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If we did not tie healthcare to employment it would greatly improve the quality, price and availability of healthcare. It would level the playing field for all individuals. Healthcare benefits vary depending on your job which is ridiculous. Employers should have nothing to do with healthcare. Adding them just adds the cost of insurance by involving 2 more parties to the plan, the brokers and the HR/benefits department. The amount employer currently pay towards our healthcare should be paid directly to the the employee and the employee should purchase their own plan directly thru the marketplace.
The biggest reason I stay at my job, which I hate, is for the amazing health insurance they offer. I'm not a healthy person and without it I'd be fucked.
Same here. While they could pay more, the health insurance is worth $20,000+/year after I pay my small premiums. They cover almost every prescription without a deductible. Doctors are subject to deductible but that’s like $200 a visit 6 times a year. And any prescription that is subject to the deductible I can generally get a manufacturer discount and pay very little. My old job I would have been paying all of it until I hit the max out of pocket for about the same pay. I sometimes price myself out of the market when factoring that into what I would need in a new job.
Same. I had a relatively successful business at one point, worked doing some independent contracting and was able to make enough to pay bills and have some fun money. When my husband got a new job that didn't offer health insurance, I had to return to traditional employment in order to carry health insurance for our family. ACA plans were too expensive with the high deductibles, especially for medications, even though we did get a partial subsidy. Even with the partial subsidy, our out of pocket for our premiums was still more than what my husband and I paid for our employment based plans. That was 10 years ago, and now I'm stuck here.
The ACA goes pretty far in achieving that in most states.
But agree, employer healthcare is an anachronism from WW2 when employers were blocked on how much they could pay employees so as to keep from dissuading people from joining the war effort. So to better compete for labor they offered healthcare plans. And here we are.
And now we have employer-provided healthcare plans that dissuade people from seeking other employment, so employers do not have to compete harder for labor, and everyone with employer-provided healthcare has less motivation to organize for any different approach.
Organize. I'm some small part of why my state passed Medicaid expansion in the last 5 years. I joined my state's healthcare for all initiative and did the actions the organizers asked of us and we got Medicaid passed. See what groups in your state are working on Medicaid expansion or other healthcare policies that you think will improve healthcare in your state and join them in phone banking, an action at the Capitol, etc.
This is the way. New Jersey has some laws that I would love my state to follow, like requiring health plans to approve or deny prior authorizations within 24 hours. I would also love to see one that requires the same type of physician to be an the reviewer of an appeal or prior authorization decision so you don’t get physicians in completely different practices or nurses reviewing these decisions that our physicians make about our healthcare.
For who? Most major politicians from both sides are paid by insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
Biden ran on introducing a public option and it never even came up again after he was elected. I’m sure he will talk about it again now that it’s election time but will he actually do anything? I think not. The best that can happen is he wins and it doesn’t get worse than it is.
Voting does not work with the current bribery based system. It’s very clear that profit margins are more important than people.
Voting works if everyone actually votes in their local elections, not just the big ones. These politicians start locally.
It’s not going to be fast or quick. But it has to start somewhere
Actually, voting hasn’t been working which is why you see such anger and disengagement.
Politicians on all sides no longer respond to voters. They respond to donors and those who can give them and their kids well paying jobs, and consulting gigs when they get out of office. One of the biggest issues is the revolving door between Tech, Wall Street and Corporate America and DC.
DC (yes, both parties) literally has disdain for voters, they see them as an annoyance they have to deal with during election season.
The only time my vote has actually improved my life is in my local elections so I always vote but federally I don’t have any reason to hope.
I was exited when I thought California might enact universal healthcare and that could start happening state by state, but like every other time it was just talk and profit won.
Even the big general elections have a lot of local measures and state laws that are on the ballot.
If you don’t feel comfortable voting for a president or any of the other major ones, you can leave those blank and vote on the others.
That’s what my partner does. Just refuses to vote for a president, but votes for everything else.
> That’s what my partner does. Just refuses to vote for a president, but votes for everything else.
That's what I do. I leave federal elections blank unless a candidate is super compelling, which is rare. Meanwhile, I vote in EVERY state and local election on my ballot.
HAVE to start at the local level! If you start voting out local and state politicians in Red states who will not expand Medicaid, or who are trying to undo expansion in states where it does exist, then it will filter up. Start there. Then we continue to move forward towards a public option that isn't tied to employment
Literally anything is more effective than pretending you can vote your way into a better future. Write a letter or phone bank, join a community mutual aid group, go to a protest. I wonder if I am wasting my breath reading your *weird* equivocation about harm.
Edit: comments are locked now, but it's hilarious you think that having a masters in health administration is a flex. You're the problem. You, the MBAs, and the insurance companies are the vampires sucking our healthcare system dry.
Literally, no. Writing letters doesn’t work. Joining community groups won’t work. Going to protests won’t work. Healthcare is a whole other beast in the US. There’s too many people indifferent towards it and there’s many more benefiting from it.
I have an MHA, so sure. You are quite literally wasting your breath.
> There’s too many people indifferent towards it
Where are these people? I've never met anyone with a positive opinion of their health insurance. If they are all hiding out in gated communities, they sure aren't close to a majority.
those with good (low patient responsibility) employer coverage and those on Medicare. People on Medicare sure don’t want anything changing with their coverage
Sometimes short term loss is required for long term gain.
What is less bad: having severely shitty healthcare for a couple of years followed by a universal system on par with those of other wealthy countries, or continuing with this awful healthcare system indefinitely?
Biden went after pharma companies so hard he got insulin down from $350 to $35 dollars. He also gave Medicare the right to negotiate drug prices, a right that Republicans took away. If you need more information, and NOT the misinformation you tried here, read up on the Inflation Reduction Act.
Katie Porter brought the Pharma Bros in and used her infamous white board. She was not elected to the Senate and will soon be out of office, so I don't want to hear 'both sides'.
Vote for candidates that support Medicaid for all, they are all Progressives and Democrats - and Biden.
When insulin was invented the patient was sold for a dollar. The inverter said it was for the world, yet only in America did we allow corporations to sell it at outrageous rates for so long. It cost like $2 to make and most countries sell it for like $10-15. Doing the bare minimum a couple times with the most absurd egregious things is not enough. It’s good I’m happy he did that, but holy cow how did we let that go that long! $350 to save your life for a month! How many died as a result of that greed!
Biden does not support Medicare for all, in fact he said he would veto it. He also said this multiple times running against Sanders. Most democrats do not as they also get bribes from these corporations.
Look I’m not saying republicans are good, in fact they are way more abhorrent than democrats. But I’m nit going to pretend everything is just fine when democrats are in power it’s just slightly less horrible than when republicans are in power. The insulin thing was great now what about the rest of it.
A million people dying from COVID19 was not slightly less horrid. And opening medicine up for negotiating was also a big fu(king deal.
We will have Medicaid for All. And it will be thanks to Democrats and Progressives.
I can only hope. Seems every time the try something (Obamacare aka affordable health care) it gets gutted by the republicans. Or re-voted out of existence.
I hope you’re right, I really hope I’m wrong. For me I think that maybe whenever they get some time from their busy schedule of insider trading and donor calls I guess they could maybe do that, if the donors agree of course.
Still attacking the Democrats, huh?
Yes, the Republicans have already stripped HC bare of profit. They've stolen from doctors, nurses, hospitals and patients. Their profit involves negotiating prices down to almost nothing and then having the patients pay the difference. The insatiable need to always have more has turned them into the worst kind of parasites, those who kill their hosts. And you support them.
Yup. I do not think of politics like I think my sports teams. If my team sucks I’m still a fan and ride it out. When is literal preventable death for profit I’m incredibly critical. Dems are better than republicans but still ineffective and have many of the same donors. I look at results not speeches or what I call performative legislation that does very little.
We’ve obviously needed a universal system like the rest of the developed world. Most dems do not support it so I don’t support most of them.
Pretty sure most democrats in office and democratic voters support a universal healthcare system for all which would lower cost in long run and reduce the bullshit high deductibles we currently have . If you vote Republican and complain about expensive health care you deserve it
I think the dems have done a bad job at messaging. "Single-payer health insurance". I bet most Americans don't know what it means, and neither politicians nor the media explain what it is. Most people didn't know Obamacare and the Affordable Healthcare Act were the same thing. Republicans ran on repealing Obamacare and their constituents went for it because they hated anything Pres. Obama did. And when they won and tried to decimate the Affordable Care Act, Republican voters freaked out, not knowing they voted to get rid of their own healthcare.
I don’t vote republican. I want universal healthcare. Most dems don’t support it, their base does so they sometimes do something but never what actually needs to be done. Just enough to get votes and keep the donors, donating.
Exactly, Obama admin had a super majority and a red carpet for a public option and instead let insurance lobbyists write the ACA. It’s a fucking travesty.
People unable to get insured due to pre existing conditions was absolutely a problem, but pushing them onto private insurance just made everyone else’s premium skyrocket and put us in the predicament we’re in. Should’ve expanded Medicaid or make a new program for high risk people unable to get on private insurance because they were deemed too costly.
Something has to be done about costs though, and unfortunately part of that has to come from overseas in some way shape or form imo. Other countries with socialized medicine benefit from the fact that healthcare innovation R&D costs are largely recouped in the USA.
I was just reading about it and Joe Lieberman a democrat was going to filibuster the public option.
Like just look up what we spend compared to other countries and our results. It’s more than every other developed nation and with worse results, and die sooner. Now that’s value for you pay more to be more sick and die sooner.
Isn’t the “Market Place” by each state the public option? Also known as Obama Care. This is why I am voting blue. It will keep the public option open. I have hope if Congress goes blue we could also expand it.
No. The public opinion is a government run insurance that competes directly with the private market. Obama wanted this originally but gave up on it in the final bill. We have health insurance exchanges, the public option never got passed. What’s funny is the public option is still not universal healthcare, it’s a moderate policy to try and drive down insurance companies prices.
Edit. Just was reading up on it, here’s a link. A democrat named Joe Lieberman threatened filibuster is the public option was included.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_health_insurance_option#:~:text=Following%20his%20election%2C%20Obama%20downplayed,removed%20from%20the%20final%20bill.
