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Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

latimes.com

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Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#21

Post by koolba »

mooreds wrote: post #3
arcanus wrote: post #2

Anger is insufficient. Without consumer choice, there is no mechanism for individuals to impose pressure on Healthcare providers and insurers. They can continue to 'milk the cow'.

Just give consumers access to a price list before service is provided. That will go a long way towards helping the problem. (Not that you are going to price shop for every service--a trip to the emergency room for a broken bone wonte get shopped--but some portion of health Care is discretionary or is deliberate enough it can be shopped.)

That’s not enough. What the people should do is demand that corporate health insurance be banned and demand uniform/transparent pricing. (Removing the corporate tax deduction and adding a personal one would have the same effect)

That’d lower the cost of the average policy as their would be an influx of (on average) healthier people to the market for insurance.

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#22

Post by geggam »

I have started going to Mexico for many things. I get better care from a Dr 3 hrs away than I do my primary care doctor and the after surgery care is so good I can call the Dr 3 years after and still get free advice about things.

I cant even get my prescription renewed in the US without a 300 dollar checkup

Screw the US insurance companies and the mess they made of our healthcare

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#23

Post by MichaelApproved »

PaulHoule wrote: post #16
MichaelApproved wrote: post #6

I have $6,500 deductable. It's insane how much work I need to do to get healthcare. The biggest issue is price transparency. To get a price, I need the tax-id of the medical office and the procedure code. Often times the procedure code is unknown because I might have any number of different procedures, depending on what the diagnosis is. So, I take my list of codes to the health insurance company with the tax ID and…

Medical offices will bill anybody who might pay like the insurance you had 3 years ago...

But I already paid them the agreed price.

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#24

Post by larrik »

pmorici wrote: post #11

All I know is that in 2013 I was able to get insurance in the private market to cover myself. It was ~$80 a month and the deductible was $2000. Now, there is only one company left in my state that will even offer plans in the private market. The closest plan to what I used to have has gone up ~6x in price and the deductible has tripled. The prices started going up immediately after the ACA came into being I think the…

The prices started going up as soon as ACA was being voted on, "just in case".

Edit: It seems my comment is being interpeted as for or against ACA, when the point was really that insurance companies will raise prices over every potential regulation change.

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#26

Post by LAguy »

pmorici wrote: post #11

All I know is that in 2013 I was able to get insurance in the private market to cover myself. It was ~$80 a month and the deductible was $2000. Now, there is only one company left in my state that will even offer plans in the private market. The closest plan to what I used to have has gone up ~6x in price and the deductible has tripled. The prices started going up immediately after the ACA came into being I think the…

Prior to ACA, your pricing reflected the fact that the insurance co. could refuse to cover people with pre-existing conditions (ie sick people).

ACA forced them to cover everyone, which raised costs and, therefore, prices for everyone.

It's true you're now subsidizing sick people, but you'll be happy to have the ACA if you're ever sick (or have a dick family member).

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#27

Post by MichaelApproved »

pmorici wrote: post #11

All I know is that in 2013 I was able to get insurance in the private market to cover myself. It was ~$80 a month and the deductible was $2000. Now, there is only one company left in my state that will even offer plans in the private market. The closest plan to what I used to have has gone up ~6x in price and the deductible has tripled. The prices started going up immediately after the ACA came into being I think the…

Your $80 insurance was trash. You think you had coverage but the moment anything serious happened to you, you'd get thrown off.

Cancer? Bye.

Heart problems? See you later.

They were a fraud and you were getting ripped off.

ADA put an end to that fraud. Insurance companies could no longer arbitrarily throw you off. That's why premiums went up from $80. They had to actually provide coverage.

Now you know two things.

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#28

Post by linuxftw »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #6

I have $6,500 deductable. It's insane how much work I need to do to get healthcare. The biggest issue is price transparency. To get a price, I need the tax-id of the medical office and the procedure code. Often times the procedure code is unknown because I might have any number of different procedures, depending on what the diagnosis is. So, I take my list of codes to the health insurance company with the tax ID and…

Literally half the country tried to warn against this exact same thing happening before the ACA passed.

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#29

Post by linuxftw »

p_roz wrote: post #15

Health insurance should be decoupled from employment. Its tax advantaged treatment causes distortions in the costs and coverage offered. I’d rather see people get more of their compensation in cash rather than a health insurance benefit. It would especially help poorer workers who would have more flexibility and choice.

100% agree here. It was originally offered as a work around to wage controls.

Re: Rising health insurance deductibles fuel middle-class anger and resentment

#30

Post by MichaelApproved »

LAguy wrote: post #26
pmorici wrote: post #11

All I know is that in 2013 I was able to get insurance in the private market to cover myself. It was ~$80 a month and the deductible was $2000. Now, there is only one company left in my state that will even offer plans in the private market. The closest plan to what I used to have has gone up ~6x in price and the deductible has tripled. The prices started going up immediately after the ACA came into being I think the…

Prior to ACA, your pricing reflected the fact that the insurance co. could refuse to cover people with pre-existing conditions (ie sick people). ACA forced them to cover everyone, which raised costs and, therefore, prices for everyone. It's true you're now subsidizing sick people, but you'll be happy to have the ACA if you're ever sick (or have a dick family member).

It's not just subsidizing sick people with pre-existing conditions, it's that they couldn't throw you off once you got sick.

They would take your money while you were healthy but if you got sick, they'd throw you off.

That's not insurance. That's fraud.

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