Exploding health care premium

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left the PPO a few years ago for Kaiser HMO. It's cheaper and no worse quality, if anything, I'm impressed by the efficiency.

We also have a high deductible plan and a HSA that we max out. We cash flow our health expenses as we will never hit the deductible, although if something does happen we can easily pay the deductible, which with Kaiser, isn't that high, about 4k per family member. This allows us to treat our HSA as a secret investment account and it's done very well. When we retire it will be worth quite a bit and we don't have to use it for health expenses. It becomes basically another Roth.

Just learn to be smart with your healthcare planning. Use it as a tool to work for you.

The HSA isn't a "secret" investment account. It is set up to be used this way so that you pay for most of your expenses out of pocket instead of tapping into insurance.

I thought you couldn't have a HDHP/HSA if you had a "regular" insurance plan. Am I wrong?
For example, I couldn't have insurance through my work and also be on my husband's HDHP plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our premium at work is going up by whopping 40%. So we will now pay $980 compared to $700 last year. Of course the salary stays the same.

Anyone in a similar situation?

Hardly call $280 bucks pre tax a big deal. A good family plan cost 36k so your company is paying 2/3rds

[Anonymous]

Our country could easily have Medicare for all but for some insane reason MAGA feels that it is better to go bankrupt die young suffer ill health rather than have a “whiff” of socialism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait till you retire or use COBRA it wil be $2400 a month. After paying into Medicare for 40 years each we then get soaked on Part B premiums adjusted by income.

Wow. That's really high.

That's exactly what happens if you are not "poor". If you have saved and planned for retirement, you get soaked with just basic medical insurance from age 65+ and you literally have no choice (or options).
We have paid over $600K+ into Medicare over the years (likely more), yet it will be about $1200 per adult for medical, gap plan G and prescription coverage--that does not include any vision or dental plans.

We plan to retire early. COBRA will be $2400/month and I'd happily pay that until we hit 65 if it was avaiable (it won't unless we retire at 63.5) Because a EPO (not doing HMO, want to keep our doctors and there are no PPOs in our area) will cost over $3K for the 2 of us at age 60 for a Silver plan, and bronze is only $200/month less and that is just MEDICAL. The deducbiles for those "Silver Plans" are $9K/$18K as well. (our COBRA is $1K/$2K).

So yes, you pay a fortune for basic insurance that sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well someone has to pay for everyone who got glp1s off label.

Yup. Some people have genuine health issues that they are not responsible for. But a 5'6 woman with no diabetes weighting 145 lbs jumping on glp1 is ridiculous and we are all paying for it because she wants to be skinny. She should pay for it out of her own damn pocket.

What on earth are you on about? Anyone who is 5’6” and 145lbs isn’t getting a glp1 without paying “out of her own damn pocket” (and she probably isn’t even getting it then).

This is the real problem— extreme ignorance regarding how the healthcare system works.

As someone who was 5'3" and 165lb, I bought my GLP1s with my own money. And, because i am now healthier at 140lb and can exercise again and have lower cholesterol, I probably saved my health insurance money because now I don't need cholesterol meds and have lower risks of major illness that they would cover.

Health costs are super complex, but hospital consolidation, pharmacy approval middlemen who take cuts for formularies, ACA cutbacks are all probably more real version of the problem. But fairly, we are all resentful of how bad our health care system is. It's atrocious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our country could easily have Medicare for all but for some insane reason MAGA feels that it is better to go bankrupt die young suffer ill health rather than have a “whiff” of socialism.

Medicare is a scam. We pay into it all our lives, then we are hit with monthly premiums, deductibles, and copays and still need a supplement. If you have tricare, you are forced to take it and pay all the premiums, etc. when you already have government care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait till you retire or use COBRA it wil be $2400 a month. After paying into Medicare for 40 years each we then get soaked on Part B premiums adjusted by income.

Wow. That's really high.

That's exactly what happens if you are not "poor". If you have saved and planned for retirement, you get soaked with just basic medical insurance from age 65+ and you literally have no choice (or options).
We have paid over $600K+ into Medicare over the years (likely more), yet it will be about $1200 per adult for medical, gap plan G and prescription coverage--that does not include any vision or dental plans.

We plan to retire early. COBRA will be $2400/month and I'd happily pay that until we hit 65 if it was avaiable (it won't unless we retire at 63.5) Because a EPO (not doing HMO, want to keep our doctors and there are no PPOs in our area) will cost over $3K for the 2 of us at age 60 for a Silver plan, and bronze is only $200/month less and that is just MEDICAL. The deducbiles for those "Silver Plans" are $9K/$18K as well. (our COBRA is $1K/$2K).

So yes, you pay a fortune for basic insurance that sucks.

Or, you keep working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait till you retire or use COBRA it wil be $2400 a month. After paying into Medicare for 40 years each we then get soaked on Part B premiums adjusted by income.

Wow. That's really high.

That's exactly what happens if you are not "poor". If you have saved and planned for retirement, you get soaked with just basic medical insurance from age 65+ and you literally have no choice (or options).
We have paid over $600K+ into Medicare over the years (likely more), yet it will be about $1200 per adult for medical, gap plan G and prescription coverage--that does not include any vision or dental plans.

We plan to retire early. COBRA will be $2400/month and I'd happily pay that until we hit 65 if it was avaiable (it won't unless we retire at 63.5) Because a EPO (not doing HMO, want to keep our doctors and there are no PPOs in our area) will cost over $3K for the 2 of us at age 60 for a Silver plan, and bronze is only $200/month less and that is just MEDICAL. The deducbiles for those "Silver Plans" are $9K/$18K as well. (our COBRA is $1K/$2K).

So yes, you pay a fortune for basic insurance that sucks.