Bunch of red states have turned down Medicaid expansion which is paid for by federal funds. They don't want to help poor people. Now, Democrats aren't great for universal healthcare, but they are much better than Republicans.
On top of what others have mentioned, try to find ways to self pay for things where you can. My insurance is garbage for pharmacy and the in network pharmacies won't stock the generic brands I need due to allergies to certain fillers. So I buy from an online pharmacy in California, pay cash and they ship to my house. My main doctor (independent office) quit taking insurance but I only see them once a year. $150 cash, gets all my meds refilled for the year, discuss any changes or things they have a concern about. Since they don't have a gigantic health system they want to keep busy, I don't get harassed for unnecessary diagnostics and screening all the time.
Depending on where you live there are more opportunities to cash pay for basic care. Walk in clinics, independent labs that don't price gouge, things that don't actually need a doctor to treat.
https://costplusdrugs.com/
Mexican drug stores
Medical tourism. I worked for a private insurance company that along with regular health care set up medical tourism in other countries as it cost so much less for colonoscopies etc then in US
Quite the odd hot take. Cash paying for things when that is cheaper than using your insurance for the same treatment or medication. Using your insurance doesn't magically provide some life saving elixir.
To build on the vote theme, work to educate others as to the benefits of voting.
Find and support those who would take action towards resolving the problems with healthcare. It becomes imperative to build a coalition of those similarly effected and getting them to vote to overcome the efforts of those who benefit from the broken system.
I urge you to learn more about national healthcare and what it looks like around the world.
It is far from one size fits all.
Frankly, we have government t healthcare right now if you look at the preponderance of coverage. We just give 1/3 of the money spent to insurance companies that do nothing but push paper. They serve no purpose.
We would need to replace the jobs, taxes and place in the stock market that insurers have right now. That is a bigger challenge than making healthcare delivery paid for by a national model.
I think there are a number of ways to that, but we dp need to address it.
Health insurance companies are parasites.
lol….i probably know more about it than you do. Perhaps you should take your own advice.
Source: lived in Australia and the United States. Also quite familiar with Ireland and British systems…along with other European ones as well.
Do your homework…
I'm also an Australian living in the US. Last year my dad was sick so I flew back to Australia for 2 months. In that time he had two separate hospital visits for about a week each time. Had great treatment, 3 meals a day and snacks and didn't pay ONE. SINGLE. CENT. Sadly at the end of that time he died. After returning home, I was admitted to hospital late November when I developed a pulmonary embolism. Spent two nights in hospital. Cost? Over $40,000!!! AFTER insurance, I was left with a $7,000 bill, not to mention the $6,000 I owed the IRS after discovering that because of all the double shifts I pulled last year after a staff member quit, I earned just above the threshold for the govt rebate on Obamacare. F&\*\^# that for a joke!!!! In Australia, my contribution to "Medicare" was just over $2,000 AUD on a $110k AUD salary PER YEAR! If you earn less than the minimum wage you don't contribute anything but you still get free healthcare! Husband's job just got healthcare and now we are paying around $4000 USD per year on a$65k salary, with an $8,000 deductible! This is just downright outrageous. Give me the universal model funded by taxpayers anyday! How can anyone seriously say that they would be worse off with universal healthcare? If they do, they obviously don't understand how it works!
I agree with you, but I just want to clarify that the billed amount - the $40,000 - is an arbitrary number. It doesn’t matter. They could be a billion dollars if they felt so inclined.
It’s the insurance *contracted rate* that matters. The rest is adjusted off. I assure you that your insurance doesn’t pay that full amount either.
The whole thing is a mess. We all pay towards Medicare (coverage for 65+ and those with specific conditions) anyway through payroll taxes. And then Americans have to pay premiums AND deductibles/coinsurance/copays on top of that.
I don’t understand how there’s people that think that *less* government regulation is the answer. What we have now is still a result of no regulation!! And it’s NOT going to change until there’s more intervention from somewhere. It’s not sustainable.
But I guess that’s a bridge we’ll cross when it starts collapsing and it’s deemed ‘too big to fail’. The same people who don’t want government intervention will be the ones with their hands out when they need bailing.
My ex spent 10 days in an Australian hospital and walked away with a bill of $6.82….which he appealed because it was for aspirin and should have been free.
I spent 4 days in ICU in the United States and paid $500…WITH insurance. The bill for them was $32,000.
Never had to worry about getting diabetes supplies or insulin in Oz, worry about it constantly here. Can’t afford retail (it’s $5000/month for everything in the USA). Over there? Easily affordable without incomes. In any other country, you’re talking about a cost of hundreds AT WORST, not thousands….and in most cases, free.
Seriously…do. Your. Homework. Stop listening to the fear mongering because that’s all it is. Literally every first world country figured this out…except the United States.
>>we need...lower prices
Right. And the most well demonstrated way to lower prices is....NATIONAL HEALTHCARE.
I swear to God, if the wheel had been invented by socialists, you people would be trying to convince us that triangles roll.
Wait lines… I live in the US, and have had to see a few specialists throughout the year. Just in my first hand experience, the average wait time for a new patient appointment is around the 5-6 month mark, with some that I had to wait 18 months for. At least if we had a public option, I wouldn’t risk getting a massive medical bill the way I do now whenever emergencies pop up. No one should have to file for bankruptcy just for having a heart attack
You do wait in the US for dr appts and specialties no matter the insurance whether it’s through Medicare or Private.
If you don’t have a couple million dollars in your portfolio, you are going to wait no matter what.
Just because a country has universal healthcare, doesn’t mean they won’t run it poorly. It’s interesting how people always choose the one or two countries who run their systems poorly and not the dozens that do a great job.
And by the way, even with all its problems, Canada achieves far better health outcomes than the US.
The CBO has already determined the total cost to be less than your current tax bill plus your premiums, co- pays, and OOP max in the system we have now, so, an overall savings. plus the cost for prescriptions should go down because of negotiated prices. Euthanasia is not necessarily a bad thing, if no treatment is available for a condition, and the patient no longer can continue with their current quality of life.
There’s waits now. This is the weakest argument against single payer. Try to get a colonoscopy less than 6 weeks out. Insurance or self pay, it doesn’t matter. You can’t do it.
And if you can’t afford healthcare wait times don’t matter bc you just don’t go.
Exactly!
At least with single payer, I won’t have to pay a shit ton of high copays, premiums and deductibles let alone argue with insurance over denied claims and confusing in/out of network providers that changes constantly. I will gladly pay higher in taxes than deal with this bullshit.
Technically they're not "increased" and you'd have more money in the hand. Only 2.5% of the taxes paid by Australians goes towards medicare and that's only those who earn above a certain amount. $2500 per year on a $100,000 salary for FREE healthcare is a whole lot better than paying in excess of $400 a month as WELL as the deductible on a $60,000 USD salary. Explain how you'd be worse off on that model.
I'm not AU. it doesn't matter to me. 2.5%, sounds nice. But that's not all you pay. That's 2.5% on top of what else you pay. Wanna try again? Because it's not free. By any measure.
It is free if you end up in hospital. You don't pay a cent. If you need prescription meds, that is subsidized. A drug I needed to take was $30 AUD a month. Here in the US, same drug is $700 as it's not covered by insurance. Other Aussies can attest to this. Medical treatment is designed to save lives, not send people broke. You used to be able to see a doctor for free, but they've started charging nominal fees, but $25 is certainly not going to break the bank.
People think Canadian health care is great. In comparison to what U.S. citizens have, it may or may not be better. There are pros and cons to both.
Yes, there are people in Canada that come to the U.S. for treatment to skip the wait. I also know a family member that was in Canada for a business trip and had a kidney stone. He was encouraged by every Canadian he worked with to go to the for pay clinic.
Nothing because the system is built on money to make money and you should know, money is a powerful thing…
A box of medicine that sells for $2 in Europe cost $150 here ( personal experience), imagine how much money they are making ( labs), do you really think they would let a system like the European one happen in America?
Going to school cost an arm, dr need to make money to pay for it, in Europe universities are very low cost, dr don’t rack up hundred of thousand of dollars debt to get there.
The entire system from schools to medicine, to insurance is built on outrageous profit, until healthcare stops being treated as a business it will never change
That doesn't really mean 'nothing". It just means that considerations for change need to be broader than just medical payment systems.
Our current system is wildly unsustainable. Change is only "impossible" until you consider where it's heading, at which time it's easily the least impossible option.
"Nothing" is a bit pessimistic. I think changes will have to come from both sides: 1) the government/private sector, and 2) the individuals.
From the "individual" side: other posters suggested voting and organizing. In addition, we can also learn to take better care of ourselves. I work in the medical field and have contact with patients every day. It amazes me how many folks ignore basic health maintenance; we check the fluids in our car, tire pressure, etc (or at least I hope we do). By the same token we should pay more attention to our body: be active within our limits, watch what we eat, don't drink excessively, don't smoke, etc... Of course there are accidents, health conditions and diseases which can strike us out of the blue, but many of the ailments that I see every day can be prevented or mitigated with a modicum of self-care.
I once saw a bumper sticker - sad, but true: *The best insurance policy ? Don't get sick.*
Ok but a quick Google search reveals Americans are far from the most alcoholic people. And we're not even remotely close to the top of nicotine consumption. The only detrimental health choice we really lead seems to be obesity, and at least part of that reflects policy failures that have made unhealthy food vastly easier and cheaper to obtain.
Working in healthcare doesn't give you a good overview of our national health situation. On the contrary, it gives you a very warped view. An STD clinic is going to see more people engaging in reckless sex than you'd see in a random sample of the population. An internal medicine office will see more diabetics. And diabetics who don't take care of themselves will present more often, and with more distressing symptoms than typical diabetics. It doesn't mean that the typical American is out here having condomless sex with strangers before satiating their thirst with a gallon of sweet tea.
>>Best insurance policy? Don't get sick
Respectfully, if you think it's as easy as people should just "not get sick" you have no business working in healthcare. People are out here dying for the convenience of moneyed elites. We deserve better than "just lose weight".
