Damn Healthcare kills me every year

I read the othe day, ( WSJ?) that the average person is now paying about $1200/year more in health insurance. The paper suggests that the additional cost is for those with kids ( children)....so that they can be covered by insurance up to the age of 26 years.

Eveyone , with/with kids, retired/working, young/old is being affected.

I took out a high deductible policy and have only been charged for a few lab tests, that weren't performed during the annual physical. The charge for the tech to draw about a 1 ml of blood into a single vial was $11. The total test was $50 and I had to pay $9.00 total.

People without medicare, medigap,private insurance are suffering. Some folks in Massachusetts seem to be sharing each other's health insurance cards, since several health care facilities now require that you present a photo ID when receiving medical care, except in the ER.

Is "Obamacare" the cause of your lower earnings, do you think?

LINKAT QUOTE:

Tha cost for the health plan ( family plan) would be at least $500/month or $6000/year. It sounds like a lot, but some plans cost more than $10,000/year.

The goal of Obamacare is to provide healthcare for everyone. Those who work, who are legal/illegal, those who don't work, those who have never worked and most probably, in one form or the other, the elderly who don't have SS or medicare.

I think that by the time a child)!) reaches the age of 26 years, they should be married with at least one child, moved out of the parents house, have a job and be settled. The insurance coverage for children should end at age 21 Years.

Linkat Quote:

:since Obama care kicked in, I have earned less and less"...

So Obamacare is a bad thing? Is that where we're going here?

On reflection, I'd say that Linkat is paying 50 percent of the cost of her health insurance and her employer is paying the other 50 percent That would make a payment of about $12,000/year for a family plan.

If Sanders gets in and is the next president, the cost for health care insurance will increase dramatically. He is the King of the Welfare Plan...Ms Clinton is not.

Vote CLINTON

You're fine as long as you do not get sick or hurt. The regular annual checkups as well as some of the routine type care is either at no cost or a small amount (as you mentioned the lab work). So if you only need routine care it is not so bad.

What ends up costing you is if you get sick or hurt then you need to pay out of pocket until you reach your deductible, then there is a co-pay. Last year both my girls got hurt. One had to go to Children's Hospital to see a sports orthopedic hand specialist. This was after seeing her primary care, then a regular orthopedic doctor only to be told she had to be seen by Boston Children's due to her age. Just imagine how much all those visits would add up to if I had to pay out of pocket?

And they both required Physical Therapy afterwards. Thank goodness right now they no longer require this.

My other daughter had been seeing a therapist for help on anxiety. She seems to be doing better but because now we won't be covered with a co-pay we are stopping sessions and just using some of the relaxation suggestions she had provided.

Where we're going is "Who in the middle class wants to see a pay reduction of $6000/year", the cause of which is related to the Obama adminstration. It does not affect the wealthy, nor does it affect those in poverty. It does affect those, who are still in the middle class, but soon won't be....

I am paying about $17k a year - and this is with work so they are paying a portion.

I suppose I had better be thankful I live in Socialist Europe. I pay absolutely nothing for healthcare at the point of delivery, (in fact being over 60 my prescriptions are free also) but I pay 20% tax on my income, which has gone up by at least $500 per month (take home) compared with 5 years ago. This is the UK National Health Service that the US financial newspaper Investor's Business Daily said would not have kept Stephen Hawking alive "if he were British" (!) (He is British, and it was the NHS that kept him alive!)

That's expensive. I hope your daughters get scholarships for College . That'll could help you fund your pension in the future.

The Mass State Tax forms came out in the mail, yesterday and there's only one word, that can express my disgust...

Hoping about the scholarships - the oldest is visiting a university next weekend - trying for a sports scholarship if possible along with an academic one.

The only saving grace is that with the increased cost of healthcare, by overall income is less so maybe we can qualify for financial aid.

I think that what really killed quality health care in the USA, was the start of what has been called "Managed Care", which appeared ( I believe) in the early 1980s.
Patients paid insurance and had their own private physicians. The visit was conducted in private and the physician sat down, looked you in the eyes and listened to what you had to say. He/she wrote everything down in the chart.

Appointments were easy to obtain.

Today, visits are not as easy to obtain. If necessary, you might be able to see your MD at 8-9 PM..or at 8AM. What could be worse?

Your Doc. looks at her/his laptop, rarely at you, You're not needed in this Tech World. The patient is asked a serious of questions and as the patient mumbles along, the physician checks off the responses on the computer.

If your physician calls you by name...clap hands, you're one of the lucky ones.

The physicians tell the patients, what test they should have. You ask the Doc, why are you ordering those tests for me? His/her answer is "To cover my ass"..... So it goes...and if you happen to be a lawyer, for God's sake keep it a secret...

By all means apply for financial aid. Depending on the college, there's alot of aid out there. Don't forget the federal loans, for both undergraduate and graduate school.

Americans on medicare pay nothing ( or a small co-pay) when receiving health services. Should the elderly (65+ age) on Medicare require treatment in an ER, the cost of treatment is zero to the patient. As far as drugs are concerned, a generic drug usually costs $3.00/90 day supply and can be mailed directly to the patient's home.

For all of our complaining about health care costs, we folks in the USA, and especially in the Commonwealth of Masssachusetts are truly blessed to have some ot the best hospitals in the world and of course, the best physicians , trained in both science and medicine. We in Boston, should thank the dear Lord for the excellent health/medical care, we are afforded in this world-class City each and every day. I know, I do.

I agree with the great health care in the Boston area - the doctor was great with my daughter. It was worth the extra drive and hassle to know even with a small thing like she had he made sure she was ready for sports and healed appropriately.

Her friend had a torn ACL and was able to get the one of the doctor that invented (in a sense) a particular procedure for children while they were growing for this sort of injury - much different handling for a child still growing and an adult.

I'm glad your daughter received such excellent care.

It's similar here: we pay about 15% of our income (depending on your health insurance company).
Free choice of hospitals and physicians, home visits by doctors (even at night and over the weekends by doctors from the out-of-hour practise).
But we have to pay between 5 and 15 Euros for prescriptions. (Anything above 2% [1% for chronicle ill persons] of your gross income for any medical charges is free, though.)

If you get additional separate non-NHS health insurance, that's your right, but you don't get any tax relief. In the UK your Personal Allowance is tax free (the first £10600/€13841/$15117 of your earnings each year) and from £10601 to £31785 you pay 20% tax and on earnings above that you pay 40%. This is not just for healthcare, this is for all central government expenditure, e.g. armed forces, schools, roads, etc. Also if you are under State Pension age you pay pension contributions via a thing called National Insurance from your wages which is around 12% from the employee and 14% from the employer.