"No one should go broke because they get sick."
I will grant that.
Likewise, no one should be unable to afford healthcare because they're paying for someone else's.
It's tax time and I see how much of our meager earnings remain with the Feral Gubmint.
I see how much is deducted for our healthcare with a an annual deductible equal to two pay periods of take-home pay. I see that we also have a $160 per visit copay that doesn't count against that deductible. I see that we also have to pay 20% of the costs after we've paid 100% up to that deductible. I see that we have to shop around to see which pharmacy has the best rate on which prescriptions, often taking the generic brand.
I see people getting back more in their tax "returns" than they've had deducted from their checks (if any was deducted at all). I see them getting healthcare with zero out-of-pocket expense. No deductible, no copay, no percentage. I see them getting the name brand prescriptions for free regardless of which pharmacy they choose.
I see, because we pay for it, that we are reluctant to go to a doctor for anything less than a catastrophe. I see you going to the emergency room for a cold because it doesn't cost you anything to use the most expensive care available.
I'm going broke because YOU got sick.
Because all that money we're spending on deductibles, copays and cost sharing is overpaying to cover the additional risk of having you in the pool over-consuming scarce resources.
Click here to submit $0.00 US for a lifetime subscription
Posts
Comments
I am in nearly the same boat. I have "health insurance" that is paid for by my employer, which is good, because they are paying a fairly substantial amount for it, more than they used to pay for a good plan that we did NOT get to keep.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the reality is, that the coverage I have is basically useless for anything other than keeping me from paying a penalty for not having insurance. The deductible and copays are so high that I can't afford to use it. They basically don't pay a penny for anything that isn't mandatory coverage (much of which doesn't apply to me or I'm not interested in) until the deductible is met... then they only pay 80% for most things, plus a copay. Oh... the deductible is 10x what the pre-Obamacare plan was... and many of my co-workers didn't get to keep their doctors either, since a lot of them won't take the company or the plan that our outsourced HR company switched us to.
Our paycheck deduction did not change. But we used to have 100% catastrophic coverage, $50 copay for scheduled visits and $100 for emergency. No deductible.
DeleteIt was an excellent plan.
We know the insurance company was making money off of such plans before Obamacare because we know how to read the 10-K reports.
Gee, what could have changed to cause them to become unprofitable?