How much do Americans pay for health insurance?

[Jinny]

too much.

 

[postmortemIA]

I'm on high deductible plan that caps out of pocket expenses at $6000. That includes everything.

 

[jagec]

Why shouldn't we include those? We consider that "health care" even if Canada doesn't.

So you're telling me when people brag about "free health care" in Canada all those things aren't covered?

disability is through SS, and eye care and dental are often additional in the US.

 

[Slew Foot]

Why shouldn't we include those? We consider that "health care" even if Canada doesn't.

So you're telling me when people brag about "free health care" in Canada all those things aren't covered?

The drugs arent covered? Thats the most expensive part.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Why shouldn't we include those? We consider that "health care" even if Canada doesn't.

So you're telling me when people brag about "free health care" in Canada all those things aren't covered?

Pretty much anyone who brags about free healthcare in Canada is an idiot or clueless (read: Canadian). It's free, but you get what you pay for. As soon as you actually have an issue, you go straight to the United States of Real, Non-free Healthcare.

We pay $0/month on a high deductible plan for a family of four. Out of pocket max is $5,000, but all preventative visits are covered 100%. We'll typically spend $300 - $600 over the course of a year for all medical related things, so it ends up being very cost effective compared to most other options. I also pay all of that money from an HSA for the tax savings and my employer gives me $250/year for staying in shape.

Dental and vision are also covered, both of which have free exams (biyearly and yearly, respectively).

A little off topic, but my employer also provides 7x my salary in life insurance at no cost, 2x my salary for my wife for $2/month, and $20k per kid at no cost.

 

[Aikouka]

I pay $0/month for health, dental, and vision.

Same except add life insurance.

 

[Jeff7]

About $2.50/week. :sneaky:

Tis nice.


Though the deductible has continued to climb each year, now to $1000, I believe.


Just a few years ago, both of those figures were $0.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Same except add life insurance.

Yes, I get free life insurance too -- I think it is 2.5x or 3x annual salary for free, and you can pay a little to get more coverage. In terms of health insurance, when they switched us to a high deductible HSA a few years ago, they gave everyone a raise equal to the deductible. Plus I can't forget my other perk of free sports tickets. 😀

 

[mmntech]

Wow did not figure it was that high. I'm single so I'm probably on the low end of that scale in the 3-4k range.

But here's an interesting thought though, if they decided to switch to the US system here, do you think they would lower taxes to compensate? Probably not. 😛

Ha, no. Would just get spent on more pork or a fat pay raise to keep the civil servants voting Liberal. 😀

Pretty much anyone who brags about free healthcare in Canada is an idiot or clueless (read: Canadian). It's free, but you get what you pay for. As soon as you actually have an issue, you go straight to the United States of Real, Non-free Healthcare.

Canada's health care system provides service at least on par with the US, but wait times have long been a major issue. Which is why so many Canadians go south for things like an MRI or elective surgery. You could go months, or over a year waiting for similar things here. Imagine being in pain and having to wait months on end to get it seen too.

The system here is starting to reach critical mass. In the next 10 years, healthcare costs are estimated to consume 42% of government budgets, which is staggering. A lot of it is due to inefficiency. Hospitals are mismanaged, doctors routinely scam the system to get more pay. A common scam is doctors will require patients to come into the office to get prescriptions renewed, even if they're taking the meds indefinitely. My dad has to do this for his blood pressure pills. Doctor never looks at him, but bills the system for a checkup anyway.

On the flip side, there are a lot of people who go to the doctor or hospital for things they really have no business going there for. I've known people who will go just because they have the sniffles and want some stronger meds than the over the counter stuff. At risk of being politically incorrect, I will say that a lot of, ahem, new Canadians do this quite often. When it's "free", people will take unfair advantage of it. Which ends up costing us all more.

Right now governments are facing belt tightening due to ballooning deficits. The healthcare system has gotten to the point where more spending isn't improving service. The problem is that socialized medicine is seen by many as a sacred cow and people will fight tooth and nail against any reforms. Even if it means bankrupting the system and having no money left to care for anyone. The aging population isn't helping matters much either. Governments are very ill prepared to deal with the huge number of senior baby boomers.

As for eye, dental, most drugs etc. We have to get insurance for that unless your company covers you. Fortunately my employer does. That is unless you're on welfare, where the government covers 100% of your health expenses.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Speaking of hospital inefficiencies, hospital costs are also absurd, for example a hospital grade power outlet will cost like 10x what a (higher end, not cheapy) outlet in your home cost, even though it's practically the same thing, maybe slightly more robust. But because it's a hospital, it's more expensive. Everything you can think of from medical equipment to the pins on a bulletin board are overpriced like this because it's "hospital grade". Just that alone probably adds quite a lot of bulk to medical costs.

