Health Insurance Premiums Going Up

[paulmcohen]

If your employer offers it, you could also look at going with a higher deductible plan and a flex spend/health savings account so that deductible get spaid with pre-tax dollars. I wouldn't expect to much of a gain though.

ObamaCare has virtually eliminated Health Savings Accounts. They were the long term solution to the problem.

[paulmcohen]

That sucks.........

Thanks though sir.

I agree. The reason for all this was wage and price controls that were put in both during WW-II and the Nixon administration allowed employers to provide free/low cost health insurance and not count is a raise thereby skirting the wage controls. Once companies starting giving out insurance benefits it became a competitive edge and they got tax breaks for doing it so they kept it up. After this happened people no longer paid any attention to what medical care cost (someone else was paying). Why ask for a generic prescription when you could get the "real stuff". More recently to control costs people were given some incentive to choose generics and generic use skyrocketed, but I would bet no one here has a clue what they paid their doctor for a visit or if another doctor cost less unless they don't have insurance or they have a medical savings account. What other industry lets people buy a product without regard to cost and has someone else pay for it?

[joshh]

I have never seem the case of someone in actual need be shut out by the system.

The only system they aren't shut out of is emergency care and by that time it's too late. Patients are constantly shut out of non-emergent care.

Everywhere that has socialized medicine including Medicare in US either rations care or is going bankrupt or both. The only reason we are 39th in infant mortality is we actually track it.

I'm sorry, but both of these sentences (with the exception of Medicare) are completely false.

France is one of the few that is restructuring and it's because they pay for stuff like 6 months off for both parents of a newborn, spas for the mom, etc. The sad part of it all is even with all these perks, they still pay less per patient than us and provide significantly better care. The rationed care statement is a myth concocted by those who wish to subdue the uninformed.


If you have time to read 112 pages with an open mind...this is a real eye opener.

http://commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Fil ... s_2012.pdf

[pennview]

There are signs in hospitals in this part of the U.S. that say service cannot be denied because of an inability to pay or lack of health insurance. And, I'm sure those signs are in hospitals in Texas as well. Moreover, responsible folks don't have more children than they can afford. If someone is temporarily down on their luck, there is plenty of help available.

[joshh]

There are signs in hospitals in this part of the U.S. that say service cannot be denied because of an inability to pay or lack of health insurance. And, I'm sure those signs are in hospitals in Texas as well. Moreover, responsible folks don't have more children than they can afford. If someone is temporarily down on their luck, there is plenty of help available.

The signs apply to emergent care only. Emergency care is only one small part of healthcare.

I agree completely about the not having kids you can't afford
I personally feel that anyone on any kind of public assistance should be forced to get the birth control shot. It's effective for 3 months per shot.

[pennview]

Josh, I have an open mind, but I've learned that folks at the Commonwealth Fund don't. Before spending time on 112 pages purporting to describe something like the American health system, folks should want to know if the organization behind their study are biased or have a political agenda. So, if you're interested, simply Google "commonwealth fund bias" and you'll get a long list of articles about just that.

Here's one of the hits -- http://www.ideasinactiontv.com/tcs_dail ... are-1.html

Dig a little bit and you'll find that the Commonwealth Fund is a left wing propaganda machine run by a former Democrat staffer in the Carter administration, who's pushing for a single payer system like Canada's. So with that agenda, what's the chances of getting an objective study?

And then there is this question -- why do Canadians come to the U.S. for treatment when the Canadian system is so good? If you want to know why, it's because there can be a long wait for treatment up north.

[Ed in Tampa]

And then there is this question -- why do Canadians come to the U.S. for treatment when the Canadian system is so good? If you want to know why, it's because there can be a long wait for treatment up north.

What you say may be true but I know of more than one Canadian that has gone back to Canada for treatment. When I asked why they said they thought the treatment they received in Canada was superior plus for them it was free.
I also know most countries sell drugs for a lot less money than we do here in the US. My wife's employers was from England, my wife had a problem in her elbow much like tennis elbow. Her employer gave her some ibprofen cream that worked like magic. She asked the druggist about it and was told it can't be sold in the US and that there was a similar product that sold for $150 for 5 oz. The product her employer gave her is over the counter in England and sells for less than $19 bucks for 32 oz.

We also order Nexium from the Canadian Pharmacy here in Tampa and get packaged Nexium for about 1/3 the price of buying Nexium here in the US.

[paulmcohen]

We also order Nexium from the Canadian Pharmacy here in Tampa and get packaged Nexium for about 1/3 the price of buying Nexium here in the US.

You can blame the FDA for the high cost of drugs sold here, it costs $50 million to bring a drug to market in the US and virtually nothing is the rest of the world so we in the US pay for that testing and the rest of the world benefits. In addition we pay for inspectors, insurance against lawsuits and a host of other regulations that the rest of the world does not require.

Prescriptions originally existed so the druggist could compound the medicine correctly, then they were used to prevent narcotics from being used recreationally now they are used by insurance companies to control costs. In Mexico you can still go into a pharmacy and buy just about whatever you want without a prescription you just pay cash. Today for type 1 diabetes there are very effective treatments available everywhere else in the world but not in the US because the FDA requires this testing, in Europe they are on their 5 generation of continuous glucose monitoring devices and here we are still using the first. In 2011 the FDA finally approved a new treatment for breast cancer and during the announcement they said it would save the lives of 70,000 women per year and was in development for 15 years. That means 1 million women died waiting. I don't think any of the dead women would have turned down the drug if offered, even if it killed them. It will be 15 years before I can get an artificial pancreas but I was trial patent #5 and I would have been happy to walk out with the experimental device.

[shipwright]

I won't get into an argument about the U.S. medical system and it's insurance costs and coverage.

I will however, tell you that precious few Canadians (no one that I know and I know quite a few having been one for 63 years) would trade their system for yours.

There are cases of non emergency surgeries and the like that wealthy Canadians will pay (dearly) to have done in other countries rather than wait a few months at home but we are talking about things like hip replacements, not heart surgeries. If you need it now, you get it now. ..and that goes for everyone, rich and poor alike.

I apologize for calling foul here but don't listen to everything you hear about how Canadians don't get value from their system. We do and we would never dream of giving it up.

Paul M

[charlese]

Yep! Insurance cost went up about 25%. At the same time Mt. State legislature is considering a bill to end any guarantied annual raises (GABA) in pension. Oh, Woe!

It is what it is!