Pull this right off CNN.com. Margaret Hill has been shopping on the Maryland exchange for her unemployed brother, 53, who has hip issues but is uninsured. Since he qualifies for a subsidy, she's found a Coventry One plan for him that could cost less than $25 a month. But she was put off by how much he'll have to spend out of pocket. The Coventry One plan has a $1,500 deductible, and policies with lower costs are hundreds of dollars more. "I didn't realize the deductibles would be so high," said Hill, who has coverage through her employer. Still, her brother will sign up. "It's better than what he has now, which is nothing," she said. But for Deb Hornbacher, 58, the high deductibles are just too much for her and her husband. While she's enrolled in her employer's plan, the Colorado couple can't afford to extend the coverage to her husband, a self-employed carpenter. So she was hoping to sign them both up for a plan on the exchange if they qualify for a federal subsidy. She found a bronze-level plan for roughly $357 a month, after their subsidy, which they could swing. But it comes with a $12,600 family deductible. (If they don't qualify for a subsidy, they would pay nearly $1,275 on the exchange for that policy.) F***ing outstanding. "see its not that bad" said a stupid liberal. They are now blaiming Busch for the high deductibles.
I spent the day yesterday in a meeting involving the new plans. (insurance agent). The system is just as broken as it was before this mess came about. But, now we get to pay an incredible amount in taxes to support all the new federal jobs that this creates. It is an absolute sinkhole.
This Obamacare is an absolute joke. Starting in 2014, my insurance is going to suck some serious *** because of this. I went from paying $50 a month and having a $30 copay on everything to it being $90 a month and a $1750 deductible that I have to meet before they will pay for anything else. And this is for a single person. The rates for a family are absolutely outrageous. Thank you Obama, just when I think you couldn't make anything worse you prove me wrong. Pathetic excuse of a President.
You want to know something ? Right now I don't think he gives a S*** !!! He's not going to be around much longer to take all of this heat, he will be remembered as the POTUS who literally sunk this country !! I would love to see all the people that wanted this affordable healthcare ( politicians ), be required to go on it themselves !!! How fast do you think it would be repealed ? ( shaking head in sorry disgust)
I hope the GOP holds strong in the house. They can take a good bite out of Obamacare if they can stay united.
First, the root problem here isn't the cost of insurance it's the cost of medical care in general. If people would worry about why it costs hundreds or thousands of dollars for the smallest things we would be a lot further along than complaining about insurance costs. But alas, I digress. People who think a $1,500/year deductible is too high are off their rocker. I would take a $25/month individual plan with that deductible in a heartbeat! $25/month plus $1,500 deductible means $1,800 out of pocket before insurance starts kicking in, after which they most likely cover 80%. Most plans like that have a max out of pocket limit on them somewhere in the $2,500 range. As for the family deductible, that is generally split up between individuals. Meaning each person has let's say a $3,500 deductible and once that is reached they've hit their limit. Let's assuming there's 5 people on the family plan, as soon as the total cost of medical care reaches 12K then the insurance kicks in. It's pretty steep, but $375 for a family plan is nothing. Remember, insurance is there in case you need it. It's not there to save you $50 on a doctor's visit when you get a cold. It's there if you need surgery, have a heart attack, get cancer, etc. If any major events like that happen you can be darn sure you'll be happy to pay a few grand versus tens or hundreds of thousands. Oh, and why does a married 58 year old couple, one of whom has employee provided coverage, need a family plan? Why wouldn't they just get an individual policy for the self employed person?
Welcome to reality. Insurance costs have been increasing for years, well before Obamacare was put into effect. The average cost for an individual in a group policy is typically anywhere from $200 to $300/month. That's direct through Blue Cross/Blue Shield on an employer provided plan. Now every year that cost goes up. When things were great most employers just ate that cost and it wasn't a big deal. Since the economic slowdown more employers have been cutting back the amount they contribute towards employee plans in order to help their own bottom line. It's just how business works. In all fairness $90/month isn't all that bad as it sounds like someone else is still picking up 2/3 of your policy cost. As a young single man you most likely won't hit that deductible unless something out of the ordinary happens. Even a couple Dr. visits each year won't add up to that $1750. And in the event something really bad does happen $1750 isn't going to seem so bad when you see the bills start rolling in. Those rates you're looking at are from a private insurance company. The government didn't set them, so why blame Obama? Blame the insurance companies who make a profit off people getting sick, the pharmaceutical companies who all have MULTI BILLION dollar profits each year and the corporations that own and operate the for-profit hospitals. They're the ones responsible for the high costs, not Obama.