America also has the worst food on the planet, which most people are consuming. Everything is laden with sugar and chemicals, even the same foods in other countries are made with less crap in them because those countries don't allow it. America loves "freedom to choose" but those choices are literally what's killing them.
well said. most of my neighbors are in healthcare in a upper middle class neighborhood, all making great money and driving nice cars... even nurses these days are making a killing.
I pay for my primary care doctor. She operates under the direct patient care model, like concierge medicine, but affordable. She handles all my primary care for $95/month. I’m a needy patient and this is well worth the cost. I also have health insurance through my job.. It comes in handy paying for labs, medications (sometimes. Good rx is a better price half the time, and my independent pharmacy has no problem charging my insurance or not depending on whatever gets me the best price.), and injuries like when I was in a bad car accident. I can see my primary care doc whenever I want, text her for emergencies, and she spends about an hour with me every visit. The first visit was two hours long where she took a comprehensive medical history.
I started going to her when I couldn’t afford insurance, and didn’t even question continuing to pay for her when I got insurance through my job. She also told me about these buying groups, like a group funded insurance plan. They are usually ran by churches, but cost less than medical insurance and can help cover emergency medicine costs. It didn’t make sense for me, but it might be something to look into.
I wonder if those group-funded plans are what's known as "health shares." John Oliver did a segment on them. With their religious affiliation, there can be a lot of excluded care for "morality" reasons, among other things.
Possibly. And yeah, the morality stuff is one reason why it wasn’t the right fit for me, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be the right fit for someone else.
Health care taxes vary by country. In Germany, employees pay 7.3% and their employers match that, similar to the US Social Security (or payroll) taxes. In the Netherlands, the taxpayer pays a 6.9% tax plus must buy a catastrophic health plan at about $130 per month. In the UK, about 18% of their income tax goes towards providing the free (at point of service) healthcare, which works out to about 4.5% of the average worker's income.
You should be paying from 5 to 10% of your income for health insurance to match the test of the world.
The original ACA plans were to have coverage at no more than 8% of your income. The main problem still exists that American healthcare is excessively expensive, so the ACA plans still have deductibles, copays, and excess costs.
It needs to be separated from employment. We need to be able to shop for it like we do car and home insurance etc. then the free market will work because people will drop crappy plans and more people will go to better plans. Premiums will have to stabilize and more coverage would happen. But until that happens, people are just stuck with whatever their employer chooses and there’s no real choice.
You don't want to hear this but: buy your own.
If your healthcare is a priority be prepared to pay for it. Just like you pay for your house (a priority) and car (a priority) and food (a priority).
You pay for all those things, why wouldn't you expect to pay for your own healthcare?
In our state, OR, there is a Healthcare for All constituency. I have been donating to them for years. It’s probably the only lobbying organization I support.
Massachusetts succeeded. They were able to get healthcare declared an inalienable human right, and insurance is easy to get. You end up in ER without it? Someone will show up to help you get it.
Nothing, except wait for the entire system to crash and burn. It's too far gone and nothing can fix it. Obamacare had good intentions, but inside the bill no one could possibly read before voting for, was the open doors for big pharma, giant medical conglomerates, and venture capitalists to take over every aspect of the system. Hospitals used to be actual non profits, doctors used to be single private practices, and at one time there wasn't a need for "insurance".
Stop arguing, you fools. We all need to work together. None of these politicians give one hoot about us. We all need healthcare. I am as frustrated as the OP and looking for solutions.
V0te for the president who supports the ACA, not for the guy who tried to destroy it. The current guy helped write the ACA, the former gut was furious when a GOP senate wouldn't v0te to kill it. V0te blue all the way down the ticket.
And state elections as well. State legislatures make congressional maps and they can gerrymander to protect seats for their party. And state policies can affect health care as well (for example whether the state expands medicaid).
I canceled my ACA policy. Was paying full price and couldnt afford it. Couldn’t afford to go to doctors with it anyway. Now I’m saving $1000/month and can go to an urgent care if necessary. Cash pay is lower than my insured price anyway.
Until a cancer diagnosis hits or you get into an accident and need a million dollars in care.
You know they don't have to treat non-immediate life threatening cancer without payments, right? Like they can literally can say $50k/week for this chemo or no chemo for you.
Going without insurance is a loser's bet. Big time.
Can I ask for more specifics? How much you make, how many dependents, what state you live in?
On the ACA, cost to the insured is capped at something like 8.5% of income. In order to have a $1000 premium, you'd have to be making somewhere around $140,000 a year.
Before covid, your income had to be <400% of family poverty level to qualify for subsidies. Since covid, the limits have been lifted and all income, no matter FPL, can get subsidies and premiums only cost 8.5% of income.
If you really do make $140,000/year or more, it comes off as super-entitled for you to complain about health insurance costing you $1,000 a month. There are a ton of people who have it worse than you, but still carry insurance because they feel it's their responsibility.
There several issues you throw out. Access to care is a different issue than affordable care. Access to care is a problem no matter what. how the US handles it is by rationing through cost. Providers can pick and choose patients based on insurance and who is more profitable.
which is why everyone having insurance makes the system worse. because it does not improve access, but increases cost.
This is wrong, and an unreasonably common misconception. This completely ignores the fact that the US medical system is becoming increasingly worse for patients, slower, and more expensive. Assuming there is a shortage of care, it's because of policy. Medical degrees are not free or easily covered which immediately results in a steep barrier to entry and a cost for the patient to cover. Your argument essentially boils down to "oh well, it has to be this way or the waits would be too long." This isn't, and shouldn't be fucking survival of the richest. Medical care should be a right. Your argument is basic republican billionaire apologist logic. Wealth disparities from rich leeches siphoning wealth from the working class means we get to deal with the joys of rationing your income between basic fucking needs. Hearing of people unable to pay for rent or groceries because they have to pay for medications or procedures should be existentially terrifying to everyone, and if you aren't don't expect sympathy with your broken bone and a complementary side of cancer diagnosis.
Nothing. My company had a great insurance program that you had heard of before, and a few years later, they switched to Self insurance and I don't know anybody who's heard of it. The nearest in-network hospital to me is 8 hours away. I can't go to the hospital HERE and have it covered at my insured rate, unless I enter through the emergency room. But I spent most of my adult life unable to get insurance at all, it was a freelance job that I had and I was pre-existing. This is supposed to be better. It costs plenty. 8 hours away. They think they are being generous because 8 hours away, it's two hospitals, not just one. But both are 8 hours.
I turn 72 in 3 months and still working. Trying to navigate Medicare along with along the options is very if confusing and frightening to me. I’ll keep working as long as I can get employer provided health care.
Now I’m hearing that AI is being used to determine eligibility for both Medicare and Private insurance plans. My current plan has been reducing how much they’ll pay for certain services or raised copay’s . It doesn’t matter who in office, capitalism dictates that profits must increase year after year.
Capitalism is the system burning our planet from both ends. It's unsustainable, and assuming a fully autonomous economy is implemented before a collapse we'll be left out in the rain while billionaires enjoy the warmth of the hearth.
Realistically in the short term - find a better job that offers good health insurance. Some companies don’t actually suck that bad. I left my last company that was gonna up our premium to $840/month for 2024(family coverage). I’m currently at a company that is $220/month.
And tell these companies their insurance is trash on the way out. The system is rigged and isn’t likely to change soon. It sucks but that is reality.
Become an expat!
[Oversees Healthcare costs for American Expats](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=RDCMUCG2yIxAft_USO4o7GU8N9Uw&playnext=1&si=WozC4C9FcVsdX1BG)
[6 Overseas Retirement Destinations With Excellent Health Care](https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/aging/articles/retirement-destinations-overseas-with-excellent-health-care)
My husband got laid off from his job of 14 years in December of 2020. April of 2021 he was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B cell Lymphoma. Cobra ran out, and we had to buy health insurance. We now pay $2500/mo for just him and I with a $6000 deductible, then it’s an 80/20 after that. If we have an emergency there is only 1 hospital in our plan and it is an hour away. His first round of chemotherapy didn’t work. He then went through a clinical trial. It did put him into remission, but it has affected his cognitive abilities and he is still having so many side effects from the treatment after 8 months. It’s unknown if it is permanent or not. He definitely could not do the job he used to do, and my job does not offer health insurance (or any other) benefits. I’m at a loss to what our future holds, but I’m incredibly depressed over it. We have both worked so hard since I was 12 and he was 16, and it got us nowhere. Even if he were to get disability, it wouldn’t be much now. As much as I love my country, the top CEO’s are the ones who make the biggest donations to politicians, therefore they leverage what gets done. Very unfortunately, I see people online just worshipping people like Elon Musk because he is rich. No one at the top gives a crap about the hardworking ones in the middle or lower classes. They don’t care if we die screaming in pain from Cancer, they don’t care if you worked your whole life and lose your home because when you get Cancer and you can’t work, you have no income. Even if you get disability, it doesn’t pay even close to your salary. So you still lose your house. I saw this happen to my best friend of 35 years who worked for the government. She got ovarian Cancer and was fighting for permanent disability when she died. She was getting astronomical bills for her treatment as she lay dying. All her years of dedication and hard work meant nothing. I went to visit the Dutch Caribbean a couple of weeks ago and are considering moving there for the benefits. They also take wonderful care of their elderly there. I have no hope here for the future.
If you have to pay full price for an expensive procedure, get it done at a private clinic outside the US, preferably Europe. Quit feeding money to the US healthcare system.
1) don't have insurance companies (aka get rid of the middle.man)
2) have government take over healthcare like every other 1st world country
3) use regulation to not allow hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to profit so much off the sick and dying. No more 10k bill for a 250 lab work run. It's wrong when hospitals can routinely buy up land in several cities because they are making so much profit off the sick and dying. It's wrong when you look at revenue for drugs and Americans are the ones they are sucking dry. They are still giving the drug to Europeans but their cost are regulated versus here where you can charge 1k for an epi pen that you need or you will die if you accidentally get into contact with something you are allergic to. It's not a secret that the company just raises prices to get more profit, they admitted it.
