USA Healthcare Costs are Ridiculous

[navychop]

Until a runaway pickle truck hits them.

 

[dishdude]

Until a runaway pickle truck hits them.

I'm sure Vlasic has good insurance!

 

[osu1991]

Such a scam. Healthcare.gov shows me cheaper individual plans available for 2027 from ambetter that ambetter doesn't show on their website. Looked it up. I've spent $68,000 in premiums the last 5 years and got nothing out of it except a few doctors visits and labs.

 

[dishstaller]

I've spent $68,000 in premiums the last 5 years

That's why I cancelled ours and just started saving the money. We're about to do the same thing with our home insurance.....not cancel it outright but do away with the portion which covers wind damage. We're paying over $5k right now and that is AFTER I dumbed things down...and it keeps going up. Got a couple trees I want to have taken down first before I do that however. After we do that, it will knock about $3k off our annual premium.

 

[osu1991]

I'm still 7 yrs from Medicare eligibility, but I'm leaning towards going without for at least the next year

 

[dishstaller]

I'm still 7 yrs from Medicare eligibility, but I'm leaning towards going without for at least the next year

It probably depends on your health. My Wife and I are very careful about our health and I take a crap load of supplements, especially antioxidants. Sounds like you don't have any health issues so it might be worth the gamble.

 

[Foxbat]

Everyone's experience and circumstances is different. When I was working, we had a High-Deductible Medical Plan the Company and I paid for. We never hit the $3,600/$7,200 deductible as we were healthy, but even with a couple of sports-ball related injuries to Foxbat, Jr., the costs were in-line. He even had the same surgery that the Arkansas QB had to stabilize his ankle joint after a fibula break during football practice. The HSA plan worked as intended, letting us put pre-tax dollars into a fund that could then be used to pay for medical expenses and prescription drugs, or kept year after year to build up in case of a major medical emergency. Sure, I had to pay ~$89/pay period for the Family Medical coverage, but that was under $3,000 a year.

Now that I'm retired, I'm paying under $300/mo. for Part B, under $15/mo. for Part D, and ~$200/mo. for Part G Supplemental. Call it $6,500 a year. I'm sure this will increase as time goes forward, but it depends on how much our AGI is.

 

[WhiteBeard]

Pissed off at the crappy healthcare costs

My health Insurance renewal for 2027 just came in. Going from $827 a month to $1,187 a month. Deductible going up a $1k to $9,350. Max out of pocket also going up $1k to $11,000. Doctor co-pay of $40. Urgent Care co-pay $50. ER 50% coinsurance after deductible. That's all in network. Out of network is double, should it be needed.

Have to think about this. I'm really tempted to just go without now. I only go to the doctor once or twice a year. I pay out of pocket for Tirzepitide and can do without the Rosuvastatin (crestor) now. Really tired of spending over $10k a year and getting nothing out of it.

After years with Blue Cross I switched last year to Ambetter as my Blue Cross premium was going from $1200 to $1800 for a Silver plan and the Bronze plan was still going to be $1300 at BCBS. Ambetter was $827 for the same coverage with a Bronze plan. Didn't think it would jump this much so soon.

I'm guessing a Silver plan is probably over $2,000 a month for 2027.

I'm on Medicare but the rest of the family is on ACA. ACA is ridiculus. The ACA premium has been about about $1900/month with a $9K deductible for the past 10 years - no eye or dental. A lot of money and yet we get so little in return. I haven't signed up for 2027 yet but I expect the cost to be higher.

 

[WhiteBeard]

Because health care shouldn't be a political issue?

It's political because government has inserted itself into the loop.

 

[WhiteBeard]

That's why I cancelled ours and just started saving the money. We're about to do the same thing with our home insurance.....not cancel it outright but do away with the portion which covers wind damage. We're paying over $5k right now and that is AFTER I dumbed things down...and it keeps going up. Got a couple trees I want to have taken down first before I do that however. After we do that, it will knock about $3k off our annual premium.

Our home and auto insurance has been stable so I'll continue with it but I'm going to have see what I can do about medical insurance. The biggest impact would be an ER visit.

 

[b4pjoe]

My wife and I use the same Medicare Advantage plan from United Healthcare. (Yes I have heard the horror stories about Medicare Advantage plans but we have used it for the last 5 years). We are both pretty healthy so it works for us. It costs $0.00 per month for both of us and it pays part of our Medicare part B premium. Next year it will be paying $170 per month of the $220 monthly part B premium for both of us. We also each get $90 per quarter to use on OTC products. $0.00 copay for Dr. visits and $55 copay for specialists. Includes dental and hearing coverage. Never have had an issue with it although I don't really use mine other than for the dental, Part B payments and the OTC benefit as I am a veteran and use the VA for all of my medical needs. I just had a kidney that had a cancer mass removed last month and they allowed me to use a non VA surgeon at a non VA hospital through the VA Community Care program. For all of the doctors visits, exams, tests, surgery, hospital stay, meds etc…was around $60,000 and the the VA paid for it entirely. I did have to pay $16 for the Oxycodone pain pills when I left the hospital that I got from my local CVS instead of waiting for a week for the VA to ship them to me from the VA pharmacy.

