Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#211

Post by jasonparallel » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:25 AM UTC

intopieces wrote: post #167

djakjxnanjak wrote: post #90

If you are reading this and find yourself in the same situation... consider decreasing your withholding and have the money deducted into a HSA or FSA instead. You can still use the money for health expenses, and you will also get a 20-30% tax discount.

Note that the tax benefits of a Health Savings Account are much better than the Flex Spending Account, if you can get it. [0] https://www.investopedia.com/insurance/hsa-vs-fsa/ HSA contributions are: * Deducted from your paycheck and skip all taxes * Allowed to earn interest, tax-free * Carried from year to year * Tax-free when used on health expenses * Flexible amount FSA contributions are: * Deducted from your payc…

HSA contributions do not have to be deducted from you paycheck and you don't have to use the provider that your employer has selected.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#212

Post by JonGarfield » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:26 AM UTC

usaar333 wrote: post #134

bryan11 wrote: post #102

As employers switch to High Deductible Health Plans where insurance doesn't kick in until one has spent a deductible of several thousand dollars, many people are delaying health care in general. A doctor's visit that once cost a co-pay of $30 is now frequently a cash price from $130 to $400, plus more for lab work. With higher costs and much of them unknown in advance, many skip getting things checked until it seems…

> many skip getting things checked until it seems absolutely necessary True, but isn't that the entire point of hdhps, to minimize unnecessary visits? They still provide no additional cost annual physicals, so you'll get the required yearly screening. Additionally, many offices have no cost phone or email advice. I'm personally quite happy with my family HDHP - and it is nice to have additional retirement savings. Bu…

Just because something is minor does not mean it isn't urgent or best tended to sooner rather than later. Strangely enough, those of us with universal health care don't make it a hobby to go to the doctor's office because it is "free" at point of use. We only go when necessary, we just don't have to weigh the possible trade off of food, shelter or savings in the equation that turns minor, easily treated conditions into major, life threatening ones.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#213

Post by toasterlovin » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:28 AM UTC

harimau777 wrote: post #207

toasterlovin wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throughout most of North American history post-Columbus, sure. The rest of history was what we developed world moderns would call grinding poverty for most people at most times. And the only reason peasants had land (when they did actually own land) is because it was their source of sustenance. It wasn’t the place for idleness that land is for most people in the developed world.

Your average person certainly had less wealth in the past, but it seems to me that they had more independence which is what, at least for me, a home represents. It seems to me that the social contract implicit in the industrial revolution was that average people gave up some independence (e.g. by being managed in factories rather than being artisans or farmers) in exchange for material prosperity. Now that the materi…

Are you familiar with how feudal economies worked? People were restricted in feudal economies in a way that we would find horrifying. Peasants were legally bound to the land they were born on. As in, they were not allowed to leave unless their the lord they were bound to approved.

The industrial revolution was a weird time. Our ability to make stuff vastly outstripped population growth. And there was an entire continent (North America) that excess Europeans and Americans could move to. That process is done. Now we’re back to the perpetual grind.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#214

Post by toasterlovin » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:30 AM UTC

ianai wrote: post #196

toasterlovin wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure the default rate is also pretty ridiculous. That’s what the APR is paying for, after all.

Probably not as much as you think. People often take out further loans to pay their payday loans. It becomes a self fulfilling system.

Can you seriously not see how tremendously high the default rate would be on a loan to someone who can’t wait the few days until their next payday? Or how high it would be if they’re using that loan to pay off another payday loan? If you could provide those loans for cheaper, there would be competitors hoovering up the free money.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#215

Post by asdf333 » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:32 AM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #210

brudgers wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, here we are talking about business instead of health.

Because it's a business problem. The problem isn't that doctors don't know what to prescribe when you have an infection, it's that healthcare is so expensive that people can't afford it.

if a law was passed requiring procedures to advertise the price like restaurants, it would solve most of the pricing issue. insurance systems obscure the price so the system doesn’t work.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#216

Post by asdf333 » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:34 AM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #201

peteradio wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I paid 400 dollars to have a doctor tell me to neti pot my nose after having sinus infection for 3 months. Might not be rational but fuck everything about this system. Who is pocketing all this goddamn money?

I just paid $1436 because we took our 1 year old son in when he had a stomach bug and they decided they needed to keep him for 24 hours for observation after giving him an IV to re-hydrate him. Glad he's okay, but if I knew we would be out $1500, I don't know that we would have taken him in.

this exactly. we need to change the system so prices are up front and something you can look up on the internet just like restaurant menus

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#217

Post by JonGarfield » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:37 AM UTC

rrrrreeeee wrote: post #193

ipad23 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of these articles exaggerate the price of healthcare in the US. I'm an independent contractor and pay for my own health insurance. My wife and I together cost less that 500/month (universal care would take way more in taxes) Checkups are covered, prescriptions are mostly free or very inexpensive, and if I do have an emergency, I don't need to wait 6 months to get treated, like in the UK or Canada. I also get som…

That's some blatant misinformation. In Canada you don't wait for treatment. If you need treatment, you will be treated. Stop spreading some garbage myth.

I don't know where you live in Canada, but that's not entirely true. There are long waits for some procedures (far longer than medically indicated) and a significant number of people cannot access primary care because of the shortage of GPs (especially in rural areas). I would still, 100%, rather live in Canada than the US but your comment (intentionally or not) completely glosses over the waiting lists for some medical specialties.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#218

Post by jimmy1 » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:37 AM UTC

kartan wrote: post #75

jimmy1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an extremely short term solution to make everyone feel happy and warm inside without any long term results. The lack of impulse control won't sudden vanish once the refund arrives, and they will be back in that situation again a few short months after.

> The lack of impulse control won't sudden vanish once the refund arrives I see why you reason like this as the reality seems counter-intuitive. The cause is poverty the effect is harder times taking economic sound decisions. Not the other way around. One of the many articles about the topic: https://newrepublic.com/article/122887/poor-people-dont-have...

Not what I meant to come across as saying. Increased self control can help us all, and it can especially help poor people get out of debt and poverty.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#219

Post by zanny » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:38 AM UTC

darkwizard42 wrote: post #197

garmaine wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why why why do you put up with this in America?? What do you suggest we do? > I honestly don’t understand why not every single American is screaming for access to health services that are literally on their front lawn. You think we aren't? You think it matters?

Look at the last election... results speak for themselves, that is why people are confused why this isn't the single largest issue for American people.

For many Americans, their single largest issue at the moment is whatever their choice of conservative talk radio host told them to hate today.

Re: Americans Are Delaying Health Care Until Tax Refunds Arrive

#220

Post by iygghnkufdv » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 2:42 AM UTC

scarejunba wrote: post #137

iygghnkufdv wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then we will live in our cars, and they're already enforcing that as illegal too :)

It's not "they" or "the rich" that are doing this. It's your fellow man that you probably vote along side. Support for the AMA, support for the insurance corporations, local regressive housing policies. This didn't come from some evil lizard overlord. It came from your friends and neighbours who have arrayed themselves against you. If you don't want to draw battle lines with them, fine, but right now you're fighting…

If you were the one who downvoted me then it's a shame because we agree.

Firstly, I am an anarchist. I don't vote for anyone. Secondly, anyone, be they politician or just voter, who is trying to enact these thoroughly horrific laws and policies is just flat out telling us how to live our lives while processing it.

I have not had a lease in 3 years. I can't afford anything. So that's where I'm coming from.