Rant (healthcare costs)

The big problem we have is red tape/overhead. I am currently on an employee based BCBS plan. The network has all my information, ie. Medical History, current meds etc. Every time I go see a doctor in the network I have to fill out a form that asks me for all medical information that they already have..... Tons of redundancy, which cost money and by the way every time a new person opens my file or touches that form, there's a cost. There is a consent form you have to sign when you go in to receive treatment, it has a paragraph of information that says, you agree to let anyone they choose to see your information. I had a chest x-ray and they sent it to 3 radiologists to read to get a faster diagnosis. I got 3 bills from 3 different radiologists a month later because they all read it and replied. My wife had double knee replacement surgery this year, we received bills from 7 different organizations, all staffed by the hospital, that were involved in each one of her surgeries. One of her bills was mailed to the wrong address in error, 60 days later we are getting calls from a collection agency, another hand in the kitty. There are way too many layers to our healthcare system and everybody wants the piece of the pie.
 
A couple of years ago when I had my annual physical exam with my non-VA doctor we were going over my list of VA meds. When I got the bill for that office visit I noted a line on the bill for $135 for that 2-3 minute discussion about my meds.

The next year when he asked that same question I told him I didn't want to discuss it because last year I got charged $135, and that nothing had changed in my meds. He agreed, we didn't discuss it, and both of us were happy.
 
Well since I sold my company and retired, healthcare insurance is one of my largest monthly expenses. I am too young for medicare so Obamacare is my option. I pay 1000 per month for single coverage that is crappy at best. The best part of it is that it goes up every year due to your age. $80 a month increase this year. It is beautiful. For the first time in recent memory, discrimination has, thanks to Obama, become legal again. Now I am fortunate that I can pay this at this point, but I have many friends who can not. They roll with no medical coverage or they try to buy it every other year and hold their breath. All the ACA did was raise the insurance costs for the hard working people who busted their asses to make ends meet and now cannot afford coverage. But, for those who suck off the system and contribute little, they seem to be the only ones who make out with this disaster of a program. Well actually they're not the only ones, the insurance companies made out on that one as well!
 
I saw my orthopedic Dr. last year for a sore left knee. The x-rays didn't show anything and he said the next step is an MRI @ $4,000.00 and I have $5,000.00 deductible so I said not now. We vacation in Puerto Vallarta pretty much annually and have been seeing my dentist there for the past 5 years so I found a clinic with the MRI machine made by GE just like the one Seattle my Dr. wanted me to go to. I had the MRI done for $275 USD and Dr wrote his review in Spanish. My Dr. in Seattle grew up in So. Cal. so he is bilingual, he said he wouldn't change a word of the Dr.'s diagnosis.
My dentist in PV has more state of the art equipment than my Dentist here in my town... The crown here was quoted @ $1200 and in PV it was $250. Our system is broken and I do not have the answer other than Corporate PROFITS are bleeding us for every penny they can get and we sit by and allow it to happen...
 
alnav said:
Here are the instructions for opting out of Part B:
https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/how-do-i-get-parts-a-b/should-i-get-parts-a-b

The sign up process does make you think it's mandatory but I believe that is because almost all who opted out in the past came to regret it and ultimately signed up (and paid a penalty). IMO, it's a great price for the value received. The only good reason for opting out is if an individual is still working and has company-provided insurance for a lower price.
Click to expand...

The only way (other than getting a Medicare Advantage Plan) to avoid Medicare Part B once you turn 65 is if you are still working and you can prove your (or your spouses) employer provides you with what the government thinks is a good enough plan.
Not any plan. It must be a plan the government approves.
Otherwise you will pay the 144.60 a month per person charge. Possibly more if you opt for Medicare Advantage (Part C).

What really amazes me is political candidates espousing the virtues of “Medicare for all” and the morons who will vote for a candidate largely on that one issue because they think it will be free and fantastic.
If it cost 144.60 a month in 2020 when most people who have it paid in to it, as did their employers, for about half a century, I wonder what the monthly cost will be when they throw over 100 million people in who have not paid in to it for a great length of time, if at all.
 
