Health insurance – What a joke!

Mine just went up another 22% seems like 4 years in a row now. Will it ever stop?
Nothing better than paying more and getting less every year!
Is it ever going to balance out? This is absurd.

HSA and a high deductible insurance plan is the way to go.

Yup, that’s what we have. LOL – My health insurance premium is 3x more than my first mortgage.

You can mostly thank those that don’t pay their bills. The prices that are charged are flat out ridiculous when you look at your bill.

I’ve considered hanging a picture of a random family on my wall every tax season. When asked what all these pictures are about I would say thats the family I supported that year at tax time…

We had to switch to my insurance this year as my wife’s premiums went up $200/month.

I would like to blame people who don’t pay their bills, but how on earth are some people expected to afford them? The cost for medical care is outrageous.

I feel your pain,our insurance is through my wifes job,half of her paycheck goes to insurance.
I have never figured out why anything we earn should go to those who are too damn lazy to go to work and earn things for themselves.

this is not written to stomp on those who are truly capable of not working as I would be the first one in line to give a hand.
sad part is,the entitlement crowd has taken all of my extra gas money so that I cant even get to those who need help.

We are all just one medical emergency from the poor house.

It be one thing if they paid for our care but it seems like every time I need a prescription it is a name brand and I have to pay out of my pocket anyways. (Which I don’t because I can’t afford that on a monthly basis for the rest of my life.) If the doctor writes it, the insurance company shouldn’t have an option.

I pay more for health insurance than I do for my house payment (if you take out the escrow taxes on my house payment).

Humana has been great for wife and I for 12 – 15 years. I can’t understand why every retired person isn’t using Humana.

The reason for the huge increase’s in MN is from ACA moving the high risk (pre-existing) pool from MN Care pool (govt subsidized) to the individual pool. The Farmers Co-op pool is one interesting change to the market, maybe there should be a Co-op started in your industry…

http://m.startribune.com/farmer-cooperative-health-plans-may-rattle-individual-market-in-minnesota/457321193/

We self insure across 5,000 people or so. They dropped any real insurance options and we pay 100% until deductible is met. It will likely be cheaper…unless we actually use it. I never thought I would see our organization eliminate the higher premium, high coverage option.

Yeah the healthcare industry, like many other big-money industries, is way too out of control. Everything is insanely high, from medical bills to the insurance premiums themselves.

The medical/insurance industry combined with the pharmaceutical industry makes things even worse. At the end of last year I got a letter saying that my sleeping pill would no longer be covered by Medica because it wasn’t on their preferred drug list. But Medica had good news for me…there were other sleeping pills that WERE on their approved list. My guess is that those that landed on the list were from companies that provided a better kick-back to Medica. After multiple appeals and time spent on phone calls, plus getting my own doctor involved and writing a letter justifying why I needed this medication, I was finally able to get my original pill approved. The few months it took caused a ton of anxiety because I would’ve had to choose between adding around $300 per month since insurance wouldn’t cover it or take this pill, which was prescribed for a reason, and use it very sparingly to keep costs down.

Long rant, I know, but yeah there’s a ton of things that could and should be better in the healthcare, insurance, and drug industries.

My wife’s previous company (Gander Mountain) announced their closing about 1 week before she started maternity leave. Talk about an insurance nightmare! I couldn’t sleep for 3 weeks thinking we would have our insurance terminated halfway through recovery and be stuck with two insurance deductibles. Luckily it was sorted out in time and we actually came out ahead…but it was a tense few weeks with the unknown of insurance coverage…

philtickelson wrote:

We had to switch to my insurance this year as my wife’s premiums went up $200/month.

I would like to blame people who don’t pay their bills, but how on earth are some people expected to afford them? The cost for medical care is outrageous.

You are absolutely spot on Phill, because there have been so many in the past that have not paid that the costs are so over the top out of line. Its a game that can not be won.

The best plan at this point is to take care of your health the best you can to “TRY” to avoid future expenses. Its totally a gamble to a point because accidents are unknown, sometime out of our own control and sometimes flat out accidental. No easy single answer.

