Another +1 to this. We’ve never had to use our health insurance for anything potentially devastating, so I have no idea how good our insurance is or isn’t.
That said, I will say I find our health insurance annoying. There is a lack of consistency as to what is covered, what is not covered, and what is partially covered. I’ve lost count of the number of times a doctor has recommended some treatment, a family member has followed the doctor’s recommendation, and then we get a surprise after the fact that the treatment was only partially covered/not covered. Since none of us have experienced major medical issues to date, the unexpected costs are usually affordable and not a huge deal. But if I were lower on the income scale, I can easily see how such unexpected costs might be more problematic that “annoying”.
I voted ‘private, OK’. Depends I think what ‘mode’ you’re in. It sucks in terms of what I’d like to be paying for the deductible/out of pocket limits I’d like to have. But practically I’ve had no problem with the insurance paying big stuff when it came up. And while I don’t throw up my hands at any better solution to the US healthcare system I believe it’s an illusion to believe that the cost problem is as simple as going all taxpayer funded rather than hybrid taxpayer/private like now (something like 1/2 US healthcare funding is already public). Maybe it gets into the general issue ‘how exactly should it work?’ but will prove IMO way more difficult and complicated to lower costs than just me just paying for healthcare purely via taxes.
*on a composite of plans from a couple of companies I’ve had in recent years via ACA exchange, no subsidy. The company I have this year proved more problematic than the other company last time I had it mainly in terms of less providers taking it. But the price advantage plus it qualifies for HSA deduction (plan with other company no longer qualifies) got too wide this year to refuse it.
I have employer provided. Employer pays 75% and I pay $25%.
Insurance is Blue Cross/Blue Shield. And it’s pretty good. $1000 deductible a year, and $6,000 total out-of-pocket.
Definitely got my money’s worth the beginning of last year when I had a few strokes and spent 10 days in the hospital. And when the hospital bill for almost $6,000 came in, I was going to set up a payment plan. But then two days later the hospital sent me a thing where if I paid $3,000 they would consider it paid in full. So I threw it on my charge card (which I paid off a few months later). And I spent three weeks in a physical therapy place and the only thing I had to pay for was my cable TV.
Had well over $100,000 in bills, and I only had to pay $5,000.
Actually I also have AFLAC disability, and they sent me a check for $1800 for half-pay when I was out of work.
Then back in September I got poison ivy, and my doctor prescribed me as steroid for it. Well—it had a bad interaction with the blood thinners I was on and I ended up in the emergency room due to internal bleeding (I lost two pints). Spent a week in the hospital and they had to do a colonoscopy and other tests (once I was off blood thinners for 5 days). Thankfully everything came back okay and they said it was a freaky fluke.
Never got a bill so I have no idea how much it would have cost me (because my total out-of-pocket and deductibles were already paid earlier in the year).
And—get this. I have AFLAC at work, and I found out that poison ivy is considered an accident (and I have that policy). And a week’s pay for AFLAC disability. So the internal bleeding is supposed to be covered, as well as money for emergency room, hospital rooms for a week, etc. If all goes right, I will be getting a check for around $4 to $5 thousand dollars.
I have insurance through my employer, and it’s really good. I’m a Type 1 diabetic, so I use the hell out of my insurance - my basic prescription and supplies would be a little over $2k/month out-of-pocket.
I pay $70/month premium. It’s a high-deductible plan, and the deductible is $2500, but my employer pitches in $700/year to my HSA. Once I hit my deductible, the insurance covers 100%. That works out to a max of $2640/year I pay out-of-picket.
In the ~7 years I’ve had this insurance, they’ve denied one procedure because it was deemed “experimental.” And it was, it was something that only one hospital in the country even did. I’m OK with that.
I work in tech, so my employer competes heavily for talent, and they are overall a place that values their employees. I know that all employer-provided health insurance isn’t this good, so I’m pretty damn happy.
I’d still give it all up for a single-payer system. I’m very aware that I’m doing great because I happen to work somewhere that provides good insurance. Mr. Athena will be retiring several years before me, and, financially, I will almost certainly be set to retire before I turn 62. That said, I don’t know that I can realistically retire before I hit medicare age, which is 65. Unless something changes drastically with the individual insurance industry and unless I want to pay through the nose for insurance, I don’t see myself retiring.
I’m also a bit stuck in my job. That’s fine now, I like it. But if that changes, it really sucks to potentially have a new job that doesn’t provide the same level of insurance. And what sucks even more is I’ve dealt with enough insurance companies that I know I wouldn’t know just what they will cover before I commit; they won’t tell you anything other than “maybe” until you try it out.
I know scores of people, including myself, who thought similarly, but woke up one morning to find their job was eliminated and their health insurance gone. Purchasing your own is very expensive, but at least you would no longer be denied for preexisting conditions because some politicians got that fixed a few years ago.
Having a government insurance option would be an added safety net. Regardless of who becomes the next president there is politically no way people will lose private insurance options, but there may be a chance to have an optional public option.
BTW, I’ve been on medicare with a supplement for four years now and I never had a corporate sponsored plan as good as the one I have now.
More than cost, this lack of certainty is the big pain of the US health insurance system. If each person paid $20000 a year, but knew for 100% certain, that everything was covered, it would still be expensive but I think a lot of people would go for it. (Of course, the same thing for $2000 a year even more people would go for).
As it is, even people with good insurance live under this fear that every time they have a medical issue there’s going to be a bunch of follow-up bills in the mail that aren’t covered for whatever reason, and that is shitty.
