Another 15% rise in health insurance this year

[Dot Com]

Just like the last 15 years.
My policy for very healthy, no prior history is now over $1000.00 a month for my family of THREE. 5K Deductible.
Add in my HSA that is 18K I pay this year. I make good $$ so I have it.
Folks, this system is unsustainable. My nephew is 27, self employed and making 40K a year and he has a daughter with bad allergies. He can not afford his policy of $1200 a month, 5K deductible, and had to drop it. With co-pays he paid over 15k last year.
The
Group health care through insurance is the worst possible system to deliver health care to a working nation.

Republicans will never help the middle class. Sorry, people are on their own.

The number one cause of bankruptcy is medical bills.

The year before Obama took office, health care shot up 30%.

The CEO of Cigna made over 100 million dollars in one year. How many insurance policies does it take to pay a single 100 million dollar salary?

Insurance companies are true "death panels".

At least Obama tried to get help for the American people. Insurance companies don't employ doctors, nurses, own hospitals. They exist simply as parasites on this country. They are "middle men". They are not needed. They are one of the corporate groups who have the Republican Party in their collective pockets. Their only goal is to squeeze as much money as they can out of the American people and with the support of the Republican party, there is plenty more money to skim.

This is true. Republicans/libertarians don't even believe that there should be society/community because they want Darwin's law to predominate.

 

[Bern80]

Medicare has much lower admin costs than private insurance does.

Than a single major medical insurance company? Than the admin cost of the whole private insurance industry? Be specific. You're not comparing apples to apples. Cite some actual evidence for your claims and maybe we can discuss the validity of your statement.

 

[Bern80]

This is true. Republicans/libertarians don't even believe that there should be society/community because they want Darwin's law to predominate.

Completely false. Libertarians recognize society and community as collectives. They just don't believe individuals in the community have the right to obligate the entire community to the fullfillment of their own needs.

 

[KissMy]

Medicare has much lower admin costs than privatre insurance does.

Medicare cost tax payers $1,000 a month per enrollee. How is that cheaper than the private sector?

 

[Old Rocks]

Medicare has much lower admin costs than private insurance does.

Than a single major medical insurance company? Than the admin cost of the whole private insurance industry? Be specific. You're not comparing apples to apples. Cite some actual evidence for your claims and maybe we can discuss the validity of your statement.

http://www.cahi.org/cahi_contents/resources/pdf/CAHIMedicareTechnicalPaper.pdf

The results from our tests can be summarized as follows:
♦ Administrative costs are lower under Medicare than for private health insurance, although Medicare costs are higher than reported in the Federal budget and private costs are not dramatically higher than Medicare once non-comparable costs (commissions, premium tax and profit) are removed. Our best estimates indicate Medicare at slightly above 5% of total Medicare cost in 2003, whereas the government currently reports about 2%.
♦ Medicare administrative costs decrease because Medicare benefit costs increase at a higher rate than administrative cost increases. Benefit costs have typically been about double normal inflation (CPI increases) whereas administrative costs typically increase near the CPI rate.
♦ The private market administrative costs are expected to remain at about 9% of total private insurance cost, excluding premium taxes, commissions, and profit. With such items, private costs would be slightly under 17%. While we have not studied private costs at various points in time, a look at costs in the early 1990s indicated administrative costs at roughly the same level, although there have been changes in certain markets.

 

[Old Rocks]

Medicare has much lower admin costs than privatre insurance does.

Medicare cost tax payers $1,000 a month per enrollee. How is that cheaper than the private sector?

Medicare covers people at the most expensive time in their lives concerning health care. Were Medicare to be the source of medical insurance for all US Citizens, it would cost far less. Then there is the additional unlisted cost of the number of US families that go bankrupt every year because of medical expenses. We are the only industrial nation in the world in which that is the case.

 

[Dot Com]

Medicare has much lower admin costs than privatre insurance does.

Medicare cost tax payers $1,000 a month per enrollee. How is that cheaper than the private sector?

Medicare covers people at the most expensive time in their lives concerning health care. Were Medicare to be the source of medical insurance for all US Citizens, it would cost far less. Then there is the additional unlisted cost of the number of US families that go bankrupt every year because of medical expenses. We are the only industrial nation in the world in which that is the case.

This is the only great nation (Palin- speak ;-) that seizes peoples houses when they get sick.
Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies - CNN

Overall, three-quarters of the people with a medically-related bankruptcy had health insurance, they say.

Even when they had insurance they were screwed.

 

[Gadawg73]

Third party pay programs are destroying the health care system. Consumers have no incentive to shop around - they go to the Doctor or hospital and "someone else" pays. They have no idea what anything costs - beyond the co-pay. It doesn't stop there either. Drug manufacturer's introduce hundreds of new drugs each year, they advertise them heavily on TV, and consumers demand these new drugs. Why not? "Someone else" is paying.

Equipment manufacturer's make expensive machines, publicize the benefits, pay a few lobbyists to get it "medicare approved" and Doctors demand the tests these new machines provide. Why not? "Someone else" is paying.

The "Scooter Store" will get you a new scooter to drag your morbidly obese adult-onset diabetic ass around- why not? It's free! "Someone else" is paying. Need cathaters? They're free too!!! Need needles, diabetes testing supplies, ostomy supplies? It's free!!! "SOMEONE ELSE" is paying.......

True. which is why contrary to what people like UScitizen think, single payer will be just as bad. You're just trading one middle man for another.

There is no commision paid for single payer and each doctors office will not have to adminisratively file for 1000 different insurance companies with each having different requirements, deductibles, underwriting, etc.

 

[Gadawg73]

Medicare has much lower admin costs than privatre insurance does.

Medicare cost tax payers $1,000 a month per enrollee. How is that cheaper than the private sector?

That is the elderly! 65 and over.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Man you guys should shop around for new health insurance. Get the heck out of those group insurance policies that you are in. My wife & I are 47 years old, self employed & have our policy with Assurant Health. We pay $162 per month. That = $81 each. We also pay another $10 per month to guarantee the rate is locked for over 3 years.

I hope I work long enough to see the day that individuals buy their own insurance from either a wide open market that anyone with a couple of million dollars and a computer could start a company in or a true public option and my employer raises the 'value' of my wages by cutting the benefit. Right now, it's a take it or leave it value I simply can't leave on the table.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Gee, the insurance we pay for one of our adult kids went up less than 10%, only $336.00 more this year.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Third party pay programs are destroying the health care system. Consumers have no incentive to shop around - they go to the Doctor or hospital and "someone else" pays. They have no idea what anything costs - beyond the co-pay. It doesn't stop there either. Drug manufacturer's introduce hundreds of new drugs each year, they advertise them heavily on TV, and consumers demand these new drugs. Why not? "Someone else" is paying.

Equipment manufacturer's make expensive machines, publicize the benefits, pay a few lobbyists to get it "medicare approved" and Doctors demand the tests these new machines provide. Why not? "Someone else" is paying.

The "Scooter Store" will get you a new scooter to drag your morbidly obese adult-onset diabetic ass around- why not? It's free! "Someone else" is paying. Need cathaters? They're free too!!! Need needles, diabetes testing supplies, ostomy supplies? It's free!!! "SOMEONE ELSE" is paying.......

True. which is why contrary to what people like UScitizen think, single payer will be just as bad. You're just trading one middle man for another.

Medicare has much lower admin costs than private insurance does.

Hey now!

In defense of the Private Bureaucracies, Medicare doesn't have all those pesky marketing costs and profits. True, but Medicare can't sell it's data bases - that advantage goes to the Private Bureaucracies.