I started Medicare last year, but had health insurance through work until then. I was laid off pretty much right near my 65th birthday. I am paying more than I expected for Medicare but not nearly $1200 a month. You do have to pay more if you make more than something like $107,000 per year per person, but I do not in retirement. So I went from paying about $175 a month while working to about $450 a month for Medicare, a supplement plan, drug plan and dental insurance, which doesn’t cover much at all.

[Anonymous]

I work for the insurance and pay 1k/mo for a family of four. I think it's a lot but at the same time it's a pretty good plan, like a silver ACA plan we'd have to pay over 2k for. So I count my blessings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well someone has to pay for everyone who got glp1s off label.

Yup. Some people have genuine health issues that they are not responsible for. But a 5'6 woman with no diabetes weighting 145 lbs jumping on glp1 is ridiculous and we are all paying for it because she wants to be skinny. She should pay for it out of her own damn pocket.

The vanity cases have to pay privately. The sketchy doctors who give medication to women who are size medium and want to be a size small are probably being paid privately too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are retired and pay about $5350/mo for the 4. Up from $4900 last year but down from a few years ago when it was $5500. PPO and it sucks

Seriously? Well I think it’s completely crazy not to have health care… but there is an inflection point, and you are certainly at it.

DP: The reason you have to pay it is because you never know when you are one minute away from a $1-2M+ hospital stay. And even if you are worth $4-5M, you do not want to drain your savings for that.

And while you think it "wont happen to me", I have a friend who had just that happen in late 40s. Just fine one day, very healthy, then had an aneurysm and quite frankly is lucky someone found them (they were traveling for work) and are alive without any real issues. They had 4 weeks in CCU/ICU, another 4 days in Hospital and so many procedures during those first 4 weeks. I know the bills (after insurance adjustment) were well over $1.5M for just the hospital stay. Never mind the next 6 months plus of followup visits and PT/OT/Speech/therapies to return to "normal".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are retired and pay about $5350/mo for the 4. Up from $4900 last year but down from a few years ago when it was $5500. PPO and it sucks

Wow. What percentage of your income is it as a retiree?

Now I understand why people are saying $1 million retirement is nothing.

How do people will less than a million in retirement live? Wow

They are very wealthy if they have minor kids and retired.

Yes, we are very wealthy. It’s still a lot of money but we can afford it.

But it shouldn't cost that much for healthcare in our 50s and 60s. The sheer fact that my healthcare goes from $500/month for family (employee, spouse and all the kids you want) to $3K for medical only if I want to buy a plan when I'm retired and not 65 is ridiculous (and that plan is only medical and has $8K/18K+ deductibles).

Medicare also should NOT cost $2K+ for a couple over 65 for ONLY medical just because they saved for retirement and saved. When in reality those people are the ones who have funded medicare for 1000s of people. We need a new system, one without all the insurance companies, one where people are not making 5-10M+ for managing a health care company. Do universal HC and we don't need 75-80% of those involved in health insurance now. Costs would go down, and the actual nurses and doctors could get paid more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are retired and pay about $5350/mo for the 4. Up from $4900 last year but down from a few years ago when it was $5500. PPO and it sucks

Seriously? Well I think it’s completely crazy not to have health care… but there is an inflection point, and you are certainly at it.

Yeah, that's about 65K a year in premiums. Do you think your family will rack up medical bills worth of 65K every year? Even if you go out of pocket for specialists and scans/tests it would be a few grand if you start having issues. After the years you paid into it, like 10 years of being relatively healthy you are out of 650k. The only thing that can justify it is some catastrophic situation where your medical bills are in 7 figures. Otherwise, it's not even deserving to be called "insurance".

If you do not have e insurance, you get charged the full rate which can be 5-10 what is charged to insurance companies.

I imagine it depends on what you elect to do. We're a high deductible with HSA so I've shopped around and so far the difference between cash and insurance hasn't been much.

You definitely want insurance for the major crises but for a lot of everyday visits and consultations I don't think it is as much of a difference as you might think.

Have you ever looked at what the doctors charge, before the insurance company’s reduced fees?

Doctors don’t actually charge that. It’s the number they claim in order to get the number they want from the insurance “reduced” fees.

The lack of knowledge on what a f—king scam the entire healthcare industry is in this country is actually frightening.

Oh no, lots of us know. The problem is how difficult it is to change the system.

But lots of us have also witnessed "healthy" 40/50 somethings who would have run up millions in bills if they did not have health insurance. I can list 10+ friends/family in the last 2 years alone.
So you could bankrupt yourself and be living in a cardboard box for retirement if you don't have some health insurance and just "wing it and pray"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some illnesses are terminal regardless of quality medical care. Access to quality medical doesn’t prevent all pain, suffering, and death.

However, if I'm diagnosed with cancer of any type before I'm 75+, I'd prefer to get treatment and be around as long as possible for my family. I wouldnt' want to die at 45 with breast cancer and leave my kids without one parent just to "save money". Quality medical can prolong life(sometimes many years) and make those years you have as enjoyable as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This discussion is why I want the right to die. I'd rather skip all the healthcare and just die when I want, rather than be forced to stay alive when I don't want to.

+1. My mom has diabetes and has to take insulin everyday. If I had diabetes, I'd rather not take insulin everyday, but I also don't want to be blind but still alive because my other functions are taking longer to die off than my eyes. I would just rather end it.

Seriously, if you had diabetes you'd "just rather end it"?!?!?! It is a treatable disease and there is a lot you can do with your lifestyle to reverse it/manage it well. Unless it's type 1 (most diagnosed as adults are Type2), you can exercise, eat healthier, cut out sugars and carbs and actually begin to reverse it. I'd rather take that approach of staving off "becoming blind" than offing myself at diagnose