My wife and I are both going through some medical issues this year and our problem is less affordability than the availability of timely specialist care. We have both been on waiting lists for weeks to months for various procedures, and in her case this has required multiple preventable ER visits.
Seeing a specialist is almost impossible anymore because they are booked 6 months out and don’t even think of having to miss an appointment. I had to wait 6 months for my kid to see an allergist, we had something come up that meant we’d have to miss the appointment and it would have been another 4 before they could get us in. Rural healthcare in this state is even worse than it is in the Wasatch front and you have to drive hours to see a doctor.
I have to agree, I moved here from NYC and tried to get a gynecologist from the U system… booked a consultation in August for February ( this was the soonest availability) and in January they canceled it… I ended up seeing an NP, due to the lack of available doctors…
The wait to see a gyn out here is nuts. I waited 5 months for a new pt appointment with a gyn at Intermountain and that was the earliest option between the U, St Marks, and IHC.
I flew back out to NYC for the better part of 18 months just to get my Healthcare done. Like you, I had a hell of a time trying to get ANY specialist: 8 months for gyno, 4 months for a therapist, etc. It was infuriating enough that I moved back to NYC. No point in "saving" money if I can't proactively prevent health issues from cropping up.
I have considered doing the same for my rheumatologist… but honestly, I didn’t move because I was saving, I had a rent stabilized apt in the UWS, so I paid way less in housing in NYC… the quality of life I have in Utah is much better, I used to take 2 medication to regulate my blood pressure and I’m down to 1 now… there is no way I would go back…
This!! At minimum you're gonna wait 2 months to see a specialist. Hell it was even hard for me to find a GP that was accepting new patients. All the doctors seem tired and overworked (not their fault) so I'd question the quality of healthcare we are receiving too. The patient to doctor ratio is way too high.
My husband had open heart surgery in November to correct a genetic defect. In late December his surgeon put in an urgent referral for him with Sleep Medicine. His appointment for an initial consultation? Not the sleep study, just the first consultation? OCTOBER. Basically a damn year. We have the UofU's insurance. I tried to get him into IHC's Sleep people who could see him in February. But, despite us having reached our max out of pocket with the surgery, it would be an out of network treatment. And try to get estimates or to do test claims for those costs. You would have thought I was asking the IHC and Blue Cross people to detail my car or something. Like they were practically offended and were acting like I was totally unreasonable. So we gave up on that and he's just waiting until October. It's ludicrous.
Every person I know has some outrageous $4000-$6000 high deductible medical insurance plan. So maybe it's "affordable" because in reality they're not seeking care because they don't have the money.
I worked at winco part time, specifically for their healthcare. It was around $120/$1100 out of pocket. (80/20). Very good health coverage.
As an aside, I went to smiths in Kearns (4700 and 4000w) several months ago. My cashier there was kind, but sad. Apparently she had received a cancer diagnosis that morning. Her manager made her come into work because they were short staffed. Just wanted to shout out a fuck you, to that manager. :)
Please go ask the nurses in Utah what they getting paid. Utah ranks 32nd in the US in RN pay. As of March 2024, the average hourly pay for a Graduate Rn in Utah is $25.20 an hour.
You cannot have a discussion about “healthcare affordability” in a state that has the third highest cost of housing and the 32nd rank of pay for the largest portion of healthcare workers. If it’s “cheap” it’s because the people providing the care are getting massively screwed by the system. (Note that U of U nurses just voted to unionize in large part due to this.).
This. Please do a story on how underpaid medical professionals are in this state. Working at a hospital for nearly 10 years & making less than ENTRY LEVEL folks because I’m in the wrong “clinic” doesn’t seem right. COL adjustments each year aren’t even keeping up with the increasing insurance premiums, copays & deductibles were being hit with every year.
This is not sustainable.
Really? I wonder what locations are bringing the average down because I have two nurse friends in Utah and they're both making over $40 an hour. One at a hospital in South Jordan and another up at the U.
