<p>I’m amazed that people don’t know that their employer sponsored health care plans are subsidized by the rest of us. This was something that was not properly explained during all the health care “I’ve got mine, you get yours” hoopla. They didn’t understand that they had theirs and mine!</p>
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<p>This was us, eight years ago, family of four. My husband is self-employed, for twenty-five years in the construction industry. I left a better paying job to get one with low pay, but great benefits including health insurance, decent dental and a little vision coverage. I am SO grateful to have this job and hope I can continue to dodge the cuts that plague the setting in which I work. I have no control over any of it. </p>
<p>Returning to our former type of insurance would be a devastating blow.</p>
<p>Dad II, I’m a federal employee. I don’t get any benefits at all. Hope that makes you happy.</p>
<p>Dstark, I agree that our healthcare-provision system is completely screwed up and that we are spending far more aas a nation than we should, but turning on one’s fellow-citizens is not the answer. IMHO, anxiousmom has the answer in #38.</p>
<p>My self-employed H and I paid over $400 per month for a policy with a $15,000 deductible per person for over a decade. No dental, no vision, no drugs, no nothing. We paid something like $40K for health insurance, but could not afford any health care. If I had had the $$ we wasted filling Anthem’s coffers, I could actually have sought medical care when I needed it. If anyone was doing the subsidizing, it was people like us. We finally had to drop even this coverage when Anthem raised the premiums another 18%. Then we were uninsured for 2 years. </p>
<p>Now we have insurance through H’s employer. We pay less than we did, and actually get healthcare when we need it. ANYONE who has coverage through an employer should realize exactly how lucky they are. </p>
<p>I wish that Obama had had the guts to go for single-payer universal coverage.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I completely agree!!!</p>
<p>"I think the only way to end this is too eliminate all taxpayer subsidies in
health care…</p>
<p>-Don’t you think that it is too late to discuss it? It needed to be broght up in 2008 before elections…as it was going the opposite way…and it went on pen stroke of our favorite person…</p>
<p>Until our Politicians stop favoring large businesses, small business suffers. Money speaks.
You don’t have money. USA is at a competitive disadvantage because we have too many choices and at the same time no choices. </p>
<p>DS works for an outfit that had $100 deductible (per year). Company was bought and now has a deductible of $250. Insurance premiums to the company must be huge-owners is a big consultancy/accounting firm has a significant med insurance consultancy (so they say). </p>
<p>I had encouraged DS to ask them to put him on contract and he would buy his own insurance, Just give him the money.</p>
<p>OP, kinda makes single payer look better, eh?</p>
<p>someday . . .</p>
<p>Consolation,</p>
<p>I think the only way we are going to get to single payer is if people realize that many are subsidized…and what the true cost of health care is.</p>
<p>There are plenty of people that walk around with subsidized health care and think…health care is cheap…there are no issues in health care.</p>
<p>But the people that really pay know.</p>
<p>Kaizer P, wants to give Mom 95yo a bone density test.
I said to them, What for and what is it going to tell them and how is it gonna to help Mom? Betcha they need to maximize equipment and personnel utilization and to collect medicare reimbursement.</p>
<p>Re: [How</a> Much Should We Spend On Health Care? The Big Picture - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynmcclanahan/2011/11/28/how-much-should-we-spend-on-health-care-the-big-picture/]How”>How Much Should We Spend On Health Care? The Big Picture)</p>
<p>Even better is this quote:</p>
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</p>
<p>In other words, the US government is spending more on medical care per person than other rich countries’ governments do for their socialized medical insurance programs. Except that US government spending on medical care covers about a quarter of the US population, instead of all of the population.</p>
<p>Of course, private spending on medical care is much higher in the US than it is in other countries, which is a substantial added cost of doing business when a multinational company is deciding whether to hire in the US or some other country.</p>
<p>Is anyone a union member, and how are their health benefits?</p>
<p>I suspect that if you looked into it, you’d find that companies pay very high medical premiums for employees, and the $300 or $400 a month that is then paid by the employee is only a small part. H’s company issues a benefits statement – our family’s high deductible health plan ($4K deductible) costs more than $12K/year, though we are not charged an employee premium. Our school district’s PPO plan for employee + 1 dependent (spouse or child) runs more than $14K a year. How much of those costs get passed back to employees in the way of premiums varies a lot. The Kaiser HMO total premium for employee + 1 dependent is about $11K/year for our school district. And the cost of the employer-paid premiums absolutely affects what we’re able to do in the way of increasing employee compensation.</p>
<p>qdogpa – Don’t want to verge into the political minefield, but one of the issues with our teachers’ union contract was that it required that we charge the same employee premium per month no matter which insurance plan the employee chose, and thus we were not able to offer any financial incentive for an employee who chose the lower cost Kaiser plan. We also were prohibited from paying any incentive to an employee who was eligible but who did not accept coverage because they had coverage through Tricare, a spouse, or some other source. I found that pretty aggravating.</p>
<p>Yes…companies pay a lot of health care costs.</p>
<p>If we had universal health care…companies wouldn’t have to…</p>
<p>Which brings to mind a couple of questions…</p>
<p>Why aren’t they supporting universal health care?</p>
<p>Health care costs keep many people trapped in jobs. Health care costs also hinder people who want to work for themselves. Is that why businesses don’t support universal health care?</p>
<p>Qdogpa…does your wife work for the government or is she in a union?</p>
<h1>54 okay, dstark, what happens when we follow the money?</h1>
<p>ps this may be your best thread ever :)</p>
<p>Neither…</p>
<p>Right…yet you are still subsidized…and that is a fact…you don’t have to believe it…people don’t believe facts all the time…;)</p>
<p>You don’t have to work for a union or the government to receive subsidies…unions in the private sector represent about 7% of the work force, right?</p>
<p>I have this thought that there are plenty of employees in the private sector that don’t work for unions that are getting subsidized health care.</p>
<p>Alh…thanks…I need you to be more specific with your question…or was it rhetorical? :)</p>
<p>I view it as rather lucrative benefit. ;)</p>
<p>Lol…</p>
<p>It is… :)</p>