Health Care

[bcmatt]

I'm sort of curious, and I feel like it is a safe environment to ask since this is the largest community of respectful and intelligent americans that I (as a canadian) get to be a part of.

I don't quite understand american healthcare. I know Obama has been changing it and it seems like he is trying to get it more towards the canadian style, but the "in-between" of where it's at, supposedly causes even more problems.

I'm wondering if any of you guys, or anyone you know, has had some medical problem that ended up ruining you financially. As far as I understand your system, this is a real possibility and it seems really scary.

How expensive is good medical insurance? Do you know anyone that lost their house because they either don't have insurance or couldn't afford good enough insurance?

Here, (except one rich province) we do pay a quarterly or monthly fee to the government for medical services plan and it is based on our last income tax return. So, my upper-middle-class parents pay maybe about $50 per month, while I pay closer to $50 per year. It never crosses our mind that there could ever possibly be any expense or bill to visit a doctor or go to a hospital. It's always free, and everyone gets treated the same, with the same respect. I get the impression that if I was in america there would also be a financial ruin factor attached to any possibility of getting sick. Is this true in your actual experience?

[Jana]

The financial ruin factor is a very real possibility. I know more than a few who have gone from a stable lifestyle to a level of debt they will most likely never be able to repay. And many of them had insurance but the insurance company found a way to deny coverage.

I personally had a 28,000 dollar hospital bill for a ruptured appendix--I had just gotten a new job and my insurance coverage hadn't taken effect yet (if my appendix could have lasted three more weeks I would have been covered). Since I was unemployed for a long period of time prior to that, I didn't have insurance and couldn't afford the monthly premiums (about 450 a month for someone my age). I have since repaid every dollar of that bill but oh my, it has certainly had an impact on my finances.

Hopefully, when Obamacare is fully implemented and the bugs worked out of it, people will have more security with regards to healthcare.

[Jana]

The big kicker with my appendix adventure was the ambulance ride. They billed me 1300 dollars to ride a half mile to the hospital. All they did was strap me on the gurney--no pain killers or anything. But you know what? They never even turned on the siren! Hell's bells, if I am paying that much for a lumber wagon ride in an ambulance, at least they could have turned on the fricking siren!

[crbowman]

Yes, it is a VERY real possibility here.
Recently, my Dad died after a fight with cancer. Despite having very good, and very expensive insurance that he had paid into for over 30 years, had it not been for Medicare my Mom would have lost everything including her home. The insurance industry in this country is something that very few people have the resources to fight, and very few politicians have the nerve to take on.

[bcmatt]

Ouch! that hurts! I'm often surprised by what actual hospital bills are. I'm sorry that happened to you, and impressed that you didn't let it sink you either.
For that price, you'd think they'd put something in too... sorry, when I think of the capitalization of things like surgery, my mind goes to electives like boobs and teeth.

We need insurance or benefits for teeth, but I think a breast might be free after a masectomy...

[boots]

Insurance - you can't afford not to have it, but sometimes it doesn't do much good either.

I work with a guy who has had a successful 30-plus year career as an engineer. He is now 63 and living paycheck to paycheck because of medical bills from his wife's terminal illess. I'm sure he had health insurance and made good money all those years. He should be retired and living the good life, but now he is just trying to make ends meet until his social security kicks in.

It just don't seem right. Makes me wonder why I bother to work and save money.

And don't get me started on how the elder care industry effectively "harvests" elderly folks' life savings in as few months as possible. It's better to shoot yourself than to go into a nursing home. It doesn't matter how much money you have - they will find ways to get it fast, before the patient kicks the bucket.

[bcmatt]

Yes, it is a VERY real possibility here.
Recently, my Dad died after a fight with cancer. Despite having very good, and very expensive insurance that he had paid into for over 30 years, had it not been for Medicare my Mom would have lost everything including her home. The insurance industry in this country is something that very few people have the resources to fight, and very few politicians have the nerve to take on.

I'm sorry to hear about your dad, CR. That sucks. We can all relate to losing someone to the big C, but it's hard each time it hits so close to home. We even lost someone recently on TAG as well.

I am impressed when politicians are willing to take on big business. But I suppose the system does not easily allow those that might, to even become potential candidates?