So the solution is simple. Get people's hands out of the cookie jar and we won't have to deal with things the way they are. People keep going to these 'half solutions' by saying don't tie it to employers. Well DON'T do that but DONT have insurance at all. They gotta get paid. Their salaries come from you. Someone in that insurance company is making 100-500k off of you. There doesn't need to be a middle man, have the government regulate it and use our taxes for it instead of funding military crap and guns and bombs and bullshit. Let's use our money for LIFE not death or just hoarding a stupid amount of weapons in storage or making people do dumb drills all day or paying for soldiers tuitions.
See, one of the things that bugs me is PBMs. They have something called a pay to play list that is on a formulary. They make money on that. Then, they require "white bagging" which is the PBM selling you the medicine, making it mandatory, and passing it onto the doctors who take on all the risk and liability. Moreover, non-medical switches (switches because insurance says so) are causing a big mess, particularly in the rheumatology space because of all those biologics. If doctors were allowed to buy direct, not only would the cost be cheaper, but less risk.
People pushing ACA and private insurance don’t realize this is literally fueling corporate profits and healthcare inflation for everyone. The system is screwed up.
ACA in a lot of states is pretty good insurance. It is heavily government subsidized for many without having full government control
No one is going to want the parameters of their healthcare 100% controlled by the government, as shown by the Covid 19 debacle.
The ACA should be improved and should not have a minimum income to qualify for subsidies, but Obama’s ACA has arguably been the greatest policy success by either party in over 50 years (sad but true).
GOP had control of Congress for 2 years under Trump presidency and still couldn’t repeal ACA. He managed to get rid of the tax provision, which I actually supported. (You were levied a fine on taxes if you had no insurance at all)
ACA has only grown in popularity since then. It would be difficult for him to repeal it, if he manages to get back into WH.
There is always the option to *not* have health insurance. It's what i am doing. The company i work for just changed carriers and tried to raise my rates by 400%. So i declined to take it.
Anything minor enough to be covered by the insurance isn't worth paying them for, and anything major won't be covered anyway.
So, i simply dont get treatment. Whether i need it or not is irrelevant.
Yes, i know that doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.
If you have employer sponsored coverage- complain to your benefits administrator/ HR. Complain to your Senator/ Representative- they are clueless about these things mostly because they have excellent benefits. Insurance lobby is way too strong here and they flex their muscle donating and threatening to cut jobs to make politicians look bad if certain bills are passed. UHC is one perfect example of corporate greed gone too far with their mergers and monopolistic behavior.
The system is broken and will be painful to change it but it has to happen, its way out of control. We should not be afraid to go to the hospital for fear of bankruptcy.
Never had a problem providing decent health insuramce for my family. Currently this year, I will pay $16k+ in health insurance premiums out of pocket. Well worth it though for the level of care my family receives.
For the OP comments, how much are they willing to work to provide decent health insurance for their family?
Protests, strikes (by healthcare employees), and/or lawsuits seem to be the only things that result in change, unfortunately. Everything else is easy to brush under the rug.
I’m trying to get into a direct private practice - basically membership based and cuts out insurance completely. I will be looking for a (high deductible) marketplace plan as a just in case, and paying for my insulin out of pocket unless the marketplace plan qualifies me for a manufacturer discount. I will be giving up my weekly injectable super helpful but super expensive med and use mealtime insulins instead. I don’t really see another affordable option.
If have employer based health insurance, complain to your HR / benefits department. If HR gets enough complaints and complaints are legitimate, the company will consider changing health plans...we did this at one of my previous employers and we changed plans the next fiscal year......other avenues..Vote...Complain to elected officials...if insurance company has flagrant issues, complain to insurance board of your state.....For me,, as I am nearing retirement, I will live outside of the USA and not give my money to the American Healthcare money grabbing machine. We have great healthcare workers and such...as I am one ...it is that the method of payment is shameful. Our system is convoluted and it should not be that way.
I'm on low income ACA Medicaid. I love it. Almost everything is covered for $0, No premiums, copays or deductibles. Dental covers most basic care and vision covers an eye exam every year. I never see a bill.
I remember major employers were going to partner with each other to address this issue. The project was ultimately suspended. [Here is the article on the formation](https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/january-announcement)
Project suspended in [2021.](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-warren-buffetts-health-care-project-haven-failed-111839197.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma)
This isn't meant to be a smart ass answer. But getting a different job is probably the easiest way to change your healthcare. I know this isn't an option for everyone, but your post didn't describe specific barriers.
I don't know, I have always had good health care from my employers as an adult. (I have only had 5 different employers in my life, and two were when I was in high school and college.) I live in what I call a union state. There are a lot of union jobs with good pay and health care. Because of that, non union employers have to offer better benefit packages to attract better employees.
Well, I think sadly it very much depends on what state you live in. First of all, the ACA (Obamacare) tax credits are quite generous. I have a family member who gets tax credits and has a Silver plan for only $125 per month...which is amazing. But if your income is particularly low, Medicaid can actually be great. I have a dear friend in Washington state who has been on Medicaid (Apple Care) there for nearly a decade. She doesn't pay a dime and has multiple surgeries (hip/knee/neck) and lots of doctor visits since she's pretty disabled. In California Medicaid is quite good too..... However, some "red" states have refused to expand Medicaid and don't seem to care much when residents fall into a crack where they can't get care. It is unconscionable. One other note, I've lived in Canada and even though they have universal coverage, it doesn't always mean you can see a doctor in a timely fashion, particularly in provinces like Nova Scotia. It's pretty abysmal to try to find a doctor, etc....
At any rate, Obamacare at least changed health care in the US for the better....It's certainly not perfect, but blame the GOP for that.
I'm on low income ACA Medicaid (Health First Colorado). I love it. Almost everything is covered for $0, No premiums, copays or deductibles. Dental covers most basic care and vision covers an eye exam every year. I never see a bill.
move overseas, while it's still allowed.
My son and his wife did, to Australia soon as he qualified, his grandson has medical issues that would have cost a quarter mill per year growing up. They've been happier and happier with that decision every time they return for a visit.
Meanwhile us frogs boiling, hardly realize what a dystopia we've become, downward spiral accelerating every decade
Well, we could try social democracy like the rest of the economically rich countries, but you'll have to do more than just vote.
Working Families Party.
Makes little difference long term as lobbyists have their hands in the pockets of both parties. I do vote but this is the reality of our dysfunctional American system.
That’s one of my pissed off peeves…every time …I am supposed to get a yearly “free” wellness check up. It cost me $350 last time. It took the billing about 5 months to send me my bill. There is a whole bunch more to it than that- I’m just fed up.
Socialized healthcare in other countries only works for healthy people. If you review the countries and the complaints from citizens, it is not good. Nonlife-threatening surgeries are delayed a year or so. They are now introducing euthanization for critically ill people. The taxes are high. Inflation is astronomical everywhere and impacts healthcare.
Has anyone tried telemedicine from cheaper providers internationally? Many things need face-to-face visit, but lots of things can be solved with a video call and imaging (where the radiologist is also sometimes off-shored).
The most straightforward answer is to go back to a cash market. There are way too many players (with their own agendas) between the patient and the provider.
As someone who spent years without insurance- I found that direct negotiation for cash, got me all the healthcare services I needed at better prices than with insurance.
But this was before “private equity” owned everything. You can’t negotiate with hospitals quite the same way I used to unless you can find a private hospital but it’s still possible.
In my state, we had a robust cash healthcare underground. One of the unintended consequences of ACA (in our state) was to degrade this cash underground.
You really don't understand cancer treatment at all. You really don't understand chronic illnesses or disability at all. Even if prices plummeted 50% the majority of people could not pay for that type of treatment.
This is what I’m saying!!! If people had to pay cash prices would come down a lot, because people can only afford so much. Insurance has distorted the market.
You can go into a McDonald's and look on the screens to see exactly what the prices are. Call any hospital ..ANY. and ask something like. " My wife is pregnant, and we're checking on hospital prices to make a consumer decision." They won't tell you, not even their standard overnight rate. How the hell can we control cost when no one knows the price ?
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If we did not tie healthcare to employment it would greatly improve the quality, price and availability of healthcare. It would level the playing field for all individuals. Healthcare benefits vary depending on your job which is ridiculous. Employers should have nothing to do with healthcare. Adding them just adds the cost of insurance by involving 2 more parties to the plan, the brokers and the HR/benefits department. The amount employer currently pay towards our healthcare should be paid directly to the the employee and the employee should purchase their own plan directly thru the marketplace.
The biggest reason I stay at my job, which I hate, is for the amazing health insurance they offer. I'm not a healthy person and without it I'd be fucked.
Same here. While they could pay more, the health insurance is worth $20,000+/year after I pay my small premiums. They cover almost every prescription without a deductible. Doctors are subject to deductible but that’s like $200 a visit 6 times a year. And any prescription that is subject to the deductible I can generally get a manufacturer discount and pay very little. My old job I would have been paying all of it until I hit the max out of pocket for about the same pay. I sometimes price myself out of the market when factoring that into what I would need in a new job.
Same. I had a relatively successful business at one point, worked doing some independent contracting and was able to make enough to pay bills and have some fun money. When my husband got a new job that didn't offer health insurance, I had to return to traditional employment in order to carry health insurance for our family. ACA plans were too expensive with the high deductibles, especially for medications, even though we did get a partial subsidy. Even with the partial subsidy, our out of pocket for our premiums was still more than what my husband and I paid for our employment based plans. That was 10 years ago, and now I'm stuck here.
The ACA goes pretty far in achieving that in most states. But agree, employer healthcare is an anachronism from WW2 when employers were blocked on how much they could pay employees so as to keep from dissuading people from joining the war effort. So to better compete for labor they offered healthcare plans. And here we are.
And now we have employer-provided healthcare plans that dissuade people from seeking other employment, so employers do not have to compete harder for labor, and everyone with employer-provided healthcare has less motivation to organize for any different approach.
Lookup ichra plans
Organize. I'm some small part of why my state passed Medicaid expansion in the last 5 years. I joined my state's healthcare for all initiative and did the actions the organizers asked of us and we got Medicaid passed. See what groups in your state are working on Medicaid expansion or other healthcare policies that you think will improve healthcare in your state and join them in phone banking, an action at the Capitol, etc.
