Medical Insurance deductible - what's the average in our trade?

[JParis]

With my Medicare and a supplement I bought I have a total of $226 out of pocket per year for $300 a month. I can go to any doctor or hospitals. I don't understand why we don't use this model. I also have zero copay.

Look at how much .gov is kicking out year or year and you'll understand the math simply doesn't work...

That said, I pay $2/wk for my health insurance on my wife and myself...my wife in on Medicare Part B, that's $160/month

[YoDoug]

Was there a spike in health care premiums after obamacare?  According to KFF the individual premium increase has been pretty consistent since the 90's. Assuming I am reading the chart right?

https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2022-section-1-cost-of-health-insurance/#figure112


I assumed that the combination of implementing the ACA and then the Republicans doing everything they could to destroy it would have caused a massive spike but I don't see that in the chart?

Those numbers are misleading. Obamacare subsidized portions of premiums for lower income people. If you include them in the surveys tracking annual premiums they skew the numbers. Healthcare premiums rose sharply for middleclass and up .

[Tim Johnson]

Ours in $2750 individual and $6500 for family deductible. Out of pockets are $12k/20k for in-network. Out of network goes up about 50%. Add in the $8K in in premiums and medical is now the single biggest expense we have, including our house.

Obamacare was designed to break the middleclass with the hopes that it will push us into single payer. It is working as designed.

My wife is scheduled to have surgery at the Cleveland clinic in two weeks. The Cleveland clinic financial department has been working with our insurance to get preapproval and to our surprise they say it will be in network.

Several years age one of of our programmers went to the Cleveland clinic for heart surgery. They took the money that our employer paid and took nothing from him.

[neurosis]

Those numbers are misleading. Obamacare subsidized portions of premiums for lower income people. I

That doesn't change the actual cost of the premium though, does it? 

Healthcare premiums rose sharply for middleclass and up .

The numbers I'm seeing on the chart, and keep in mind that I'm not expert on insurance premiums..  lol.  They reflect what we saw here in Washington State.  I would have expected to see either a spike at the beginning of Obamacare, or a spike when the Republicans killed the mandate penalty (whatever it was called), which essentially renders the ACA useless.

What I would like to see, is an estimation of where premiums would be now if the ACA hadn't been implemented at all.

[mkd]

I guess when you don't have a good argument ad hominem (or strawman) works? 

Yeah, more like lazyness. LoL.
 I could argue the first few ridiculous points your link made where i lost interest, but at the end of they day, fascism makes some of the king's subjects feel comfortable.

[mkd]

What I would like to see, is an estimation of where premiums would be now if the ACA hadn't been implemented at all.

I'd like a full accounting against the USA's GDP of everyone and the mothers getting mailed separate 1095 proof of med insurance forms, the filing cost for average plebeians and CPAs alike. More government. Please! government me like the sugar daddy we know they can be!!!!

[neurosis]

Yeah, more like lazyness. LoL.
 I could argue the first few ridiculous points your link made where i lost interest, but at the end of they day, fascism makes some of the king's subjects feel comfortable.

You can tell just by the title that it's a biased article. Throw any *points* that they are trying to make away, and it still gives a list of everything the Republicans did to hinder the ACA. We have no idea how it would have worked if left alone. Only speculation.

If we could still go back in the EMC O/T archives, I was just as critical of the ACA as anyone. Where I veered off was that once it was passed, either have a guaranteed plan to repeal it completely, or leave it the fuck alone. Destabilizing the insurance market doesn't mean shit to them.  It totally fucks us.

[Del.]

Look at how much .gov is kicking out year or year and you'll understand the math simply doesn't work...

That said, I pay $2/wk for my health insurance on my wife and myself...my wife in on Medicare Part B, that's $160/month

$2?

[JParis]

$2?

Yes, $2...the company is set up $1/wk single, $2/wk employee & spouse, $3/wk family

They were not even requiring that but we have many Veterans that work here who are retired and since it was 100% company paid the plan didn't meet the requirements for them to "not" have buy Medicare Part B...

So the owner made it as noted

[YoDoug]

Several years age one of of our programmers went to the Cleveland clinic for heart surgery. They took the money that our employer paid and took nothing from him.

My wife was recently diagnosed with Intestinal malrotation. She has had gut issues her whole life and general health issues to go with it. For most of her adult life doctors kept acting like she was a hypochondriac or trying to say she was depressed and needed meds. Finally she got frustrated and ordered copies of all of here medical records. She found a note from a CT scan from 2013 where the Radiologist mentioned it. She then googled it and found out it fits all of her symptoms to a tee. Essentially all her guts are in the wrong place. Estimates are that 90% of cases are found in children under one year old. Of those that make it to adulthood most of them are found out in autopsies trying to figure out why they died. The conventional surgery is called the Ladds procedure. It only has about a 25% success rate at condition of life improvement with a large portion needing to get surgery again in a decade or so. The Cleveland Clinic has a newer procedure that has been being done since 2015 with a 100% success rate. They just recently started doing the surgery laparoscopically which greatly improves recovery times. She is scheduled for this in two weeks. Because the procedure is still in study phase it is billed differently. Hopefully their estimates hold and all we will owe is our deductible.

The saddest part is multiple doctors have and access to her records and could have easily seen the CT scan and notes, but instead they all kept going down the mental health path. IMO, complete malpractice. In the last year or two, now that she is 50, the doctors kept trying to blame her issues on "the change". She is much nicer about it than me, I told her she should call each one of those doctors and say listen here you arrogant f#ck, Here is my actual diagnosis.  Your not the superstar doctor that you think you are. Start listening to your patients!

[Tim Johnson]

The Cleveland Clinic does seem to have their processes dialed in.

I wish your wife full success!

[mkd]

We have no idea how it would have worked if left alone. Only speculation.

I'd speculate if you wanted to keep your doctor, you could keep your doctor with the old way. Just love make Obummer eat crow. lol
 I'm just being crotchety, so don't anyone take me too serious (not that many do lol).

But semi serious; we DO in fact know how it would be, as there was a time before the fascists tried to REALLY take over healthcare and 'got shellacked' in the m id terms.
 It's the total gov't control and special interests that write the bills to snuff out the little companies that supports the medical oligopolies. This is the problem, not your love of being dominatrixed by machiavellian politicians. It perverted fo sho

[Smit]

My company offers the choice between a PPO and a HDHP. I personally have the HDHP with an HSA.

My premiums are pretty low but my deductible is $3000 out of pocket before insurance starts paying. When I get over $3000 insurance pays at 80%, I pay 20%. At $4000 my max deductible is met and insurance pays 100%.

I miss the days of the $10 copay but the premiums are so high now I'd prefer to put that cash into an HSA.

[Incogneeto]

I know that this is difficult to answer and maybe too personal? 

  What happened to the good ole days?

Obama!!

Keep voting Democrat.

[RobertELee]

That doesn't change the actual cost of the premium though, does it? 

It makes the average cost look better, which is what is used to sell it. If 10 people have health insurance and 5 of them are paying $1000 and 5 of them are paying nothing the average cost is only $500. Simple math really.