Do you realize that hospital profits are the same as insurance companies? http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/hospital_profits_fall_to_zero http://m.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2013/09/23/profit-margins-of-baltimore-area.html?r=full Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
It's all how you cook the books.... Most hospitals are either not for profit or non-profit so they just appear they aren't making anything on paper - kinda like if an oil company actually reports making 10 billion, they probably made 15-20 billion before cheesy tax breaks.... In the last 5 years our local hospitals have spent over 50 million donating to local colleges and high school sports facilities. In fact in the last two weeks, the largest regional hosital opened a huge state of the art sports facility call the Pentagon - it's supposed to be a one of the kind basketball facility (believe the Bucks and Twolves are playing there soon in a pre-season game)... Pretty cool, but hard to swallow when they charge me $300 to give my kid a tentnus shot. Here's another example, last year I brought my dog to the vet and they had to do an xray on the foot. The bill was well under $100. If I would have went to the doctor - they would have used the same machine, equipment, the vet has essentially the same amount of schooling - but yet it probably would have been lucky if it would have been $500. There isn't much of a profit margin in insurance - that I'll agree with.
without getting into the nuts and bolts of the issue, whereupon I would destroy all comers; why wouldn't a sane person blame BHO when he promised the "affordable" care act was designed and intended to lower health care costs for "all" Americans when obviously the immediate effects of much higher insurance costs (which we are now required to carry) are the opposite? I don't contest the premise that actual medical costs are too high, but the problem is and never was that the costs of medical insurance was too high (at least for the vast majority of people.)
They don't use the same machines and they have different regulations. Hell my wife is a nurse and surgical tech as well as having a bachelor's in animal health technology. :D yes, its true. She takes sealed packages from surgery that is going to be thrown out that can't be used in tb the hospital because the box it was in is opened per se. She gives them to our vet that she used to work for. (Yes, we get discounts) Point is, hospitals have huge overhead. They employ educated people that are in high demand. They have top notch technology that is turned over every few years. The staff is pays a huge sum of money in education and pay an exorbitant amount in malpractice and then they have customers that can't pay as well as insurance that won't pay what they charge. The fact of the matter is, if insurance pays the bill, insurance goes up. If you're uninsured and getting free healthcare, healthcare goes up. The only thing that fixes the issue is a strong economy and workforce. Anything else is driving us deeper into debt and compounding the problem. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
You know I was planning on getting out at the end of my committment. I think maybe ill stay in longer or join the reserves. All these taxes and insurance and jobs you regular people are talking about kind of worries me.
Ok, seriously... Would you knock it off already? What's wrong with you? How are we supposed to argue when you won't quit making sense? I swear, if I didn't know better, I might think you were actually TRYING to be logical. It's people like you who ruin the intarwebs for the rest of us. Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Tapatalk 2
Justin.... I understand your reasoning here, but the reason that I took the job that I'm at is because the benefits were so great. None of my insurance would've changed had it not been for obamacare. If my insurance would've already been the rate that it is going to be then I wouldn't be nearly as angry about this, but its changing because of this ridiculous incentive for healthcare. So now my insurance rates will increase and my taxes will as well. I guess that's what I get for working instead of sitting at home on my ***.
I am for going back to blood letting... Of course it needs to be tested first. Hmmm... Where to begin?
First statement: true Second statement: false, because of the first statement. Most insurance companies, at least in health care, are again not for profit corporations. The bottom line will not show much, if any, profit. The "profit" they make is distributed in salary and bonuses, which rarely if ever make it past the CEO/COO offices.
Do you really believe those few bonuses are going to swing the average profit margin more than a percentage point? Those bonuses are relatively small when compared to the numbers involved. Many hospitals are not for profit as well. My wife works at one but they have had funds with well over million in them so they can help those that need help. This is no where near what was promised. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2
