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Holy healthcare cost increase Batman!

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BagOfWalnuts said:
It's odd that health care is linked to employers, I never understood that.

It shouldn't be any different than car insurance is, as far as actually picking a policy. If employers want to try and subsidize part of that and lure better employees, then cool.
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At one time, employers did it for 2 reasons: To lure better employees and to have "healthy" employees. Now, they don't give a shit about that with global offshoring and cheap foreign wages. It is just another expense that they are slowly pushing over to the employee or completely off the books.
 
blinblue said:
Any option of not taking the benefits and getting cash instead? I know it's fairly uncommon, but my wife's work let us take a cash benefit of around $600/month in lieu of their health insurance. Private health insurance is $48/month for me, $70/month for her. So that's like $480 in cash that we wouldn't have seen otherwise (that, and to have me on her plan I'd have to pay an extra $600/month to get the "family" plan).

Private insurance can be had pretty cheap if you are fairly young and in decent health. Even cheaper if you get a high deductible plan, plus you could get an HSA eligible plan and then all your medical expenses can be tax free.
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That's bad business which is why most companies don't allow employees to do that. Two prong: 1) it's in the company's interest that their most valuable assets remain healthy, and 2) allowing cash option reduces enrollment and leverage when negotiating pricing with the insurance co.
 
Engineer said:
There is a "hidden line" on your paycheck that shows what it is. Either GST or PST or some other item on there. You might think it's not there....but it is.

Everyone should be paying for it, at least something, so they will have some "skin in the game". :hmm:
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As time goes on I'm starting to like the idea of national healthcare more and more. Right now there's plenty of people that don't pay into the system yet drain money out of it.
 
Mine didn't move much if at all thankfully. I know a guy who's a contractor and his rates have gone up a lot over the past few years. Pays about a grand/month for a family of four in good health, but he never wants to be caught pants down if something happens so has good coverage.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
$0. Employer pays it all for health, dental, and vision.
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Nice :biggrin:
That's the one cool thing about having a job. The perks. While my dad was still an engineer, dental and vision care was still a free benefit given by the employer. After retiring, he looked up the cost of getting dental insurance and the insurance companies wanted over $5000 per year. Apparently old people need their teeth fixed a lot. So now my parents don't have any dental or vision insurance.

Health is free in this country and dental and vision are "free" through my employer. Opting out of the dental/vision/drug insurance will save $150 per year (not worth it). Getting the super awesome insurance would cost an extra $300 per year but it would cover a ton of shit and the dental would have no yearly maximum. Right now my dental max is $2000 and I'm already a stone's throw away from it, and I'm just 1 person!
 
Health insurance went up ~$40 per month for me, so now I pay $320 per month for the premium hybrid Kaiser + extended network plan for me and my wife. I really wish we could specify the tier per person. I don't need fancy healthcare, but my wife does. Her once monthly infusion alone would cost $1900 per month without insurance....much less the cost of the extended-network specialists, prescriptions, etc...

Admittedly, our deductibles and max out of pocket (which we hit every year) are pretty low.

Thankfully, pretty much everything else stayed the same.
 
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Its only going to get worse for those who are in good health and have a low monthly payment/high deductable (catastrophic) plan as those will be illegal under Obamacare.
 
amdhunter said:
Whatever happened to Obamacare anyway? I was looking forward to dropping my current expensive plans and switching to free care from the government.

Oh right...Conservatives made sure it didn't happen.

Freaking Conservatives piss me off. They support killing everywhere and cutting services for everyone, but when it comes to providing low or no cost healthcare for their own people, they have a problem with that.

I hope every Conservative catches AIDS just so they can go broke trying to live longer. Idiots.
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i'm a liberal and i still think obamacare sucked. it gives more power to insurance companies. what should have happened was a government health plan for private insurance to be forced to compete with so insurance companies would quit being dicks.
 
Old company healthcare was pretty good, like 180 a month of two people, no deductible, RX, Dental, Vision. New company (smaller company) has an absolutely awful plan. Two people is $242 per month with a $2400 deductible. Guess I'm happy I have a job.
 
Patranus said:
Its only going to get worse for those who are in good health and have a low monthly payment/high deductable (catastrophic) plan as those will be illegal under Obamacare.
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That's why EVERYONE should pay in...you know....have some skin in the game.
 
Engineer said:
That's why EVERYONE should pay in...you know....have some skin in the game.
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Huh? Those with catastrophic plans DO pay in and have "skin" in the game.
I don't need my premiums to go up because a law tells me I have to buy preventative services I do not need or I will never use.

