The great American rip off

[MrPots]

MILWAUKEE — The average total cost of health care for the typical family of four will top $25,000 this year.

That projection — from the annual Milliman Medical Index — includes the average cost of health insurance paid by employers and employees, as well as deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for the most common type of health plan.

The total cost — $25,826 this year — may prompt disbelief. But few people realize what their employer spends to provide health benefits or the potential cost of deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses if someone in a family has a serious illness or even a series of relatively minor mishaps.

"A lot of people are sheltered from the true cost of health care, despite the fact that they are paying more than in the past," said Scott Weltz, a principal and consulting actuary who works out of Milliman's office in Brookfield, Wis.

Study: Costs for most long-term care keep climbing

They are paying much more: The Milliman Medical Index has more than tripled since its first year in 2001.

The index is no more than a gauge, and actual costs vary. Most people, for instance, are fortunate enough not to have high out-of-pocket costs in a given year.

But it makes clear the total cost of health care spending for the typical family.

"It is shocking — it's heart-stopping," said Paul Hughes-Cromwick, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Health Spending at Altarum Institute, a non-profit research and consulting organization in Ann Arbor, Mich.
That's especially true when compared with the median U.S. income of $83,414 for a family of four in 2014.

The Milliman Medical Index tracks only people who get health insurance through an employer. Total health care spending is even higher, largely because it includes people over 65, who have higher health care expenses.

With those costs included, the United States spent an average of $9,523 per person on health care in 2014, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That works out to an average of $38,092 for a family of four — and spending was projected to increase 4.9% a year through 2024.

The largest share of health care costs is borne in the form of lower wages and taxes.

An employee's total compensation includes what his or her employer spends on health insurance — and that accounts for an increasing share of total compensation.

One of the reasons that workers have seen smaller raises for more than a decade is the increase in the cost of health benefits.

The Milliman Medical Index estimates that employers will spend an average of $14,793 this year to provide health benefits for a family of four. Few people, though, are aware of the magnitude of their employer's contribution.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...osts/85016358/



This is where Obama failed. He did nothing to reign in the rip off that is the insurance industry. Note that these are't really heath care costs, they are insurance costs.

I'm pretty lucky I guess. My insurance costs me $7,000 per year. (I quit a $14,000 per year policy I could not afford any more.) For that I get ONE paid well visit a year. After that I have $10,000 out of pocket before they pick up. So out of that $7,000 the insurance company pays about $1,000 in bills, I pay about $1500 out of pocket, and the insurance company pockets the rest. So 85% of my medical costs go to the insurance company. The big scam? I've been paying these insurance costs for decades. The insurance companies have pocketed well over $150,000 in premiums from me while paying maybe $15,000 in claims. And guess what? By the time I really need the coverage I will be on medicare, on the taxpayers dime. The insurance companies will walk away with the equivalent of my retirement savings, and those of millions of other americans. Take this times the millions of people using it and we can see where a major portion of Americas wealth is going. Taxes? Taxes are a pittance compared to this.

This is Obamas' biggest failure and why I think he's a fraud. He became a lacky for the insurance industry and proof that the democrats are just as bad as the republicans.....just without the racism. I'd wager he's got a cush job waiting for him i the insurance industry.

[Tom Joad]

Excellent post Potter.

+1

[MrPots]

this is not correct:

"That's especially true when compared with the median U.S. income of $83,414 for a family of four in 2014."

The US median family income in 2014 was $51,795. That's with two people working. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househ..._United_States

"They are paying much more: The Milliman Medical Index has more than tripled since its first year in 2001."

Proof that Obamacare didn't do anything but ensure mandatory insurance profits.

[nailer]

Our second MIC. As a nation we are grossly overspending on guns and butter.

[JJIII]

Thank you MrPots.

[68custom]

The ACA is far from perfect but it did a few good things like eliminate the pre-existing condition clause and the ability to pay for your children s insurance till 26 yo. I always say its slightly better than no insurance, great if you lose an arm! BTW its even worse down here in sunny Fl with the jerk-off Rick Scott at the helm...

[donquixote99]

ACA may have been the best possible. Keep in mind that Clinton couldn't do it despite massive Democratic majorities in congress at the time.

[icenine]

[QUOTE=MrPots;315980]MILWAUKEE — The average total cost of health care for the typical family of four will top $25,000 this year.[QUOTE]




How do you know you will make it to 65?. How do you know that you won't get cancer or have terrible car accident next week or end up in the ICU with a massive MI? That 10k deductible will save you from being on the hook for 100k or more.

I know $600 bucks a month is a lot but you have to keep things in perspective.

You have to remember that the insurance companies have to pay for all of those really expensive medical cases that you through the grace of God have not had happen yet to you. I have been paying my car insurance for years but I realize that those premiums are pooled to pay for people who have really serious accidents. I would rather pay the premiums than need to need the catastrophic care but it is nice to know it is there.

Obamacare is not perfect but better than before. Sadly most Americans are not ready to foot the bill for single payer, or otherwise we would have it by now. Trump is not going to give you single payer, the Republican Party is not going to give you single payer. Neither is Bernie Sanders because Congress is controlled by a Party that will not consider single payer.

Even if Trump came out for single payer he could not get it through Congress anyway because he is too racist to get elected in the first place.

I think Hillary was considering the public option which I understand it is the insurance program Federal workers have. From what I have heard those premiums are around 400 dollars or so. I don't know since I am on Tricare.
Yeah Joad is going to chime in a complain about me being on same insurance program as his own son in a moment.

The article states that businesses are paying a large part of that 25 btw.

You have to remember that Single Payer is not free plus it would involve a significant rationing. You can get rid of private insurance as the main payer but you will pay in another way.

Roosevelt only got the New Deal through because the Great Depression made the middle class poor. There were poor people in the Coolidge Administration but nobody was that upset. It was when Wall Street and Main Street had the gun of poverty in their faces that reform happened. The progressives on the left that support people like Sanders would have to somehow coalesce with the angry dispossessed on the right that support Trump to get single payer through. But the xenophobia that taints the right prevents that in my opinion. If they were not electing people like Louis Goehmert to Congress maybe it would happen. And what keeps me from not supporting Sanders is not that I disagree with him but that a lot of Trump people like him too. Plus that stuff about breaking up Wall Street is too divisive for me.

Single payer will not make it in America until the vast majority of Americans demand it.

[noonereal]

Health insurance, to many, has become only catastrophic coverage with no way to pay the co-pay of the catastrophic coverage for many, most.

True, false any other thoughts?

[icenine]

Originally Posted by noonereal

Health insurance, to many, has become only catastrophic coverage with no way to pay the co-pay of the catastrophic coverage for many, most.

True, false any other thoughts?

I would rather charge 10k to a credit card than have to owe 100,000k to a hospital and doctor. Neither choice is a good one but I know which is the worse one.