I have employer-provided health insurance. It is a mix between “OK” and “bad.” There is a **big **deductible that has to be cleared before one even qualifies for this or that. But at least they provide a maximum out-of-pocket ceiling of no more than a few thousand dollars, so I don’t have to worry about being bankrupted for life by some million-dollar hospital bill. For a healthy 32-year old man that may be all I can expect or hope for for my insurance to provide.
I have employer provided health insurance, and I chose “ok”. My main problem is that it’s so expensive. My employer doesn’t cover any of the cost, so I have to pay for it all myself. That’s over $2000 per month for family coverage. Fortunately pre tax.
You might think so, but check out if your state provides any protection against balance billing for out-of-network care. If you get in a serious accident and are taken for emergency care to an out-of-network hospital (you get in a car accident out of state, for example), under federal law ACA-compliant plans are obliged to pay only some minimal amount. Under federal law, there is nothing to prevent the provider sending you a massive additional bill, and pursuing you hard if you have assets. Some states have addressed this problem, some have addressed it partially, some haven’t addressed it at all.
One of the shocking risks in the U.S. system that many people who say they “like” their health insurance may be completely unaware of, until it happens.
I’m an independent consultant (small business). My wife and I are covered by ACA. We have the gold plan so the coverage is excellent but it sure isn’t cheap. I’m giving it an OK because it’s expensive. But peace of mind and coverage is worth it to us. I look forward to the UHC option, if that ever come to pass.
I avoid the surprise by investigating my coverage before accepting a doctor’s recommendation. Not covered, I decline. It sucks that I have to be the one on the phone doing the investigatory stuff.
I’ve mentioned before that after my heart attack diagnosis, the facility I was at wanted to load me into an ambulance and have me transported a few miles to the hospital where my angiogram/stent procedure would be done. The ambulance was running and ready to load me, but I refused transport until I called my insurer.
The ambulance ride in that ambulance wouldn’t be covered, and it would have been expensive. But, if I had an ambulance from 45 minutes away (my home area) drive down and transport me the ride would be 100% covered. So that’s what I did.
Pretty said state of affairs when a patient has to do heir own research to save money. I was close to just saying “Fuck it, disconnect me, I’m driving”.
I voted that I have employer-provided insurance and it sucks. And it does suck, because I have chronic conditions and actually need to use the insurance. I think we must be a pretty “sick” bunch as a whole because my employer has a difficult time every year negotiating plans for us and the deductibles are high. The premium is off the charts, almost as bad as Cobra payments, if you want to insure a spouse and kids. There are a lot of out of pocket costs.
My employer tried to get us some snazzy add-ons to help us with costs because they know how bad it is - such as $10 online doctor visits for minor illnesses.
I don’t get how there are these people who just walk around with their head in the clouds, claiming that they love their employer insurance or that everything is just fine. IT IS NOT FINE. It’s a struggle for my employer and me and my fellow employees. There’s millions of people without any insurance at all out there. If you lose your job, which can happen to most average people at any time, there goes even the crappy plan you “loved.”
Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s as I suspected and not everyone with private insurance loves it and would be mad if you took it away to give them better insurance. Just going by the poll numbers so far (I know, small sample size) way more than 1/2 of those all ready insured would prefer UHC. Add in the uninsured and I bet you’d have a very solid majority.
Medicare for all is not government-issued health care. Very few if anyone is advocating for that. M4A is government taking over INSURANCE.
I’ve seen quite a few interviews on TV with UK citizens talking about our healthcare system VS theirs. They all think our system is batshit crazy and if you told them their system was being replaced with ours they’d probably punch you in the face.
SD tends to be a more educated, upper middle class forum than the typical run of the mill forum.
So the % who have good private insurance is possibly higher than you’d get if you interviewed random people on the street.
Not saying there aren’t people who are happy with their private insurance because obviously they are. I’m saying being happy with your insurance is probably strongly correlated with having a good job. And the % of people on this board who have that is probably larger than the public at large.
I moved from the States to Australia some fifteen years ago. I’m now looking at the accounts above, and shaking my head.
You poor bastards, still in the States…
I’m afraid this criticism misses the point of single-payer UHC. It’s not «government-issued health care». It’s «government paid-for health care». The doctors are independent contractors, not government employees, and run their own clinics. Individuals choose their own doctor, based on factors like convenience and word-of-mouth recommendations, just like choosing an accountant, or a lawyer, or a dentist.
I’m in Canada, where we have single-payer UHC. I chose my doctor years ago based on recommendation from a family member in the health care system who went to that doctor and said he was impressed with him. I’ve been happy with the results.
Now, if I had a doctor that I thought wasn’t providing good care, I would ditch that doctor and clinic and go to a different clinic, same as if I thought my accountant or dentist wasn’t doing a good job.
The government has no role is assigning me a doctor (no such thing as «in-network»), nor in second-guessing the doctor’s décisions about appropriate tests or treatments. Can you say the same about your private health insurance?
I pay about $300 a month for medium-deductible insurance that does cover prescriptions and physician’s visits separate from the deductible, and the best thing about it is that once I hit that deductible, over the past 2 1/2 years, it has paid claims with hardly a hiccup.
…and I paid 860AUD for my total Australian federal income tax for the year* - I don’t know, offhand, what portion of that goes to Medicare AU, but even if it all went to UHC I’d be making out like a bandit compared to you.
And remember, none of my income is going to paying for private insurance of any sort. One year I worked out what I’d be paying in US tax compared to what I was paying in AU tax - it worked out to 10.6% more than what I’d be paying in the States.
Is your health insurance costing more than 10.6% of your gross income?
*On an income of 22727 AUD.