Rising cost of health insurance. What do you pay?

Anything from an emergency room visit for a kidney stone, which included a CT Scan ($4500 initially billed, down to $1800 when they found out I wasn't insured - still way too much IMO), to the birth of my daughter, which if prepaid was only $3000 and included everything from the epidural, neonatal care and the day or two after spent in the hospital room (awesome experience and surprisingly affordable IMO). There have been many more times when this was true and I have never personally experienced the opposite.

On the flip side, while insured I broke my ankle and spent 7 FULL DAYS in the hospital being pumped full of Oxycodone (I didn't seem to mind at the time for some reason...). It was 2 Days before they even got me in for surgery (no doubt caring for the uninsured first), another 5 'waiting for some mild redness around the incision to subdue'. Total billed to my insurance company was over $18k.

And people wonder why insurance is so expensive? Just wait until it's free...

 

Consumer Reports - Individual Health Insurance

There's an excellent article in the January 2008 Consumer Reports about the difficulties people face when obtaining an individual (non-employer/non-group plan) health insurance policy.

It includes the story of an Indianapolis, IN lawyer whose monthly premium started at $25.50 in 1980, but most recently in August went up to $4,284 per month.

I have the article in Microsoft Word format, but cannot post it here because of PC's new rediculously low file size limits for attachments. But if you want me to email the article to you, just PM me with your email address.

 

We also have a separate type of insurance for lost wages called disability insurance (offered at the state level, through employers and via private insurance companies). Not sure if there is a simillar insurance in Oz or if it's included as part of the public health care system?

A couple years back I got disability insurance for myself through a private company - MetLife. My father had disability insurance as well and it unfortunately paid off when he developed Parkinson's. He had to take an early retirement because of the disease. The disability payments - not taxed because he paid the premiums out of pocket - really helped when he left the working world.

 

My husband and I are both teachers, we get our health insurance through the district at no cost to us. I'm not sure exactly how much it would be if we did have to pay up front.

I used to insure my three kids - it was about $600/month. Then it went up to $800/month. At that point I got an individual plan for them, it has a higher deductible ($2500) but I pay $800 per quarter. I figure I'll put the money I save into a savings account and if I end up needing to pay the deductible, I'm prepared. If not...I come out ahead. In the past year I spent $3200 on their insurance premiums, and maybe $500 in out of pocket expenses. So I'm definitely ahead of the group plan my district offers.

 

After reading this thread I feel I might have answered the poll wrong.

I pay about 90/month for health insurance for myself alone. It gets taken out of my paycheck. I dont understand how anyone is paying upwards of 700/month. Is there some fee im not including?

 

The major stuff is covered by the government (OHIP) here in Ontario. I also have a supplementary plan through the university ($450/yr, so $37.50/mo) that partially covers dental, eye exams, glasses, drugs, physiotherapy, and new this year, coverage for visiting the US (which is otherwise $35/wk).

The dental coverage is ok but not great -- it pays for 70% of one cleaning per year, and 50% of amalgam fillings (if you get the white composite fillings, they only pay 50% of what the metal ones would have cost, the rest comes out of pocket). They don't pay anything for crowns, which kind of sucked this year when I cracked a tooth. (they would have, however, paid 70% of the cost to pull the half of the tooth that stayed behind)

It's actually a pretty decent deal overall: an equivalent plan for an individual (i.e.: without the collective bargaining of the school) would be around $800/yr.

 

No, no income protection through health insurance, I asked the question because I couldn't believe $750 a month premium for 1 person was only medical insurance.

My superannuation policy has an income protection and small death cover component to it.
My trade union membership has an extension of workers compensation insurance. Workers compensation cover is provided by my employer and covers lost income if I have an accident at work that causes me to need time off, it also covers the medical cost associated with that injury, my trade union covers me when travelling to and from work for the same thing. One reason I am a trade union member is to get that cover because I sometimes ride a motorbike to work.

 

Want some cold hard numbers?
Here is the breakdown of how our small business is charged.
This is top of the line coverage and we could choose to have cheaper (maybe 10% or so), more restrictive coverage, but our employees like the ability to choose their doctors and not pay large co-pays or high dedcutables. This is the total cost per month, which we the employer pays 75% and the employee pays the rest.

20-24 $398.27
25-29 $398.27
30-34 $462.94
35-39 $455.35
40-44 $481.46
45-49 $596.36
50-54 $729.31
55-59 $948.20
60-64 $1195.10
65+ Medicare
$481.46
65+GRP
$1195.10
1 Child $337.12
2 Children $674.23
3 Children $1011.35

So let's say you are 50, with a spouse and 2 kids, the cost per month would be: $729.31 (X2 for spouse) + 674.23 = $2132.85 per month, of which the employee pays $533.21.

As a small business, we get higher rates than a large business would.
Our company has only 6 employees covered and the monthly bill is over $8000, of which the company has to pay 6K. The cost has risen almost 100% since 2000. It's our highest non-payroll expense and the reason we have to keep raising our rates to our customers.

