Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a male breast cancer survivor. I had a mammogram the other week. $620. No, nobody benefits from insurance in America. Well, nobody ill.
You had health insurance but it did not cover that?
Oh, the bill was 12.3k
The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
181–190 of 431 posts
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#182The corruption is so entrenched and so out of control, the only way out of this mess is for regular people to just stop using the health care system. Yes, there's no alternative, and yes, it means living a riskier life. It sucks, and it's not what we want to hear, but they can only charge us if we show up and purchase the product, and that's the last lever of power we can wield.
"Healthcare too expensive? Have you considered dying?" Sorry, what are you going to do when you get into a car accident and they rush you to the hospital? Assuming you're even conscious. "No, I'm voting with my wallet!" flatlines Come on. What if we used our collective power to fix the system? (Up to and including replacing it with something that works for the majority, and not the minority.)
If you were rushed to the hospital you'd be treated: https://www.cms.gov/priorities/your-patient-rights/emergency...
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#183The first sentence is your answer. The third word even. The healthcare market. MARKET Healthcare shouldn't be a market. That's why you're paying $40k.
"Healthcare shouldn't be a market. That's why you're paying $40k."
I see your drill down to fundamental issues and I raise you:
Pregnancy is not a sickness. Hospitals are for sick people.
If we reserved hospital birth for women and children with actual medical problems we would allocate resources much more judiciously.
An added benefit: not exposing otherwise healthy (and capable) women to an almost universally disempowering and disenfranchising birth-industrial-complex that seems designed to engender fear, self-doubt and pathological outcomes.
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
The burden of this isn't a big one to bear. I just compared tax rates for a $65k USD income in Australia vs the US. You'd be taxed ~$800 less in Australia.
There's no way that's true - include the employer side payroll taxes. Whether PPP or nominal my napkin math gives me 40% more tax payable in Australia Edit: I'm too dumb to know whether to include superannuation as a tax or not so I'm not sure if I'm right or not.
Superannuation is not a tax. It’s a compulsory retirement saving/investment scheme.
However to calculate total income taxes you do need to include the 15% tax on superannuation contributions.
If your pre-tax take home salary is $100k AUD, then your total salary package is 111.5k including the 11.5% compulsory employer superannuation contribution.
You’ll pay regular income taxes + 2% Medicare levy on $100k and your $11.5k super contribution will be taxed at 15%.
So your total income tax including the Medicare levy (but assuming you don’t pay the Medicare surcharge or claim any deductions) will be $24,513. Giving an effective tax rate of 20.2%
There are no state or local income taxes in Australia so that’s it for personal income taxes. However states do charge payroll tax on most companies payroll (e.g. 4.85% on annual payroll over $1M in the state of Victoria for companies in the Melbourne metro area).
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#185[dead]
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#186An American PPO with a $10 co-pay is pretty awesome. The only downside is that it's too easy to get a procedure you don't need :) I've tried tellings doctors in Denmark I wanted X, Y, Z test and getting told, nah, the outcome wouldn't change your treatment so we don't want to order those tests. Generally, healthcare is decent, but no doubt a good PPO plan does not compare :) Public health care seems more like HMO, yo…
That second paragraph is what scares me the most about pure public healthcare options. The following isn’t to compare/contrast systems.. it’s just a viewpoint. My cardiologist went “tests look fine, heart looks fine, there’s no reason for you to take colchicine. No clue why you have issues, everything is fine. Just take this brand new beta blocker to manage your heart rate.” Meanwhile, there’s no answer why my heart…
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Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#187Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd wager that most self employed folks in the US almost never benefit from insurance (except for things covered by Obamacare which come nowhere near justifying the premiums). Self-employed here. My wife and I paid $470/month last year, $618/month next year, for a gold insurance plan than has a $3400 deductible with typically a $20 co-pay. It covers 3 prescriptions, therapy sessions for each of us, various older ag…
i'm 36, self-employed. silver plans in my state are ~800/month next year, with 8k deductible, no out of network coverage at all, with no in-network providers out of my state, so god forbid I get injured while traveling to visit my in-laws. the marketplace is a joke and health insurance in this country is pointless.
Too expensive? check
Deductibles too high? check
Stupid coverage limitations? check
Pointless? nope
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#189[deleted]
Re: The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hmm, counting the insurance premiums 100% towards the birth of the child is a bit misleading. I see your point, but do you not think that if you're a family of 4, having to pay $40K before insurance kicks in is ridiculously expensive, and out of reach for most Americans? I'd wager that most self employed folks in the US almost never benefit from insurance (except for things covered by Obamacare which come nowhere n…
> I'd wager that most self employed folks in the US almost never benefit from insurance (except for things covered by Obamacare which come nowhere near justifying the premiums). Self-employed here. My wife and I paid $470/month last year, $618/month next year, for a gold insurance plan than has a $3400 deductible with typically a $20 co-pay. It covers 3 prescriptions, therapy sessions for each of us, various older ag…
> My wife and I paid $470/month last year, $618/month next year, for a gold insurance plan than has a $3400 deductible
That's really nice - are there state/government subsidies involved?
I work for a top tier company and my premiums are not that much lower than yours.
When I checked the public market's insurance options, getting a $3000 or so deductible was a lot more expensive than yours if one is not low income (i.e. not subsidized).