Americans Are Going Bankrupt from Getting Sick • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans Are Going Bankrupt from Getting Sick

#131

Post by speedplane » Wed, Mar 20, 2019, 5:12 AM UTC

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #130

speedplane wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over 71% of people are happy with their employer coverage That statistic is not terribly revealing, as I suspect that the vast majority of those 71% are relatively healthy/young people. I'd like to know the percentage of people who have had significant health events in the past 12 months that are happy with their coverage.

It usually takes a few months for employer coverage to kick in. And most people stay at their jobs for well over a couple of years. I'm sure most of those people have had to use their insurance in their period of time of working at their job. I find it harder to believe the opposite.

> I'm sure most of those people have had to use their insurance in their period of time of working at their job. I find it harder to believe the opposite.

Using your insurance for regular doctor appointments or the occasional flu or bronchitis is quite different from realizing you have a serious chronic condition, or require a major surgery. You don't buy insurance for regular needs, you buy it for the unforeseen serious ones. These are rare, but it's here where the quality of insurance really matters.

Judging the quality of insurance from the standpoint of the "average person" is not the correct perspective. You need to judge it by the person who needs to file serious claims. From this perspective, 70% of "average people" being happy with their insurance seems remarkably low.

Re: Americans Are Going Bankrupt from Getting Sick

#132

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x » Fri, Mar 22, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

speedplane wrote: post #131

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It usually takes a few months for employer coverage to kick in. And most people stay at their jobs for well over a couple of years. I'm sure most of those people have had to use their insurance in their period of time of working at their job. I find it harder to believe the opposite.

> I'm sure most of those people have had to use their insurance in their period of time of working at their job. I find it harder to believe the opposite. Using your insurance for regular doctor appointments or the occasional flu or bronchitis is quite different from realizing you have a serious chronic condition, or require a major surgery. You don't buy insurance for regular needs, you buy it for the unforeseen ser…

Funny you talk about quality insurance, but its employer provided insurance that's higher quality than the government or self paid ones. Because the employer gets a very good bulk deal and pays a high premium, much more than the average person can self-pay. That is why satisfaction is so high for employer provided insurance.

Re: Americans Are Going Bankrupt from Getting Sick

#133

Post by speedplane » Thu, Mar 28, 2019, 7:26 AM UTC

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #132

speedplane wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure most of those people have had to use their insurance in their period of time of working at their job. I find it harder to believe the opposite. Using your insurance for regular doctor appointments or the occasional flu or bronchitis is quite different from realizing you have a serious chronic condition, or require a major surgery. You don't buy insurance for regular needs, you buy it for the unforeseen ser…

Funny you talk about quality insurance, but its employer provided insurance that's higher quality than the government or self paid ones. Because the employer gets a very good bulk deal and pays a high premium, much more than the average person can self-pay. That is why satisfaction is so high for employer provided insurance.

> Funny you talk about quality insurance, but its employer provided insurance that's higher quality than the government or self paid ones.

Government insurance, at least for federal employees, is actually very good, and for the same reasons you stated. There are few with as much bargaining power as governments.

But I don't quite get your point. You said that 70% of people are happy with their insurance. And my point was that doesn't seem very high at all as most people aren't that sick. You can't use a majority's viewpoint to judge the quality of a service that they don't use.