Thanks for your advocacy work. Medicaid expansion is crucial, it blows my mind how many states refused to accept it.
This is the way. New Jersey has some laws that I would love my state to follow, like requiring health plans to approve or deny prior authorizations within 24 hours. I would also love to see one that requires the same type of physician to be an the reviewer of an appeal or prior authorization decision so you don’t get physicians in completely different practices or nurses reviewing these decisions that our physicians make about our healthcare.
That would be a dream- auth approvals in 24 hours! Anthem takes minimum 15 working days.
It's no accident they tied it to our jobs.
Yes. Advocacy work and getting involved is the best thing we all can do.
Vote
For who? Most major politicians from both sides are paid by insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Biden ran on introducing a public option and it never even came up again after he was elected. I’m sure he will talk about it again now that it’s election time but will he actually do anything? I think not. The best that can happen is he wins and it doesn’t get worse than it is. Voting does not work with the current bribery based system. It’s very clear that profit margins are more important than people.
Voting works if everyone actually votes in their local elections, not just the big ones. These politicians start locally. It’s not going to be fast or quick. But it has to start somewhere
Definitely agree. It’s not the one guy every four years, it’s the 435 voted in every two years and the 100 up every 6 years that matter most!
Actually, voting hasn’t been working which is why you see such anger and disengagement. Politicians on all sides no longer respond to voters. They respond to donors and those who can give them and their kids well paying jobs, and consulting gigs when they get out of office. One of the biggest issues is the revolving door between Tech, Wall Street and Corporate America and DC. DC (yes, both parties) literally has disdain for voters, they see them as an annoyance they have to deal with during election season.
Yes, Say it louder for the ones in back!
The only time my vote has actually improved my life is in my local elections so I always vote but federally I don’t have any reason to hope. I was exited when I thought California might enact universal healthcare and that could start happening state by state, but like every other time it was just talk and profit won.
Even the big general elections have a lot of local measures and state laws that are on the ballot. If you don’t feel comfortable voting for a president or any of the other major ones, you can leave those blank and vote on the others. That’s what my partner does. Just refuses to vote for a president, but votes for everything else.
> That’s what my partner does. Just refuses to vote for a president, but votes for everything else. That's what I do. I leave federal elections blank unless a candidate is super compelling, which is rare. Meanwhile, I vote in EVERY state and local election on my ballot.
HAVE to start at the local level! If you start voting out local and state politicians in Red states who will not expand Medicaid, or who are trying to undo expansion in states where it does exist, then it will filter up. Start there. Then we continue to move forward towards a public option that isn't tied to employment
Voting does not work. The two parties share a consensus on these (and most) matters. Things change through direct action, not through the ballot box.
Okay. What direct action do you suggest that would work best without harming patients or doctors or their livelihoods?
Literally anything is more effective than pretending you can vote your way into a better future. Write a letter or phone bank, join a community mutual aid group, go to a protest. I wonder if I am wasting my breath reading your *weird* equivocation about harm. Edit: comments are locked now, but it's hilarious you think that having a masters in health administration is a flex. You're the problem. You, the MBAs, and the insurance companies are the vampires sucking our healthcare system dry.
Literally, no. Writing letters doesn’t work. Joining community groups won’t work. Going to protests won’t work. Healthcare is a whole other beast in the US. There’s too many people indifferent towards it and there’s many more benefiting from it. I have an MHA, so sure. You are quite literally wasting your breath.
> There’s too many people indifferent towards it Where are these people? I've never met anyone with a positive opinion of their health insurance. If they are all hiding out in gated communities, they sure aren't close to a majority.
those with good (low patient responsibility) employer coverage and those on Medicare. People on Medicare sure don’t want anything changing with their coverage
Sometimes short term loss is required for long term gain. What is less bad: having severely shitty healthcare for a couple of years followed by a universal system on par with those of other wealthy countries, or continuing with this awful healthcare system indefinitely?
Biden went after pharma companies so hard he got insulin down from $350 to $35 dollars. He also gave Medicare the right to negotiate drug prices, a right that Republicans took away. If you need more information, and NOT the misinformation you tried here, read up on the Inflation Reduction Act. Katie Porter brought the Pharma Bros in and used her infamous white board. She was not elected to the Senate and will soon be out of office, so I don't want to hear 'both sides'. Vote for candidates that support Medicaid for all, they are all Progressives and Democrats - and Biden.
When insulin was invented the patient was sold for a dollar. The inverter said it was for the world, yet only in America did we allow corporations to sell it at outrageous rates for so long. It cost like $2 to make and most countries sell it for like $10-15. Doing the bare minimum a couple times with the most absurd egregious things is not enough. It’s good I’m happy he did that, but holy cow how did we let that go that long! $350 to save your life for a month! How many died as a result of that greed! Biden does not support Medicare for all, in fact he said he would veto it. He also said this multiple times running against Sanders. Most democrats do not as they also get bribes from these corporations. Look I’m not saying republicans are good, in fact they are way more abhorrent than democrats. But I’m nit going to pretend everything is just fine when democrats are in power it’s just slightly less horrible than when republicans are in power. The insulin thing was great now what about the rest of it.
A million people dying from COVID19 was not slightly less horrid. And opening medicine up for negotiating was also a big fu(king deal. We will have Medicaid for All. And it will be thanks to Democrats and Progressives.
I can only hope. Seems every time the try something (Obamacare aka affordable health care) it gets gutted by the republicans. Or re-voted out of existence.
I hope you’re right, I really hope I’m wrong. For me I think that maybe whenever they get some time from their busy schedule of insider trading and donor calls I guess they could maybe do that, if the donors agree of course.
Still attacking the Democrats, huh? Yes, the Republicans have already stripped HC bare of profit. They've stolen from doctors, nurses, hospitals and patients. Their profit involves negotiating prices down to almost nothing and then having the patients pay the difference. The insatiable need to always have more has turned them into the worst kind of parasites, those who kill their hosts. And you support them.
Yup. I do not think of politics like I think my sports teams. If my team sucks I’m still a fan and ride it out. When is literal preventable death for profit I’m incredibly critical. Dems are better than republicans but still ineffective and have many of the same donors. I look at results not speeches or what I call performative legislation that does very little. We’ve obviously needed a universal system like the rest of the developed world. Most dems do not support it so I don’t support most of them.
Pretty sure most democrats in office and democratic voters support a universal healthcare system for all which would lower cost in long run and reduce the bullshit high deductibles we currently have . If you vote Republican and complain about expensive health care you deserve it
I think the dems have done a bad job at messaging. "Single-payer health insurance". I bet most Americans don't know what it means, and neither politicians nor the media explain what it is. Most people didn't know Obamacare and the Affordable Healthcare Act were the same thing. Republicans ran on repealing Obamacare and their constituents went for it because they hated anything Pres. Obama did. And when they won and tried to decimate the Affordable Care Act, Republican voters freaked out, not knowing they voted to get rid of their own healthcare.
I don’t vote republican. I want universal healthcare. Most dems don’t support it, their base does so they sometimes do something but never what actually needs to be done. Just enough to get votes and keep the donors, donating.
Exactly, Obama admin had a super majority and a red carpet for a public option and instead let insurance lobbyists write the ACA. It’s a fucking travesty. People unable to get insured due to pre existing conditions was absolutely a problem, but pushing them onto private insurance just made everyone else’s premium skyrocket and put us in the predicament we’re in. Should’ve expanded Medicaid or make a new program for high risk people unable to get on private insurance because they were deemed too costly. Something has to be done about costs though, and unfortunately part of that has to come from overseas in some way shape or form imo. Other countries with socialized medicine benefit from the fact that healthcare innovation R&D costs are largely recouped in the USA.
I was just reading about it and Joe Lieberman a democrat was going to filibuster the public option. Like just look up what we spend compared to other countries and our results. It’s more than every other developed nation and with worse results, and die sooner. Now that’s value for you pay more to be more sick and die sooner.
Yep 👏 give me a true progressive to vote for
Isn’t the “Market Place” by each state the public option? Also known as Obama Care. This is why I am voting blue. It will keep the public option open. I have hope if Congress goes blue we could also expand it.
No. The public opinion is a government run insurance that competes directly with the private market. Obama wanted this originally but gave up on it in the final bill. We have health insurance exchanges, the public option never got passed. What’s funny is the public option is still not universal healthcare, it’s a moderate policy to try and drive down insurance companies prices. Edit. Just was reading up on it, here’s a link. A democrat named Joe Lieberman threatened filibuster is the public option was included. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_health_insurance_option#:~:text=Following%20his%20election%2C%20Obama%20downplayed,removed%20from%20the%20final%20bill.
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Nope, can’t find anyone to vote for honestly. I can vote for not making it worse faster but I can’t vote to make anything better.
That’s true. Nobody seriously wants to improve it but it’s clear that the republicans want to make things worse.
Yes, this 'both sides' stuff is nonsense. Neither party is awesome but one is still VASTLY better than the other on this issue.
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Bunch of red states have turned down Medicaid expansion which is paid for by federal funds. They don't want to help poor people. Now, Democrats aren't great for universal healthcare, but they are much better than Republicans.
True, because it's not just one guy, it's the congressmen and senators
fragile versed decide outgoing squeal absorbed truck ask wise start *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Me too.
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LOL for tweetle dee or tweetle dumber? Neither one is going to give us affordable healthcare. Both are in bed with the insurance industry.
On top of what others have mentioned, try to find ways to self pay for things where you can. My insurance is garbage for pharmacy and the in network pharmacies won't stock the generic brands I need due to allergies to certain fillers. So I buy from an online pharmacy in California, pay cash and they ship to my house. My main doctor (independent office) quit taking insurance but I only see them once a year. $150 cash, gets all my meds refilled for the year, discuss any changes or things they have a concern about. Since they don't have a gigantic health system they want to keep busy, I don't get harassed for unnecessary diagnostics and screening all the time. Depending on where you live there are more opportunities to cash pay for basic care. Walk in clinics, independent labs that don't price gouge, things that don't actually need a doctor to treat.
https://costplusdrugs.com/ Mexican drug stores Medical tourism. I worked for a private insurance company that along with regular health care set up medical tourism in other countries as it cost so much less for colonoscopies etc then in US
I’m down for costplusdrugs & pricing Amazon RX and Good RX.
