Health Insurance is EXPENSIVE!!

[kimblebee]

Health insurance is very expensive, no doubt about it. However, the health care field in many instances does take a hit. If someone is uninsured and shows up at a hospital needing true emergency care, they must be treated. Same with the under insured. When they cannot pay their bills, the hospital and service providers have to eat that cost. That is a big reason why costs are inflated. In some cases, especially in inner cities, they collect far less than what they bill. The issue is much more complicated that just lowering the cost of delivery.

Sorry if this is a dumb question..

What stops everybody from just not getting insurance and just going to a hospital every time they have a cold or small injury? Would it get to the point where hospitals would stop treating people with no insurance?

I know that hospitals wouldn’t be able to handle the load, but what stops everyone from doing that?

 

[tvguy]

Where is the AFFORDABLE in the affordable health care act..

Yes, the name has always been misleading.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Sorry if this is a dumb question..

What stops everybody from just not getting insurance and just going to a hospital every time they have a cold or small injury? Would it get to the point where hospitals would stop treating people with no insurance?

I know that hospitals wouldn’t be able to handle the load, but what stops everyone from doing that?

People do this often. That’s why there are such high copays for ER visits. I work at a hospital in a city. People come into the ER for EVERYTHING.

I have family that does this and most are Medicaid. No copay. I tell them to call their pcp for a stomach bug. But nope. They go to the ER.

 

[dish rag]

Sorry if this is a dumb question..

What stops everybody from just not getting insurance and just going to a hospital every time they have a cold or small injury? Would it get to the point where hospitals would stop treating people with no insurance?

I know that hospitals wouldn’t be able to handle the load, but what stops everyone from doing that?

Lots of people do.

 

[mom2rtk]

People do this often. That’s why there are such high copays for ER visits. I work at a hospital in the inner city. People come into the ER for EVERYTHING.

I have family that does this and most are Medicaid. No copay. I tell them to call their pcp for a stomach bug. But nope. They go to the ER.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

We have a $6500 deductible. I'm not going to the doctor unless there's blood gushing from an eye socket or something.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

We have a $6500 deductible. I'm not going to the doctor unless there's blood gushing from an eye socket or something.

I “only” have a $175 copay for the ER. No deductible. And i have been to the ER once in ten years. That’s only because DS had an extremely high fever and chest pain in the middle of the night and ended up being pneumonia. I had already taken him to urgent care that week and they told me it was a virus so I knew something was up. Even with that the triage nurse gave me an attitude. I told the nurse about the urgent care visit which he could see in the system because I used the same healthcare system. He basically told me that's what happens with viruses. Then the resident came in and was a bit flippant saying they told me it was a virus, I'm not letting it run it's course. He was about 25 years old. I nicely told him "Listen, I've been a mom for 17 years. I don't just run to the ER for every little thing. You can see in the chart how often my kids go to the doctor for illness. I'm not that Mom." He backed off, ordered a chest xray and it came back with pneumonia.

These ER's deal with unnecessary nonsense in the EMERGENCY room. I always try to emphasize the EMERGENCY part to people.

 

[Jaydhn]

Yes, the name has always been misleading.

premiums for the aca went up considerably in 2017.

 

[dish rag]

premiums for the aca went up considerably in 2017.

Even more for 2018.

 

[mjkacmom]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

We have a $6500 deductible. I'm not going to the doctor unless there's blood gushing from an eye socket or something.

We have a $7000 deductible that we meet every year. Two ER visits last year (appendicitis and a horrible car accident where the ambulance did the transfer). I can’t imagine not having insurance, we’d be in big trouble without it.

 

[morgan98]

Sorry if this is a dumb question..

What stops everybody from just not getting insurance and just going to a hospital every time they have a cold or small injury? Would it get to the point where hospitals would stop treating people with no insurance?

I know that hospitals wouldn’t be able to handle the load, but what stops everyone from doing that?

While I am not an expert in this area (however, my husband is much more well versed in this and we have had extensive discussions) it is only for true emergencies that you cannot be asked financial status before treatment. However, they can ask for proof of insurance before more minor treatment. And if you do not have insurance or the means to pay out of pocket, your quality of care does suffer. I for one hope I never have to see what type of care I would received as an uninsured patient.

 

[MIGrandma]

We've had Blue Cross health insurance for quite a few years now, premiums were going up, up and up all the time. Our last premium we were paying $1100/month for just my husband and me.

Then we received a letter from them in November saying our policy was being cancelled. We could talk to them and find a different plan that suited our needs, or we could do nothing and they would just put us in a plan themselves and the premium for that policy was going to be about $1293 if I remember correctly.

We knew we had to do something, so DH talked to our auto/home insurance man as they sell health insurance as well. They said to see if we qualified for a subsidy as there had been changes made for this year. So he called. Lo and behold we did qualify (I think they looked at 3 years' worth of our tax returns).

We previously had a Blue Care Network bronze policy, with $6,000/per person deductible.