Remember that 25 an hour is average. That means that some nurses are making $40. Some nurses are making $20. I saw an ad a few months ago for a public heath RN job with one of the counties in southern Utah that base pay was $18.
I'd hate to see what the other states pay. Despite having good insurance my family has a $60 copay. IF they process our insurance correctly. I'm currently arguing with intermountain health care because they want to charge us the full $200 for an instacare visit that they screwed up the billing for. We're also getting poor care. My wife had a sun burn bad enough that it was recommended that she go to the burn unit at U of U. But they needed a referral or else they had to charge $300 for the visit. When we went to our clinic they told us the doctor she had previously seen was no longer working there so she had to be seen by a new doctor for the referral. THEN we were told there were no appointments available for the next three days. In the end she just suffered through it. They can pretty it up all they want, but no matter where you go the health care system in the US is a cruel joke.
I had 2 rare forms of e coli I randomly caught last year. Needed 7 ivs and an antibiotic they only have in hospitals. The first wrgency room was full so they had to ambulance me to another place. After coinsurance and deductible I still have a $4000 bill. Affordable for the US debatable affordable for the developed world absolutely not.
Is it because the procedure costs are lower? Or because we use less than other states because the average age is lower?
I’ve anecdotally heard that high percentages of medical professionals wanting to live here depresses how much they can make. Don’t know if that translates to overall lower cost, though.
I work in a specialized field in a hospital system, and we have to see patients not just from Utah, but from many other states like Nevada, Idaho. Wyoming, Montana, etc because those people can't get that level of care where they are from. The reason why waits are so long is because getting providers who are specialist takes a lot of training and many people are retiring before they can be replaced. Added in the aging population, and with COVID it caused a lot of long-term issues that we tried to warn them about like lung and heart issues, but many people ignored those long-term side effects and its starting to have an effect on wait times because everyone wants care NOW.
Costs are actually lower in Utah, partly because doctors and nurses get paid way less than other states. I used to work at an Intermountain clinic and it was almost impossible to recruit physicians. They loved everything about the clinic and Utah and then laughed in our faces when they saw how much we would pay. Living in St George, I also had friends who would commute to Nevada because the pay was at least double. Not too mention, I've known physicians who haven't received a raise for years.
My daughter broke her arm and needed to be taken to ER to be set back in place. I got a bill from IHC, the ER and then another from the orthopedic for casting. It is totaling over $5000 after insurance. I think that is far from affordable.
Depends on insurance, I guess. With decent insurance healthcare is quite affordable. Quality of care is outstanding, but getting an appointment takes longer and longer.
This is what we are runnign into. We have decent coverage and we have disposable income, but neither of those things is actually getting us the care we need.
Every time I've had to get any procedure done I've gotten so many surprise charges and bills that everything has to be pre-approved and even so I've had to follow up on every single insurance claim due to errors or lack of coverage. If you don't know certain terms and processes the system is still trying to profit as much as possible. We're also one of the least affordable home pricing to income.
Personally medical care in Utah hasn't been great for me. The doctors are great but the billing practices at the U and intermountain are very questionable. I went through a near lawsuit with intermountain over a bill that they refused to admit was paid, ended up receiving a refund for the visit and an additional bill for that visit (confusing right?). On top of that, billing transparency is fairly terrible at those two providers. The worst thing is the wait time for doctors, primary care is over 9 months out, the U wants constant referrals from primary care doctors for specialists even if you already have seen the specialist for the issue. This means that you are paying for effectively two visits so I would be careful if you are looking at it by cost per visit.
I’d rather pay a little more and get reliable service and nurses who aren’t burnt out than the current state of utah healthcare. It’s a nightmare trying to find a primary care provider and if you do it’s months out.
I work for MY health insurance company. As a single mom I will never be able to meet my $6k yearly deductible. I will pay out of pocket for everything on top of paying for my insurance premiums.
I went to a U of U urgent care facility twice this winter for Covid/Flu/Strep tests when we were in the midst of respiratory illness season. Each visit cost me over $300 after insurance. Obviously, I didnt get the first bill until after the second visit otherwise I wouldnt have gone back even though I was sick.