I am more than happy paying a minimal fee and having to pay a lot out of pocket *if* something bad happens then have the government say that XYZ has to be provided for free when I am never going to use XYZ but have my premiums skyrocket.

I don't care if I have to pay $100 copay to see the doctor. That is the *choice* I am making with my plan. I would much rather pay $100 if/when I visit the doctor than have to pay $100 more per month and have those services provided "free" of charge.
 
eits said:
i'm a liberal and i still think obamacare sucked. it gives more power to insurance companies. what should have happened was a government health plan for private insurance to be forced to compete with so insurance companies would quit being dicks.
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QFT. It was a huge giveaway to big pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. There's still some good stuff about "Obamacare" though. (I hate that name) such as the stuff about preexisting conditions, etc. (my fiancée has epilepsy...so its kind of a big deal to me) The biggest tragedy of the whole thing is that the public option was stripped out of it. With no public option, the "consumer" will still get fleeced, which will all but guarantee an eventual movement towards a single-payor system.
 
SSSnail said:
It's that time of the year, open enrollment and I just finished putting mine in for next year. Holy crap, my deduction per pay period now is just a tad over $200. Well, this includes health (Kaiser HMO), dental, vision, disability insurance and life insurance but still... That's an absurd amount increase from ~$120/pay period for this year.

Did you do yours? What is your deduction? Healthcare cost is ridiculous, and damn if you do and damn if you don't.
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Kaiser is terrible coverage...
 
Patranus said:
Huh? Those with catastrophic plans DO pay in and have "skin" in the game.
I don't need my premiums to go up because a law tells me I have to buy preventative services I do not need or I will never use.

I am more than happy paying a minimal fee and having to pay a lot out of pocket *if* something bad happens then have the government say that XYZ has to be provided for free when I am never going to use XYZ but have my premiums skyrocket.

I don't care if I have to pay $100 copay to see the doctor. That is the *choice* I am making with my plan. I would much rather pay $100 if/when I visit the doctor than have to pay $100 more per month and have those services provided "free" of charge.
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You know what I'm talking about. Millions that get FREE care on your borrowed deficit dime that have no skin in this game (or tax game for that matter). Since you think that the bottom 47% of workers should pay something to federal taxes, don't you think that those that use health care should pay for part of it? Or are you just fine with paying theirs too?
 
Corporate Thug said:
Kaiser is terrible coverage...
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Not really. It just depends on what coverage you have through them.

If you have at least one health care professional between you and your spouse, your coverage is typically top of the heap. Kaiser takes great care of their own employees.
 
Engineer said:
You know what I'm talking about. Millions that get FREE care on your borrowed deficit dime that have no skin in this game (or tax game for that matter). Since you think that the bottom 47% of workers should pay something to federal taxes, don't you think that those that use health care should pay for part of it? Or are you just fine with paying theirs too?
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I do.
But those bottom 47% aren't going to pay jack shit with or without Obamacare. If anything Obamacare increases the subsidies to those that leech off society so all it ends up doing is driving up my costs.

Just let me keep my catastrophic plan at the rate I am paying today.

Sadly, the "progressives" would rather use health care as yet another tool to try and redistribute wealth from the productive segment of society to the moochers.
 
I'm rather fond of the "cash on the barrelhead or die on the curb" option. That should solve most of the problems with the bottom feeders abusing the ER.
 
amdhunter said:
Whatever happened to Obamacare anyway? I was looking forward to dropping my current expensive plans and switching to free care from the government.

Oh right...Conservatives made sure it didn't happen.

Freaking Conservatives piss me off. They support killing everywhere and cutting services for everyone, but when it comes to providing low or no cost healthcare for their own people, they have a problem with that.

I hope every Conservative catches AIDS just so they can go broke trying to live longer. Idiots.
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They also rail against womens right to choose, but then turn around and demand we defund any womens health services programs under the guise of government abuse! Can't have it both ways BOEHNER!
 
Corporate Thug said:
Kaiser is terrible coverage...
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Not really, I'm in great shape and health, do is mrs sssnail so we don't need specialized care. And the few times that mrs sssnail had to go see a physician for some skin stuff, they were more than satisfactorily took care of her. Not only that but the one time I had to call my physician about my a back spain, he prescribed Vicodin without even seeing me. :awe: how freaking cool is that?

Besides, the plan I have with Kaiser is the most comprehensive, cost me least, and I live in California so it works out.
 
I think ours went up a little bit...hell I dunno...it's still cheap as hell.

It's pulled out of the wife's Navy retirement check. :\
 
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