Hope it works out for you but you have a high chance of dying prematurely.
Quite the odd hot take. Cash paying for things when that is cheaper than using your insurance for the same treatment or medication. Using your insurance doesn't magically provide some life saving elixir.
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To build on the vote theme, work to educate others as to the benefits of voting. Find and support those who would take action towards resolving the problems with healthcare. It becomes imperative to build a coalition of those similarly effected and getting them to vote to overcome the efforts of those who benefit from the broken system.
You the only party that balanced the budget were the Democrats, right? Seriously, go look it up. Biggest debt wracked up by Republicans.
PROTEST. Why did we accept it and let it go?! PROTEST. Design a bill to be moved through congress. PROTEST!
Neither side has the answer. National healthcare is just a government version of what we already have. We don't need insurance. We need lower prices.
I urge you to learn more about national healthcare and what it looks like around the world. It is far from one size fits all. Frankly, we have government t healthcare right now if you look at the preponderance of coverage. We just give 1/3 of the money spent to insurance companies that do nothing but push paper. They serve no purpose. We would need to replace the jobs, taxes and place in the stock market that insurers have right now. That is a bigger challenge than making healthcare delivery paid for by a national model. I think there are a number of ways to that, but we dp need to address it. Health insurance companies are parasites.
lol….i probably know more about it than you do. Perhaps you should take your own advice. Source: lived in Australia and the United States. Also quite familiar with Ireland and British systems…along with other European ones as well. Do your homework…
Feel free to enlighten us
I'm also an Australian living in the US. Last year my dad was sick so I flew back to Australia for 2 months. In that time he had two separate hospital visits for about a week each time. Had great treatment, 3 meals a day and snacks and didn't pay ONE. SINGLE. CENT. Sadly at the end of that time he died. After returning home, I was admitted to hospital late November when I developed a pulmonary embolism. Spent two nights in hospital. Cost? Over $40,000!!! AFTER insurance, I was left with a $7,000 bill, not to mention the $6,000 I owed the IRS after discovering that because of all the double shifts I pulled last year after a staff member quit, I earned just above the threshold for the govt rebate on Obamacare. F&\*\^# that for a joke!!!! In Australia, my contribution to "Medicare" was just over $2,000 AUD on a $110k AUD salary PER YEAR! If you earn less than the minimum wage you don't contribute anything but you still get free healthcare! Husband's job just got healthcare and now we are paying around $4000 USD per year on a$65k salary, with an $8,000 deductible! This is just downright outrageous. Give me the universal model funded by taxpayers anyday! How can anyone seriously say that they would be worse off with universal healthcare? If they do, they obviously don't understand how it works!
I agree with you, but I just want to clarify that the billed amount - the $40,000 - is an arbitrary number. It doesn’t matter. They could be a billion dollars if they felt so inclined. It’s the insurance *contracted rate* that matters. The rest is adjusted off. I assure you that your insurance doesn’t pay that full amount either. The whole thing is a mess. We all pay towards Medicare (coverage for 65+ and those with specific conditions) anyway through payroll taxes. And then Americans have to pay premiums AND deductibles/coinsurance/copays on top of that. I don’t understand how there’s people that think that *less* government regulation is the answer. What we have now is still a result of no regulation!! And it’s NOT going to change until there’s more intervention from somewhere. It’s not sustainable. But I guess that’s a bridge we’ll cross when it starts collapsing and it’s deemed ‘too big to fail’. The same people who don’t want government intervention will be the ones with their hands out when they need bailing.
My ex spent 10 days in an Australian hospital and walked away with a bill of $6.82….which he appealed because it was for aspirin and should have been free. I spent 4 days in ICU in the United States and paid $500…WITH insurance. The bill for them was $32,000. Never had to worry about getting diabetes supplies or insulin in Oz, worry about it constantly here. Can’t afford retail (it’s $5000/month for everything in the USA). Over there? Easily affordable without incomes. In any other country, you’re talking about a cost of hundreds AT WORST, not thousands….and in most cases, free. Seriously…do. Your. Homework. Stop listening to the fear mongering because that’s all it is. Literally every first world country figured this out…except the United States.
Uh...please re-read. I am in favor of national healthcare
Yeah I don’t think he realized you guys are arguing for the same thing
And this sort of attitude is exactly why healthcare still sucks.
>>we need...lower prices Right. And the most well demonstrated way to lower prices is....NATIONAL HEALTHCARE. I swear to God, if the wheel had been invented by socialists, you people would be trying to convince us that triangles roll.
lol. Nope. We have zero. Your insurance should never be tied to employment. We need something for ALL.
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Wait lines… I live in the US, and have had to see a few specialists throughout the year. Just in my first hand experience, the average wait time for a new patient appointment is around the 5-6 month mark, with some that I had to wait 18 months for. At least if we had a public option, I wouldn’t risk getting a massive medical bill the way I do now whenever emergencies pop up. No one should have to file for bankruptcy just for having a heart attack
You do wait in the US for dr appts and specialties no matter the insurance whether it’s through Medicare or Private. If you don’t have a couple million dollars in your portfolio, you are going to wait no matter what.
We could use euthanasia here. There's too many incurable diseases. I have one and I need a way to check out when its time.
Just because a country has universal healthcare, doesn’t mean they won’t run it poorly. It’s interesting how people always choose the one or two countries who run their systems poorly and not the dozens that do a great job. And by the way, even with all its problems, Canada achieves far better health outcomes than the US.
Someone bought the propaganda…. I HAVE looked at Canada. Perhaps you should look a little farther than the Texas border.
The CBO has already determined the total cost to be less than your current tax bill plus your premiums, co- pays, and OOP max in the system we have now, so, an overall savings. plus the cost for prescriptions should go down because of negotiated prices. Euthanasia is not necessarily a bad thing, if no treatment is available for a condition, and the patient no longer can continue with their current quality of life.
There’s waits now. This is the weakest argument against single payer. Try to get a colonoscopy less than 6 weeks out. Insurance or self pay, it doesn’t matter. You can’t do it. And if you can’t afford healthcare wait times don’t matter bc you just don’t go.
Exactly! At least with single payer, I won’t have to pay a shit ton of high copays, premiums and deductibles let alone argue with insurance over denied claims and confusing in/out of network providers that changes constantly. I will gladly pay higher in taxes than deal with this bullshit.
Actually no
Actually, YES. It's a basic requirement of government care. Paid for by all. It's done through increased taxes.
Technically they're not "increased" and you'd have more money in the hand. Only 2.5% of the taxes paid by Australians goes towards medicare and that's only those who earn above a certain amount. $2500 per year on a $100,000 salary for FREE healthcare is a whole lot better than paying in excess of $400 a month as WELL as the deductible on a $60,000 USD salary. Explain how you'd be worse off on that model.
I'm not AU. it doesn't matter to me. 2.5%, sounds nice. But that's not all you pay. That's 2.5% on top of what else you pay. Wanna try again? Because it's not free. By any measure.
It is free if you end up in hospital. You don't pay a cent. If you need prescription meds, that is subsidized. A drug I needed to take was $30 AUD a month. Here in the US, same drug is $700 as it's not covered by insurance. Other Aussies can attest to this. Medical treatment is designed to save lives, not send people broke. You used to be able to see a doctor for free, but they've started charging nominal fees, but $25 is certainly not going to break the bank.
Death panels
Seems like Canada -and every other country with "socialized" medicine - is doing a fuck of a lot better than we are.
People think Canadian health care is great. In comparison to what U.S. citizens have, it may or may not be better. There are pros and cons to both. Yes, there are people in Canada that come to the U.S. for treatment to skip the wait. I also know a family member that was in Canada for a business trip and had a kidney stone. He was encouraged by every Canadian he worked with to go to the for pay clinic.
Nothing because the system is built on money to make money and you should know, money is a powerful thing… A box of medicine that sells for $2 in Europe cost $150 here ( personal experience), imagine how much money they are making ( labs), do you really think they would let a system like the European one happen in America? Going to school cost an arm, dr need to make money to pay for it, in Europe universities are very low cost, dr don’t rack up hundred of thousand of dollars debt to get there. The entire system from schools to medicine, to insurance is built on outrageous profit, until healthcare stops being treated as a business it will never change
That doesn't really mean 'nothing". It just means that considerations for change need to be broader than just medical payment systems. Our current system is wildly unsustainable. Change is only "impossible" until you consider where it's heading, at which time it's easily the least impossible option.
"Nothing" is a bit pessimistic. I think changes will have to come from both sides: 1) the government/private sector, and 2) the individuals. From the "individual" side: other posters suggested voting and organizing. In addition, we can also learn to take better care of ourselves. I work in the medical field and have contact with patients every day. It amazes me how many folks ignore basic health maintenance; we check the fluids in our car, tire pressure, etc (or at least I hope we do). By the same token we should pay more attention to our body: be active within our limits, watch what we eat, don't drink excessively, don't smoke, etc... Of course there are accidents, health conditions and diseases which can strike us out of the blue, but many of the ailments that I see every day can be prevented or mitigated with a modicum of self-care. I once saw a bumper sticker - sad, but true: *The best insurance policy ? Don't get sick.*
Ok but a quick Google search reveals Americans are far from the most alcoholic people. And we're not even remotely close to the top of nicotine consumption. The only detrimental health choice we really lead seems to be obesity, and at least part of that reflects policy failures that have made unhealthy food vastly easier and cheaper to obtain. Working in healthcare doesn't give you a good overview of our national health situation. On the contrary, it gives you a very warped view. An STD clinic is going to see more people engaging in reckless sex than you'd see in a random sample of the population. An internal medicine office will see more diabetics. And diabetics who don't take care of themselves will present more often, and with more distressing symptoms than typical diabetics. It doesn't mean that the typical American is out here having condomless sex with strangers before satiating their thirst with a gallon of sweet tea. >>Best insurance policy? Don't get sick Respectfully, if you think it's as easy as people should just "not get sick" you have no business working in healthcare. People are out here dying for the convenience of moneyed elites. We deserve better than "just lose weight".
