the-future-of-medicaid-may-be-found-in-indiana-where-the-poor-pay

[TirielWoW]

Right - those are the extortionate prices they charge people who have no insurance.

Here's another interesting article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/u...ills.html?_r=0

This is about a guy who went in to have surgery on herniated disks in his neck. He received the following bills:

56k from the hospital
133k from his orthopedist
4k from an anesthesiologist
117k from an "assistant surgeon"

These were the sticker prices. The orthopedist accepted 6200 (a small fraction of the 133k he charged), because he was an in network doctor and that was the price he'd agreed on with the insurance company.

However, the "assistant surgeon", who the patient literally never met and had no idea would be involved, was out of network and demanded the 117k. As the article notes, under medicare rules he would have been entitled to $800 for the service.

The health insurance industry is a disaster here. An utter disaster.

Yes, if I had had the surgery under emergency conditions (i.e. I actually waited 3 days to have it, instead of it being done that night), I could have been screwed by out of network costs for, say, the anesthesiologists. The hospital I went to is in-network for me, and so are all of the doctors who operate there, but they have 3 different anesthesiologist companies, and only 1 of them is in-network for me. In an emergency situation, they wouldn't have checked, and I'd have been stuck with the bill.

[Captain N]

The cheapest plan is $25 every two weeks. The most expensive plan (the one I'm on) is $65 every two weeks. It's going up to $68 or $70 in 2017, but I forget which.

Is that $136 soon to be $140 just for yourself or can you start adding people onto it?

Also what are the co-pays like. My brother has his insurance through Costco and it's about the same as yours for himself but when he added his son to the policy it shot up to like $175 month but the co-pays for normal doctor visits are waived until his son reaches 10 years old.

[TirielWoW]

Is that $136 soon to be $140 just for yourself or can you start adding people onto it?

Also what are the co-pays like. My brother has his insurance through Costco and it's about the same as yours for himself but when he added his son to the policy it shot up to like $175 month but the co-pays for normal doctor visits are waived until his son reaches 10 years old.

It's a solo policy. I would have to check to see what it would be for extra family members, but I'm not at work to look on the company intraweb.

My copays are as follows:

$100 ER/Urgent Care
$25 non-specialist
$50 specialist

Then I have a $750 Major Medical deductible, a $300 hospital deductible, and a max of $2000 out of pocket each year.

[Daerio]

How the fuck is anyone paying $2000/mo in insurance premiums? That's more than a fucking mortgage on a house.... Something is seriously wrong with these prices or else things are different here in CT because I don't know anyone in my family or friends or co-workers who pays that or anything above $800/mo. Seriously my boss who's 55 pays $800/mo for really good insurance with a deductible that's $1500/yr and it covers a shit ton.

My premium in South Carolina for catastrophic coverage (5,000$ yearly deductible, they pay for nothing before that) costs 230$/month the last time I checked which was almost a year ago. That's 2,760$ a year in exchange for nothing. Thanks Obamacare, everything is working out great.

This is the cheapest plan they offer on the exchange.

- - - Updated - - -

Right - those are the extortionate prices they charge people who have no insurance.

Here's another interesting article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/u...ills.html?_r=0

This is about a guy who went in to have surgery on herniated disks in his neck. He received the following bills:

56k from the hospital
133k from his orthopedist
4k from an anesthesiologist
117k from an "assistant surgeon"

These were the sticker prices. The orthopedist accepted 6200 (a small fraction of the 133k he charged), because he was an in network doctor and that was the price he'd agreed on with the insurance company.

However, the "assistant surgeon", who the patient literally never met and had no idea would be involved, was out of network so the price was not pre-negotiated and he was free to charge whatever he wanted and demanded the full 117k sticker price. As the article notes, under medicare rules he would have been entitled to $800 for the service.

So again - if this had been fully insured the total cost was around 10k, but the uninsured "sticker prices" ended up around 300k. For one spinal surgery.

The health insurance industry is a disaster here. An utter disaster.

But we're told that not letting hospitals bankrupt whoever they want leads to the absolute disaster of a hospital maybe having to close one day. Much better to just enable them to bankrupt as many citizens as possible, and provide whatever care they deem appropriate at the time.

[Aggrophobic]

And Im in the US with our evil health insurance system and had a rotator cuff repair surgery that cost $20,000 to my insurance company. I paid $25 total.

With no health insurance? I doubt that.

[zenkai]

Six months, shit.

Why are we even still having this conversation? The majority of personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills. The majority of those are people who have insurance. Our system is too expensive and isn't working well. Maybe, just maybe we can look at places where they are doing a better job for a lower cost? Or would that be too much to ask?

You hit the nail on the head. So many people think just because you have insurance, you can afford healthcare. LOL.

[Daerio]

You hit the nail on the head. So many people think just because you have insurance, you can afford healthcare. LOL.

But with 95% insurance enrollment all our problems are fixed, right? I know because Obama tells me so.

[Orlong]

Yeah, Orlong is a stage act from what I can tell and from what I have heard. Either that or the biggest hypocrite on the planet as he is in a government union shop freeloading off all they got while being against unions and about anything that actually helps people but at the same time refuses to leave for another job on principle because his union job gives him better than the non-union jobs do.

He is basically a hypocritical scab or a stage act on here. From all I have seen, I am leaning more towards a stage act.

I cant leave because of the career I chose. Every place I could work and do the same thing requires union membership. I would have to either go back to school and learn a new career or work in retail or fast food at minimum wage. Neither is a good idea at my age. I can still bitch about unions until the day comes that I can leave the union while keeping my job and negotiate for myself.

Everyone should have the freedom to negotiate their own wages/benefits. If they want to join a union then by all means go ahead and join, but the democrats wont let us have the choice because unions would go away and they wouldnt be able to get their pockets fat with union money every election cycle. If unions were so awesome they wouldnt have to force people to join them in order to practice their vocation. People would line up to join on their own