[Cantplay]

I'm paying 800+ per month per employee for major medical with no dental.

John.

[bcmatt]

Insurance - you can't afford not to have it, but sometimes it doesn't do much good either.

I work with a guy who has had a successful 30-plus year career as an engineer. He is now 63 and living paycheck to paycheck because of medical bills from his wife's terminal illess. I'm sure he had health insurance and made good money all those years. He should be retired and living the good life, but now he is just trying to make ends meet until his social security kicks in.

It just don't seem right. Makes me wonder why I bother to work and save money.

And don't get me started on how the elder care industry effectively "harvests" elderly folks' life savings in as few months as possible. It's better to shoot yourself than to go into a nursing home. It doesn't matter how much money you have - they will find ways to get it fast, before the patient kicks the bucket.

I guess you can't take it with you when you go, and they want to make sure you don't leave it behind to anyone either.
Elder-care is expensive, regardless. Government subsidizes here, but it is pretty finely tuned to only cover what you absolutely can't afford. My grandma was in a nice home for the last few years of her life and it was interesting how exponentially her rates increased as my dad took over her money management and her investments yielded more, basically ensuring that all interest earned pretty much exactly was what it cost her to live there. Lucky for her she checked out shortly after the recession got bad and her investments were not yielding the income to cover what her previous year's income tax forms suggested they would (what each year's cost for living there is based on).

So basically, make sure you blow or give away what money you have before going into a home, unless you see it as a time to be generous to the government.

On a somewhat related topic, make sure to get rid of your real teeth before you can no longer brush them yourself, because that is not something that will be done for you, but they will help you care for your dentures.

[bcmatt]

I'm paying 800+ per month per employee for major medical with no dental.

John.

Wow! OK, thanks. That gives me an idea.

[dartanion]

I pay $540 per month for pretty basic coverage, for just myself. So that's $6500 for a year of premiums, plus a $2500 deductible and $4000 out of pocket. Thus, I have another $6500 before coverage kicks in. So, $13k a year!!! My little back injury this spring put me over the $6500 mark quickly with an MRI, and 2 rounds of cortisone shots. The total time it took for these services was about 2 hours and the total cost was about $10k. And, I had to fight with my insurance company to pay what they were supposed to pay. The plan I am on is pretty typical of what small business policies look like. Stupid expensive for shitty minimal coverage. Now, I can easily see how one health event can bankrupt a person that has insurance.

[LeftyStrat]

My employer pays 70%, but my out of pocket is about $700 a month for a family of five.

The biggest ripoff is our paid prescription plan. I was paying $10 a month co-pay for generic high blood pressure medication, only to find out I could buy the drug without my plan at Costco for $4.

[boots]

I had an insurance company (can't remember which one) whose policy it was to automatically deny all claims. We had to call and haggle with them over every single thing. They usually ended up covering most things, but what a hassle they were to deal with!

[billyz]

I personally know several friends who are bankrupt because of medical bills. The latest was diagnosed with Prostate cancer. He was fully covered at work or so he thought. Now, he has 100s of thousands in medical bills. He just tosses them into the trash.

I have no insurance, cannot afford it at all, I have type 2 Diabetes. I found out that I can get everything done for a fraction of the normal insurance adjusted prices because I pay cash. I needed an MRI, with insurance it would have cost $3600, My doctor informed me they would do it for $600 if I paid cash. They did it no problem. Guess who was going to get the other $3000 ? Insurance companies!

Insurance is the Mafia middle man we do not need. My doctors have all told me they have to charge more to cover the cost of administration and fighting with the insurance companies to get paid for the services they provide their patients.

A girlfriend's mother worked for Aetna. she said she worked in the Claims Denial department, it was more than 75% of the insurance companies staff. And took up almost all of the Giant building she worked at.

Obama care would have been much better if the Insurance industry had not paid their congressman to insert and distort the bill so much, it now benefits them even more than the people it was meant to help.

Z

[HeeBGB]

I pay about $6050 annually out of my paycheck for medical and dental for my entire family (5 people). I have a $12k deductable YES $12k BUT my company pays the whole deductable. I have a credit card that I use for any deductable payments I need to make. My coverage is pretty good so I have no complaints at the moment.