The "true" cost of healthcare?

[imported_Lothar]

Plan: BCBS Medical PPO (covers both Medical and Prescription drugs)
Coverage: Employee Only.
Employer annual cost: $2,287.44
Employee annual cost: $948.60

What can be inferred from this during the healthcare debate?
Is that too expensive/costly, or is that too cheap?

Do you know the "true" cost of yours?

 

[spidey07]

That's a pretty decent plan, thank goodness you didn't get an HMO. 3200 a year really isn't a lot of money considering what you get out of those premiums. And 948 for you is dirt cheap.

What can be inferred is that you have good health insurance and if you had to get it without your employer it still isn't a lot of money. With employer group plan and their contributions as part of your compensation it's super cheap for what you get.

 

[heyheybooboo]

You should be very, very happy.

How many employees where you work ? (thinking it's a bunch)

How about co-pays, deducts, max out-of-pocket, benefit cap, etc .... ? Anything less than kosher?


edit ---- sorry, forgot to add that if you ever have to COBRA, I'm guessing your cost will be 2-3 times that amount

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Troll.


-------------------
YHPM

Senior Anandtech Moderator
Common Courtesy


Hey, CC

I got the PM but I'm not sure what the problem is. The above bolded ""Real questions: How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?"" is specious with no basis in fact, speculative and loaded, has been debunked many times in P&N including reports by the CBO, and somehow implies that Congress will mandate the end of Lothar's prescription drug coverage and hospitalization. That is patently false.

And all that clearly makes the above bolded a troll post.

 

[TheSkinsFan]

Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

 

[Uhtrinity]

Mine is a Blue Cross PPO for myself and my son. $500 deduct, $30 copay on Dr, $20 copay on meds. Roughly 15 insured individuals at our school / district.

$747 Medical
$7.50 Vision
$54.55 Dental

$9,708 a year paid by my employer. I'm lucky I even have benefits as I'm not full time, in turn I take a lower salary. IMHO that is far too expensive for a 39 yo male in excellent health, non smoker, not over weight and a healthy 7 yo boy. Even getting a median salary in my state; $800 a month for health insurance would be difficult if not impossible.

The op has cheap coverage and is lucky, btw, how old are you? That has a lot to do with it.

 

[her209]

$948.60 / 26 = $36.48

Pretty standard cost for a PPO plan. You didn't mention if this was a high/low PPO plan.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Losing said coverage and getting new coverage in turn vs. what we have now? If I lose my job I lose all my coverage unless I pay outrageous cobra payments.. I'll take the fed option!

 

[TheSkinsFan]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Troll.

My questions were legit and unbiased. Each one of them could be answered in such a way that it supports any "side" in the debate. I am genuinely interested in his answers, regardless of which "side" of the debate they might support.

That is not "trolling," [deleted]

 

[TheSkinsFan]

Originally posted by: Uhtrinity

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Losing said coverage and getting new coverage in turn vs. what we have now? If I lose my job I lose all my coverage unless I pay outrageous cobra payments.. I'll take the fed option!

Are you willing to give up your current plan even if you still have your job?

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Troll.

My questions were legit and unbiased. Each one of them could be answered in such a way that it supports any "side" in the debate. I am genuinely interested in his answers, regardless of which "side" of the debate they might support.

That is not "trolling," you wanker.

Didn't you get the memo? Anything that attempts to personalize the UHC "problem" in dollar amounts is out of line and potentially trollish. In other words, you sir have been reported!

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Troll.
[/b]

Explain.

 

[blackangst1]

I have an Aetna PPO/HMO hybrid plan...I pay 94.50/wk, + 4/wk for vision, + 3/wk for dental. Employer pays 114/wk total. So $5270/yr for me, $5928/yr for employer.

I have the top plan the company offers for my pay grade. I am very satisfied, and considering how much I use it, Im definitely getting the good side of the bargain. I billed approx $17,000 to my ins company last year, not including an emergency appendectimy (Type 1 diabetic with an insulin pump, 100% payed for no out of pocket except for co pays on insulin).

I would not feel confident I would get the same quality of care I am getting now if I were under a federal plan. I am in Phoenix, and my primary physician and endocrinologist are in Mayo clinic, plus I see a retinal specialist 2x/yr.

 

[Uhtrinity]

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan

Originally posted by: Uhtrinity

Originally posted by: TheSkinsFan
Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

If your personal payments stayed the same, roughly $948/yr, would you be willing to switch to Government care? What if your payments went up? What if they went down?

Are you personally satisfied with your coverage and care? If not, why not?

Losing said coverage and getting new coverage in turn vs. what we have now? If I lose my job I lose all my coverage unless I pay outrageous cobra payments.. I'll take the fed option!

Are you willing to give up your current plan even if you still have your job?

I can honestly say yes. I have seen both sides as I have been uninsured over half of my adult life, I have had good plans and bad plans. Long term security means more to me than having a good plan for 5 years.

 

[Genx87]

Is this a true cost though? I mean this is a true cost of the insurance. But what were your true medical costs last year?

 

[Pens1566]

Originally posted by: Lothar
Plan: BCBS Medical PPO (covers both Medical and Prescription drugs)
Coverage: Employee Only.
Employer annual cost: $2,287.44
Employee annual cost: $948.60

What can be inferred from this during the healthcare debate?
Is that too expensive/costly, or is that too cheap?

Do you know the "true" cost of yours?

