Healthcare Insurance..... out of control!

[DJD]

My friend just got a quote on what the family plan will cost her at work. $750 a month!! Now how in the world can single/divorced single income people afford that? When you consider a mortgage, life insurance, dental insurance, food, clothing, car payment, car insurance, utilities and retirement if possible I can see how people get in financial trouble.

What a racket!! We need reform for sure...I don't want the gubment healthcare option I just want to see tort reform, competition across state lines and illegals not being covered for free. The little guy is getting pushed into poverty no matter how hard we try to provide for ourselves.

[Devils Horse]

That's pretty steep, her employer must not subsidize part of the cost like most do. Seems she'd do better looking at KCHIP for the kids, and taking a lower cost single coverage plan at work.

Tort reform won't be happening because all ranking politicians are lawyers.

I don't know why free competition across state lines is not the norm, but I'd guess state level pols have as much to with that as the feds.

In many people's opinion illegals cannot constitutionally be excluded from government healthcare. Look for an ACLU lawsuit coming to a theater near you.

There are no easy answers, but calling for the government to fix healthcare will elicit the following response: A federal program that spreads healthcare costs for everyone, working or not, legal or illegal among all tax payers.

[greenriverman1]

You know that the gov would have to save all Americans a lot of money if they would deport the illegals.

Deportation would save us money on health care, crime, food stamps and many other costly items.

Our gov, both parties are not working for us any longer. They are out to help themselves.

[mhall]

Illegals were a big part of getting his excellency in office, they aren't going anywhere.


I agree Tort reform and get rid of all illegals and MOST of the problem is solved. But it's not going to happen.

Yes Don it's a complete and total rip off, Insurance companies are nothing more than legal Gangsters.

[RoadToad]

You know that the gov would have to save all Americans a lot of money if they would deport the illegals.

Deportation would save us money on health care, crime, food stamps and many other costly items.

Our gov, both parties are not working for us any longer. They are out to help themselves.

A nice idea, but kind of simplistic. Just how much WOULD it cost to deport 20,000,000 people? Logistically, how are we going to accomplish it? If it truly is affordable and "do-able," then I'm all for it.

[GeoFisher]

A nice idea, but kind of simplistic. Just how much WOULD it cost to deport 20,000,000 people? Logistically, how are we going to accomplish it? If it truly is affordable and "do-able," then I'm all for it.

The EASIEST way is to NOT let them work.......they will go home on their own.

Lots already have.

And with regards to SENDING them HOME........you could send a WHOLE hell of a lot of them home for the cost of a RIDE on a military transport aircraft.........Fly them to checkpoint cities around the border.....

I suspect logistics is really NOT the problem.........getting MEXICO to take them back is though.......



Later.

Geo

[RIBLUEFISH]

She should be able to get private insurance for less than $350 a month for a family plan. We had one with Humana 2 years ago and for a family of four our premium was $265 a month with $25 co-pay for doctors visits. I believe it was called Humana One. The only thing I will say is their customer service was not the greatest, but, we were on it for a short time and did use it with no problems.

[know1]

She should be able to get private insurance for less than $350 a month for a family plan. We had one with Humana 2 years ago and for a family of four our premium was $265 a month with $25 co-pay for doctors visits. I believe it was called Humana One. The only thing I will say is their customer service was not the greatest, but, we were on it for a short time and did use it with no problems.

Yep. The cost of my wife's insurance through my work's plan is higher than it costs us to just get a private insurance policy for her.

That being said, I maintain that the insurance industry itself is the reason rates are so high.

We are in essence paying someone to pay for our healthcare for us. Why can't we do it ourselves and cut out the middleman. The insurance industry is making a profit and paying salaries out of our money before they use our money to pay for our healthcare.

I think we should go to catastrophic health insurance only and let the consumers find the rates they want to pay for the actual care.

[DJD]

She should be able to get private insurance for less than $350 a month for a family plan. We had one with Humana 2 years ago and for a family of four our premium was $265 a month with $25 co-pay for doctors visits. I believe it was called Humana One. The only thing I will say is their customer service was not the greatest, but, we were on it for a short time and did use it with no problems.

Exactly what I said...I know she is looking into that option.

[GeoFisher]

Yep. The cost of my wife's insurance through my work's plan is higher than it costs us to just get a private insurance policy for her.

That being said, I maintain that the insurance industry itself is the reason rates are so high.

We are in essence paying someone to pay for our healthcare for us. Why can't we do it ourselves and cut out the middleman. The insurance industry is making a profit and paying salaries out of our money before they use our money to pay for our healthcare.

I think we should go to catastrophic health insurance only and let the consumers find the rates they want to pay for the actual care.

Do you know how much ADMINISTRATIVE costs are associated with most health care companies.....I KNOW.......

To say insurance is the problem is simply WRONG........and who do you think will run a government system, or the "public option". Since GUBMENT can't do anything right, how do you think they will do administering health care....

I bet you didnt' know that there are FEDERAL MANDATES as to how much an insurance company MUST pay out.....There is very little left for overhead.....and what is saved between overhead and costs, are taken as profits.......

If you really want to get creative, NON-PROFIT insurance companies "should" be the BEST of the BEST, but they have the worse ASO costs, the WORSE administrative costs, the WORSE performance, and the WORSE customer satisfaction in the industry........

[GeoFisher]

I think we should go to catastrophic health insurance only and let the consumers find the rates they want to pay for the actual care.

This is really one of the BEST options........but you still need someone to administer and pay claims with Catastrophic insurance........who will do that.

Since I went to a HSA and a High Deductible plan, I feel I'm in much more control over my health care costs........I still have a "blanket" to cover me when I have a SERIOUS problem, but everyday medical expenses are covered by ME.

Later,

Geo

[Tyme2fish]

I pay for my own health insurance and here is where I have a problem.

I recently had to have a blood panel done. Lipids,A1C for diabetes and the PSA level. Just regular scheduled blood testing for a man over 60.

This is where it gets interesting. The clinic charged $615.00 for this work.
Insurance only allowed $37.90. That's right.. a disallowance of $577.10.

Of the allowed amount, I paid $11.37 and insurance paid $26.53

What happened to the $577.10? The clinic "ate it". But if I didn't have insurance they would have socked me with a $615.00 bill.

You can go without insurance and pay full costs, or sign up for the extortion benefits and pay the insurance company to act as an agent and get you discounted prices. Why the heck can't a clinic or doctor's office charge me the price that insurance pays plus 10% and we could eliminate the insurance companies.

I have Anthem insurance and was recently in the middle of the Norton/Anthem dispute. When I called my doctor's office to ask their price for my follow up office visit (he just went over my blood tests and took my blood pressure) their response was, "It depends." I responded with, "Depends on what?" Well we really can't give you a price. WTF??? Someone in billing is sure as heck going to assign me a cost so why can't you tell me upfront what that cost will be? They finally gave me a price range of between $60.00 and $90.00 for my office visit. Guess what I was charged. Yep, you got it, the highest amount of $90.00. grrrrrrrrrrrr

I have every confidence in my doctor and he doesn't even know what the office does in billing. He's basically an employee of Norton.

The saving grace here is that my doctor does give me free samples and he gave me enough of one of my insulins to more than cover my office visit cost ten fold.