My Husband's Company's 2004 Healthcare out of Pocket is now $1000/mo

[bleedingheart]

with a three thousand dollar deductible... so a whopping $15,000 a year for healthcare for a family of four.

Luckily I work for benefits but if I lose my job it would be really hard for us to afford healthcare.
My mortgage and car payment combined don't even come to $15,000 a year!

I predict that if this is the "wave of the future" that people will forgo healthcare until the Health Insurance companies go kaput.

I am in sticker shock!

Does anyone think that there isn't a healthcare crisis? It is not just the problem of the poor or the elderly...its everyone's problem.

[Nlighten1]

1. I wish mine was that low.

We got jacked up this last year to $2000.

[bleedingheart]

2. Two thousand a month? Oh for crying out loud...

that's insane. I hope that includes a drug benefit at the very least.

[asjr]

3. healthcare

For a while my daughter and her husband were able to have their 2 children insured, but when he started making more money they were taken off. Now, if they get insurance their premium will also be over 1,000 a month. My daughter did not want to go back to work until the childen were both in school, but she has no choice but to return to the workplace. I don't know how families manage anymore. It has gotten much worse since election 2000. This WH seems dead set on bankrupting all families as well as the country.

[bleedingheart]

4. add into the fact that it is very risky to go without insurance

one of my kids asthma bills for a hospital stay was well over $5000 and that doesn't include all the other med bills and other costs incurred that year.

My daughter's NICU stay was $90,000...it would have bankrupted us.

[DuctapeFatwa]

13. It is a risk that the nouveau pauvre will have to learn to live with

Just like the vieux pauvre have done for years.


If you look at it from the view of the insurance industry, you will see that it is simply not profitable to provide insurance that will result in almost certain claims from employees who, if they should expire, can be easily replaced, and in fact it is much cheaper to allow them to expire, pay their (usually nominal, and almost always less than the cost of health care) burial insurance, and replace them.

Your life and health and that of your family may have a high emotional value to you, but the reality is that the free market value is practically nil.

[Beaker]

14. non-insured people have higher hospital bills for the same treatment

Insurance companies "negotiate"(i.e. demand) volume discounts. The uninsured don't get the same benefit, and are charged 'full retail'.

[Lars39]

5. Good grief!

We have catastrophic insurance(Fortis) for about $300/month for the four of us.We have $4000 out of pocket, and $1500/person deductible. We don't have anything serious wrong with us, though, and my kids aren't little. My doctor has been recommending catastrophic insurance to people who normally only have a physical once a year and come in once a year with something minor.
You can save up for emergencies this way. May not be for everyone, but so far it's worked for us. I've had 2 surgeries this year, and we've come out OK, with the first surgery being paid at 50%, and the second being totally paid.

[bleedingheart]

6. that is what we would have to do in the worst case...

but with two asthmatic kids it is a hard choice.

[Lars39]

24. The system is so screwed up when it pits your kids' health against money.

:( Hope you can stay on top of the situation.

[Journeyman]

7. We pay the full-cost of our healthcare insurance. . .

something we have to do since I have my own business. We pay $550 a month for a family of four for a Blue Shield PPO with a $2,000 a year deductible. Prescriptions count toward the deductible.

Like every intelligent American, however, I fear being old and poor and sick in America. There's nothing worse. . . and as a society, we have to do something to alleviate this fear.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. To be frank, anyone who does not have a discretionary $2000 a month

In most cases, it will be more cost effective to pay the life insurance benefit than the cost of health care.

There are exceptions, but generally the lower the amount of discretionary income an individual has, they will have a lower amount of life insurance.

For example, a low wage earner will probably have either no life insurance, or the company standard which will be essentially "burial insurance," of $20 or even $10 thousand dollars, sometimes even less.

Thus, if that employee should fall ill or need surgery, it is in the best interest of the insurance industry as a whole to pay the life claim, since that amount would be exceeded very rapidly if the employee receives medical care.

This is reflected in what the insurance company charges the company, so most company benefit packages are structured to reflect that reality, in order to provide any medical coverage at all, at any cost, to any employees.

[kainah]

9. The biggest issue of 2004

Recent polling has found that more than 50% of the public now say they support universal health care. I don't think that's ever happened before. With another year of double digit increases in health care ... and health insurance ... this will be a major issue in the '04 election & the bushites aren't even talking about it.

[Stainless]

12. Speaking of double digit increases

I just received my new benefits package for open enrollment and my health insurance premium is going up more than 37%.

[area51]

25. public support of universal health care

I thought ABC News did a story the other night that according to their latest poll, now 62% of people in the U.S. said they want some kind of universal health care. This "sea change" may be due to the fact that the economy hasn't recovered (despite what the pundits say), and people realize that to allow the situation to continue where people's healthcare is tied to a job (which may not be there tomorrow) is insanity.

[mmm]

10. Civil War

when the screwing wicks up toward the
independent working class folk the anger will
explode into violence. You can screw a man who has
always been down but whoa be to those who shall
screw a man who knows the game. They will not sit still.

[JanMichael]

11. Ay caramba! That's flippin' insane.

Good luck with these criminals.

[Beaker]

15. you can get private insurance for less than that.

those prices are completely outrageous, even by today's standards. something's not right, and if I were you, I'd look into a private blue cross policy- it'd probably be cheaper, and possibly even better, not knowing the details of your current coverage.

[JanMichael]

16. A family of four with asthmatic kids isn't going to do much better.

Read up the thread, she has some chronic issues that may make the $1,000 company policy a bargain.

Sad, eh?

[fabius]

17. Talk about axis of evil...

This insurance racket has got to go. I'm with Kucinich / Braun on that one. A few more people get this kind of bills there will be revolution.

[Clete]

18. There is no reason for this to be happening.

We have to put these health pirates out of business and frankly I think Dean is the guy to do it because he knows the system.

[TrogL]

19. Do you want to know what I pay for health care?

$37/month basic health care (my employer picks up half)

This covers all doctors appointments including specialists and hospitalization (some fees apply for doctor's notes relating to work related accident claims, casts, splints etc. but it's minor), some physiotherapy and one eye appointment.

$49/month (employer picks up half) Blue Cross family of 3 covers

• 80% prescription no limit (on covered meds, which is most)
  
• 80% most dental no limit
  
• 50% orthodonitics
  
• $199 glasses or contacts
  
• psychologist to $2000
  
• acupuncture to $500
  
• more physiotherapy
  ]li]oral surgery
  

Most employers do Blue Cross or equivalent or you can get your own (plan isn't quite as nice).

[TrogL]

20. oh, by the way

that's $0.76 loonies, not greenbacks

[jab105]

23. O CANADA!!

...

[classics]

21. 100% per-year increases are projected to continue.

I read some pretty dire stuff about it on the net, I wish I had the link to share.

[leftofthedial]

22. and you are on of the few lucky ones who HAS healthcare

And Kucinich is drawing 2% in the polls.

I'm beginning to wonder about the sanity of Murkans.