Exploding health care premium
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Anonymous
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
Or, you keep working. |
Anonymous
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 |
Anonymous
GLP1 is not a miracle cure if you don't want to help yourself. It's not healthy to stay on it for the rest of your life, and without some lifestyle modifications (for the majority of people who could benefit from it's use) they won't ever be Able to stop using it. How about we invest in affordable healthcare that includes nutritional counseling (that continues monthly and then quarterly, etc) so that people can learn how to help themselves long term |
Anonymous
It’s a lifetime use medication for a chronic medical condition. It was literally developed for diabetes. Do you think it’s unhealthy for me to be on Synthroid for the rest of my life for my Hashimoto’s? |
Anonymous
ANd things are far from perfect now, unless you have the funding to be concierge/etc. (and then still not the best). Arguments against UHC is "but you will wait months for care". Well for the last 6+ years, that has been the case in most places in the USA. It's a 5 month wait to see a neurologist, even if you have a need, but unless it's urgent (you had a stroke/etc) you will wait and just manage with your PCP. Same for almost everything. Try finding a new PCP/general practice doctor---it will be 6months+ in most areas if you are lucky to find one taking new patients and to get a first appointment. We are already at "all the bad things that can happen" but we don't have "affordable healthcare"---instead we get to pay $1-2K+ per month for crappy coverage. |
Anonymous
Well we can afford not to "keep working" but it's ridiculous that even so healthcare costs so much! I'd happily "self insure" with a true HD plan, with a cap of $20-25K per year for the family, but I'd want "negotiated rates" that insurance gets you---I'm not paying $800 for a mammogram when my insurance only pays $250---I want to pay cash and get that $250 rate. I want to pay for basic High deductible plan, to protect against major traumatic events. But otherwise, yes, rather than paying $30-40K per year for a crappy plan with a $18K deductible, I'd rather pay much less, get negotiated rates (UHC that's one thing it would do) and self insure up until $25K/year per person. |
Anonymous
Well yes, you do "have to pay more" if you make over a certain threshold. And I do, and so do plenty of people . And ironically, those paying more are the same ones who have been paying almost 2% of their income their entire lives to fund medicare. We have paid for our family and 100s more families as well. All so we can pay insane amounts for crappy coverage as we age |