Hard to tell unless we know what you're getting for that amount of $$$. Its cheap, I'll give it that.

 

[Pens1566]

Originally posted by: spidey07
That's a pretty decent plan, thank goodness you didn't get an HMO. 3200 a year really isn't a lot of money considering what you get out of those premiums. And 948 for you is dirt cheap.

What can be inferred is that you have good health insurance and if you had to get it without your employer it still isn't a lot of money. With employer group plan and their contributions as part of your compensation it's super cheap for what you get.

No, its a decent price. Who knows what that buys him? He could have high deductibles, low limits, etc..

 

[sportage]

Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

You are not taking into account... that... the 'rules" of "their" game can change at any time.
With the current system folks... there is No guarantees.
The sad thing is when someone would believe they are, so to speak, "locked in" to their plan.
The insurance co holds all the keys here... people. Not you NOR your employer.
Come-on people... really...

Look at the profits companies like CIGNA make, or the multi millions they pay
their CEO's.

And you feel "locked-in". Really... :laugh:

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: sportage

Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

You are not taking into account... that... the 'rules" of "their" game can change at any time.
With the current system folks... there is No guarantees.
The sad thing is when someone would believe they are, so to speak, "locked in" to their plan.
The insurance co holds all the keys here... people. Not you NOR your employer.
Come-on people... really...

Look at the profits companies like CIGNA make, or the multi millions they pay
their CEO's.

And you feel "locked-in". Really... :laugh:

Still on that "profit" is the reason for our skyrocketing medical costs eh?

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Still on that "profit" is the reason for our skyrocketing medical costs eh?

It's all the Old People sucking the life out of medical care?


And the original 'question' is a logical fallacy - A question with a false, disputed, or question-begging presupposition.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: sportage

Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

You are not taking into account... that... the 'rules" of "their" game can change at any time.
With the current system folks... there is No guarantees.
The sad thing is when someone would believe they are, so to speak, "locked in" to their plan.
The insurance co holds all the keys here... people. Not you NOR your employer.
Come-on people... really...

Look at the profits companies like CIGNA make, or the multi millions they pay
their CEO's.

And you feel "locked-in". Really... :laugh:

Oh you mean their skyrocket profit margin in 2008 of 1.5%? That one you mean?

 

[Patranus]

Originally posted by: Lothar
Plan: BCBS Medical PPO (covers both Medical and Prescription drugs)
Coverage: Employee Only.
Employer annual cost: $2,287.44
Employee annual cost: $948.60

What can be inferred from this during the healthcare debate?
Is that too expensive/costly, or is that too cheap?

Do you know the "true" cost of yours?

Really? These are the costs people are bitching about?

Give me a break.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: blackangst1

Originally posted by: sportage

Real questions:

How would you feel about losing said coverage as a result of an act of Congress?

You are not taking into account... that... the 'rules" of "their" game can change at any time.
With the current system folks... there is No guarantees.
The sad thing is when someone would believe they are, so to speak, "locked in" to their plan.
The insurance co holds all the keys here... people. Not you NOR your employer.
Come-on people... really...

Look at the profits companies like CIGNA make, or the multi millions they pay
their CEO's.

And you feel "locked-in". Really... :laugh:

Oh you mean their skyrocket profit margin in 2008 of 1.5%? That one you mean?

Profit is after they take all their cuts. There is a reason their "overhead" is 20%. That means every dollar they take in only 80cents goes to medical cost. The rest stays with them for the previlage to allow them to pay your doctor. Hell the Fed Gov has less then 5% overhead and trolls like you complian they are bloated, but 20% overhead is just fine?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Patranus

Originally posted by: Lothar
Plan: BCBS Medical PPO (covers both Medical and Prescription drugs)
Coverage: Employee Only.
Employer annual cost: $2,287.44
Employee annual cost: $948.60

What can be inferred from this during the healthcare debate?
Is that too expensive/costly, or is that too cheap?

Do you know the "true" cost of yours?

Really? These are the costs people are bitching about?

Give me a break.

Yea cause everybody can get those rates and I am sure it has great benifits and low rates/co-pays. :roll:


Ramana M Rachakonda (609) 333-0411 36 Caroline Dr, Princeton, NJ 08540

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Pens1566

Originally posted by: spidey07
That's a pretty decent plan, thank goodness you didn't get an HMO. 3200 a year really isn't a lot of money considering what you get out of those premiums. And 948 for you is dirt cheap.

What can be inferred is that you have good health insurance and if you had to get it without your employer it still isn't a lot of money. With employer group plan and their contributions as part of your compensation it's super cheap for what you get.

No, its a decent price. Who knows what that buys him? He could have high deductibles, low limits, etc..

I'm familiar with the BCBS PPO and insurance in general. I have a good idea of what his limits are. Probabaly a 2k OOPM, 80/20 OON, 20 copay for visits, 15 perscription.

It's a pretty good plan.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Pens1566

Originally posted by: spidey07
That's a pretty decent plan, thank goodness you didn't get an HMO. 3200 a year really isn't a lot of money considering what you get out of those premiums. And 948 for you is dirt cheap.

What can be inferred is that you have good health insurance and if you had to get it without your employer it still isn't a lot of money. With employer group plan and their contributions as part of your compensation it's super cheap for what you get.

No, its a decent price. Who knows what that buys him? He could have high deductibles, low limits, etc..

I'm familiar with the BCBS PPO and insurance in general. I have a good idea of what his limits are.

So what are they?