Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Admits Obama Healthcare Plan Will Destroy Insurance Industry

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

our plan used to cover everything 100 percent but they lowered it to 90% a few years ago.. (just for hospital stays and ER visits, everything else is still 100 percent after co-pays)

That's the trend, and it's in the wrong direction IMO. There should be more personal responsibility for maintenance care and insurance should kick in a lot more for emergency and surgical care.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Okay add in the employer contribution, lets say double it. Lets see 600 a month times 300 million equals 1.6 trillion? Lets go fur it. Medicare is already a disaster and buyin this BS is total foolishness.

Quadruple it, Marc. That's the industry average. 25% employee, 75% employer.

As for Medicare, they've come through like a champ for us. Plan A covered a lot of the ish Aetna would not. No one wants to pay for the 2nd opinion though. It's mind boggling.

Just imagine them comin through for everyone? CHA-CHING!

Imagine? They do. Every day.

You know what I mean.

[Marilyn. 340]

our plan used to cover everything 100 percent but they lowered it to 90% a few years ago.. (just for hospital stays and ER visits, everything else is still 100 percent after co-pays)

That's the trend, and it's in the wrong direction IMO. There should be more personal responsibility for maintenance care and insurance should kick in a lot more for emergency and surgical care.

I thought they were going to lower it again this year but they said they didn't want to do that..

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

You know what I mean.

IMO Medicare Plan A is awesome. That's the kind of situation (hospital stays) where you really need insurance and they come through. And it's not a giveaway, they do charge 6-8% (?) of every paycheck. What Medicare should not be used for is doctors visits and prescription drugs (unless they're emergency drugs). That's Plan B and D.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

You know what I mean.

IMO Medicare Plan A is awesome. That's the kind of situation (hospital stays) where you really need insurance and they come through. And it's not a giveaway, they do charge 6-8% (?) of every paycheck. What Medicare should not be used for is doctors visits and prescription drugs (unless they're emergency drugs). That's Plan B and D.

Oh my! wait till the other 200 million get involved.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I know with our health insurance the employer contribution is about triple what we pay a month...

we do have good insurance though.. not complaining a bit..

we have a PPO plan so we basically can go wherever we want as long as they take our insurance..

Some PPO plans aren't so good when you're hospitalized for a lengthy period of time. Those 10% or 20%'s can add up to a lot.

yeah I know, we have experienced that....

our plan used to cover everything 100 percent but they lowered it to 90% a few years ago.. (just for hospital stays and ER visits, everything else is still 100 percent after co-pays)

Do the PPO's have a maximum out of pocket? That is one nice thing about Kaiser, if you do have an extended stay, the most it will cost you is a few thousand.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Most do, many don't.

Not all PPO's are alike. The biggest mistake people make is evaluating whether a plan is good or bad based solely on the amount of doctors office copays.

[Marilyn. 340]

I know with our health insurance the employer contribution is about triple what we pay a month...

we do have good insurance though.. not complaining a bit..

we have a PPO plan so we basically can go wherever we want as long as they take our insurance..

Some PPO plans aren't so good when you're hospitalized for a lengthy period of time. Those 10% or 20%'s can add up to a lot.

yeah I know, we have experienced that....

our plan used to cover everything 100 percent but they lowered it to 90% a few years ago.. (just for hospital stays and ER visits, everything else is still 100 percent after co-pays)

Do the PPO's have a maximum out of pocket? That is one nice thing about Kaiser, if you do have an extended stay, the most it will cost you is a few thousand.

ours does.. $1500 per person for the year

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I know with our health insurance the employer contribution is about triple what we pay a month...

we do have good insurance though.. not complaining a bit..

we have a PPO plan so we basically can go wherever we want as long as they take our insurance..

