I’ve always found this one to be a little odd because you’re screwed if you do and screwed if you don’t.
What I mean is, you don’t WANT to get your money’s worth by hoping you get sick like cancer or need surgery so that all the money they took from you for health insurance is finally put to good use. That’s not a wish you want. But at the same time, when you are young or healthy, they are taking a lot of money from you each month for something you really don’t need right now or at least willing to take the gamble you won’t need it because that $100 a month can sure go a long way at helping me pay for groceries or other much more immediate and necessary things I need to spend money on.
Now I know of course it’s “insurance”. The whole point of it is to “protect yourself” in the unexpected event something catastrophic should happen. But honestly speaking, it’s a good gamble if you are young and healthy and know you aren’t sick or likely to get sick, why just have $100 a month taken away and you’ll never get it back or see it again for nothing UNLESS you hope that one day when you get cancer or need heart surgery you’ll get your 100k to cover for your hospital bills.
Note: if you are employed, nevermind. Automatic deductions for health insurance is small and your employer covers 50% of it probably and you the other 50% so it’s a small deduction each month from your pay. But if you are unemployed, then you have to pay the full 100% health insurance. For me that’s around $125 per month and I don’t need it or use it and nor do I hope to need it and use it or get my money’s worth…but for all these years, I’ve just been losing that money for nothing when it could help me with my monthly groceries and bills.
Of course the risk is, if you sick then it’s too late to start paying into health insurance because they won’t cover you since you signed up after you got major problems. You have to sort gamble or time it when you think would be safe for you not to waste all that money for nothing or when you think your chances of getting ill increase and now is a good time to pay it.
Here’s the thing literally every single thing about the US healthcare system is “odd.” And by “odd” I mean completely batshit beyond kafkaesque nonsensical and cruel.
In this case its product of the compromise of Obamacare, whereby insurers were forced to cover pre-existing conditions, but in return (as they complained that then only sick people would get insurance) the mandatory health insurance provision was added. On balance it probably was for the best, but it added a whole other level of weirdness to the US healthcare system, rather than just having universal healthcare (or at least “single payer” healthcare) which did not have votes.
Got car insurance? You should be paying that too even if you never get in a wreck. You really have no idea when you will need it. I have no idea how much money I have spent over 50 years of driving without ever collecting. But I still pay full coverage on my 22 year old car.
Health care can seem like an added expense when you are young and healthy. No body over 50, 60, 70 years old does not need health insurance, even the very fit people. If you have nothing, then you have nothing to lose. But once you aquire things you would like to keep, you can lose them in all in a moment, through no fault of your own, just circumstances beyond your control.
Age is what happens while you are busy doing other things. When your job offers you a 401k plan, contribute to it as much as you can. Even though it seems like lost money that you will never see. 60 year old you will be happy to say “hey, where did this quarter of a million dollars come from?”
You may need that health care money tomorrow, you don’t know.
Staying young, healthy and dying young is not much of a plan.
In the USA this is false. Or at least it has been since Obamacare was enacted. Insurers must cover you no matter how much you have in the way of pre-existing conditions.
It’s the only sane thing the nutsos in Congress have not yet destroyed.
I think the big difference is I pay my insurance then $500 deductible and I’m good. With health insurance I pay my premiums (premia?) AND a major percentage of my medical bills on top of that.
To a point, but that won’t help if you are rushed to hospital with a brain aneurysm.
And even if you do get something that can wait until the insurance kicks in a months time, just because they have to cover it, you still have to declare it when you get insurance (or they can deny insurance) and they can charge you based on the conditions you declare. Good luck affording a policy that would cover your rare complicated cancer on minimum wage.