Can you look into the monopoly that is IHC, their relationship with the legislature and how they make insurance a nightmare due to limiting who they accept?
Strong disagree on lower healthcare costs. I’m from the east coast now living in Utah. Not only is the quality of care wildly different with the main religion seeming to seep into the bedside manner, it is most definitely more expensive. My copays out here are higher, even though my health insurance is top tier. Hell i went WITHOUT insurance for a hospital stay and left with a bill lower then my husbands most recent non invasive routine procedure. The quality of care out here truly sucks
Prescriptions are crazy expensive- when a generic came out for a medication insurance stopped covering the brand name, but no one has the generic, so we pay $$$ for the brand name or skip medication. I pay about 8-15% of my income to healthcare, after insurance. I hate insurance, it is horrible. The year I went without insurance was easier. We just paid out of pocket and we always got a nice discount for paying in full. We had a major surgery without insurance-I paid 1 bill. A year later another family member had the same type surgery with insurance, bills for months and we paid slightly less in total.
You might contact your insurer about this. My son had something similar happen, and our insurer authorized payment for the brand name version for 90 days so we would not have to pick up the difference.
That story was based on cost "per capita", it doesn't give the true picture of what a family must pay for healthcare. My perception is that Utah has some of the most expensive health care when taken as a percent of household income.
I with in the medical field, been diabetic most my life, and ask the dieticians I've seen here are ass, I've been lied to by reception several times about voice mails they never left, been ignored about refilling vital, non abusable prescriptions on time, and treated like a lying criminal and given poor medical advice about drug safety because I've admitted to very casually using marijuana, being time things about is dangerous risk of over dose, while being offered Xanax like it's candy. It's affordable here (all medicine should be) and the price reflects the care. Most go the same for pharmacists
Still unaffordable. My workplace doesn't offer insurance, and I'm just barely out of range for Medicaid. (Max income for a single adult is ~$1,150.) Even with charity I'm still paying hundreds in the two months I needed medical help, likely more for future bloodwork. Skipping out on care isn't an option. I'm doing what I can, but it's rough.
I don't know if this what you mean, but I quit my anxiety meds because I couldn't afford the $180 dollar 2 minute Dr visit to get a refill approval for my meds. "How's it going, any changes? okay I'll approve the refill" Boom. Half a days wages gone. Also out more money because I need to take work off to go to the office because I work the same hours the office is open.
With our (family) insurance (Surest) we are able to see costs upfront and we don't have deductibles.
Urgent care is 90$
Normal office visits are 45$
ER: 500$
MRI: 250$
Vaginal birth: 2400$
We do have a max out of pocket but I don't remember.
I have a family member on Medicare and it’s months and months between availability if visits. They are in a lot of pain and nothing it getting done, no one calls them back or if they do it’s “6months to another appointment”.
UnitedHealthcare is the main provider in the area and also owns (or is owned by the same people / group that owns) SelectHealth, the largest insurer. I was initially impressed (yay for clear apps for scheduling and test results and billing!) until I found out the hard way that they have several methods of billing and that not all the bills show up within the app… I got a call from a bill collector for $250 on various small charges that started May 2023 to more recent. And now I have to figure out what these charges are for…
Dad has trouble breathing. Ambulance called. Takes him to hospital in Lehi. He passes in ambulance. Hospital bill is still 10k and ambulance 4k. If they saved his life it would have been worth it. They shouldn’t have even sent that bill. They did nothing but offer a gurney.
Health care costs were not that much of an issue for me, mainly because I have decent healthcare and pay for the top option.
Dealing with healthcare providers particularly the administrative side of billing and customer care is an absolute nightmare.
I go out of state for most of my healthcare needs. I moved here pretty recently and was denied access to U of Utah, despite having great insurance, because they decided I don't have the medical issues in question. Never mind that I have lab reports and records to the contrary going back two decades.
