Ah, I should have been more clear that that’s for four people, right. Hadn’t thought of that. So that’s an average of $112 a month per person (although each of us is slightly different). The deductible is $2500 per person up to $5000, though. If two or more of us were to get sick/injured, we’d potentially have to shell out $5000 in addition to our premiums before any benefits. (The year my daughter was born as a micropreemie, the rest of us went to the doctor rather more often than before, since we’d met our deductible *and *out-of-pocket maximum paying for her in February!)
I’m very suspicious of these figures. It occurs to me that basing statistics on what was actually spent could bias the results. Consider two people who need a $50,000 operation; one has insurance and is told he must pay a $1000 deductible, the other doesn’t have any insurance and must pay out of pocket. So the first person pays $1000 and gets the operation and the second person doesn’t have $50,000 and doesn’t get the operation. For statistical purposes, this would be recorded as an insured person paying $1000 in medical expenses and an uninsured person paying nothing for medical expenses.
That would be valid if you could show statistically that an uninsured person was significantly less likely to get the operation. Do you have the statistics to show that?
True, although access to charity care in the New Orleans metro area has been decimated lately, and doesn’t look to be improving any time soon. “Big Charity” took care of a lot of indigent people from cradle to grave for generations, and it’s gone.
When my mother had a fall and refused to seek care for it because she didn’t have insurance, I insisted on bringing her down to Charity. This was a few years before Katrina. She was asked her yearly income, and because it was below a certain amount, she was given free care. I believe they followed up with her and asked her to provide copies of her federal tax returns to verify the info. That was about it. She was too young for Medicare and she wasn’t officially on Medicaid.
We were there for over 12 hours but she got very good care and a follow up to a clinic for her osteoporosis.
No problem. I’ll go out and conduct a survey. But I’ll expect to be paid for my expenses. And I’ll want a $100,000 advance as a sign of good faith.
Until my check clears, we’ll use logic and common sense. Group A pays $1000 for something and Group B pays $50000 for something. Which group will be buying more of these things?
But your argument is circular. DOES Group B pay $50,000 for something that Group A pays $1,000? The statistics say that uninsured individuals pay 9 percent of the hospital inpatient costs they incur.
If uninsured people are actually able to get better medical coverage for less money than insured people, why do people bother getting insurance at all? I think it’s pretty obvious that insured people either get more medical coverage on average, get cheaper medical coverage on average, or get both.
As I said, the report that claims that uninsured people are only spending thirty one dollars a year more for medical care seems ridiculously unlikely. If you could actually get a year’s worth of medical coverage for $242 without any insurance, there’d be no medical coverage issue in this country. The reality is that you can arrive at this low figure because most people who are uninsured get no medical coverage - they don’t go to the doctor and they just hope it’s nothing serious. But a few of them are unlucky and do have something serious and end up paying a small fortune for medical services. The result is an artificial average of $242 per person.
You are ignoring life circumstances and finances. If my family didn’t have health insurance, we would be screwed the first time anything major happened because we are an upper middle class family and don’t qualify for any charity or government programs. However, when my elderly life-long black nanny with no money to her name got diabetes and needed extensive care and then a nursing home for 15 years, she got what she needed and the care was pretty good. I visited her a few times and there was nothing wrong with her care or her sister’s care who had Alzheimer’s staying in the same room. I grew up in a very poor area and no one had problems tapping the state and charity hospitals when the unfortunate happened. They got good care and there was nothing to take from them so that was the end of it. Their responsibility was to find a way to get to the hospital.
It is basically the same situation as college. If you are very poor or very rich, there isn’t much to worry about. It will be paid for. However, if you are middle class and uninsured or underinsured then a single major medical event can wipe out the family finances. Unless you fall into the very poor or rich classes, that is why you need good health insurance.
“A substantial minority of adults report delaying or skipping needed health care because of cost. Nearly three in ten adults (29%) say that they or a family member has avoided filling a prescription, has skipped recommended medical tests or treatment, or has cut pills or skipped doses of medicine because of cost. A majority of these (56%) assert that their condition worsened as a result.”
I formerly worked in a medical clinic that served uninsured human beings. The above scenario sounds a lot more realistic in light of what I’ve heard from others than “health care costs the same for insured as for uninsured people.” People without insurance know that if they do access health care that’s expensive, they could have wages garnished for the rest of their life under the current system. Most forgo the services they need due to this harsh fact. I’m not sure where you got the 9% figure (that would be great), but when I was uninsured I was billed for the entire amount of care.
I’m not insured and I spend nothing on health care because I don’t go to any doctors because there is no way I can afford it and my income is just a little too high.
I’ve looked at insurance but there is no way I could afford it and eat.
I’m a perfect example of someone who is not getting needed/recommended health care. I fell two years ago and hurt my back. I did get emergency care from a doc-in-the-box and determined that nothing was broken, but I have had steadily worsening back pain ever since. Last week I went to a sliding-scale clinic for that and some other issues (I haven’t seen a doctor for non-emergency issues in over 5 years) and he wants to have an MRI done on my back. I don’t know how much it will cost to have it done through the clinic, but I understand those procedures to cost several thousand dollars.
I just don’t have it.
So the alternative is to live with the pain until I can’t walk anymore. Not a happy future I’m seeing. My husband is an RN, but the agency that he works for doesn’t provide insurance to their nurses. Private insurance is out of our price range. I have some leads on a job with benefits, but it won’t cover my back injury since it was “pre-existing”. So basically I’m screwed.
SnakesCatLady, I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I have a close friend in almost exactly the same one…
Now, he did fall a couple of years ago, but he is/was also morbidly obese. He was eventually able to see a doctor and get an MRI done, through some sort of charity clinic, and the doctor’s report says that one of his vertebrae is basically all whacked out…there’s little or no “space” inside it, and there’s a lot of pressure on his spinal cord. The doctor recommended immediate surgery, with the opinion that eventually the cord would be compromised and my friend would lose function below it.
Well, he’s pretty poor, and young as well. SS disability is out because he was too young to have worked 5 of the previous 10 years. So far, no dice on any charity hospitals (and, really, I can kind of understand that. My best friend broke his back in the Army and the medical bills for his surgery/rehab were enormous.) He’s going to apply for Medicaid, but realistically I don’t know if there’s much hope there. Our local indigent healthcare clinic told him to fuck off, almost in those words. He’s in chronic pain and he’s always been prone to depression, so his situation is pretty grim. I worry that one day I’ll get the call that he just ended it.
The above story is the whole reason I got insurance, even though I can’t really afford it. Two of my friends have gotten hurt, and I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to me. I hope your situation gets better, I truly do.
I can’t tell you for sure, but call around for MRI rates. I also thought they cost “several thousand dollars”, but when my son needed one prior to spinal surgery (provided free of charge by Shriner’s), it was only around $1100. Still a lot, but not as bad as the $3000-4000 I was expecting.
That is generally true and that is why employer sponsored health plans are such a huge benefit for many people. Individuals with pre-existing conditions can’t just go out and buy similar coverage on their own if they have one of those conditions even if we ignore the employer paid part of the benefit.