Yes, I have car insurance but it priced reasonably well compared to my health insurance. I pay about $350 a year on car insurance. That breaks down to about $30 a month. That is reasonable for me. $120 a month for mandatory health insurance as an unemployed is really just too much ($1500 a year). If I am working in a company again, then it becomes reasonable as my contribution to health insurance is back to a reasonable $50ish. I think for me, the issue is being unemployed and still having to pay $120 a month for something I don’t use is tough. Guess I better get back to work! ^^
Yes, once I start working in a decent job, it becomes a non-issue. I was never bothered by it before when I was working because now the amount you earn in salary vs the amount you pay into health insurance was negligible yet you get full coverage.
The problem for me is that I am unemployed so I don’t have any income right now and I now have to pay 100% of my health insurance (previously your workplace would contribute half or more so you don’t pay as much). So seeing $120 leave my bank account each month and I have no use for it is just odd to me, but that’s why I said, it’s almost as if we want to get our money’s worth but why would you want to be sick or have an accident lol. I just found it odd.
But but, don’t young people (sub 50) ever have a need to go to the doctor in the US, even though they’re generally healthy? Don’t they get asthma, or need prescription antihistamines, or break their ankle, or need antibiotics to get over a chest infection, or have some weird rash they can’t identify? I’ve been healthy (touches lots of wood) my entire life, it hasn’t meant I don’t need heathcare from time to time.
As a UK resident, I don’t pay any health insurance. Of course, that’s not true.
My health insurance is a part of my income tax, which (as a retiree) swallows around 17% of my income. Before I retired, I was paying about 30% into the pot.* The NHS is funded from taxes and during all the years that I had no need for medical attention, my contribution was paying for those that did.
I still pay tax, and fortunately for me, I think that I am still a net contributor. My wife also still pays tax and she, sadly, is definitely a net beneficiary.
The point is that Universal Health Care is funded by the healthy, for the benefit of the less healthy.
The percentage varies with income so high earners pay more as a proportion of their incomes than those on minimum wage. It’s not that simple of course, as wealthy people can avoid many forms of tax.
The decade I was in my 30s, my employer didn’t want to go through the hassle of providing health insurance. Instead he paid me what he’d pay for it on top of my salary.
I decided to take the risk and not bother with health insurance. My 30s turned out being my best decade wrt health. Not a single problem, never saw a doctor.
I wish. Something over $600/ month to cover two of us. If we’d gone with a Medicare supplemental instead of what I carried into retirement, it would have been more. But it is excellent coverage and considering my husband’s 10 spinal surgeries and 2 new knees…
Reliving a friend of mine tell me about his nearly $1,000/mo COBRA payment after he got laid off in 2008. And he couldn’t drop it because of his pre-existing conditions. (Thanks, Obama! No, really, thanks bud, you did us all a solid right there.)
Honestly, the whole point of insurance is that you lose money every month, but are protected from having your life completely destroyed if something unexpected happens. But, I think we can all appreciate the difficulties involved in being unemployed, and still having to pay substantial amounts for something that doesn’t actively support your day to day existence.
The other function of health insurance (in the U.S.) is to form a bargaining group to get lower-than-list prices for healthcare.
Most health care providers - hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, etc. - price their services totally out of line with their costs. Part of the process of agreeing to take a certain health insurance company is having that company bargain down those prices for their members. So, for example, a medical practice might charge $150 for a 15-minute visit with a doctor, but the insurance company bargains that down to $95. So if you’re flying solo with no insurance, you’d have to pay that extra $55 yourself (though some providers give discounts for cash in advance, or have sliding scales for some services, or suchlike).
Do you know why unemployed people have to pay more or the same amount into mandatory health insurance (NHS) than people who are employed? That’s my main gripe. I would think those who are unemployed, don’t have any income should get a reduced rate into paying the mandatory NHS.
In the same way, if you are in the higher bracket of wealth, you pay more, so if you are in the lower brackets, why don’t we pay less? Until I get a job, I just found that having to pay so much into the NHS is really unfortunate. I haven’t had a job in over 2 years now. I’m living off my savings so you can imagine just giving away $125 each month for something I don’t use is bugging me. But then I also don’t want to get my money’s worth lol.