We now have a silver policy with only $600/per person deductible.

The policy came into effect January 1st, and we pay $158/month. Quite a difference! MUCH easier to afford! We have a $30 co-pay when we go to the doctor, and better prescription coverage too.

So, those of you that had big price jumps in your premiums, you may want to check with your insurance company to see if you qualify for a subsidy.

We are wondering, though, what this will do to our taxes. If we'll have to pay more in taxes because of the subsidy, we're not sure. We have an appointment next month with our accountant so DH will discuss that with him then.

 

[starry_solo]

People do this often. That’s why there are such high copays for ER visits. I work at a hospital in the inner city. People come into the ER for EVERYTHING.

I have family that does this and most are Medicaid. No copay. I tell them to call their pcp for a stomach bug. But nope. They go to the ER.

And they are willing to wait hours for it.

 

[SteveH]

My employee dropped coverage, so COBRA isn't an option.

That sucks, no better way to put it. But with all the increases and mandates on businesses this is the type of hard decisions that they've been forced to make. The employer mandate hurts a lot of small businesses and limits growth potential. It also hurts employee retention in your type of situation.

 

[LSUmiss]

Health insurance is very expensive, no doubt about it. However, the health care field in many instances does take a hit. If someone is uninsured and shows up at a hospital needing true emergency care, they must be treated. Same with the under insured. When they cannot pay their bills, the hospital and service providers have to eat that cost. That is a big reason why costs are inflated. In some cases, especially in inner cities, they collect far less than what they bill. The issue is much more complicated that just lowering the cost of delivery.

Exactly. I worked in an urban hospital for awhile & 25% of the patients seen were uninsured including frequent flyers who used the ER for non emergency issues b/c they had no other choice. It’s a very huge, complicated problem.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

We have a $6500 deductible. I'm not going to the doctor unless there's blood gushing from an eye socket or something.

Ouch.
We pay $600 a month for coverage for DH, DS and myself, plus $200 a month for dental/vision for all 3 of us.

For that $600, we have a $4,600 deductible for the family, $2,700 per person (in network. double that for out of network), including prescriptions. Then we split the cost 90/10 on most things, until we hit the OOP maximum (5,000 per person). Then once we hit the OOP maximum, they pay 100% on everything.

The dental is a $50 deductible per person, $100 family. And it's weird percentages, like 65/35 (us/them) for some thigns, or 30/70 for others.

 

[Albort]

i won this year but not without a lot of trouble. My original insurance pulled out of my state, so i was required to get an new insurance. They didnt tell me this until only a few days before the deadline, i ended up asking someone that does this insurance stuff last minute and was able to get a plan for me instantly.

went from an EPO --> a true PPO. $2 more than last year. Makes me wonder if ive been overpaying all this time. even so, im still paying $350 for a midtier insurance. Im just happy that this plan is a true PPO instead of the fake EPO. They even went as far as to changing the EPO name to PPO, so many people would think its a PPO and get charge a ton. I got tricked thinking they were changing my plan to a PPO, but in reality, its was still an EPO.

 

[georgina]

Meanwhile in Canada, my husband was just diagnosed with stomach cancer and our only financial lost are a % of his wage (he had an insurance with his union), the day I miss work for an appointment and parking/gas fee. Everything is covered. No deductible. Same meds for the Chemo that they use in the US and his surgeon is an Harvard graduate, so I'm guessing similar procedures.

We do have "high" taxes. On a total family income of 110 000$ CAD, with two kids, we will pay around 25 000-30 000$ I'd guess? But we get 7$ a day daycare, a free good quality public schools system, low cost colleges, 1 year of parental leave for a new baby, child and family benefits for low to middle class family (we still receive some with our salaries), old age pensions, all services I can think off (road, garbage, parks, ...), + free medical care and procedures, and many other things...

Show-off! I will just congratulate you and avoid all political comments!

 

[GreatLakes]

That sucks, no better way to put it. But with all the increases and mandates on businesses this is the type of hard decisions that they've been forced to make. The employer mandate hurts a lot of small businesses and limits growth potential. It also hurts employee retention in your type of situation.

We had a 26% increase in our healthcare premiums last year. We decided as a management group to eat the entire increase and keep the employee portion of the contribution the exact same as the previous year but if costs continue at this rate we can't make that decision forever. It required a lot of moving around other capital expenditures.

 

[Poohforyou]

I just lost my employer sponsored health insurance. I can not believe how expensive it is to get insurance on your own. Nearly $500 for the cheapest plan available. $850 for a comparable plan to what I have now. Holy Cow. Where is the AFFORDABLE in the affordable health care act.

Edited to add:
This cost is to just cover me. Single 45yo Female.

Is that monthly, quarterly, annual?

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Is that monthly, quarterly, annual?

Health insurance for my family of four through my husband’s employer is double our mortgage payment. We still owe $5000 on my emergency c-section in March.