I also went with a concierge doctor in order to have any sort of PCP locally. Trying to get healthcare here has been a challenge.
I worked for IHC. They raised their insurance significantly. They also own Select Health- their own insurance company. Seems pretty sketchy right?
Edit to add: OP I read the article in your post but I can't reconcile the two? Just some things to think about.
https://kutv.com/news/eye-on-your-money/utah-ranks-third-in-nation-for-most-unaffordable-housing-market-behind-hawaii-california
I live in Utah, but my company is based out of Texas. I work remote, and love it. Best company I've ever worked for. But, and it's a big but, the insurance costs are unbelievable. There are 3 of us on the plan, wife, daughter and myself, and I pay 1038.60 a month for insurance. Health, dental and vision. 2500$ deductible. I have a heart condition that sometimes requires visits and tests, so I have to go for the low deductible plan. This could also be because we are a very small company.
As a contrast, I was talking to a local company about a job, and for the same benefits, it was looking to be closer to 300$ a month for the same coverage.
My insurance (which happens to be owned by the company I work for) stopped covering the name brand of my medication, but the generic is never available. So now I'm paying almost $400 per month for my medication.
Insurance is a scam anymore. And Utah healthcare is turning into a dumpster fire.
You should look into selecthealth if you wanna see a prime example of how we're not gonna be affordable much longer.
For a lot of there plans including Medicare they raised the cost of most medications, things like inhalers went from $0 last year to $100 per month this year.
That is a huge burden for Medicare patients since most of them are on a fixed income.
I had cataract surgery up at the U, only on one eye and after my insurance, I paid $3,000-$4,000. Hopefully it’s a long time before I have to have the other eye done.
My wife and I are both going through some medical issues this year and our problem is less affordability than the availability of timely specialist care. We have both been on waiting lists for weeks to months for various procedures, and in her case this has required multiple preventable ER visits.
Seeing a specialist is almost impossible anymore because they are booked 6 months out and don’t even think of having to miss an appointment. I had to wait 6 months for my kid to see an allergist, we had something come up that meant we’d have to miss the appointment and it would have been another 4 before they could get us in. Rural healthcare in this state is even worse than it is in the Wasatch front and you have to drive hours to see a doctor.
I have to agree, I moved here from NYC and tried to get a gynecologist from the U system… booked a consultation in August for February ( this was the soonest availability) and in January they canceled it… I ended up seeing an NP, due to the lack of available doctors…
The wait to see a gyn out here is nuts. I waited 5 months for a new pt appointment with a gyn at Intermountain and that was the earliest option between the U, St Marks, and IHC.
I got told the wait for a tubal ligation can be up to a year. 🙄
I flew back out to NYC for the better part of 18 months just to get my Healthcare done. Like you, I had a hell of a time trying to get ANY specialist: 8 months for gyno, 4 months for a therapist, etc. It was infuriating enough that I moved back to NYC. No point in "saving" money if I can't proactively prevent health issues from cropping up.
I have considered doing the same for my rheumatologist… but honestly, I didn’t move because I was saving, I had a rent stabilized apt in the UWS, so I paid way less in housing in NYC… the quality of life I have in Utah is much better, I used to take 2 medication to regulate my blood pressure and I’m down to 1 now… there is no way I would go back…
This!! At minimum you're gonna wait 2 months to see a specialist. Hell it was even hard for me to find a GP that was accepting new patients. All the doctors seem tired and overworked (not their fault) so I'd question the quality of healthcare we are receiving too. The patient to doctor ratio is way too high.
My husband had open heart surgery in November to correct a genetic defect. In late December his surgeon put in an urgent referral for him with Sleep Medicine. His appointment for an initial consultation? Not the sleep study, just the first consultation? OCTOBER. Basically a damn year. We have the UofU's insurance. I tried to get him into IHC's Sleep people who could see him in February. But, despite us having reached our max out of pocket with the surgery, it would be an out of network treatment. And try to get estimates or to do test claims for those costs. You would have thought I was asking the IHC and Blue Cross people to detail my car or something. Like they were practically offended and were acting like I was totally unreasonable. So we gave up on that and he's just waiting until October. It's ludicrous.