Some PPO plans aren't so good when you're hospitalized for a lengthy period of time. Those 10% or 20%'s can add up to a lot.

yeah I know, we have experienced that....

our plan used to cover everything 100 percent but they lowered it to 90% a few years ago.. (just for hospital stays and ER visits, everything else is still 100 percent after co-pays)

Do the PPO's have a maximum out of pocket? That is one nice thing about Kaiser, if you do have an extended stay, the most it will cost you is a few thousand.

ours does.. $1500 per person for the year

That is a good plan.

I have a $2,500 on my plan, and my wife has $3000 on her plan though work. I got classic coverage, which means a copay every time. She gots a low deductible of $300. I was worried about that, until one pelvic ultrasound exam at $1,100 after cost sharing only cost me $270 and wiped out the deductible she had remaining. Now, the rest of her copays for the rest of the year will be less than mine. I have to wait until September to join her plan.

[DEDixon 39]

Considering that the insurance industry is part of the problem i don't think many will see that as a bad thing. Before people start making assumptions insurance is not health care.

I happen to like my insurance. Because of it I get great health care. Why should I give that up? What about my rights?

Who pays for your health insurance?

My employer and I. I like it just the way it is and I don't want it messed with. Go ahead and find a way to give health care to those that don't have access to it, just leave mine alone.

I like my health insurance and hate it. I like it when I'm employed, I hate it when I'm not employed. I've not been laid off, but just recently about 3000 were and they have 32000 to go for the next 3 years and I could be one of them and to be honest, it scares me, it isn't very comforting.

I have pretty good health insurance (I work for a multinational), but it ain't what I was getting 10 years ago. 10 years ago, I was paying way less per-payday and my insurance covered more.

But, with all that said, I worry that gov't health care will one day be for the poor and middle class and the wealthy will have their own which of course will be better (like how the poor and middle class are stuck in public schools and the wealthy go to private schools). So the complaining will continue, the poor and the middle class will forever be wanting whatever the wealthy people have. There will be hospitals for the wealthy like in the Philippines and the beat up gov't hospitals for regular folk.

It is a case of "watch what you are asking for," because you just might get it and not like it.

I guess the good thing and I really mean good is that the gov't program won't try to keep the elderly alive. I mean, if you are 70 with a bad heart, the gov't won't try to fix your heart only to have your liver go 4 months later, they'll have dollar limits, they'll just let you die. If you have cancer, the gov't will spend only so much on you and after that, as the doctors say in England, "it is up to God to save you."

The reason I say good thing is because currently medicare spends half of its entire budget on the last 6 months of people's lives. We spend too much keeping people alive in my opinion (doctors and hospitals are playing God) and we also spend too much keeping prenatal babies alive (again, playing God in my opinion).

[Marilyn. 340]

^^ WOW!

[Nikita2Charles 32]

There will be some winners and dissapointment with any changes.

1) Health insurance Compensation after Layoff

The company used to cover you for 4 months under Cobra free of charge

Most of my colleagues that got laid off prefer the company plan

Under the new law since a lot of companies was not offering proper Cobra coverages, the Govt tried to regulate the matter so that everybody gets some health benefit for the next 9 months after being laid off.

What the company did

They switch to the Govt Program

Now instead of giving you the 4 months free, you have to pay 35% up front but it is extended from 4 months to 9 months.

The companies are paying a lot for health insurance coverage and it's one of the factor companies mentioned for doing Outsourcing overseas.

If we can get a level playing field where the employers can get a break on employee compensation cost(health insurance) that will eventually increase their bottom line.

PLEASE PLEASE CAN anyone explain to me how the former CEO of united health care can have closed to 1,000,000,000 yeap you are reading it right $1Billion in compensation(salary and stocks options) when every year they keep increasing the premium.

After that scandal some doctors even dropped out of United health care because the company was asking them to take a lower payment cut than was agreed for over 5 years.

Asking the doctors to take a pay cut while the CEO and united health care executives getting fat checks, bigger compensation package.

