<p>While that is logical and common wisdom, it is actuarially not true. Preventive care itself costs money, and providing preventive care to hundreds of millions in general exceeds the cost of those who do getting sick when it could have been prevented, including serious ailments. (And note, ‘preventive’ care yields to a lot of false positives, leading to more invasive procedures, such as unnecessary biopsies.) Even the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, who was then appointed the Dems, admitted as such.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t much matter since doctor’s bills are covered anyway and will be into the far distant future.</p>
<p>I don’t see it working for the healthcare providers. Remember Medicaid? And how it seldom gets paid and when it does, it is typically months behind? Medicare who pays what it wants to pay? Tricare that makes up its own rules?</p>
<p>Those are all government health programs and frankly they are a mess. But let’s put all 300+ million people in the US into programs that can’t support the ones they were designed for…</p>
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<p>I’ve heard of places that will do that for the first year, maybe some do it longer. I had a co-worker who had like a $12k medical bill with no health insurance and she was paying as much as possible each month trying to pay that bill off before interest kicked in. </p>
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<p>We offer payment plans for some of our patients for physical therapy. They pay $5/week and then at the end they pay a percentage of the total bill depending on their income level.</p>
<p>That’s absolutely, 100% false - or are you pretending that the payroll tax, gas tax, alcohol/tobacco taxes, etc. aren’t federal taxes? The income tax is not the only federal tax by a longshot.</p>
<p>100% fact that many DR and Dentist negotiate with full pays,but they don’t advertise it…and if you know the reimbusrsement rates,you have a good basis to negotiate from…jym626, if i used the word deductible,it was senior moment ;). Absolutely correct it is a copay</p>
<p>My sad story: husband lost his job, and since he’s clergy there is no unemployment. He’s looking for work, but is 57 years old, has a heart condition, and has major problems with his hands (surgeon who treated him last year just ordered an MRI and all kinds of bloodwork to see what’s causing the new inflamation and weakness). To COBRA his health insurance will cost $4800 per quarter, and WITH insurance we paid out about $9K in health expenses last year. I earn $35K a year, which means that after taxes I don’t have enough to cover insurance and health expenses. Not to mention housing, food, etc.</p>
<p>Husband and daughter have major health issues, so major expenses. I guess we’ll see how long they live without their medications.</p>
<p>Thats awful, kkmama. Your DH should apply for disability which would eventually provide Medicare insurance benefits. In the meantime, would he and yoru dau qualify for medicaid?</p>
<p>BTW, the negotiated rate for services (calling it “negotiated” is a joke because the insurers basically provide a fee schedule with a “take -it or-leave-it” attitude to the providers unless the providers are in a big group with clout) varies from insurer to insurer. So you cant really knwo what the “negotiated” rate is for any particular service, though you can probably make a reasonble guess that Drs are getting 40-60 cents on the dollar.</p>
<p>dstark, more than the FULL cost of the plan, meaning the employee portion and the employer portion? In order for a plan to be a group plan the employer must pay at least 50% of the cost of the premium. If an employee is paying say $600/month for the plan, the employer is paying AT LEAST that much.</p>
<p>alh–it was a regional carrier. PM me for more details if you like.</p>
<p>Preventive care isn’t just about the cost of the check ups. It’s about catching something sooner than later and keeping people working, having the treatments be less costly, and invasive, etc. Catching diabetes early can stop further damage.</p>
<p>Anyway, two years ago when we switched to anthem, it was 450 for dh and me, and about 125 each for daughters, so about 700 per month, with high deductible, no dental or vision, now they want 1250 with less coverage!!! </p>
<p>Thisnisnt about health care, this is about health management by corporations. And this is on top of usnpaying workers comp insurance…</p>
<p>On the other hand, not all additional preventive care conclusively saves lives and money. Consider PSA testing for prostate cancer screening, or mammograms for breast cancer screening in non-elevated-risk women under age 50.</p>
<p>Sounds like stats are more important than people. Ah, let’s defend these health care insurance and managers some more. It’s a racket and anyone who pays for it themselves is well aware. We never hit our deductible. We barely use our insurance and yet our rates climb and climb</p>
<p>We don’t get much orventive care cause frankly we can’t afford it</p>
<p>“We really need to go single payer. It’s the only solution that works for everyone and the economy.”</p>
<p>Hops_Scout: “I don’t see it working for the health care providers.”</p>
<p>We already have one single payer system in the U.s.that works for the patients and providers. It is not perfect, but it is a workable starting point for discussions. Health care for active duty military and their dependants is universal, with a single payer. The active duty physicians, nurses, physical therapists, etc. are salaried “employees”. It does work for the health care providers who choose that route. They earn a bit less than their civilian counterparts, but other benefits make up for most of that gap.</p>
<p>Somehow, single-payer works for patients and health care providers in basically every other democratic Western nation.</p>
<p>Are there problems with single-payer? Sure. Is it perfect? Of course not. But ask any Canadian, Briton, French or Australian whether they’d trade their single-payer health systems for our Frankenstein mishmash…</p>
<p>The German system is also interesting - kind of sounds like the much-maligned Obamacare in a lot of ways.</p>
<p>Right. The biggest flaw I’ve seen with TriCare is the ability to get in quickly and that is somewhat random. I work close to a large military base and the school I work for has a large population of military kids. </p>
<p>I had one instance last year where a kid (with a concussion) could not get into see the doctor on base for 16 days. His mom was originally told that he couldn’t get seen for over 30 days, but was able to get that bumped up. </p>
<p>He could get into see other physicians much quicker, but they would have had to pay out of pocket to do it…</p>
<p>Other instances I’ve had kids able to get in same day for various things.</p>