Life is a B…

Maybe Trump is right ObamaCare is imploding.

Don’t even get me going on the Pharmaceutical’s AKA Drug Dealers.
Their bad far outweighs their good.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Yup, that’s what we have. LOL – My health insurance premium is 3x more than my first mortgage.

Then hopefully you’ll get money back when you retire.

In case anyone was curious about prescription costs. Here’s only one example of rising prescription costs.

Epipen up 480% in seven years.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/epipen-alternatives-generics-auvi-q-4500-dollars-list-price/

mplspug wrote:

HSA and a high deductible <nobr style=”font-size: inherit”>insurance plan</nobr> is the way to go.

if your young, healthy and dont go to the doc maybe!!!!!!!!!!

My premium up 15%

Thought this was a very interesting article about increases in the costs of coverage.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/10/24/focus-on-health-coverage-misses-the-point/amp/

glenn57 wrote:

if your young, healthy and dont go to the doc maybe!!!!!!!!!!

I’m 47 and wouldn’t say I am the picture of perfect health. I don’t go to the Dr unless I know it is absolutely necessary because I don’t want to use my funds unnecessarily.

HSA may not be the best option for those with kids and those with existing conditions that are expensive.

But you are right, if you are young and healthy it is a no brainer.

They’re crooks.

How many other people bill you for stuff you didn’t get, double bill you, or charge you $26 for a Tylenol?

I’ve NEVER had a credit card company, the electric company, or the phone company pull any of this crap. Only medical outfits.

Two weeks ago out of the blue I get a letter from a bill collector, for a medical bill I didn’t owe in the first place! Several heated phone calls later it finally went away…I hope!

This is a bad topic for discussion….now my blood pressure is up and I might need to see a doctor LOL

SR

Thinking about the ACA gets my blood boiling.
I lost my job about a year before the ACA was forced on us, and was buying my insurance on the open market. I was considered a healthy individual and told by my insurance company that the plan I had was no longer being offered, and would have to go on a Government approved plan.
When the Government announced that healthy individuals would be put into a pool with High risk individuals I decided to write
Governor Dayton an email and asked that he not go along with the government.
The email I sent to Governor Dayton was respectful to him and his office. I explained that I was healthy and could take care of myself, and did not expect the government to take care of me, and asked that he not go along with the government take away my current health plan. Well I think we all know how that went, Nowhere. I never received any correspondence back.
Needles to say the coverage on that ACA plan was nowhere near as good, and the cost is upsetting.

mark-bruzek wrote:

You can mostly thank those that don’t pay their bills. The prices that are charged are flat out ridiculous when you look at your bill.

I’ve considered hanging a picture of a random family on my wall every tax season. When asked what all these pictures are about I would say thats the family I supported that year at tax time…

The reason health insurance is skyrocketing is because health care costs are skyrocketing. We all know that though. What hasn’t been mentioned that is a huge factor is the liability and malpractice insurance and “settlement” funds that they (all medical providers) need to carry.
That $26 Tylenol if given by mistake (even an honest mistake) that kills someone. Now your talking million $$ settlements.
Is it any wonder??

Seem like every time I go to the doctor, they are in a new building, new office furniture and 5 star decorating.

-J.

Fact, America has ALOT of fat and unhealthy individuals. This will not be going away anytime soon. We also have an ever growing pool of helicopter parents who of any sign of a sniffle has the kid in the ER performing every test they can to make sure their lil angel is ok.

The sooner we get rid of private medical the better. I’m not into what other countries are doing usually, but there are many out there who have this figured out.

To those individuals making ends meat on minimum wage, who are subsidized by the government what are they really to do, pay $400month and not afford anything else? It’s a ridiculous notion, if you were in that situation you’d do the same thing. The fact we have a large percentage of poor that can’t afford it shouldn’t be an attack on them, should be on these multi million/billion dollar companies bending over the common worker and reaping profits leaving the rest of us middle class to pick up the tab.

Between the gf and I we pay close to 32k a year for coverage. She actually uses hers but I never seem to get past my deductible. I can think of alot of other things 16k a year could go towards.