Last edited:
ENstig8or said:
Well since I sold my company and retired, healthcare insurance is one of my largest monthly expenses. I am too young for medicare so Obamacare is my option. I pay 1000 per month for single coverage that is crappy at best. The best part of it is that it goes up every year due to your age. $80 a month increase this year. It is beautiful. For the first time in recent memory, discrimination has, thanks to Obama, become legal again. Now I am fortunate that I can pay this at this point, but I have many friends who can not. They roll with no medical coverage or they try to buy it every other year and hold their breath. All the ACA did was raise the insurance costs for the hard working people who busted their asses to make ends meet and now cannot afford coverage. But, for those who suck off the system and contribute little, they seem to be the only ones who make out with this disaster of a program. Well actually they're not the only ones, the insurance companies made out on that one as well!
Click to expand...

Outstanding argument for keeping the government out of healthcare!
 
Frtbroker said:
Tons of redundancy, which cost money and by the way every time a new person opens my file or touches that form, there's a cost.
One of her bills was mailed to the wrong address in error, 60 days later we are getting calls from a collection agency, another hand in the kitty. There are way too many layers to our healthcare system and everybody wants the piece of the pie.
Click to expand...
I am a cancer survivor and have to have regular visits to the various doctors... at each doctor I have to fill out the exact same form that I filled out on my last visit. The redundancy is crazy!
I had CT Scan early last year - I had started a new job that provided an HSA and my company threw in a large chunk... So I was making large monthly payments to get the companies benefit and avoid taxes on the money and the damn hospital still sent it to a collection agency. I told the agency to "go to hell" since I was making regular payments and paid it off directly to the hospital shortly afterwards...
 
I've got to say, I don't remember anyone seriously complaining about health care until Obama destroyed it....

Yes, we all thought it could be lowered, but nothing like the discussions today of close to $1k a month. I remember a younger friend of mine in Cali that was paying for his healthcare for arounf $180/month with good coverage. After Obamacare, he was telling me he couldn't find anything good under $600... Over night the insurance companies seized the opportunity and took advantage....

I want Trump to clean this shit up. Further, I think the only way to do it is for insurers to be non-profit and return any gains to rebate premiums. In other words, have the insurers actually act on behalf of their members....Novel idea....The system now, where they are for profit, creates greed.
 
Boat Guy said:
I've got to say, I don't remember anyone seriously complaining about health care until Obama destroyed it....

Yes, we all thought it could be lowered, but nothing like the discussions today of close to $1k a month. I remember a younger friend of mine in Cali that was paying for his healthcare for arounf $180/month with good coverage. After Obamacare, he was telling me he couldn't find anything good under $600... Over night the insurance companies seized the opportunity and took advantage....

I want Trump to clean this shit up. Further, I think the only way to do it is for insurers to be non-profit and return any gains to rebate premiums. In other words, have the insurers actually act on behalf of their members....Novel idea....The system now, where they are for profit, creates greed.
Click to expand...
Nah. It was bad before Obama touched it. Especially the individual markets. But Obama F'd it up big time. The costs didn't go up due to insurance companies. It went up because of all the mandates. There was a mandate that companies had to spend a certain amount on certain things and charge certain premiums. We'll the only way they could do that was jack up deductibles to obscene levels. If you look what Obama did, he simply gave some people a premium subsidy so he could claim "more people insured." But when they actually had to use the coverage and meet a $6000 deductible, they realized they've been had -- it wasn't worth chit.

The insurance company's are a cog in the machine, certainly. But you want to take profits out of the marketplace, open up competition. More competitors will squeeze profits. Most areas only have 1 or 2 insurers which monopolize the market. State regulations make it difficult for others to enter -- surprising how that works.

Also make HSAs universal and drive the consumer to make choices. Someone mentioned an MRI above. If you can shop around for an MRI, you can find them for $500 instead of $3000 (my insurer has a "preferred" provider in my area).
 
Boat Guy said:
I've got to say, I don't remember anyone seriously complaining about health care until Obama destroyed it....