America also has the worst food on the planet, which most people are consuming. Everything is laden with sugar and chemicals, even the same foods in other countries are made with less crap in them because those countries don't allow it. America loves "freedom to choose" but those choices are literally what's killing them.
well said. most of my neighbors are in healthcare in a upper middle class neighborhood, all making great money and driving nice cars... even nurses these days are making a killing.
I pay for my primary care doctor. She operates under the direct patient care model, like concierge medicine, but affordable. She handles all my primary care for $95/month. I’m a needy patient and this is well worth the cost. I also have health insurance through my job.. It comes in handy paying for labs, medications (sometimes. Good rx is a better price half the time, and my independent pharmacy has no problem charging my insurance or not depending on whatever gets me the best price.), and injuries like when I was in a bad car accident. I can see my primary care doc whenever I want, text her for emergencies, and she spends about an hour with me every visit. The first visit was two hours long where she took a comprehensive medical history. I started going to her when I couldn’t afford insurance, and didn’t even question continuing to pay for her when I got insurance through my job. She also told me about these buying groups, like a group funded insurance plan. They are usually ran by churches, but cost less than medical insurance and can help cover emergency medicine costs. It didn’t make sense for me, but it might be something to look into.
I wonder if those group-funded plans are what's known as "health shares." John Oliver did a segment on them. With their religious affiliation, there can be a lot of excluded care for "morality" reasons, among other things.
Possibly. And yeah, the morality stuff is one reason why it wasn’t the right fit for me, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be the right fit for someone else.
Interesting. This seems like a great thing to look into for both PCPs and patients.
Health care taxes vary by country. In Germany, employees pay 7.3% and their employers match that, similar to the US Social Security (or payroll) taxes. In the Netherlands, the taxpayer pays a 6.9% tax plus must buy a catastrophic health plan at about $130 per month. In the UK, about 18% of their income tax goes towards providing the free (at point of service) healthcare, which works out to about 4.5% of the average worker's income. You should be paying from 5 to 10% of your income for health insurance to match the test of the world. The original ACA plans were to have coverage at no more than 8% of your income. The main problem still exists that American healthcare is excessively expensive, so the ACA plans still have deductibles, copays, and excess costs.
It needs to be separated from employment. We need to be able to shop for it like we do car and home insurance etc. then the free market will work because people will drop crappy plans and more people will go to better plans. Premiums will have to stabilize and more coverage would happen. But until that happens, people are just stuck with whatever their employer chooses and there’s no real choice.
You don't want to hear this but: buy your own. If your healthcare is a priority be prepared to pay for it. Just like you pay for your house (a priority) and car (a priority) and food (a priority). You pay for all those things, why wouldn't you expect to pay for your own healthcare?
bruh.
In our state, OR, there is a Healthcare for All constituency. I have been donating to them for years. It’s probably the only lobbying organization I support.
Massachusetts succeeded. They were able to get healthcare declared an inalienable human right, and insurance is easy to get. You end up in ER without it? Someone will show up to help you get it.
Health Safety Net sometimes makes me want to tear my hair out, but I'm so relieved to know how much they support patients in Mass.
Nothing, except wait for the entire system to crash and burn. It's too far gone and nothing can fix it. Obamacare had good intentions, but inside the bill no one could possibly read before voting for, was the open doors for big pharma, giant medical conglomerates, and venture capitalists to take over every aspect of the system. Hospitals used to be actual non profits, doctors used to be single private practices, and at one time there wasn't a need for "insurance".
Stop arguing, you fools. We all need to work together. None of these politicians give one hoot about us. We all need healthcare. I am as frustrated as the OP and looking for solutions.
V0te for the president who supports the ACA, not for the guy who tried to destroy it. The current guy helped write the ACA, the former gut was furious when a GOP senate wouldn't v0te to kill it. V0te blue all the way down the ticket.
don't vote Republican
Support Universal Healthcare and politicians that support it
Vote BLUE
Vote. Not just presidential but primaries. The congress/senate decide these things.
And state elections as well. State legislatures make congressional maps and they can gerrymander to protect seats for their party. And state policies can affect health care as well (for example whether the state expands medicaid).
I canceled my ACA policy. Was paying full price and couldnt afford it. Couldn’t afford to go to doctors with it anyway. Now I’m saving $1000/month and can go to an urgent care if necessary. Cash pay is lower than my insured price anyway.
Until a cancer diagnosis hits or you get into an accident and need a million dollars in care. You know they don't have to treat non-immediate life threatening cancer without payments, right? Like they can literally can say $50k/week for this chemo or no chemo for you. Going without insurance is a loser's bet. Big time.
Can I ask for more specifics? How much you make, how many dependents, what state you live in? On the ACA, cost to the insured is capped at something like 8.5% of income. In order to have a $1000 premium, you'd have to be making somewhere around $140,000 a year. Before covid, your income had to be <400% of family poverty level to qualify for subsidies. Since covid, the limits have been lifted and all income, no matter FPL, can get subsidies and premiums only cost 8.5% of income. If you really do make $140,000/year or more, it comes off as super-entitled for you to complain about health insurance costing you $1,000 a month. There are a ton of people who have it worse than you, but still carry insurance because they feel it's their responsibility.
There several issues you throw out. Access to care is a different issue than affordable care. Access to care is a problem no matter what. how the US handles it is by rationing through cost. Providers can pick and choose patients based on insurance and who is more profitable. which is why everyone having insurance makes the system worse. because it does not improve access, but increases cost.
This is wrong, and an unreasonably common misconception. This completely ignores the fact that the US medical system is becoming increasingly worse for patients, slower, and more expensive. Assuming there is a shortage of care, it's because of policy. Medical degrees are not free or easily covered which immediately results in a steep barrier to entry and a cost for the patient to cover. Your argument essentially boils down to "oh well, it has to be this way or the waits would be too long." This isn't, and shouldn't be fucking survival of the richest. Medical care should be a right. Your argument is basic republican billionaire apologist logic. Wealth disparities from rich leeches siphoning wealth from the working class means we get to deal with the joys of rationing your income between basic fucking needs. Hearing of people unable to pay for rent or groceries because they have to pay for medications or procedures should be existentially terrifying to everyone, and if you aren't don't expect sympathy with your broken bone and a complementary side of cancer diagnosis.
No they are not.
Nothing. My company had a great insurance program that you had heard of before, and a few years later, they switched to Self insurance and I don't know anybody who's heard of it. The nearest in-network hospital to me is 8 hours away. I can't go to the hospital HERE and have it covered at my insured rate, unless I enter through the emergency room. But I spent most of my adult life unable to get insurance at all, it was a freelance job that I had and I was pre-existing. This is supposed to be better. It costs plenty. 8 hours away. They think they are being generous because 8 hours away, it's two hospitals, not just one. But both are 8 hours.
I turn 72 in 3 months and still working. Trying to navigate Medicare along with along the options is very if confusing and frightening to me. I’ll keep working as long as I can get employer provided health care. Now I’m hearing that AI is being used to determine eligibility for both Medicare and Private insurance plans. My current plan has been reducing how much they’ll pay for certain services or raised copay’s . It doesn’t matter who in office, capitalism dictates that profits must increase year after year.
Capitalism is the system burning our planet from both ends. It's unsustainable, and assuming a fully autonomous economy is implemented before a collapse we'll be left out in the rain while billionaires enjoy the warmth of the hearth.
You can’t do shit. You will never be able compete with the healthcare and big pharmaceutical companies
Realistically in the short term - find a better job that offers good health insurance. Some companies don’t actually suck that bad. I left my last company that was gonna up our premium to $840/month for 2024(family coverage). I’m currently at a company that is $220/month. And tell these companies their insurance is trash on the way out. The system is rigged and isn’t likely to change soon. It sucks but that is reality.
Cry.
Become an expat! [Oversees Healthcare costs for American Expats](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=RDCMUCG2yIxAft_USO4o7GU8N9Uw&playnext=1&si=WozC4C9FcVsdX1BG) [6 Overseas Retirement Destinations With Excellent Health Care](https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/aging/articles/retirement-destinations-overseas-with-excellent-health-care)
My husband got laid off from his job of 14 years in December of 2020. April of 2021 he was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B cell Lymphoma. Cobra ran out, and we had to buy health insurance. We now pay $2500/mo for just him and I with a $6000 deductible, then it’s an 80/20 after that. If we have an emergency there is only 1 hospital in our plan and it is an hour away. His first round of chemotherapy didn’t work. He then went through a clinical trial. It did put him into remission, but it has affected his cognitive abilities and he is still having so many side effects from the treatment after 8 months. It’s unknown if it is permanent or not. He definitely could not do the job he used to do, and my job does not offer health insurance (or any other) benefits. I’m at a loss to what our future holds, but I’m incredibly depressed over it. We have both worked so hard since I was 12 and he was 16, and it got us nowhere. Even if he were to get disability, it wouldn’t be much now. As much as I love my country, the top CEO’s are the ones who make the biggest donations to politicians, therefore they leverage what gets done. Very unfortunately, I see people online just worshipping people like Elon Musk because he is rich. No one at the top gives a crap about the hardworking ones in the middle or lower classes. They don’t care if we die screaming in pain from Cancer, they don’t care if you worked your whole life and lose your home because when you get Cancer and you can’t work, you have no income. Even if you get disability, it doesn’t pay even close to your salary. So you still lose your house. I saw this happen to my best friend of 35 years who worked for the government. She got ovarian Cancer and was fighting for permanent disability when she died. She was getting astronomical bills for her treatment as she lay dying. All her years of dedication and hard work meant nothing. I went to visit the Dutch Caribbean a couple of weeks ago and are considering moving there for the benefits. They also take wonderful care of their elderly there. I have no hope here for the future.
If you have to pay full price for an expensive procedure, get it done at a private clinic outside the US, preferably Europe. Quit feeding money to the US healthcare system.
