You Have Cadillac Health Insurance Till You Don't

[DanieRains]

One slip up and you are in the bankrupt deadpool.

Then there is a failed strike, layoffs, or concessions.

And Memory Care costs $150,000 a year. Until you are broke. Happy retirement.

Oh, then Medicaid is being slashed. Grandma will soon be our responsibility 100%. No help.

Modern America. Around the corner.

While the 1% amass another 50 trillion!

Ask GM workers how their healthcare is.

How about better healthcare for all for half as much?

[Ohiogal]

1. So True!

Excellent post.

I have said this before, people who are happy with their employer provided private health insurance probably have never had a life altering health crisis.

[frazzled]

3. Just the opposite for us

I was always cynical about it, paying and paying for decades and hardly ever using it. I might have been a big advocate for MFA.

Then, one day, out of nowhere, my spouse became ill. And it was quickly diagnosed as advanced stage lymphoma. And it was a year of biopsies and CAT scans and PET scans and week-long hospitalizations, and six months of chemo, and major surgery. And our employer insurance ( we had chosen the Network version rather than the PPO) paid 100% of everything, no deductibles, except the $40 co-pays for visits to the specialists. Aside for the excellent health care that brought him back to health, I credit the insurance for taking the financial worry completely out of the picture. It was part of what helped to get through it all.

We’ve kept that insurance, even though we’ve signed up for Medicare Part A. We’ll gladly get Part B and Part D when he retires ( though it will cost more) but till then, we are happy and grateful for our private insurance.

I recognize that not everyone has such good insurance, but for those who do (and there are many), they will be distressed to lose it.

[Ms. Toad]

4. My daughter has beeen happy with her employer-provided health care

for the past several years.

Total annual out-of-pocket expenses (including premiums): $2040
Billed cost of medical care each and every year: $200,000

So yes, she has had a life altering health crisis - and yes, her employer-provided health insurance has been fantastic. Her insurance, as a $12.36/hour employee is better than mine as an professional at a public university.

Unfortunately, her company just filed for bankruptcy after close to 50 years in business, and the doors will shut by the 29th, if not earlier.

Nothing we are finding at any equivalent position will be as good. Some would make her better off being unemployed. $64,000 of the cost is for one prescription - and one of the places she is looking has no cap on out of pocket prescription coverage. The job she just accepted pays $2 less per hour - and her expenses will increase to a little over $4,000/year - approximately 30% of her likely pre-tax income (at least to start). And, because she's already hit her out-of-pocket max for the year, and will need to switch to an ACA plan for 2 months, and then to the new plan, and then 6 months from now start a new year, she will have paid 4 out of pocket annual caps in 13 months. Ugh.

[tirebiter]

2. Welcome to the world

Most of us know this and plan accordingly. Culinary means kitchen workers. People that handle your food an get the tainted uneaten portions on themselves when bussing and cleaning. They need a better shield than a generic healthcare can provide. I’m sure you can find what you envision in Cuba. All the Democrats want better healthcare to be the norm. Better mans better choices that private business can provide. Group insurance is not socialist. Used to be only the right wingers would describe it as such and it wasn’t a compliment.