Yes, we all thought it could be lowered, but nothing like the discussions today of close to $1k a month. I remember a younger friend of mine in Cali that was paying for his healthcare for arounf $180/month with good coverage. After Obamacare, he was telling me he couldn't find anything good under $600... Over night the insurance companies seized the opportunity and took advantage....

I want Trump to clean this shit up. Further, I think the only way to do it is for insurers to be non-profit and return any gains to rebate premiums. In other words, have the insurers actually act on behalf of their members....Novel idea....The system now, where they are for profit, creates greed.
Click to expand...

Trump had the opportunity to clean it up a bit but the likes of Paul Ryan and the establishment Republicans who hate Trump and jumped up and down about Obamacare for several years didn’t have a plan once they controlled the House, Senate and the Oval Office. Ryan was no different than his Democrat counterpart. No way they wanted to give Trump a win.
The basically surrendered the house in 2018 rather than board the Trump Train.
Fortunately the Romney/Ryan ticket was defeated in 2012 and we weren’t subjected to the possibility of 8 years with that pair of a$$holes.
Obama was no prize and Biden is a lifelong plastic thieving politician but they got my vote in 2012, and in 2008, as the lesser of two evils.
 
The Bill Collector said:
I saw my orthopedic Dr. last year for a sore left knee. The x-rays didn't show anything and he said the next step is an MRI @ $4,000.00 and I have $5,000.00 deductible so I said not now. We vacation in Puerto Vallarta pretty much annually and have been seeing my dentist there for the past 5 years so I found a clinic with the MRI machine made by GE just like the one Seattle my Dr. wanted me to go to. I had the MRI done for $275 USD and Dr wrote his review in Spanish. My Dr. in Seattle grew up in So. Cal. so he is bilingual, he said he wouldn't change a word of the Dr.'s diagnosis.
My dentist in PV has more state of the art equipment than my Dentist here in my town... The crown here was quoted @ $1200 and in PV it was $250. Our system is broken and I do not have the answer other than Corporate PROFITS are bleeding us for every penny they can get and we sit by and allow it to happen...
Click to expand...
Our doctors get that because insurance sets the rates and they don't want to settle for less. In some cases they feel entitled because insurance demands that they provide other services at a loss.

The answer is price transparency and competition.

-Kevin
 
Golfman25 said:
Nah. It was bad before Obama touched it. Especially the individual markets. But Obama F'd it up big time. The costs didn't go up due to insurance companies. It went up because of all the mandates. There was a mandate that companies had to spend a certain amount on certain things and charge certain premiums. We'll the only way they could do that was jack up deductibles to obscene levels. If you look what Obama did, he simply gave some people a premium subsidy so he could claim "more people insured." But when they actually had to use the coverage and meet a $6000 deductible, they realized they've been had -- it wasn't worth chit.

The insurance company's are a cog in the machine, certainly. But you want to take profits out of the marketplace, open up competition. More competitors will squeeze profits. Most areas only have 1 or 2 insurers which monopolize the market. State regulations make it difficult for others to enter -- surprising how that works.

Also make HSAs universal and drive the consumer to make choices. Someone mentioned an MRI above. If you can shop around for an MRI, you can find them for $500 instead of $3000 (my insurer has a "preferred" provider in my area).
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with any of this but I understand the more recent premium hikes, over and above medical inflation (which is high enough) are being exacerbated by the efforts to dismantle Obamacare piecemeal. The removal of the tax for not having insurance has led millions of healthy young people to decline insurance (I am seeing this in my business) so insurance companies are raising premiums to cover us sicker old folks. There was also a large subsidy to insurance companies for lower-income insured that went away, also leading to higher premiums for others.
I think the good news is that there is finally a groundswell of support to make real changes. The bad news is that, unless my Republican brethren come up with a real plan instead of flailing about the past, the future is likely to be based on the Democrat vision.
 
JVM225 said:
The only way (other than getting a Medicare Advantage Plan) to avoid Medicare Part B once you turn 65 is if you are still working and you can prove your (or your spouses) employer provides you with what the government thinks is a good enough plan.
Not any plan. It must be a plan the government approves.
Otherwise you will pay the 144.60 a month per person charge. Possibly more if you opt for Medicare Advantage (Part C).