Lot of political BS stuff that goes on in hospitals too to waste lot of time and resources. I worked IT in a hospital and some of the stuff I got to see made me sick. There was this project that was simple: display patient intake info in the ER on a screen to replace doing it manually via white board. This project took years of meetings and planing. A $3,000 plasma TV was chosen as the display, over a projector that would have probably cost $1,500 to do that resolution. Mounting the TV to the wall and stuff probably added another couple grand. Finally it was go live and the TV was turned on and project put to use. Staff found it was too bright, they rather just do it manually on a white board. TV came down a week later, and a new white board added in it's place. TV was then put in storage.

Seen projects like that many times. Such a waste. That's just our hospital, and I only saw the IT side of this wasteful management, I can't imagine how bad it is in the grand scheme of things.

 

[boomhower]

$0 for me and $110 for my daughter. Wife currently between jobs and insurance. Family plan through my employer is around a full paycheck, it's nuts.

 

[IronWing]

Between employer and employee contributions my plan premium is $10,906.48 per year for family coverage in a high deductible plan with HSA. Out of pocket per year on top of the premiums is ~$2500/year. This is the cheapest family plan offered by my employer.

 

[nickbits]

250/month for me and my wife. Company pays about 350 on top of that. Deductible of 1000 each which I always hit but my wife doesn't. I use healthcare now way more now when I have to pay for it than when I got it for free in Canada. I think I've been to my opthomologist 10 times this month. Temporary blindness ftl!
Fwiw, having lived under both systems, I perfer the us. And that even includes the fact that my $60,000 hospital bill claim initially got denied. That wasn't fun.

 

[ultimatebob]

I once had an insurance plan for $22 a week... I had no idea how bad it was until I actually had to use it. It had a pathetic $2,500 annual coverage limit for ER visits, which I blew through in one visit.

Now I'm on my wife's "cadillac" plan, which basically pays for everything (even childbirth!) short of a $50 deductible.

 

[Strk]

The drugs arent covered? Thats the most expensive part.

Canada's drug costs aren't insane like ours

 

[tokie]

People in Canada don't realize they are the only country in the world with socialized medicine that has to provide roughly comparable doctor salaries to the US. Competition, man.

In Europe, doctors make around 50-100k. In Canada it is between 150-500k. That is a huge difference in costs to the system.

 

[nephilim2k]

Tokie...it depends on specialism. Also the exchange rates put the salary ranges in the same area. UK doctors make around 70-80k for the lower end. In US dollars this is around 130k

 

[Black Octagon]

Holy crap...here in my 'socialist' European country I get the best health insurance money can buy, and I don't pay a cent for anything taking place in a clinic/hospital or linked to that hospitalization

 

[Franz316]

Wow, some of these numbers being thrown around are really high. I don't know how people can afford it. What is more unsettling is that they continue to rise every year. I guess it's no surprise that the healthcare industry makes up a whopping 18% of our GDP. What other countries think of us is true - in America, you should never make the fatal mistake of being poor or getting sick.

How long can people and companies put up with these ridiculous and rising rates?

 

[Soccerman06]

About $50 a month for a HSA with a 80/20 split and 2k cap and $16 for dental. Employer puts in $1k a year into the account and I have 5k sitting there waiting.

 

[Craig234]

Obamacare (PCIP) for one person with pre-existing conditions: $366 per month, with deductibles of over $3,000 for the rest of the year.

That's a far better plan than available from any other insures I know of; practically all won't insure at all, otherwise it's far ore expensive.

 

[stlc8tr]

Shouldn't you be comparing the total cost of the insurance instead of just the employee portion? You can look on the W2 to see the number for the year.

 

[CPA]

Average cost of health insurance in the US is $5.6k for an individual and $15.7k for a family.



Yes, I would recommend that he pick up a high deductible plan. A quick price check for me indicates that it would run me around $40/month for a $10k deductible with $13k annual out-of-pocket max plan...and considering that there is no lifetime limit, that would be all the plan that I would need as a young healthy buck.

Not sure if you missed it or didn't post it on purpose, but her is the actual annual cost for an employee from your link: Average cost to employee enrolled in company plan $1,225 and $4,316, respectively. And since the OP mentioned tax bill for Canadians, I assumed he was looking for employee cost.

I pay about $6K for the me and the family, and after my son's kidney transplant, I'd say I got the better end of the deal.

 

[CPA]

Holy crap...here in my 'socialist' European country I get the best health insurance money can buy, and I don't pay a cent for anything taking place in a clinic/hospital or linked to that hospitalization

Yeah, sure you don't. The money paid for those services just grows on trees, right?

 

[Meghan54]

Yeah, sure you don't. The money paid for those services just grows on trees, right?

I'm sure he realizes that taxes pay for the care.

But I'm also sure he realizes better outcomes from his tax money being spent vs. what we in the U.S. spend on healthcare, which is the most of any country on the face of the earth. And such results we get from the spending....infant mortality rates comparable to Cuba, down around 35th place.

But some countries have realized that a healthy population is a productive population, that a person/family shouldn't be driven into bankruptcy after a serious, life threatening health crisis--even with having health insurance, that health care providers shouldn't have to shift costs from non-insured to those with insurance, thereby raising prices for everyone involved, etc., etc.