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Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

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Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#21

Post by mossTechnician »

notfried wrote: post #9

The article mentions early a "cancer diagnosis" but puts that aside and moves on, when this is pretty much the crux of the issue. Prostate and Breast cancers are a 1 in 8 chance. The risk of no insurance at 25 is very different than 50, and than 75. And everyone at all ages is paying for those expensive treatments. The system is broken, but going without insurance is you basically toying with the odds of life.

In a perfect world, a healthcare plan should pay for cancer treatments or crucial medical procedures. In the United States, I'm not sure this is a guarantee[0][1]. Going without healthcare seems to be the riskier gamble, but it's a gamble either way.

[0]: https://www.startribune.com/unitedhealthcare-part-of-95m-set...

[1]: https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-i...

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#22

Post by vablings »

righthand wrote: post #11

The truth is that Us health insurance industry has proven it is not about providing healthcare but instead capital extraction. The whole thing is seen as rotten by every participant. What has happened is that it’s now more affordable to get healthcare in foreign countries as an American. I can vacation and get whatever care I need by doctors in countries with healthcare systems. Doctors that are incentivized to provi…

As a transplant to the states its absolutely astonishing to me how quickly doctors have pushed friends and family down the path of crazy expensive boutique treatments for issues that could simply resolved with more care and attention from clinicians.

I'm not saying some these drugs don't work astonishingly well and for some people they are a miracle/lifesaving treatment but still. Drugs that are in excess of a thousand dollars a pill out of pocket blows my mind.

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#23

Post by lostlogin »

amundskm wrote: post #4

I have been struggling to find the breakeven point for me and my family. On one side, it keeps getting more and more expensive even though we are young and healthy. On the other, if one of us needs an expensive operation or months of treatment, no amount of HSA savings will be enough. I don't know if there is a 3rd option that would be more reasonable.

> I don't know if there is a 3rd option that would be more reasonable.

There may be something less extreme, but leaving the US is one way out of that mess.

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#24

Post by rayiner »

My parents use a shocking amount of healthcare services, considering that they are pretty normal 70-somethings. My dad has well managed diabetes and blood pressure, and my mom is pre-diabetic and has a bad knee, but that's about it. Their parents all made it to their 80s without modern medical care in Bangladesh. My kids don't use any healthcare services, but we're always been offered services. My younger one has low muscle tone, and we could get physical therapy for that. We had a (free) county evaluation for his speech delay. The evaluator said something along the lines of "we could give him a diagnosis so he could get services in public school, but since you send him to private school it's not worth it."

I'm not saying this is unnecessary, nor am I qualified to do so. My point is that we seem to be getting a lot more healthcare than was typical when I was a kid. So it's unsurprising premiums have skyrocketed.

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

toast0 wrote: post #15
amundskm wrote: post #4

I have been struggling to find the breakeven point for me and my family. On one side, it keeps getting more and more expensive even though we are young and healthy. On the other, if one of us needs an expensive operation or months of treatment, no amount of HSA savings will be enough. I don't know if there is a 3rd option that would be more reasonable.

Third option is pay what you can reasonably pay and file for bankruptcy. Which sucks, but is an option. Try to get assets into bankruptcy protected holdings when possible (401k, house, etc, depending on state of residence), so you have more flexibility post bankruptcy.

[deleted]

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#26

Post by jakemcgraw »

exabrial wrote: post #2

Repeal Obamacare, go back to HSAs. Nobody should be taxed on health expenses, which was the whole point of HSAs in the first place. We literally had a budding system that was working and affordable, and it was "fixed".

If we repeal ACA, we'll need to force insurers to take on patients with preexisting conditions. We can't ice out 38% of Americans[0] from coverage.

[0]: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#28

Post by JohnFen »

toast0 wrote: post #15
amundskm wrote: post #4

I have been struggling to find the breakeven point for me and my family. On one side, it keeps getting more and more expensive even though we are young and healthy. On the other, if one of us needs an expensive operation or months of treatment, no amount of HSA savings will be enough. I don't know if there is a 3rd option that would be more reasonable.

Third option is pay what you can reasonably pay and file for bankruptcy. Which sucks, but is an option. Try to get assets into bankruptcy protected holdings when possible (401k, house, etc, depending on state of residence), so you have more flexibility post bankruptcy.

There's a reason that medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcies in the US.

Re: Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?

#29

Post by lenerdenator »

You can always make the argument that insurance, no matter what it covers, isn't worth it. You're paying for coverage in the case something goes wrong. If it doesn't go wrong, you don't get your money back. The one exception to this is Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, better known as Social Security. For some reason, we feel the need to mail checks to, statistically speaking, the wealthiest age demographic in the country whether they need it or not.

But is health insurance worth it?

If you're a very lucky and healthy 25-year-old with no dependents and six figures in the bank, maybe not.

Everyone else? I don't know. That would depend on things like your state's bankruptcy laws. What's not to love about the bankruptcy process?

The major problems with health insurance in the US are that 1) there is no basic public option that everyone could use if they absolutely had to, and 2) the largest providers are for-profit, meaning that they have to satisfy the free riders known as shareholders.

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