The whole system is screwed up and need a major Overhaul

[rebeccajo 14]

Okay add in the employer contribution, lets say double it. Lets see 600 a month times 300 million equals 1.6 trillion? Lets go fur it. Medicare is already a disaster and buyin this BS is total foolishness.

Quadruple it, Marc. That's the industry average. 25% employee, 75% employer.

As for Medicare, they've come through like a champ for us. Plan A covered a lot of the ish Aetna would not. No one wants to pay for the 2nd opinion though. It's mind boggling.

I've asked this question at least two other times in threads about health insurance (with no response), and now I'm gonna ask it again since AJ has brought up what employers pay.....

From the standpoint of capitalism, why does it make sense for employers to be bearing the brunt of the cost of health insurance?

I don't think it makes a lick of sense. It's simply a holdover from days gone by when providing health insurance didn't cost as much per employee as it does now.

As healthcare costs continue to escalate, it only makes sense your employer is going to keep shaving away at it to preserve the bottom line.

This is where defenders of US capitalism need to really think about healthcare in our country, IMO. All the quotients in the equation are opposed to each other. For-profit healthcare has put the burden of cost onto business. It is one huge industry feeding off every other industry in the United States.

If you are not in favor of a nationalized health plan, then what are you in favor of? A system that keeps breaking the back of the guy that writes your paycheck? If you don't want nationalized medicine, then do you favor controls of the cost of healthcare itself? If not that, then regulation of the health insurance industry?

It's really not so simple as saying "I like what I have and don't want anybody to touch it". There are just too many variables and - long term - the variables are not in favor of working people. At least not in the pure sense of capitalism and profit-taking.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I know with our health insurance the employer contribution is about triple what we pay a month...

we do have good insurance though.. not complaining a bit..

we have a PPO plan so we basically can go wherever we want as long as they take our insurance..

Some PPO plans aren't so good when you're hospitalized for a lengthy period of time. Those 10% or 20%'s can add up to a lot.

A friend of ours in CA actually checked himself out of hospital barely a week after he had a (thankfully mild) stroke, and before the doctors could give him the tests he needed to see if he was at risk of further complications (like another stroke).

One thing I really hate about the insurance system is that it makes some people so afraid (and this was not an isolated attitude, as I discovered first-hand) that they'll take crazy risks with their health out of the fear for being bankrupted and losing everything they've worked for.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Okay add in the employer contribution, lets say double it. Lets see 600 a month times 300 million equals 1.6 trillion? Lets go fur it. Medicare is already a disaster and buyin this BS is total foolishness.

Quadruple it, Marc. That's the industry average. 25% employee, 75% employer.

As for Medicare, they've come through like a champ for us. Plan A covered a lot of the ish Aetna would not. No one wants to pay for the 2nd opinion though. It's mind boggling.

I've asked this question at least two other times in threads about health insurance (with no response), and now I'm gonna ask it again since AJ has brought up what employers pay.....

From the standpoint of capitalism, why does it make sense for employers to be bearing the brunt of the cost of health insurance?

I don't think it makes a lick of sense. It's simply a holdover from days gone by when providing health insurance didn't cost as much per employee as it does now.

As healthcare costs continue to escalate, it only makes sense your employer is going to keep shaving away at it to preserve the bottom line.

This is where defenders of US capitalism need to really think about healthcare in our country, IMO. All the quotients in the equation are opposed to each other. For-profit healthcare has put the burden of cost onto business. It is one huge industry feeding off every other industry in the United States.

If you are not in favor of a nationalized health plan, then what are you in favor of? A system that keeps breaking the back of the guy that writes your paycheck? If you don't want nationalized medicine, then do you favor controls of the cost of healthcare itself? If not that, then regulation of the health insurance industry?

It's really not so simple as saying "I like what I have and don't want anybody to touch it". There are just too many variables and - long term - the variables are not in favor of working people. At least not in the pure sense of capitalism and profit-taking.

Good points.