What really amazes me is political candidates espousing the virtues of “Medicare for all” and the morons who will vote for a candidate largely on that one issue because they think it will be free and fantastic.
If it cost 144.60 a month in 2020 when most people who have it paid in to it, as did their employers, for about half a century, I wonder what the monthly cost will be when they throw over 100 million people in who have not paid in to it for a great length of time, if at all.
Click to expand...
Actually, only Medicare Part A is funded by the employee/employer medicare payroll tax. The other parts are funded by our premiums (about 25%) and the remainder by General Revenue just like most other ongoing federal programs. See https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40082.pdf for a good explanation of how Part B works, including projections of future costs to your point.
 
alnav said:
I don't disagree with any of this but I understand the more recent premium hikes, over and above medical inflation (which is high enough) are being exacerbated by the efforts to dismantle Obamacare piecemeal. The removal of the tax for not having insurance has led millions of healthy young people to decline insurance (I am seeing this in my business) so insurance companies are raising premiums to cover us sicker old folks. There was also a large subsidy to insurance companies for lower-income insured that went away, also leading to higher premiums for others.
I think the good news is that there is finally a groundswell of support to make real changes. The bad news is that, unless my Republican brethren come up with a real plan instead of flailing about the past, the future is likely to be based on the Democrat vision.
Click to expand...

Regardless of which side wins out, it helps to remember what Reagan called the nine scariest words in the English language.

"I'm with the government, and I'm here to help".
 
Speaking of Dr. in a box...a few years ago (about 2013) I had something in my ear that was irritating so went to Med Express. I had insurance but hadn't met my deductible. Went in and nurse took blood pressure. Dr came in and looked in both ears with the little light thingy. Found a hair stuck in my ear that was touching my eardrum. Turns out it was a dog hair from my lab. She left the room and came back in with a pair of tweezers and pulled it out. I was in there a total of about 10-15 minutes and most of that was waiting between the nurse and the Dr. Dr. was literally with me less than 5 minutes. Got the bill....a little over $500. I calculated it out and it was about $10,000/hour. I called Med Express and complained. They reduced it to $250.
 
FootballFan said:
Agree - health care costs are out of control.

What is the solution?
Click to expand...
My solution, at least partially, would be to transition employers out of the health insurance business. The only part I would leave might be to let them continue to provide HSA's much like they provide 401k's today. Let the government continue to maintain the safety net programs for the poor and elderly (which I think they do reasonably well, and nobody else is going to do it). Then, every employed individual would be on their own to select insurance or pay for the care they consume. It's the only way in my mind to create a true marketplace and competition. I think the only other way to solve it is Single Payer, government-managed cost control (i.e., the Democrat solution).
 
FootballFan said:
Agree - health care costs are out of control.

What is the solution?
Click to expand...

At the risk of enduring a lot of screaming and complaining from some of you, the solution has to include consideration for what it costs to become a doctor. My surgical residents are piling on some serious debt over many many years of undergraduate and medical education, followed by many years of internship, residency and fellowship training. These kids are only starting to become productive workers after 16 to 20 years of educating themselves! In many cases 300 to 400 thousand dollars in debt.....WTF? Look, I'm an NOT suggesting reducing the indebtedness of medical students is the answer to our healthcare problems but between that and the expenses to fend off the "sharks" waiting to sue us for every little thing certainly has to be considered if you're gonna have a balanced approach to our healthcare crisis. And absolutely no one on the evening news, idiotic talk shows or those dopey presidential debates ever talks about that aspect of things!
 
brewster16 said:
In many cases 300 to 400 thousand dollars in debt.....WTF? Look, I'm an NOT suggesting reducing the indebtedness of medical students is the answer to our healthcare problems but between that and the expenses to fend off the "sharks" waiting to sue us for every little thing certainly has to be considered if you're gonna have a balanced approach to our healthcare crisis.
Click to expand...
I just don't see this... I know the cost of education is there but around me friends and neighbors in $1-$3M homes and all have cabins and or vacation homes and they are all in their early 40's..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,118
Messages
1,426,468
Members
61,034
Latest member
Lukerney
Back
Top