Medical Insurance in the US
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@Dashrender said:
$40K - holy hell - Texas must just be screwing it's people over like crazy.. I've never hear of a family plan costing $40K/yr to cover a family of 4. Did you have every pre-existing condition in the book? and they are hedging their bets on that?
Has nothing to do with Texas. It's the US Fed that doesn't provide protection for all people. It's even been spoken about in Congress, I think, that there were major oversights with big gaps for people like me without any coverage offered but penalties levied anyway.
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@Dashrender said:
Oh speaking of healthcare - how do european doctors share information between each other?
They give you paper and let you take it to the next place.
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@Dashrender said:
How can there be no coverage? because you aren't living in the US?
Correct, a US citizen residing outside of the US but being in the US for a few too many days means we carry the fully requirements for US insurance legally without having any (or only trivial) coverage provided by them. If you are 100% outside of the US and don't return, you are okay. But if you have family to visit like us, you get seriously screwed.
Sadly, no Obamacare qualifying plan provides coverage when you are outside of the US.
There is a reason why travellers plans come in two types: global traveller and global traveller with US. US coverage is the singular country not normally covered by all the international insurance companies.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
$40K - holy hell - Texas must just be screwing it's people over like crazy.. I've never hear of a family plan costing $40K/yr to cover a family of 4. Did you have every pre-existing condition in the book? and they are hedging their bets on that?
Has nothing to do with Texas. It's the US Fed that doesn't provide protection for all people. It's even been spoken about in Congress, I think, that there were major oversights with big gaps for people like me without any coverage offered but penalties levied anyway.
What makes you a special case - and let's assume you were not a world traveler, but a person only living in the US.
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@Dashrender said:
I have asthma, a history of asthma attacks, and still my insurance (at least through my employer) is $8k'ish plus the high deductible.. no where near $40K
All depends on how much your employer decides to dip into the insurance profits. US healthcare law provides for employers to profit from the system and if they do so, they still get to lock you out from other options. It's horrible.
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@Dashrender said:
@marcinozga said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
And I don't know how you'd ever deal with a catastrophic event. Or even semi-, like when my daughter had her appendix out last year.
I've had my appendix out and the cost was less than what I would pay in insurance per year. So you'd simply deal with that by saving carefully for a year and then you are covered.
Since most insurance has a cap that is pretty low, catastrophic events aren't covered at all.
A single brown recluse spider bite can run the bill into 100k+ range, so without insurance you're bankrupt. My wife just got antibiotics for IBS, 30 day supply cost 2k.
Where did you have that appendix procedure? In NY, a day in hospital cost over 2k, anesthesiologist will change at least 1k for simple procedure, add surgeon and other costs and you're probably getting close to 4-5k. You can buy whole year insurance for less.Scott's claim is sure, you can buy whole year insurance for less, but not one that covers an appendix removal.
Though I think Scott just has had crappy insurance everytime he's tried to use it.
I have BCBS and they are awesome - sure high premiums - I think my office pays something like $5-8K year for me, and on top of that I have a $5K deductible.
As a very low user of insurance this is good for me - when I had eye surgery a few years ago - I hit my $5K limit and I didn't another penny that year.There are times when having insurance helps, for sure. My cochlear implant was $30k, and that was just the surgery and the implant device.
Needless to say, I definitely cleared my deductible last year, lol... I am also on BCBS.
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@Dashrender said:
What makes you a special case - and let's assume you were not a world traveler, but a person only living in the US.
If I live only in the US, I might have reasonable options (not reasonable by any non-US standard but...) but as I don't, I don't. I've lived outside of the US since Obamacare came into effect and removed any option of coverage.
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@dafyre said:
There are times when having insurance helps, for sure. My cochlear implant was $30k, and that was just the surgery and the implant device.
Like I keep demonstrating, that would have been way cheaper for me out of pocket than to have insurance when I had insurance just a few years ago.
And like most things like that, you can optionally leave the US and get it much cheaper too. Only emergency services would I use in the US anyway.
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I've had a CPAP for a decade. Even when I had insurance it was cheaper to pay out of pocket than to use the insurance!
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
How can there be no coverage? because you aren't living in the US?
Correct, a US citizen residing outside of the US but being in the US for a few too many days means we carry the fully requirements for US insurance legally without having any (or only trivial) coverage provided by them. If you are 100% outside of the US and don't return, you are okay. But if you have family to visit like us, you get seriously screwed.
