Springfield Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 The thread, and many others too, about nationalized health care got me wondering. How much do you pay? Do you appreciate the cost vs. benefit? Personally, I pay $120 every 2 weeks for a total of $240 a month. This is for single coverage, I believe, HMO. I have used my health insurance once in the last year for a doctor visit (turns out I had strep throat) for a cost of $10. I then paid $15 for the antibiotics needed. If I was married and had a family, I would be paying over $1000 a month. So I have paid a total of $2880 in the past year for health insurance. I've paid $25 for all of my health care costs. I highly doubt that doctor visit and the subsequent medication needed will equate to $2880. Sure looks like I'm paying a lot of others heath care bills. I wouldn't go to the doctor any more if I had nationalized health care and I don't think many others on this site would either. That argument is rediculous to me. Any chance I could have to save close to $3000 a year would be beneficial, especially if I choose to raise a family. I can't afford to pay $12,000 a year to a health insurance company and I am not by any means a poor man. I think, as a mostly libertarian person, that nationalized health care would be beneficial to the country. We waste our taxpayer dollars on things, but to me nationalized health care would not be a waste of my taxpayer dollars. Sure we would have to downsize a few programs, but it would be for the greater good of the country. Lastly, I will end this with an anecdote, much like the arguments against nationalized health care do (One poor woman spent 8 months on a wait list for bypass heart surgery in Canada and then died during the wait)... My girlfriend (long time, lives with me) runs her own business. She pays her taxes and is a U.S. citizen. She cannot afford personal health care. If something were to happen to her and she was unable to recieve treatment because she couldn't pay for it I would be heartbroken. If she did recieve treatment but couldn't pay the rediculous bills then leading to her declairation of bankruptcy at 24 I would be apathetic toward the system. There are good citizens out there living without health care because they simply can't afford it. To me, taking care of theese people is exponentially more important than the greatness of our military. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellsMyHero28 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Theres no poll I don't pay for health care, Obama steals money from honest-hard working Americans and gives it to me. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springfield Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 Theres no poll I don't pay for health care, Obama steals money from honest-hard working Americans and gives it to me. :laugh: FIRST POLL EVER! I did it!:laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellsMyHero28 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 FIRST POLL EVER! I did it!:laugh: Its all good, us Springfielders gotta stick together, I know the poll takes a while to come up I just couldn't resist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissU28 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Kaiser is free with my job...and so is my dental. I never thought I would like having an HMO- I've had a PPO my entire life up until this year...and I enjoy having a "one-stop-shop". Everything is right there! Perfect for my lazy bum! :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springfield Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 I envy all of you with your cheap and free insurance. No wonder why people are against nationalized health care when people are getting it for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springfield Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 Its all good, us Springfielders gotta stick together, I know the poll takes a while to come up I just couldn't resist. I prefer to call it "S Town", makes it sound more gansta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan2k Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 nothing. Apart of moms benefit from her work is free health insurance for the entire family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbear Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I wonder how many people will include what their employers pay in this poll. I wonder how many people know what their employers pay. Per 2 week pay period, I pay $145.14 and my employer pays $329.30. It's a bargin for me and my wife. In total, we pay over $12k a year. Of course one of the meds I am on is around 95k so everything else is just gravy. If the nationalized health insurance works and covers most things, 12k a year is what we(my wife and I) pay for good insurance now. I put that out there for those who think they will be paying more in taxes for health insurance. Is the expectation more than 12k a year? I honestly don't know. Educate me. Also recognize that my health insurance costs are not the end of my medical bills by a long shot. I'll admit to being an outlier on the medical costs, so I am curious how others report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGreenistheBest Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Popping into another healthcare thread... If the nationalized health insurance works and covers most things, 12k a year is what we(my wife and I) pay for good insurance now. I put that out there for those who think they will be paying more in taxes for health insurance. Is the expectation more than 12k a year? I honestly don't know. Educate me. ...and turning right back around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellsMyHero28 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I prefer to call it "S Town", makes it sound more gansta. Oh you know we're straight thuggin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raub Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 The military gives me free health care and a free fitness program. Throw in the free paid vacations to exotic locales and I don't see how anyone could not want to join! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarrellsMyHero28 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 The military gives me free health care and a free fitness program. Throw in the free paid vacations to exotic locales and I don't see how anyone could not want to join! :laugh: At least you can laugh about it, good for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I think Gbear is an interesting example of why healthcare is broken in this country. Here's a guy that's a productive (well, he works for the government) hard working member of society that earns probably at least a good middle class wage, but his health costs (given his example) are more than his take home pay. That's ridiculous. Like he said, he's an outlier, but why has everything been priced so outrageously. Why is it so much cheaper to buy American made drugs in Mexico and Canada than it is to buy them in the U.S? If his employer decided that they couldn't support that level of health support what is someone like Gbear supposed to do? (sorry to use you as an example) Insurance is only one facet of the problem, albeit a lousy one... but the entire system is fractured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsOrlando Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Self employed, my healthcare costs 523 a quarter, I have 1000 deductible(can be met by prescriptions, dr visits, anything) then everything is 100%. It's cheap considering my copay ins at my last job was 135 a month(230 picked up by my empluoyer monthly). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldysknzfn1 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I pay about $180.00 for Medical & Dental care. It's well worth it for me. As long as I use the physicians in the network, there's very little out of pocket expense for me. My husband is also on this healthplan. It's his secondary insurance. Because he has kidney disease & is on dialysis..Medicare is his primary insurance. Anything that Medicare doesn't pick up...my insurance does. So we pay very little for his meds and his care. Which is a blessing. The healthcare company that I work for pays a share of the health benefits. I'm not exactly sure how much that is tho. They also own the insurance plan that we're a member of. That doesn't give us any breaks on prices etc. In fact, people not employed w/the company actually pay LESS than we do for healthcare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipwhich Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 My girlfriend (long time, lives with me) runs her own business. She pays her taxes and is a U.S. citizen. She cannot afford personal health care. Why can't she afford it? An individual policy at your age is fairly inexpensive...probably cheaper than what you are paying through your employer. And if you ever dealt with the government run health care program we currently have *MEDICARE* you would understand why we don't want the government running our healthcare for the entire country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsBry Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Can't afford it, so I don't have it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bliz Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 $38.50 per month for family coverage, which is mad cheap. The deductible is a little high, max out-of-pocket for the year is $1,500 but I could easily be paying that much more per year in premiums so I don't complain. It is very expensive for my employer, but I don't know how much. It would be interesting to know what projected savings to small businesses are if employees have the OPTION of going with a national healthcare system (remembering that Obama's plan is non-mandatory and you can stick with private if you prefer) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidenreich Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I changed from the "top" plan to the HSA a couple of years ago. I think I pay 80 bucks a month for coverage. Of course, should I ever get sick or have to go to the hospital, I'd have to pay all of the expenses in cash up to my deductatble, which I believe is 2,500. Then I think there's 10% copays for the next 1000, then it's 100% covered. I know my company pays at least 300K per month in health benefits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsNut73 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Sometimes I hate my job... ...but one thing I can never complain about is the health care coverage. They take only $43 out of my paycheck every two weeks, so $86 per month for me, my wife and our 3 kids. I pay an additional $24 per month for dental care for all 5 of us. No deductible to meet at all. For doctor visits I pay a $15 co-pay with each visit; $20 if I visit a specialist. It's $35 for a trip to the emergency room and a one time fee of $250 if admitted to the hospital. All prescriptions are $10. For the dentist we all get two free cleanings per year. Any other work is covered at 50% of the cost. They also pay a total of $1500 towards braces if needed. The ONLY complaint I can think of with regards to the coverage is related to physicals for my kids. For some odd reason, they can get a yearly physical from birth to age 7 fully covered...then they cannot get another physical until they are 18?? So I pay $350 per kid for a physical each year because all 3 are over the age of 7. To cover that I have money put into the Flexible Spending Account each pay period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HogNose Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 The military gives me free health care and a free fitness program. Throw in the free paid vacations to exotic locales and I don't see how anyone could not want to join! That's how I got suckered in. At least they sent me to Ft. Carson, Co. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulane Skins Fan Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Its hard to actually know what you are paying without talking to your boss because whatever they pay on your behalf they take out of your salary to pass the cost to you anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoot Point Really Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 A lot of people don't know what they pay... They are probably using the amount they pay per paycheck and not including what their employer contributes. My costs for my family is in the $500-$1000 range (with a $3000 deductible)... Of course, I pay for it all myself through my own business. I wouldn't be surprised if others have to pay similar amounts (with their company footing some of the bill). I have no problem with government guaranteeing some minimum level of health care for people, as long as we're not talking about socializing the entire health care system (which could be the ultimate goal for people who want to make a small step in this direction now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbear Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Tulane, that's kind of where I was going saying I wonder how many people actually know what they are paying. I happen to know because it shows on benefits statements...and I am that geek who pays attention to that stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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