Insurance “adjustments”

[Boiler 45,956]

UK is the only Country I know that has Universal Health Care, Germany, Holland etc do not.

[RLA 324]

8 minutes ago, Boiler said:

UK is the only Country I know that has Universal Health Care, Germany, Holland etc do not.

How do you define universal health care?  In Germany, everybody's required to have insurance, so everybody has access to health care.  Sounds pretty universal to me.  

 

Btw, Denmark and Sweden have a system similar to the UK's.  

[Dashinka 24,741]

1 minute ago, RLA said:

How do you define universal health care?  In Germany, everybody's required to have insurance, so everybody has access to health care.  Sounds pretty universal to me.  

 

Btw, Denmark and Sweden have a system similar to the UK's.  

What is the penalty in Germany if someone doesn't want to carry insurance?

[Boiler 45,956]

3 minutes ago, RLA said:

How do you define universal health care?  In Germany, everybody's required to have insurance, so everybody has access to health care.  Sounds pretty universal to me.  

 

Btw, Denmark and Sweden have a system similar to the UK's.  

Everybody is required to have Insurance in the US.

[RLA 324]

12 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

What is the penalty in Germany if someone doesn't want to carry insurance?

Most people don't even get to chose.  The employer deducts the premium from the wage and sends it directly to the insurance.  Same for people who live off of pensions or benefits.  Self-employed people could evade the system for a while, but when caught they're made to pay the premiums retroactively, plus penalty and interest. 

[RLA 324]

21 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Everybody is required to have Insurance in the US.

Still?  I'd thought that the individual mandate has been revoked.  

 

Anyway, Obamacare was an attempt at universal health care.  

[Boiler 45,956]

6 minutes ago, RLA said:

Still?  I'd thought that the individual mandate has been revoked.  

 

Anyway, Obamacare was an attempt at universal health care.  

No it wasn't.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

1 hour ago, JimandChristy said:

I think Universal Health Care is common sense. The price of Health Care in this country is completely outrageous.

 

Come on America join the rest of the Developed Countries and stop being an outlier!

 

And who will pay for this universal health care?

[bcking 3,157]

1 hour ago, cyberfx1024 said:

That is why if you go to the dentist or a doctor and offer cash or a payment plan they will discount the services. This is due to less red tape they have to deal with.

Even if you have insurance most of the time you can end up paying less on the remainder of a bill if you call, especially with Dentists.

 

When I had some work done I called my insurance, found out what they considered the "reasonable reimbursement" for the procedure, and then spoke to the Dentist's office about why their charge was higher. I told them I would only pay what is reasonable (my insurance would be 80%, so I would pay the remaining 20%). They literally told me to send them whatever amount I had deemed reasonable and the bill would be settled. Ended up paying about 100 dollars less than what the bill asked for (I was fair and paid the remainder of what the insurance determined was the reasonable charge for the services). I still go to the office, and now my wife goes as well.

 

5 minutes ago, IDWAF said:

And who will pay for this universal health care?

I've tried finding a total net amount of premiums taken in by the health insurance industry. I found data for health and life insurance combined (~600 billion), and total insurance (~1.1 trillion) but I couldn't find just health insurance.

 

Going at it another way, the NHS costs the UK about 4,192 dollars per person per year. That works out to be 349 dollars per month. The average individual insurance premium in the USA is ~325 dollars per month, plus then whatever amount of your deductible you pay (and your copays). If you annual deductible is something like 4,000 dollars and you reach that, you are spending 7,900 dollars per year, compared to 4,192 dollars in the UK.

 

We pay a lot of money into our insurance. Without the insurance industry, that money could go directly to healthcare. Many of us also pay a lot out of pocket. We are already spending a lot on healthcare. The question is whether a universal system would remove some unnecessary steps that create unnecessary costs (and unnecessary profits). 

[bcking 3,157]

1 hour ago, JimandChristy said:

I think Universal Health Care is common sense. The price of Health Care in this country is completely outrageous.

 

Come on America join the rest of the Developed Countries and stop being an outlier!

 

Your first graph is a little misleading.

 

Many of those countries have a mixed system that combines a public and private system. Germany for example is about 1/5 private insurance.

[yuna628 9,700]

2 hours ago, cyberfx1024 said:

That is why if you go to the dentist or a doctor and offer cash or a payment plan they will discount the services. This is due to less red tape they have to deal with.

Not my dentist man... he made a killing off of me before I finally have dental insurance. Now he overbills me and I have to fight with him once the insurance processes to get him to give me my money back.

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

Everybody is required to have Insurance in the US.

That is not true. If one does not want insurance then the penalty must be paid, which is far cheaper than monthly premiums ever were. SCOTUS ruled clearly that no one is forced or required to purchase insurance if they do not want it. Next year or two, I don't even think the penalty applies.  But if the proposed DHS changes kick in, then yeah, pretty much everyone on this forum will be unconstitutionally forced to purchase health insurance. The rest of the peasants need not apply.

Edited March 29, 2018 by yuna628

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

18 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Not my dentist man... he made a killing off of me before I finally have dental insurance. Now he overbills me and I have to fight with him once the insurance processes to get him to give me my money back.

That is not true. If one does not want insurance then the penalty must be paid, which is far cheaper than monthly premiums ever were. SCOTUS ruled clearly that no one is forced or required to purchase insurance if they do not want it. Next year or two, I don't even think the penalty applies.  But if the proposed DHS changes kick in, then yeah, pretty much everyone on this forum will be unconstitutionally forced to purchase health insurance. The rest of the peasants need not apply.

You say it’s unconstitutional.  But what category does it fall under when those of us who DO buy insurance, and pay into the system, have to assume a portion of the burden of those who opt not to buy it?  It’s not like medical care is magically free or cheaper just because one does not (or cannot) afford insurance.

[yuna628 9,700]

8 minutes ago, IDWAF said:

You say it’s unconstitutional.  But what category does it fall under when those of us who DO buy insurance, and pay into the system, have to assume a portion of the burden of those who opt not to buy it?  It’s not like medical care is magically free or cheaper just because one does not (or cannot) afford insurance.

SCOTUS said it, not me. And I'm not disagreeing with you here. Regardless though of whether group A buys into the system and group B does not, we all have a burden factored in. We're all paying for something while someone else does not pay for it or even use it. The penalty was supposed to pick up the burden for those who didn't buy in - whether that worked remains to be seen. Even when we buy private insurance though, we're all paying for the unhealthy choices the population makes. Unhealthy lifestyles, smoking, and other factors drive the costs you have to pay upwards - even if you do not have an unhealthy lifestyle. Taxes are a way of life. We hate paying for it (my husband has discovered that our tax system is completely strange to him and is annoyed that his hard earned $s are drained). Taxes go towards things you will never use in your lifetime, we have no item line veto of where the dollars we contribute will be spent... and this is relatively the same with the health insurance pool. When I didn't have health insurance, I paid my bills.. including the big hospital ones. If that drove the cost of other's care up, I'm sorry about that... but I did do the right thing, by paying my bills. When I had health insurance, I paid every extortionist premium they demanded too.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

46 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

Not my dentist man... he made a killing off of me before I finally have dental insurance. Now he overbills me and I have to fight with him once the insurance processes to get him to give me my money back.

If your dentist or doctor does not do this then you need a new one.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

My wife just went to the dentist in the Philippines because a tooth was hurting.  Turns out one of her fillings was bad, and the cavity had come back.  So she had it filled again, and asked for a cleaning while there.   No insurance, paid cash.  $30.  As it should be.