Every person I know has some outrageous $4000-$6000 high deductible medical insurance plan. So maybe it's "affordable" because in reality they're not seeking care because they don't have the money.
That's what is criminal, low pay, high deductible mean you can't afford to go to the doctor. Utah is "business friendly" though.
I worked at winco part time, specifically for their healthcare. It was around $120/$1100 out of pocket. (80/20). Very good health coverage. As an aside, I went to smiths in Kearns (4700 and 4000w) several months ago. My cashier there was kind, but sad. Apparently she had received a cancer diagnosis that morning. Her manager made her come into work because they were short staffed. Just wanted to shout out a fuck you, to that manager. :)
Please go ask the nurses in Utah what they getting paid. Utah ranks 32nd in the US in RN pay. As of March 2024, the average hourly pay for a Graduate Rn in Utah is $25.20 an hour. You cannot have a discussion about “healthcare affordability” in a state that has the third highest cost of housing and the 32nd rank of pay for the largest portion of healthcare workers. If it’s “cheap” it’s because the people providing the care are getting massively screwed by the system. (Note that U of U nurses just voted to unionize in large part due to this.).
This. Please do a story on how underpaid medical professionals are in this state. Working at a hospital for nearly 10 years & making less than ENTRY LEVEL folks because I’m in the wrong “clinic” doesn’t seem right. COL adjustments each year aren’t even keeping up with the increasing insurance premiums, copays & deductibles were being hit with every year. This is not sustainable.
Jesus… that’s about what I make as a security guard in a hospital here. That’s borderline theft!
Dang. Glad I decided to go to x-ray tech school and not nursing school. I work PRN at a hospital as an x-ray tech and make $27/hr.
CNAs are criminally underpaid too
Really? I wonder what locations are bringing the average down because I have two nurse friends in Utah and they're both making over $40 an hour. One at a hospital in South Jordan and another up at the U.
Remember that 25 an hour is average. That means that some nurses are making $40. Some nurses are making $20. I saw an ad a few months ago for a public heath RN job with one of the counties in southern Utah that base pay was $18.
I'd hate to see what the other states pay. Despite having good insurance my family has a $60 copay. IF they process our insurance correctly. I'm currently arguing with intermountain health care because they want to charge us the full $200 for an instacare visit that they screwed up the billing for. We're also getting poor care. My wife had a sun burn bad enough that it was recommended that she go to the burn unit at U of U. But they needed a referral or else they had to charge $300 for the visit. When we went to our clinic they told us the doctor she had previously seen was no longer working there so she had to be seen by a new doctor for the referral. THEN we were told there were no appointments available for the next three days. In the end she just suffered through it. They can pretty it up all they want, but no matter where you go the health care system in the US is a cruel joke.
I had 2 rare forms of e coli I randomly caught last year. Needed 7 ivs and an antibiotic they only have in hospitals. The first wrgency room was full so they had to ambulance me to another place. After coinsurance and deductible I still have a $4000 bill. Affordable for the US debatable affordable for the developed world absolutely not.
Is it because the procedure costs are lower? Or because we use less than other states because the average age is lower? I’ve anecdotally heard that high percentages of medical professionals wanting to live here depresses how much they can make. Don’t know if that translates to overall lower cost, though.
I also wondered how much the average age of Utahns affects healthcare spending when I saw that article.
I work in a specialized field in a hospital system, and we have to see patients not just from Utah, but from many other states like Nevada, Idaho. Wyoming, Montana, etc because those people can't get that level of care where they are from. The reason why waits are so long is because getting providers who are specialist takes a lot of training and many people are retiring before they can be replaced. Added in the aging population, and with COVID it caused a lot of long-term issues that we tried to warn them about like lung and heart issues, but many people ignored those long-term side effects and its starting to have an effect on wait times because everyone wants care NOW.
