How much do you pay for health care?

How does the healthcare work in Canada? Dosent Canada have a similar plan?

 

More on the issue of competition and costs:

Currently, the top three or four insurance companies (United Health, Humana, Blue Cross) control 75% or more of the market in many areas of the country. The Insurance Exchanges will promote greater competition, the individual mandate will allow for greater spreading of risk, and new medical loss rations (insurance companies now required to have 85% of premium costs applied to patient care. and no more than 15% to administrative costs, including profit) should help stabilize (and even reduce) premium costs.

 

My wife and I both have spotty health histories, and she requires regular physical therapy and checkups. Her congregation covers part of our healthcare, but we end up paying over $1000 a month for health coverage with a $3000 deductible, no mental, dental, or optical coverage. This was the best plan we could find: a lot of carriers simply refused to take us at any price, and the ones that did either offered plans that cost more or offered less coverage or both. At various points we have given serious thought to moving to Cananda, England, or Israel, simply because they have good national health care systems. We both are passionate advocates of America getting real national healthcare.

 

Then if you have obamacare you have Medicare??

 

No.

You will be able to choose from three levels of plans provided by private insurance companies, but all must include:

1. Ambulatory patient services
2. Emergency services
3. Hospitalization
4. Maternity and newborn care
5. Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
6. Prescription drugs
7. Rehabilitative services and devices
8. Laboratory services
9. Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
10. Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

The difference between the bronze, silver or gold level plans will be in the cost/benefit details - premiums, deductables, co-pays, etc. - but they will all be private insurance plans.

 

The insurance push is only for businesses with 50+ employees (which I don't consider a small business). The health care act had a lot of good points in it but was watered down by members of house/senate. Heathcare is a HUUUUUUUUGE industry in the US and people in control of that industry make metric shit-tons of money. They don't like it when there is a chance someone would get reduced or (*GASP*) free healthcare. This is why we haven't had a bill overhaul our healthcare system in a long time or we get a watered down version of it passing. Companies that are really affected by this bill? Big companies that don't want to provide healthcare to their employees because it would cost them 18 cent per pizza. Most of those huge companies just fuck people over by reducing their hours down to 34.5 so they are not considered full time. Wal-mart has been doing this forever.

Obamacare took away caps on health insurance, limited the "preexisting conditions" part of insurance, and tried to force big businesses to actually care about their numbers (oops, I mean employees). Depending on what talking head you listen to on TV, it was a win or OMG OBAMA IS GOING TO KILL YOUR GRANDMA!!!!

Also, insurance companies are going to make money off of you and try to pay out the least possible to you, Obamacare or not, they do not give a fuck about you.

 

10% of my salary (which also covers unemployment insurance and my state pension)

It's called National Insurance.

 

This would have made an incredible amount of sense. At least one of the options for all Americans should be a Medicare plan.
Your friends in the insurance industry used their massive political bribes (sorry, I slipped again. I meant "campaign contributions") to prevent that from happening.

 

I pay around $200 a month for a $2850 deductible, that my company kicks in $400 a year to my HSA
After I meet the deductible, the cost is 85/15 till I hit just over $5800. Besides the 200 a month I put away another $250. to my HSA and I am still always trying to play catch up on Med bills. The wife has had a few surgeries the last couple years and I am still trying to get it all paid for.

Oh and I work for a hospital system with about 5,000 employees.

 

I agree with a "public option" but attempts to include it in the ACA would have resulted in the loss of conservative Democrat votes that were needed for passage of the bill. A version was introduced earlier this year as an amendment, but will never get through the Republican House. The CBO estimates that a public option where the govt. negotiates rates with health providers, would result in premiums 5-7% lower than private insurance (thus forcing the price down on private insurance as well) and saving $100+ billion over 10 years.

But its socialized medicine!

 

I gave up my private health insurance because it was useless! Like Canada, we have socialised healthcare. Basically, if I break a leg, need surgery etc., the government foots most if not all of the bill.

So, why do people have health insurance in Oz at all? A few reasons:
1. the socialised healthcare is covered by a portion of your income tax and, over a certain income level you pay more to the government
2. private health covers a portion of dental, physio etc., though depending on your cover depends how much you can claim.
3. optional surgery can be done more quickly. Note that things like vasectomy and knee reconstructions (for example) can be done in a public hospital, but it may take 6 months or more for you to jump to the front of the queue.

The biggest reason I gave up my was the levels of coverage of point 2 and also the mostly uselessness of point 3. While you can jump the queue, what is covered by your policy might not be the total cost of your surgery. I had my vasectomy done for free under general anaesthetic in a public hospital and even though I had private coverage, I would've been out of pocket - something just doesn't add up!

 

I may be an idiot but it seems as if healthcare has become outrageous in its cost. I understand that a lot of it has to do with people not having insurance , going to the hospital for whatever reason and never paying the bill. Aren't the insurance companies getting rich off of our premiums??

 

Getting rich? If I were investing money today, I don't think I'd choose health insurance. Far better returns elsewhere.

Insurance Companies’ ‘Excessive Profit’ of $66 per Policy | AEIdeas

Health Insurance Companies Rank #88 by Industry Profit Margin, Earning $100-200 on Avg. per Policy | AEIdeas

 

Actually based on this, I don't think I'd invest in health related companies at all. Maybe some to diversify but not as a main investment focus.
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