Our health care costs are pricing US workers right out of the market compared to countries that have nationalized health care. If it goes much higher, the uninsured rate is going to get higher and higher, as employees decide they'd like to work for money instead of healthcare coverage, if it happens fast enough, the entire US healthcare industry will have priced themselves out of the reach of most of it's customers (the US public), and the industry will collapse.

 

In Australia each person pays their own health insurance, even Medicare (Government scheme) is paid for by a levy on wages by the employee. Only people on very low income don't pay that one. Any additional insurance a person wants they pay for themselves. I think because one person pays the full cost of their own insurance it forces the health funds to keep the premium low.
The cost scale here is fixed to the age you joined private cover. If you join before age 30 and maintain cover you pay no more than a 30 year old would pay for life, however for each year you are out of a scheme I believe the premium goes up 1%, something like that. Like a loyalty discount I guess but in reverse and it's portable. If you switch funds you still pay the rate of a 30 year old plus some for each year with no cover at all.
You can pick your own level of cover and co-payment, the minimum is the government Medicare cover.
If you are not in a fund the medicare levy is higher for you unless you are on a very low income.(plus you will pay more for cover when you do finally join a fund)
So as you see there really isn't free medical here for all that many people, only low income earners. Kids complicate the whole Medicare thing too, the more you have the higher your income before you get hit with penalties for not being in a fund.

 

Thanks Darwood. Useful info.

BTW, FYI your numbers match my personal COBRA numbers almost to the dollar for similar coverage, from when I quit my job at a large law firm (over 1000 employees) last year. Under COBRA, I could have continued coverage for me and my daughter for $13,000 a year. At your company, it would have been $12,797.

 

I assume that we all agree the cost of health care is higher than ever before and looks to keep rising. My question is this... How is this cost going to go down by having the government pay for it (universal health care)?

And if the cost doesn't go down, but simply gets subsidized, where do you think this money comes from?

For the most part, I personally don't agree with universal health care, but I also admittedly have a lot to learn about all of the details.

The proposed $106 billion is a ton of money but wouldn't even scratch the surface if the goal is to provide a real health care solution to everyone.

 

I voted $100 - $199. My deduction for insurance will be $245/mo for wife and I, however this is only what we pay, my employer pays much more than that, the $245 is just our portion.
The insurance as I like to call it is the christian science health plan, that is they don't believe in any intervention by medical professionals . My wife is on a cholestral medication that is not on their formulary of approved drugs, they claim she should be using Lipitor, only one problem, she is alergic to Lipator! Our doctor stated that fact, but they dissagree, I guess it's because our doctor has an MD degree, they have an MBA (mainly bulls***ers and a**holes), so that's one more letter, therefore they outrank our doctor. So her cholestral medication is out of pocket.
Are you sure there isn't room in Canada Hyo Silver? We're both quite housebroken and my wife is a really good cook!

 

Our family's health insurance cost is about $20K/year, of which we pay about $3K, the rest is picked up by the employer. We have the low-deductible, low out-of-pocket cost package. We consider ourselves lucky to have this kind coverage at such a good price.

I know some people who went bankrupt due to healthcare emergencies. It's a sad thing to watch, especially when little children have to suffer.

 

Sorry, I didn't think and chose "free" and immediately realized that was going to mess up your poll. I'm also sorry that you have to pay so much for health care and that you still might be denied service or treatment. You guys are getting a bad deal...

 

C'mon up, there's lots of room in Canada. It's just my house that feels a little crowded some days. I've got the cooking taken care of, but some help with the cleaning would be much appreciated. : )

 

Under an universal payer system, like France, the price will come down for the same reason a large company pays less per employee than a small business for private insurance. It is basicly the savings of buying in bulk. It will also save in the consolidation of administration overhead, which is the main reason healthcare costs are double in the US compared to countries with a universal system. The system won't be bearing the cost of hundreds of insurance companies' managerial staff, but just the government's, and the healthcare providers will save by not needing someone to handle all the different insurances' paperworks.

Preventive healthcare is cheaper. If everyone has access to it the rate of more exspensive reactionary medcine will go down, and less of that cost being spread across the group. Even if the government just covers just basic preventive care, the costs of private insurance companies will drop. Which probably won't be seen by the consumer.

While a government administration has its own form of waste, it isn't profit driven. Granted that doesn't mean savings, but means the consumer gets more value for their dollar. Now remember, I'm talking about a single payer system, the government is just replacing the insurance companies, and the healthcare providers remain private. This system can still encourage market forces by using a coinsurance system instead of the a flatrate copay.

I don't remember if it got posted here, but was comparison done of a US resident's(Tenn. specificly) tax burden with other countries. Factoring in the local, state, sales and wage taxes, the person in the US is paying close to, possibly more, than a person in the UK or France, and then they have to pay for healthcare. As with any major change, there will be pain in the beginning, but I think healthcare is more important than other things the government spends money on, like updated our nuclear weapons with untestable warheads.

I have a question for those who don't agree with universal healthcare. If such a system isn't within the government's power or the public good, how are firefighting services?