Money Won’t Buy You Health Insurance

Post by lolno » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 5:12 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #256

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Recap of my wish list: mandatory guaranteed-issue private high-deductable health insurance" Guaranteed-issue meaning "you have to get it, but we [the insurer] can charge whatever the hell we want. So, you, small biz of 10 employees with one person who had cancer, you premium is now more money than the GDP of Haiti, per month. Thanks and come again!" That kind of practice can be fixed by either 1) price-fixing or 2)…

When one person in a typical mid-large group insurance plan (of the sort available to contractor "guilds" today) gets cancer, premiums for the group do not shoot up. It's hard for me to take you seriously. You sound like a DailyKos diarist. I disagreed with you that what we need is the Department of Health and Human Services to set prices for health care by fiat. So, first, you attempt to paint me as against all refo…

Post by lolno » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 5:14 AM UTC

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #273

tptacek wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When one person in a typical mid-large group insurance plan (of the sort available to contractor "guilds" today) gets cancer, premiums for the group do not shoot up. It's hard for me to take you seriously. You sound like a DailyKos diarist. I disagreed with you that what we need is the Department of Health and Human Services to set prices for health care by fiat. So, first, you attempt to paint me as against all refo…

"When one person in a typical mid-large group insurance plan (of the sort available to contractor "guilds" today) gets cancer, premiums for the group do not shoot up." I didn't say they did. I said 10-person startup. And, regardless of the existence of an "exchange" or not, policies of that size will still be meted out case-by-case, and those little start-ups will get squeezed, especially if they have someone on boar…

Post by rikthevik » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 5:21 AM UTC

krschultz wrote: post #180

georgieporgie wrote: post #84

I'm 35, single, and paying something like $120 per month for Blue Cross coverage that I found on ehealthinsurance. I've used them each time I've not been actively employed, and I've always found an acceptable deal. Mind you, I took the high deductible route since I'm only concerned with catastrophic illness at right now. Also, the moment anything serious comes up, they can cleverly drop me, since they have ludicrous…

Have you actually tried getting a big claim paid by them. My GF is currently embroiled in a dispute with United Healthcare over a temporary insurance plan she bought to cover the gap between graduating college and when her full time position started covering her (wouldn't it have been great if the new healthcare law was in effect at the time and she could have stayed on her parents insurance). Anyway, she had a hospi…

Post by uygtfrgtyjuhk » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 5:25 AM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #175

Groxx wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to me, an affordable health insurance plan would be between $50-$100 a month. Fat chance of that happening. And if it did, the deductible would be so high as to make the plan worthless for anything short of a car-crash-emergency-type-situation. This fits a fair number of cost complaints I hear over healthcare. Who wouldn't like to pay $50-100/month to have something better than emergency healthcare support? But thi…

> "($324.58 per month). Far in excess of $50-$100." Invisible cost: Medicare/medicaid. You pay into it regardless of whether or not you use it - how much medicare/medicaid withholdings are in your paycheck? Add that onto your actual private monthly premiums to get the real cost of health care. I don't know about you, but mine works out to be considerably more expensive than $325 a month. And in the Canadian case I ca…

Post by nerfhammer » Tue, Feb 22, 2011, 5:28 AM UTC

andrewflnr wrote: post #153

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan forces their doctors to charge only what's published in a book that the government issues and negotiates prices periodically. Simple price fixing in an otherwise private healthcare market. In return, Japanese doctors and hospitals (FYI, there are more private hospitals in Japan than the US) are allowed to set whatever prices for ancillary services (like private or semi-private rooms) that they want. BTW, the av…

Japan's hospitals are going into debt because they can't charge what things cost. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/c...