Sadly, no Obamacare qualifying plan provides coverage when you are outside of the US.
There is a reason why travellers plans come in two types: global traveller and global traveller with US. US coverage is the singular country not normally covered by all the international insurance companies.
That's really special case and I guess affects tiny fraction of US population. For huge majority, health insurance is much cheaper than not having it and end up paying out of pocket.
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@marcinozga said:
Pre-existing conditions shouldn't matter anymore. That's one part that obamacare got right.
https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/In theory. I'm pro-OC in general, it screws me to high heaven, but the idea is good. But the system is so bad and so corrupt that I don't have confidence in the no pre-existing conditions thing. As someone who has been turned down for a burst appendix surgery, I am acutely (see what I did there) aware that the system has ways of not paying for things one way or another.
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@marcinozga said:
That's really special case and I guess affects tiny fraction of US population. For huge majority, health insurance is much cheaper than not having it and end up paying out of pocket.
Perhaps that is true. But for a decade of my life that has not been true and I know several people who have run the numbers, and live in the US full time, and still find it cheaper to be without insurance. People on this forum, too. Sure, it might be under 50% of people, but I don't think that it is a tiny sliver, either. It's way too common when normal people doing normal things can pay the penalties and still save money on long term health care. And I'm super healthy, I have one of the best medical track records possible, and I still am not affordable.
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@marcinozga said:
... and end up paying out of pocket.
I think that part of the trick of American health care is that they never have people test that theory. Those that do often realize that the insurance cost is higher than it should be.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
What makes you a special case - and let's assume you were not a world traveler, but a person only living in the US.
If I live only in the US, I might have reasonable options (not reasonable by any non-US standard but...) but as I don't, I don't. I've lived outside of the US since Obamacare came into effect and removed any option of coverage.
Well in that case you're fringe case - and while I agree that there should be provisions for that in the law - The situation is not screwing you into a 40K a year plan. You can probably get an insurance plan in crete for significantly less if you so desire while you are there, and the next place, etc.
it does suck that you have to pay the Obama tax, and frankly wrong - but that's another matter. If you wanted US only coverage, it would not cost you $40K/yr for your family.
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I pay 4k$/year for Cadillac insurance right now. Pretty much everything is covered and expenses out of pocket cap out at $1,000. Those expenses are few and far between as even most prescriptions are covered with a 5$ deductible.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@marcinozga said:
Pre-existing conditions shouldn't matter anymore. That's one part that obamacare got right.
https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/In theory. I'm pro-OC in general, it screws me to high heaven, but the idea is good. But the system is so bad and so corrupt that I don't have confidence in the no pre-existing conditions thing. As someone who has been turned down for a burst appendix surgery, I am acutely (see what I did there) aware that the system has ways of not paying for things one way or another.
Turn down by insurance? I'm guessing hospital or doctor wouldn't turn you down, as burst appendix is fatal. I would sue insurance company.
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@marcinozga said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@marcinozga said:
Pre-existing conditions shouldn't matter anymore. That's one part that obamacare got right.
https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/In theory. I'm pro-OC in general, it screws me to high heaven, but the idea is good. But the system is so bad and so corrupt that I don't have confidence in the no pre-existing conditions thing. As someone who has been turned down for a burst appendix surgery, I am acutely (see what I did there) aware that the system has ways of not paying for things one way or another.
Turn down by insurance? I'm guessing hospital or doctor wouldn't turn you down, as burst appendix is fatal. I would sue insurance company.
Doctors can and do turn you away for a burst appendixs.
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$30K is a crazy high insurance cost in this country for a plan. And that would be for the best of the best.
A typical family plan with a deductible (and no caps) would be sub 20K.
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@Dashrender said:
Well in that case you're fringe case - and while I agree that there should be provisions for that in the law - The situation is not screwing you into a 40K a year plan. You can probably get an insurance plan in crete for significantly less if you so desire while you are there, and the next place, etc.
Thankfully no. The situation is simply screwing me into paying out of pocket (which is essentially zero) and having to pay the tax penalty for being uninsurable.
If there wasn't a penalty to mock us for being uninsurable it wouldn't be so bad. But it is literally a form of mocking us for having not been given an option. It's downright mean.
No reason to have insurance on Crete. We CAN get it here, but that would be silly. Insurance outside of the US is SO low.
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@BRRABill said:
$30K is a crazy high insurance cost in this country for a plan. And that would be for the best of the best.
No, it was literally almost worthless. Super high deductible, low caps and lots of coverage problems.