 

[meStevo]

They're pushing our high deductible plan pretty hard at work, including a couple thousand to seed a HSA. Covering my wife and 4 kids though that feels like a mistake and I'd rather the peace of mind and the potential higher cost via the PPO plan payroll deductions.

 

[dishstaller]

$0.00 copay for Dr. visits

And THAT is one of the big issues causing a lot of the problems. If the minimum copay for Dr. visits was at least $100 then a LOT of folks would opt out of those visits. If it cost the individual nothing then why should they care. All of my older family members are constantly going to doctor visits.....to them it is an adventure.....an outing that allows them a reason to go out to eat at a restaurant. IF they had to pay one cent out of their own pockets a lot of that crap would stop asap.

Sorry...rant off.

 

[meStevo]

And THAT is one of the big issues causing a lot of the problems. If the minimum copay for Dr. visits was at least $100 then a LOT of folks would opt out of those visits. If it cost the individual nothing then why should they care. All of my older family members are constantly going to doctor visits.....to them it is an adventure.....an outing that allows them a reason to go out to eat at a restaurant. IF they had to pay one cent out of their own pockets a lot of that crap would stop asap.

Sorry...rant off.

You're not wrong that some people treat free visits like a social outing. But it has to be a balance. Put a $100 barrier on a doctor visit and people don't just skip the pointless ones, they skip the important ones too. Then the stuff that would've been a cheap catch at a checkup shows up later in the ER, sicker and way more expensive. The shift we need is from sick care to actual healthcare.

 

[b4pjoe]

And THAT is one of the big issues causing a lot of the problems. If the minimum copay for Dr. visits was at least $100 then a LOT of folks would opt out of those visits.

And I wonder how many people that can't afford $100 die instead of going to the doctor and getting something taken care of before it gets much worse and more expensive?

 

[reubenray]

And THAT is one of the big issues causing a lot of the problems. If the minimum copay for Dr. visits was at least $100 then a LOT of folks would opt out of those visits. If it cost the individual nothing then why should they care. All of my older family members are constantly going to doctor visits.....to them it is an adventure.....an outing that allows them a reason to go out to eat at a restaurant. IF they had to pay one cent out of their own pockets a lot of that crap would stop asap.

Sorry...rant off.

My Brother and his wife are like this. They go to the Doctor for everything. They have a great insurance plan where they pay nothing, plus they use the excuse to go out to eat. I better be sick for multiple days before I go to a Doctor.

 

[dishstaller]

But it has to be a balance.

Unfortunately, humans tend to suck at finding a balance in just about anything.

They go to the Doctor for everything.

I see a LOT of that. And yes...they DO go to the doctor for EVERYTHING.

I was sick a couple months ago, either light flu or cold. First thing my Mom asked me when I told her was "You need to go to the doctor". I said WHY......I know what to do....it'll last a few days and I'll be fine.

The biggest problem with paying nothing out of pocket is that people quickly don't want to pay a penny for anything. Had an older customer in the store the other day. He mentioned that he had just come from CVS and I guess he wanted to rant. He said he went to pick up his prescription and "they changed my plan and wanted $4, they used to be free...I told them to stick them somewhere and walked out". BTW, he was in the store buying a new remote. So he HAD money for a remote but not $4 for this medicine that somebody somewhere thought he needed.

 

[navychop]

$50! Do I hear $50?

Must we go down to $25?

 

[Jimbo]

Unfortunately, humans tend to suck at finding a balance in just about anything.


I see a LOT of that. And yes...they DO go to the doctor for EVERYTHING.

I was sick a couple months ago, either light flu or cold. First thing my Mom asked me when I told her was "You need to go to the doctor". I said WHY......I know what to do....it'll last a few days and I'll be fine.

The biggest problem with paying nothing out of pocket is that people quickly don't want to pay a penny for anything. Had an older customer in the store the other day. He mentioned that he had just come from CVS and I guess he wanted to rant. He said he went to pick up his prescription and "they changed my plan and wanted $4, they used to be free...I told them to stick them somewhere and walked out". BTW, he was in the store buying a new remote. So he HAD money for a remote but not $4 for this medicine that somebody somewhere thought he needed.

My prescription before Medicare took over was $30 for 90 days, Medicare took over, now it was $375 last January and $150ish after that 90 days worth.

 

[Jimbo]

Unfortunately, humans tend to suck at finding a balance in just about anything.


I see a LOT of that. And yes...they DO go to the doctor for EVERYTHING.

I was sick a couple months ago, either light flu or cold. First thing my Mom asked me when I told her was "You need to go to the doctor". I said WHY......I know what to do....it'll last a few days and I'll be fine.

The biggest problem with paying nothing out of pocket is that people quickly don't want to pay a penny for anything. Had an older customer in the store the other day. He mentioned that he had just come from CVS and I guess he wanted to rant. He said he went to pick up his prescription and "they changed my plan and wanted $4, they used to be free...I told them to stick them somewhere and walked out". BTW, he was in the store buying a new remote. So he HAD money for a remote but not $4 for this medicine that somebody somewhere thought he needed.

Priorities ...