It’s nice to see that at least one sector of the U.S. economy continues to do well, earning profits and creating jobs consistently (more than 40,000 last month) while the rest of the economy goes in and out of recession. McClatchy reports on where an increasing share of the money to fund those profits and new jobs has been coming from.
It must really suck to be an HR person around this time of the year as you prepare to tell all the company employees how much more they’ll be paying for their health insurance premiums in the year ahead. Of course, most workers are probably just happy to have a job, so the push back is likely not what it was just a few years ago before the recession began.
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What is making the costs rise so much? Are they filling more prescriptions? Is it administrative costs? More expensive treatments? Corporate profits? Lawsuits?
Something is wrong. The costs just don’t skyrocket for nothing. And don’t blame it on “Obamacare”, because the inflation in health care was skyrocketing before Obama was even a candidate.
Demand increases faster than supply. Normally, the price increases would bring on more supply while competition drove efficiency. But the ’setup’ largely prevents this from happening. So, you do not see more and better services become available. Obamacare makes it worse because it pushes both elements even further out of balance. It may come to price controls at some point and that will have the effect of dramatically curtailing the supply side. Gaining access to insurance or a wait list isn’t gaining access to health care.
BTW, John S. You are right on. Why insurance for regular visits and preventative care? The net cost can only increase by adding a useless layer to hinder the relationship between you and your provider. Insurance is for unexpected high cost events. We wouldn’t carry car insurance for gas and tires. Some of the better practices have stopped taking insurance altogether. Flex plans and high deductible insurance would be my choice. Start scouting out alternatives in other countries – I hear you can get good care for much less in the absence of the apparatus. Health care tourism will be one of the legacies of Obamacare.
Ugh. Do you really think that we wouldn’t be having a health care crisis if “Obamacare” wasn’t passed? (I believe what you actually mean to say is “Baucuscare” but why let facts like who actually wrote the bill get in the way of your bias)
If the problem is with supply, then what we need is more doctors, and lower barriers to medical school.
I also wonder if you know anyone without insurance. I had a friend whose tooth infection almost went septic because she didn’t have dental insurance to get it looked at. Dying from sepsis isn’t gaining access to health care.
High deductible plans will be illegal under Obamacare as there’s a max out of pocket expense which is lower than the deductible. That’s just ridiculous.
And what your table doesn’t even show is that the co-pays and deductibles have gone up even for people with insurance. . .
This is purely anecdotal, but one of my providers, if the biller knows the money is coming out of my pocket, charges me about 50% of what they would charge if they know an insurance company is going to pay. Of course, on things the insurance company will cover, they won’t pay this “surcharge,” so I pay it. So between a $1,600 annual deductable and out of pocket costs, I pay an easy $10,000 a year on top of the $3,000 in premiums.
It would be far cheaper to not carry insurance, show up and get the care anyway, and make a strategic default when the bill arrives.
Go to work for the State of Oregon. State employees have FREE lifetime medical benefits, for themselves and their spouse.
I just switched to a concierge doctor. What health insurance buys today is such poor care that the “cheap” office visits don’t accomplish much.
My doctor today spent 3 hours with me, and diagnosed a problem that I have ahd for 10 years. He said before concierge medicine, he would have needed a year’s worth of office visits with me to even take my history. So 10 years worth of wasted visits were caused by insurance dominating the practice of medicine.
Not everyone can afford $1500 a year to get treated right. But if we simply went to paying out of pocket for all but high cost proceedures, we’d get better care. This means if you need an hour with a doctor, you pay more. Now, the insurance company says “we pay $40, you can spend as much time as you want with the patient”. So doctors rush you out after about 5 min and you wind up with bad medicine practices.
Doctors can get paid more with EM level coding. If your doctor spends 15+ minutes with you, the billable for that visit will rise considerably. Doctors are incentivised to at least spend a couple of minutes shooting the shit with you.
One reason the price has gone up so much is the mergers among hospitals. And the doctors’ groups have become much more powerful in the last ten or so years.
(Sorry, but I can’t put much faith in what someone’s concierge doctor says.They may tell you what they believe to be true Or it could be PR.
But even if they believe it, doesn’t mean it’s true. Still, I hope it works out.)
Health care is an additional tax on Americans. Every other country provides health care from the taxes collected. So you can count that extra $13,770/yr as just more of the American tax system. After living in CA for 40 years and then living in New Zealand and Australia I can say that health care is crap in America. I have had much better service overseas, better doctors, longer time with the doctor, and no waiting time just call them and drive down and go right in. It is so much easier and better and just like the Mike Moore film, no claims or bills for hospital visits its all free. I know you all think taxes are higher for this type of system, but your dead wrong. I wish I could tell you how much better taxes are here, but it would just make you sick
NZ hasn’t quite come around to the american way of thinking, which is to allow millions of peasants to enter illegally and use emergency rooms for free health care.
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something i learnd- when they can take money, it won’t be even a question. so at health services.