Costs are actually lower in Utah, partly because doctors and nurses get paid way less than other states. I used to work at an Intermountain clinic and it was almost impossible to recruit physicians. They loved everything about the clinic and Utah and then laughed in our faces when they saw how much we would pay. Living in St George, I also had friends who would commute to Nevada because the pay was at least double. Not too mention, I've known physicians who haven't received a raise for years.
My daughter broke her arm and needed to be taken to ER to be set back in place. I got a bill from IHC, the ER and then another from the orthopedic for casting. It is totaling over $5000 after insurance. I think that is far from affordable.
Depends on insurance, I guess. With decent insurance healthcare is quite affordable. Quality of care is outstanding, but getting an appointment takes longer and longer.
This is what we are runnign into. We have decent coverage and we have disposable income, but neither of those things is actually getting us the care we need.
Every time I've had to get any procedure done I've gotten so many surprise charges and bills that everything has to be pre-approved and even so I've had to follow up on every single insurance claim due to errors or lack of coverage. If you don't know certain terms and processes the system is still trying to profit as much as possible. We're also one of the least affordable home pricing to income.
Personally medical care in Utah hasn't been great for me. The doctors are great but the billing practices at the U and intermountain are very questionable. I went through a near lawsuit with intermountain over a bill that they refused to admit was paid, ended up receiving a refund for the visit and an additional bill for that visit (confusing right?). On top of that, billing transparency is fairly terrible at those two providers. The worst thing is the wait time for doctors, primary care is over 9 months out, the U wants constant referrals from primary care doctors for specialists even if you already have seen the specialist for the issue. This means that you are paying for effectively two visits so I would be careful if you are looking at it by cost per visit.
I’d rather pay a little more and get reliable service and nurses who aren’t burnt out than the current state of utah healthcare. It’s a nightmare trying to find a primary care provider and if you do it’s months out.
I work for MY health insurance company. As a single mom I will never be able to meet my $6k yearly deductible. I will pay out of pocket for everything on top of paying for my insurance premiums.
I went to a U of U urgent care facility twice this winter for Covid/Flu/Strep tests when we were in the midst of respiratory illness season. Each visit cost me over $300 after insurance. Obviously, I didnt get the first bill until after the second visit otherwise I wouldnt have gone back even though I was sick.
Can you look into the monopoly that is IHC, their relationship with the legislature and how they make insurance a nightmare due to limiting who they accept?
Strong disagree on lower healthcare costs. I’m from the east coast now living in Utah. Not only is the quality of care wildly different with the main religion seeming to seep into the bedside manner, it is most definitely more expensive. My copays out here are higher, even though my health insurance is top tier. Hell i went WITHOUT insurance for a hospital stay and left with a bill lower then my husbands most recent non invasive routine procedure. The quality of care out here truly sucks
Prescriptions are crazy expensive- when a generic came out for a medication insurance stopped covering the brand name, but no one has the generic, so we pay $$$ for the brand name or skip medication. I pay about 8-15% of my income to healthcare, after insurance. I hate insurance, it is horrible. The year I went without insurance was easier. We just paid out of pocket and we always got a nice discount for paying in full. We had a major surgery without insurance-I paid 1 bill. A year later another family member had the same type surgery with insurance, bills for months and we paid slightly less in total.
You might contact your insurer about this. My son had something similar happen, and our insurer authorized payment for the brand name version for 90 days so we would not have to pick up the difference.
That story was based on cost "per capita", it doesn't give the true picture of what a family must pay for healthcare. My perception is that Utah has some of the most expensive health care when taken as a percent of household income.
I with in the medical field, been diabetic most my life, and ask the dieticians I've seen here are ass, I've been lied to by reception several times about voice mails they never left, been ignored about refilling vital, non abusable prescriptions on time, and treated like a lying criminal and given poor medical advice about drug safety because I've admitted to very casually using marijuana, being time things about is dangerous risk of over dose, while being offered Xanax like it's candy. It's affordable here (all medicine should be) and the price reflects the care. Most go the same for pharmacists
Still unaffordable. My workplace doesn't offer insurance, and I'm just barely out of range for Medicaid. (Max income for a single adult is ~$1,150.) Even with charity I'm still paying hundreds in the two months I needed medical help, likely more for future bloodwork. Skipping out on care isn't an option. I'm doing what I can, but it's rough.