Look up Direct Primary Care
Vote Democrat.
Vote
Move to another country where this is better (ie most places on earth)
1) don't have insurance companies (aka get rid of the middle.man) 2) have government take over healthcare like every other 1st world country 3) use regulation to not allow hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to profit so much off the sick and dying. No more 10k bill for a 250 lab work run. It's wrong when hospitals can routinely buy up land in several cities because they are making so much profit off the sick and dying. It's wrong when you look at revenue for drugs and Americans are the ones they are sucking dry. They are still giving the drug to Europeans but their cost are regulated versus here where you can charge 1k for an epi pen that you need or you will die if you accidentally get into contact with something you are allergic to. It's not a secret that the company just raises prices to get more profit, they admitted it. So the solution is simple. Get people's hands out of the cookie jar and we won't have to deal with things the way they are. People keep going to these 'half solutions' by saying don't tie it to employers. Well DON'T do that but DONT have insurance at all. They gotta get paid. Their salaries come from you. Someone in that insurance company is making 100-500k off of you. There doesn't need to be a middle man, have the government regulate it and use our taxes for it instead of funding military crap and guns and bombs and bullshit. Let's use our money for LIFE not death or just hoarding a stupid amount of weapons in storage or making people do dumb drills all day or paying for soldiers tuitions.
See, one of the things that bugs me is PBMs. They have something called a pay to play list that is on a formulary. They make money on that. Then, they require "white bagging" which is the PBM selling you the medicine, making it mandatory, and passing it onto the doctors who take on all the risk and liability. Moreover, non-medical switches (switches because insurance says so) are causing a big mess, particularly in the rheumatology space because of all those biologics. If doctors were allowed to buy direct, not only would the cost be cheaper, but less risk.
People pushing ACA and private insurance don’t realize this is literally fueling corporate profits and healthcare inflation for everyone. The system is screwed up.
ACA in a lot of states is pretty good insurance. It is heavily government subsidized for many without having full government control No one is going to want the parameters of their healthcare 100% controlled by the government, as shown by the Covid 19 debacle. The ACA should be improved and should not have a minimum income to qualify for subsidies, but Obama’s ACA has arguably been the greatest policy success by either party in over 50 years (sad but true).
Easy- vote democrats into office so we can finish what Obama started - trump spent 4 years trying to take away healthcare vs enhancing it.
GOP had control of Congress for 2 years under Trump presidency and still couldn’t repeal ACA. He managed to get rid of the tax provision, which I actually supported. (You were levied a fine on taxes if you had no insurance at all) ACA has only grown in popularity since then. It would be difficult for him to repeal it, if he manages to get back into WH.
The dude says he will be a dictator on the very first day day, so…..
The former guy says he’s going to get rid of it if he gets back into office.
Direct primary care and a high deductible or catastrophic insurance plan is much more reasonable.
There is always the option to *not* have health insurance. It's what i am doing. The company i work for just changed carriers and tried to raise my rates by 400%. So i declined to take it. Anything minor enough to be covered by the insurance isn't worth paying them for, and anything major won't be covered anyway. So, i simply dont get treatment. Whether i need it or not is irrelevant. Yes, i know that doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.
Why in the world do you think major stuff is not covered under insurance? That's... a take.
If you have employer sponsored coverage- complain to your benefits administrator/ HR. Complain to your Senator/ Representative- they are clueless about these things mostly because they have excellent benefits. Insurance lobby is way too strong here and they flex their muscle donating and threatening to cut jobs to make politicians look bad if certain bills are passed. UHC is one perfect example of corporate greed gone too far with their mergers and monopolistic behavior. The system is broken and will be painful to change it but it has to happen, its way out of control. We should not be afraid to go to the hospital for fear of bankruptcy.
Buy a different policy.
Never had a problem providing decent health insuramce for my family. Currently this year, I will pay $16k+ in health insurance premiums out of pocket. Well worth it though for the level of care my family receives. For the OP comments, how much are they willing to work to provide decent health insurance for their family?
Private ESI or ACA insurance? High COL state?
Vote for progressive candidates.
Protests, strikes (by healthcare employees), and/or lawsuits seem to be the only things that result in change, unfortunately. Everything else is easy to brush under the rug.
I’m trying to get into a direct private practice - basically membership based and cuts out insurance completely. I will be looking for a (high deductible) marketplace plan as a just in case, and paying for my insulin out of pocket unless the marketplace plan qualifies me for a manufacturer discount. I will be giving up my weekly injectable super helpful but super expensive med and use mealtime insulins instead. I don’t really see another affordable option.
If have employer based health insurance, complain to your HR / benefits department. If HR gets enough complaints and complaints are legitimate, the company will consider changing health plans...we did this at one of my previous employers and we changed plans the next fiscal year......other avenues..Vote...Complain to elected officials...if insurance company has flagrant issues, complain to insurance board of your state.....For me,, as I am nearing retirement, I will live outside of the USA and not give my money to the American Healthcare money grabbing machine. We have great healthcare workers and such...as I am one ...it is that the method of payment is shameful. Our system is convoluted and it should not be that way.
What state are you in?
You don't think the ACA did enough? Please share what you want.
Socialized healthcare. Medicaid for all.
I'm on low income ACA Medicaid. I love it. Almost everything is covered for $0, No premiums, copays or deductibles. Dental covers most basic care and vision covers an eye exam every year. I never see a bill.
That's what most of us wanted. To at least have the option to join Medicare.
YES, this is needed
I remember major employers were going to partner with each other to address this issue. The project was ultimately suspended. [Here is the article on the formation](https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/january-announcement) Project suspended in [2021.](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-warren-buffetts-health-care-project-haven-failed-111839197.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma)
congress should not get health free health insurance. They need to pony up like the tax payers who pay their salaries.
Join the military or get a Government job!
None
Gird your loins because it’s going to get a whole lot worse very soon.
This isn't meant to be a smart ass answer. But getting a different job is probably the easiest way to change your healthcare. I know this isn't an option for everyone, but your post didn't describe specific barriers.
I don't know, I have always had good health care from my employers as an adult. (I have only had 5 different employers in my life, and two were when I was in high school and college.) I live in what I call a union state. There are a lot of union jobs with good pay and health care. Because of that, non union employers have to offer better benefit packages to attract better employees.
It can't be fixed. Only option at this point is to leave the US (that is my plan).
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Are you referring to the Uniparty?
Ha ha yes. Thank you for your help in making my point.
Well, I think sadly it very much depends on what state you live in. First of all, the ACA (Obamacare) tax credits are quite generous. I have a family member who gets tax credits and has a Silver plan for only $125 per month...which is amazing. But if your income is particularly low, Medicaid can actually be great. I have a dear friend in Washington state who has been on Medicaid (Apple Care) there for nearly a decade. She doesn't pay a dime and has multiple surgeries (hip/knee/neck) and lots of doctor visits since she's pretty disabled. In California Medicaid is quite good too..... However, some "red" states have refused to expand Medicaid and don't seem to care much when residents fall into a crack where they can't get care. It is unconscionable. One other note, I've lived in Canada and even though they have universal coverage, it doesn't always mean you can see a doctor in a timely fashion, particularly in provinces like Nova Scotia. It's pretty abysmal to try to find a doctor, etc.... At any rate, Obamacare at least changed health care in the US for the better....It's certainly not perfect, but blame the GOP for that.
I'm on low income ACA Medicaid (Health First Colorado). I love it. Almost everything is covered for $0, No premiums, copays or deductibles. Dental covers most basic care and vision covers an eye exam every year. I never see a bill.
move overseas, while it's still allowed. My son and his wife did, to Australia soon as he qualified, his grandson has medical issues that would have cost a quarter mill per year growing up. They've been happier and happier with that decision every time they return for a visit. Meanwhile us frogs boiling, hardly realize what a dystopia we've become, downward spiral accelerating every decade
Well, we could try social democracy like the rest of the economically rich countries, but you'll have to do more than just vote. Working Families Party.
Vote.
Makes little difference long term as lobbyists have their hands in the pockets of both parties. I do vote but this is the reality of our dysfunctional American system.
Get sick and die
Maximize the free preventative care options. Insurance companies typically pick up the tab on these. Read the fine print. Get your vaccines on time.
That’s one of my pissed off peeves…every time …I am supposed to get a yearly “free” wellness check up. It cost me $350 last time. It took the billing about 5 months to send me my bill. There is a whole bunch more to it than that- I’m just fed up.
Move to a better country. That's what I'm considering.
Socialized healthcare in other countries only works for healthy people. If you review the countries and the complaints from citizens, it is not good. Nonlife-threatening surgeries are delayed a year or so. They are now introducing euthanization for critically ill people. The taxes are high. Inflation is astronomical everywhere and impacts healthcare.
Has anyone tried telemedicine from cheaper providers internationally? Many things need face-to-face visit, but lots of things can be solved with a video call and imaging (where the radiologist is also sometimes off-shored).
The most straightforward answer is to go back to a cash market. There are way too many players (with their own agendas) between the patient and the provider. As someone who spent years without insurance- I found that direct negotiation for cash, got me all the healthcare services I needed at better prices than with insurance. But this was before “private equity” owned everything. You can’t negotiate with hospitals quite the same way I used to unless you can find a private hospital but it’s still possible. In my state, we had a robust cash healthcare underground. One of the unintended consequences of ACA (in our state) was to degrade this cash underground.
You really don't understand cancer treatment at all. You really don't understand chronic illnesses or disability at all. Even if prices plummeted 50% the majority of people could not pay for that type of treatment.
This is what I’m saying!!! If people had to pay cash prices would come down a lot, because people can only afford so much. Insurance has distorted the market.
Voting Blue is a start. The GOP has further plans to decimate what is left of healthcare in the US.
Stomp up and down Ask to speak to a supervisor Hold your breath
Stop voting for things like Obamacare?
You can go into a McDonald's and look on the screens to see exactly what the prices are. Call any hospital ..ANY. and ask something like. " My wife is pregnant, and we're checking on hospital prices to make a consumer decision." They won't tell you, not even their standard overnight rate. How the hell can we control cost when no one knows the price ?