Health care costs mount for Michigan families

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Health care costs mount for Michigan families
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT • FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER • MAY 7, 2009
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Nearly a quarter of Michigan’s insured population, some 2.1 million people, are spending more than 10% of their family budget on health care costs, leaving many short of money to pay for other household needs, according to a new report released today.

Another 6.2% spend a quarter of their pretax annual income on health costs, according to Families USA, a non-profit Washington DC health research and advocacy organization that released the report to the media in a telephone news briefing.

The number of Michiganders paying at least 10% of their pretax income grew 46% since 2000, the study found.

The study “points out that our health care system in this country is rushing towards collapse,” said Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn., who joined the briefing along with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20090507/BUSINESS06/90507043/Health+care+costs+mount+for+Michigan+families#pluckcomments

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Medicare for all. ... NOW!

[Old Coot]

1. Everyone should be required to have health insurance.

The plan the President is promoting will not work, as people will not be required to have insurance. Thus, the healthy and young will opt to NOT pay for insurance causing the old and infirm to overtax the system.

If everyone has insurance, then the private insurers could be forced to take anyone who applies at the same rate as everyone else with no regard to any health problems.

Whether the system consists of private, public or a mix of the two, everyone should have coverage.

[Misskittycat]

3. Everyone should have health care, not health insurance.

[Old Coot]

5. Insurance is how health care is paid for unless it is out of pocket.

Medicare is health insurance. I have it and it is not ideal, by any means.
Medicaid is health insurance.

I don't know how health care can be paid for if not with some form of insurance. Or out of pocket.

I have Blue Cross in addition to Medicare. It pays next to nothing. But, should I have a serious illness, it will pay to supplement the Medicare.

What kind of plan do you propose?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance

[Lorien]

4. I don't want insurance, I want health care

Every insurer that I've been able to afford as a self employed person does all that they can to deny me health care. ER visits at the wrong hospital aren't covered, life saving operations aren't covered, and then there's that $6,000 deductible. EVERYTHING is a major battle with them. I have a friend down here with a really good insurance plan-that costs $650 a month for one person. She's a multi millionaire, but who else can afford that? As far as I'm concerned insurance is the problem, not the solution. We need a completely different system.

[Old Coot]

6. Any system would require some form of insurance.

Whether it is private or public, the mechanism used to pay for health care would be some form of insurance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance

[Misskittycat]

9. Just not accurate. Several countries have pure single-payer.

[Old Coot]

10. It is still insurance. nt

[Lars39]

8. You must not be un-insurable.

A person labeled un-insurable can't even buy health insurance.

[Old Coot]

12. True. That is what is wrong with the President's plan.

Everyone should be required to have some sort of coverage. Then the law should require all plans to provide coverage for all. Even single payer must be the same way. Everyone should be covered.

[Old Coot]

13. I am uninsurable and on disability.

I am lucky enough to have Medicare and Blue Cross (because of previous employment). If not for my unique situation, I would be unable to buy insurance at any price. That is wrong. Everyone should have insurance. If you don't want to call it insurance, then call it something else. However, it would still be insurance.

I have been upset for years about out poor health care "system" in this country. My daughter has had diabetes since she was 6 years old and got hydrocephalus when she was 12. If not for her husband's group policy, she would be unable to obtain insurance. Even with the coverage, she is still in a difficult position as the employer dropped the good coverage for recent hires and replaced it with a $4,000 deductible plan.

I personally think that we should have universal, single-payer health care insurance provided by the government. However, that is not going to happen in the near future.

I do believe that everyone should be covered and anyone with health coverage should be able to sign up for any plan they want, even if they have health problems.

[prolesunited]

2. 10% -- I wish

Try about 45% right now with COBRA premiums, cost of drugs and paying off procedures I had done in January.

My clothes are hanging out to dry right now; I'm expanding the veggie garden; and I might use one tank of gas this month.

[mbperrin]

7. Forget insurance. The whole idea of insurance is to create a split between

premiums and payments to create a surplus or profit.

We need single payer, where general tax revenues simply pay for the care people need to both prevent disease and repair injury, resulting in a happier and more productive population.

That's certainly as legitimate a goal as wanting enough nuclear weapons to destroy the earth's population many times over.

Insurance? No thanks. Health care? Yes, thanks.

[Old Coot]

11. Single payer is still insurance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance

Health insurance is insurance that pays for medical expenses. It is sometimes used more broadly to include insurance covering disability or long-term nursing or custodial care needs. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies. It may be purchased on a group basis (e.g., by a firm to cover its employees) or purchased by individual consumers. In each case, the covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from high or unexpected healthcare expenses. Similar benefits paying for medical expenses may also be provided through social welfare programs funded by the government.