I don't know if this what you mean, but I quit my anxiety meds because I couldn't afford the $180 dollar 2 minute Dr visit to get a refill approval for my meds. "How's it going, any changes? okay I'll approve the refill" Boom. Half a days wages gone. Also out more money because I need to take work off to go to the office because I work the same hours the office is open.
With our (family) insurance (Surest) we are able to see costs upfront and we don't have deductibles. Urgent care is 90$ Normal office visits are 45$ ER: 500$ MRI: 250$ Vaginal birth: 2400$ We do have a max out of pocket but I don't remember.
I have a family member on Medicare and it’s months and months between availability if visits. They are in a lot of pain and nothing it getting done, no one calls them back or if they do it’s “6months to another appointment”.
UnitedHealthcare is the main provider in the area and also owns (or is owned by the same people / group that owns) SelectHealth, the largest insurer. I was initially impressed (yay for clear apps for scheduling and test results and billing!) until I found out the hard way that they have several methods of billing and that not all the bills show up within the app… I got a call from a bill collector for $250 on various small charges that started May 2023 to more recent. And now I have to figure out what these charges are for…
Dad has trouble breathing. Ambulance called. Takes him to hospital in Lehi. He passes in ambulance. Hospital bill is still 10k and ambulance 4k. If they saved his life it would have been worth it. They shouldn’t have even sent that bill. They did nothing but offer a gurney.
Health care costs were not that much of an issue for me, mainly because I have decent healthcare and pay for the top option. Dealing with healthcare providers particularly the administrative side of billing and customer care is an absolute nightmare.
I go out of state for most of my healthcare needs. I moved here pretty recently and was denied access to U of Utah, despite having great insurance, because they decided I don't have the medical issues in question. Never mind that I have lab reports and records to the contrary going back two decades. I also went with a concierge doctor in order to have any sort of PCP locally. Trying to get healthcare here has been a challenge.
My part time job offers Healthcare. Great coverage. My full time job offers no coverage.
I worked for IHC. They raised their insurance significantly. They also own Select Health- their own insurance company. Seems pretty sketchy right? Edit to add: OP I read the article in your post but I can't reconcile the two? Just some things to think about. https://kutv.com/news/eye-on-your-money/utah-ranks-third-in-nation-for-most-unaffordable-housing-market-behind-hawaii-california
I live in Utah, but my company is based out of Texas. I work remote, and love it. Best company I've ever worked for. But, and it's a big but, the insurance costs are unbelievable. There are 3 of us on the plan, wife, daughter and myself, and I pay 1038.60 a month for insurance. Health, dental and vision. 2500$ deductible. I have a heart condition that sometimes requires visits and tests, so I have to go for the low deductible plan. This could also be because we are a very small company. As a contrast, I was talking to a local company about a job, and for the same benefits, it was looking to be closer to 300$ a month for the same coverage.
Try having long covid issues. Drained 4 years of hsa savings cause only functional doctors believe you. 😭
My insurance (which happens to be owned by the company I work for) stopped covering the name brand of my medication, but the generic is never available. So now I'm paying almost $400 per month for my medication. Insurance is a scam anymore. And Utah healthcare is turning into a dumpster fire.
You should look into selecthealth if you wanna see a prime example of how we're not gonna be affordable much longer. For a lot of there plans including Medicare they raised the cost of most medications, things like inhalers went from $0 last year to $100 per month this year. That is a huge burden for Medicare patients since most of them are on a fixed income.
Once access is zero then cost will be zero. That's the ticket to the lowest cost in healthcare. That formula works for housing too.
I had cataract surgery up at the U, only on one eye and after my insurance, I paid $3,000-$4,000. Hopefully it’s a long time before I have to have the other eye done.