benefit health care subsidies…Which do cost 100 billon a year…</p>
<p>And end medicare …</p>
<p>Ok …I would keep medicaid…sorry…I am willing to help the disabled and those that can’t help themselves…</p>
<p>Everybody else…sorry…time to pay up…</p>
<p>Time for you subsidized people…to pay what I pay…something closer to the real cost of health care plus a little more so insurance companies can thrive.</p>
<p>I figure 70 year old married couples will have premiums of 75,000 a year…maybe 100,000…</p>
<p>And families…enjoy your $20,000 insurance premiums and high deductible, but not catastrophic plans…</p>
<p>and to add to the inequities…self-employed people pay social security and medicare on their health insurance premiums…people with W2 wages do not. Self-employed people have long been treated harshly by the Internal Revenue Code regarding health insurance.</p>
<p>Dstark, your post made me go look at our costs per month…
300 healthcare
35 dental
10 vision
So 345 per month for a family of 5, not knowing what anyone else spends, is this good, bad,ok? </p>
<p>Deductibles are 10 in network 20 out of network…10 generic drugs,20-30 brand names depending on costs</p>
<p>Also costs are paid with pre-tax dollars, and we have a flexible spending account to pay misc costs with pretax dollars</p>
<p>qdogpa - your costs are about half of ours. We are on H’s plan with a Fortune 100 company and it is the second cheapest (“riskiest” to us) of 4 options. My work plan would have been more expensive.</p>
<p>This healthcare piece is what is going to keep one of working until we die! And we are huge savers, but it’s the fear of this rising and unpredictable cost that is the issue. </p>
<p>Something has got to change. The insured are covering the costs of the uninsured and the elderly (because Medicare reimbursements are low to care providers). Big, giant, political mess! </p>
<p>Having been self-employed for 10 years, I echo sryrstress!</p>
<p>After much comparison shopping and a lot of spread sheets, I purchased an individual Blue Cross policy about 18 months ago - with a $5,000 deductible, only annual office visits and basic preventative care covered - no follow-up or sick visits, no drug coverage until deductible is met. It has increased 15% in the 18 months and every single time I have a cost which should be covered under the policy, I receive a bill, which I then have to go the BC office, to get canceled (it always turns out to be a coding mistake) because it is impossible to reach them on the phone.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wonder if they are trying to give me a stroke? :)</p>
<p>I also find myself wondering about the coding skills of the office staff when I am picking a doctor. :(</p>
<p>Alh…I talk to people who think everything is ok with healthcare…</p>
<p>And one…they don’t realize how much they are subsidized…</p>
<p>Two…they have no idea how much others pay…yet they have their opinions on health care…;)</p>
<p>3… They don’t realize how trapped they are if they have employee health care and they get sick…</p>
<p>A friend of mine gets health care through a major corporation. His wife had cancer and her bill was astronomical…I can’t even say…but she is cancer free so far. Her health care was subsidized…</p>
<p>My friend doesn’t realize that he can never quit his job or get laid off because his wife is not insurable…</p>
<p>Yet…he thinks health care is fine in this country…</p>
<p>Do you think if we had a single payer system maybe everyone could pay 345/month for a family of five and get all those co-pays qdogpa gets? I would even be willing to happily pay it for a family of two :)</p>
<p>“According to the OECD, we spend $7,960 per person per year for health care in the U.S., totaling about $2.5 trillion. In comparison, the average OECD country spends $3,233 per person annually for health care.”</p>
<p>It is true that the elderly are a large share of the costs…so you can argue that a younger family’s true share of the costs are much less than average…</p>
<p>But…</p>
<p>I am a family of 4 and I am going to be paying 20,000 a year…just in
premiums…for a high deductilble plan…if Blue Cross passes on the 26% increase…</p>
<p>Running to a meeting, but the problem that I see is that the insurance companies are the ones who carry a lot of the blame here for skyrocketing insurance costs.</p>
<p>We have been very lucky. Pay around $1k per month for 2 of us (late 50s). There is a $2500 deductible for hospital visits. Regular care has been great; $15 copay primary, $30 copay specialist, have annual physical with complete blood workup, doctor is fantastic, actually takes time to listen to me and talk to me. I have had fancy mohs surgery (twice) on basal cell carcinoma, colonoscopy (when done in a facility that qualifies as an in-office visit it falls under $30 copay). Have been to the urologist a few times. All these doctors have been fantastic. Overall we have been thrilled and my only fear is that premiums will double or triple or benefits will be reduced or somehow it will go away… before we hit 65 or 66 or whenever it is we become eligible for medicare… if it still exists then. :(</p>
<p>dstark: just to be clear, your family will pay $20,000 in premiums, but on top of that you will be paying out of pocket for various medical expenses? How much out of pocket is it possible for your family to pay before the deductible kicks in? How much do you have to be prepared to pay for health care annually?</p>
<p>If that isn’t too intrusive a question?</p>
<p>Because it seems interesting to me to compare to what qdogpa’s family might have to pay out of pocket in any given year. What they need to be prepared to pay.</p>
<p>qdogpa: not picking on you! Many are in the same position as you.</p>
<p>OK, here’s a comparison - family plan, HMO with $30 copay, 50% Rx coverage = $1787/mo up from $1638 which was the rate until today. These are published self-employed rates for people who are sole proprietors on AmeriHealth - you need referrals, you have a primary care dr. picked from the list - luckily my drs. still take this plan. So, we just decided to roll the dice and not have Rx coverage so rate goes down to $1205/mo.</p>
<p>Self-employed sole proprietors cannot get even small-business rates unless they employ 2 people and alot of people fudge that the wife is a different policy holder, that she is the bookkeeper, just for the healthcare policy benefits.</p>
<p>Same thing about claims, always seems to be a problem and alot of time talking on the phone to lovely people who don’t know why it took over a yr to settle the various bills (I believe there were about 6 players - the hospital, the anaesthesia group, the surgeon, the xray dept, the pathology and the primary care) for a 20-hr hospital visit for an appendectomy. It is ridiculous. Halfway through all the wrangling, my ds turned 18 and then noone would talk to me until I faxed them Hipaa even though the billing disputes took place when he was 16…</p>
<p>And you don’t know you are subsidized? Seriously, put your data into ehealthinsurance dot com and you will get the actual quotes that people who don’t have company plans have to pay.</p>
<p>^^here is the thing. I am beginning to suspect that when a policy holder hits the high deductible, suddenly a lot of things no longer count into the deductible. Or else they do count but are coding errors. </p>
<p>15,000 + your premiums - right? and all you paid out of pocket because of the high deductible?</p>