Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Health care cost

Absolutely not a political rant. But an honest question. In the debate two nights ago, both candidates for prez. threw out some dollar figures for the cost of health care. Candidate A said that the average health care cost was 48 hundred dollars a year, candidate B quoted a price of 12 thousand. Now here's the question. Are these figures for real? 15 years ago I tried to buy private health care coverage for my family of four. The ins. co. wouldn't even consider covering my wife and daughter because of previous health issues, and they quoted a price of $800 a month for just me and my son. Anybody else out there have any experience with this?

Were they referring to health care, or medical insurance? If the latter, I think a $4800 annual premium cost for an individual in a crummy HMO group plan is possible. I also think it's not unusual to spend $12K or more for an individual non-group plan.

Jack

over $900/month for my wife and myself.

Before last year we had a very good health care plan ~~ all part of my salary package ~~ and it ran $1300 a month (including dental and vision). Last year things changed and my health insurance was reduced to a high deductible policy that now costs $700 a month (including dental and vision). But that is for a family of five. I tried to find something better and cheaper ~~ but that was it.

I pay $852./mo. on a group BCBS major medical for my wife and myself.

$13,000 per year, full med, scrip, vision, and dental.

Me, my wife and two college student kids.

Managed by my union.

As Mark Twain once said, there are lies, dam lies and statistics. You can find a statistical value to suit anything you want to say.

If you are buying individual coverage it depends on your age, health, history and where you live. If you are young and healthy it's fairly cheap. If you are old, fat, smoke and have had health problems it can be extremely expensive.

If you buy catastrophic coverage and pay for the little stuff yourself you can get the price down a lot, if you demand coverage for every little thing it will cost much more. Just like the deducible on your car insurance. The higher the deducible the lower the premium.

The cost of group coverage will be determined by the real or anticipated claims experience of the group. If the group is older, or uses the coverage a lot, the cost will be higher. It also cost less if you go with higher deductibles.

Too many people want first dollar coverage and unlimited use for every little thing and then whine when it costs too much.

Health care is free if I go to the local teaching hospital, wait for hours and decline to pay the bill. Since I choose not to go that route, I pay $1983 annually for BCBS Federal (family). My employer picks up $9873 according to my annual statement.

We still end up at the teaching hospital occasionally (some of the best specialists are there) and still wait for hours, but one flash of the insurance card and they put us in a nicer waiting room.

Although my wife is the McCain campaign coordinator for Western Maryland, I too was confused by the two canidates proposals. I did some research last night and found this helpful page (and site). For us, who have insurance thru the state of Maryland, we will benefit (under McCain). Previously, when I had our insurance thru my employer (same company, but three times the cost) it would, as this article states be a wash.
Hope this helps you:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/803/

Health insurance for me was a nightmare until I turned 65 and qualified for Medicare. Cost is $96.40 a month for pretty decent coverage and that rate will hold through 2009.
I bought a Medicare Advantage plan that costs an additional $56 a month that brings doctor visits down to $0 and maximum of $500 for any hospital stay of any length, any cost. My prescription drugs are covered at $1 for generics which is better than the $8 I was paying the VA. This through Windsor Medicare Extra.
My young wife (61) costs $450 month for BCBS "catastrophic" coverage by comparison.
So keep the rubber side down, live to be 65 and your Health costs will get better.
SteveB

I had high hopes at the beginning of the presidential campaign, as both candidates have qualities I admire -- then they opened their mouths, and after x months of speaking fluent half truths, I realize it's:

Same as it ever was

Same as it ever was

Same-as-it-ever WAS!


Anyhow, in CT, reasonable quality small business (50 employees or less) employer provided health insurance is priced by the age of the employee and number of dependents attached to the primary insured. There are also separate pricing tiers for single employee, employee & spouse, then family price tiers. A 20 something single employee may cost around $300 per month. A 60 something employee & spouse costs around $1400 per month. Those prices include prescriptions, but no dental. For myself (age 51), my wife & 1 child, I pay $1,200 per month, and the first $1,500 is an annual deductible for each person via an HSA, at $4500 total. The coverage is through an old LLC I held onto, as I am absolutely un-insurable in CT under an individual plan basis, due to being a Cancer survivor with Diabetes. No soup for me! I have no idea what other states do with their insurance contract laws - only CT.


People who pay their employer $100 or what have you for a co-pay often have no idea how expensive health insurance is to the employer. I had the Anthem pricing by age chart scanned for posting, but it's in hiding at the moment, else I'd post it.

As we all know, there are no easy answers to this situation. If we do socialize health care in the US, we can only hope it does not come equipped with the efficiency of the Post Office, combined with the compassion of the IRS.

Having started this thread, I want to thank those who contributed their info. I really did want to learn. I think that I can safely say that average insurance coverage runs close to 1000 dollars a month. Around here, where a good paying job pays about 24 thousand dollars a year, that would amount to almost one half of your income for health insurance. Incredible!