I have a solution, why don’t we all just drop our health insurance tomorrow and refuse to pay our bills and doctors, that oughta drive down the price of healthcare;
I was very much taken back by the article in the June 6 Argus Leader regarding Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield’s plans for an 18 percent rate hike in South Dakota.
As with the 18th-century saying, “Let them eat cake,” the Wellmark spokesman who suggested in the article that a healthy 60-year-old just “grin and bear it on the insurance” is likewise oblivious to the problem.
According to the chart that accompanied the article, Wellmark has doubled the premiums on its individual health insurance policies in only six years (remember, you must compound, not only add, the numbers in the chart).
This last statement in this letter to the editor says it all;
Our health care system, especially when it comes to cost, needs a radical overhaul, something the recent federal legislation will not accomplish. The system is more than just a little bit broken.
One must beg the question of who represents the health care consumer? From my perspective, no one, no one at all.
I find it ironic that after the insurance industry beat the crap out of Washington and got their way the next thing they did was raise their rates, 18%, even though it was 18 times higher then the rate of inflation.
Health strike! Holy cow! I had an idea like that back before I discovered blogging. I’m in if you’re in! 🙂
Makes sense huh? It’s kinda flea market bargaining. “Yes, you want $100,000 for my heart surgery, but what are willing to accept?”
29% increase for my family’s company.
Good luck getting any other kind of credit if your hospital bill gets sent to collections.
Avera sent a $25 bill I never recieved to collections and it dinged my credit. They called me later and told me about it and I told them if they wanted me to pay them instead of the collection company, they should have called me 8 months before and we could have straightened it out. I paid them and they made the collectors go away.
Dumbasses. Over a $25 copay they never charged me.
Until we actually know the price of health care before we have the service, we will never get costs under control. I compare it to a restaurant that gives you a menu without prices. You do not find out what you are paying until after you eat and get the bill. This prevents cost reduction and competitive pricing by competitors.
remember, this is still much better than canada, where people are dying in the streets and being poisoned by precription medication. they also kill senior citizens at the age of 68 there too. i know because the teabaggers told me so.
How did the insurance industry “get their way”? They fought Obamacare and lost. Obamacare is nothing more than a first step in the elimination of private insurance altogether.
For companies like our’s and Scott’s, at some point it will be cheaper to dump employer sponsored insurance plans and pay the fines, which will off-load millions of people into the Govt. system. If you don’t and your competitor does, they will have a several thousand dollar per employee advantage over you in the fixed expense department.
they successfully killed the public option.
Like I said, sooner or later every private employer will be forced to dump their plans, so they did no such thing.
All they did was pass a back door way to get there, which was the plan all along.
Just drop out.
They must give you care when you show up at the emergency room. Sure, they’ll bill you and it will be 4 times what insurance companies pay. You can’t fight them and you can no longer afford insurance. Wait till you get 100K in debts then take bankruptcy. If this is to devious for you, try a witchdoctor.
Sorry, but this is how the system works.
I have the VA at 100%, I’m lucky. I had insurance but stopped when premiums were 20K/year (heart disease). When you get sick, they raise premiums 8% every quarter until you’re priced out.
For insurers, it’s not a gamble but a bet that always wins.
Several years ago a friend of mine had some out patient surgery done at Sioux Valley and she made monthly payments on what her insurance didn’t cover. Then several months went by when she didn’t receive a bill so she thought she was done paying. Then one day she received a nasty letter from them saying if she didn’t pay the remaining $5.00, it would be turned over to collections. She put a check in the mail and then called the billing department to inquire if they would really spend the time and money to turn a $5.00 bill over to collections and she was told that is what they do.
Red- They did that to me once when I was making payments on a $300 bill and had like $50 left on it. They are like fucking vultures.
And who runs that collection service? Take a wild, wild guess. Yes, that “donation” that gave T. Denny control of this town was actually a nice little business investment.
For-profit healthcare should be made illegal, it would solve a lot of problems.
problems like population growth for starters. Also it will keep all those wealthy Canadians home when they need a major procedure:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/danny-williams-travels-to-us-for-heart-surgery/article1452524/
Other than that, non-profit..ie Govt. run health care will suck big donkey balls.
Other than that, non-profit..ie Govt. run health care will suck big donkey balls.
Which model would we use? Everyone’s pretty familiar with the canadian model and the UK’s model. How about we look at the German model? It’s a multi-payer system where government and private insurance coexist. Look it up sometime. It dates back to Bismark’s days.
And who runs that collection service? Take a wild, wild guess. Yes, that “donation” that gave T. Denny control of this town was actually a nice little business investment.
Even if true, T. Denny will be long dead before he recoups his $400 million investment. There aren’t enough $5-$25 collection opportunities from Sanford for him to begin to make his money back.
Also, if anyone reading this is ever offered a credit card to put their collection balance on, pay off, and keep; don’t do it! Third party collectors cannot charge you interest or late fees in addition to the balance they claim you owe. If You get a credit card with the balance on it though, your protections under the FDCPA goes bye-bye.
Had a friend get hosed by this a while back. Dumbass didn’t have insurance, broke his femur in an ATV accident, and couldn’t pay the bill. Now he’s paying it back with ~30% interest.
GoD:
“How about we look at the German model? It’s a multi-payer system..”
A. Not with this Admin: single payer is the only way they roll.
B. Germany’s system only “works” because of their immigration policies…which are rather extreme. They are taking steps to stay at or around 82 million people, which is where they’ve been since 1995. We’ve added 44 million people since then.
Oh ye of little faith. There is no way private insurance will disappear in the US – especially not during Obama’s admin.
I predict we will have a single payer system one day, but not until the boomers are all dead.
T. Denny’s biz certainly has their share of collections well above “$5 – $50”. I have the garnishments against my employees to prove it.
Oops, my quote was wrong – “$5 – $25”. lol
If you know someone who can’t get insurance or who gets sick and has no insurance:
Colorado law mandates insurance companies write HMO policies at reasonable cost for self-employed. You have to establish residency (not hard) and must sign an affidavit that you are self-employed. If you’re unemployed, you can call yourself self-employed. Quit your job and work for cash or barter.
Hide assets and bank in several states or countries. It’s what you have to do when you’re seriously ill. Otherwise, they’ll get everything and you’ll die on the street before social security kicks in.
Here, only government workers are well paid and protected. The rest of us are victims that provide coliseum sport. Our best hope is not to get Caesar’s thumbs down and suffer to entertain city administration.
Scott, just curious…do you offer Health Insurance to your employees?
Store managers get full coverage, other full-timers we’ll pay half. As time has gone on, though, fewer and fewer full-timers are willing to pay. We’d love to provide it for everybody, but that’s impossible.
Our best hope is not to get Caesar’s thumbs down and suffer to entertain city administration.
Despite what you’ve seen in movies, the “thumbs down” gesture meant to let the poor guy live. Thumbs up meant finish him off. Think of your thumb as a dagger when you make the gesture. When it’s up, you’re making sort of a stabbing motion at your chest.
This has been your historical factoid of the day.
Ghost,
Thanks, I think. Details are critical but I suspect you know what I meant.