Specifically, What is it you'd like to change?

So what's  everyone pay a year for health insurance?

Harvey wrote

Looks like it lasted for more than 4 hours.

Not only did it last more than four hours - it was a pretty big one.

Johnnyonthespot wrote

So what's  everyone pay a year for health insurance?

Who has health insurance that didn't have it in 2007? Me for one.

JohnIrvingwrestles wrote

You hit the nail on the head.  BigPharm always uses the excuse of R&D $ but those bucks are mostly spent on promotion (dinners, merch , "CE" trips, etc..) that is aimed at prescribers and disguised as education dissemination but it's mostly payola for prescribing.

R&D = promotion

disagree. they do spend a lot to bring drugs to market. i would prefer though if the next president could step in here because i agree in spirit that what you are describing is unethical and drugs should probably not be marketed at all. we don't allow liquor ads on tv, and there are so many vanity drugs... it might as well be the same thing.

How much do you pay a year?

Coach Z wrote

If you end up with a rare disease the R&D costs get spread out over way fewer patients so if course that is going to cost more.  If you take away the profit motive to research these drugs they won't be created.

I get this. My sister had an extremely rare form or cancer and the drug cost was really high. I'm ok with paying for it but I want the whole world to pay not just the US.   You say negotiate better, you do that with leverage. How do you gain leverage?

Most of what you are advocating sounds like increased regulation, which I'm ok with for life and death stuff, but it's not very republican.

My company pays my health insurance. I think it is around $5500 a year.  Last year our increase was really small compared to the previous years, around 2%.

We recently stopped allowing people to opt out of our insurance and get extra cash.  It was killing us. You can opt out (and go on your spouses insurance) but we don't pay you to do it.

Harv, are you sure you don't  pay the 5k (pre tax) and they pay the rest? Mine is 25k per year between myself and my employer. That's a family plan. It wasn’t  even 10k in '05.

Johnnyonthespot wrote

Harv, are you sure you don't  pay the 5k (pre tax) and they pay the rest? Mine is 25k per year between myself and my employer. That's a family plan. It wasn’t  even 10k in '05.

I don't pay any of it I know that. My wife and daughter are on her insurance. My company pays full insurance for the employee, if you add family you pay that. I'll see if I can find out the amount.  Sounds like I might be wrong about it.

The money shot is what does your insurance company get on your behalf. Any way you shake it, you cost X amount more to your employer. That's  the number I'm getting at.

Coach Z wrote

If you end up with a rare disease the R&D costs get spread out over way fewer patients so if course that is going to cost more.  If you take away the profit motive to research these drugs they won't be created.

Drug manufacturers get subsidies from the government to produce Drugs for rare diseases.  The OrphanDrug Act was established in 1983 because  manufacturers stopped making drugs that were no longer profitable so the gov't stepped in.   BigPharma's motivation isn't benevolence when producing meds, once a drug becomes a dog they'll drop it.

I'm talking about private insurance companies negotiating better for lower prices.  If they could sell policies nation wide the insurer that signs up the most customers then has the most leverage to push for lower drug pricing.  What is not Republican about that?  It's the free market at work.

The regulating ads and how they market to docs is just common sense.  Govt dies have a role in regulation I just ask for common sense to be applied.

What is the argument for not allowing insurance companies to cross state lines?

Harvey wrote

What is the argument for not allowing insurance companies to cross state lines?

Since different states have different regulations, the insurance companies will all move to the state that allows them to fuck over consumers the hardest (race to the bottom). That's why all the credit card companies are in Delaware or South Dakota. States like NY don't allow 32% interest, but Delaware and South Dakota do.

OK thanks. So then what is the argument against making the regs national?

This was part of one of the challenges to Obamacare.  The states were given the right from congress to regulate a long time ago before insurance became more of a national business.  It really would have made sense to have written a better bill and fixed this but Crazy Nancy didn't even have time to read it before passing it

I'm sure the GOP congress would welcome getting to rewrite the whole thing now.  Repeal and replace with something the actually makes sense.  Once the exchanges collapse after the next round of price increases maybe this could get done.

Johnnyonthespot wrote

Harv, are you sure you don't  pay the 5k (pre tax) and they pay the rest? Mine is 25k per year between myself and my employer. That's a family plan. It wasn’t  even 10k in '05.

Just found out.

Company pays one employee in full. It's about $7000 a year for me.  It included dental, eye, and yeah dismemberment. Ugh.

Anything else (additional people) would be deducted from my check.

I asked how much to add wife and child, waiting on the answer.  

Our accountant is pretty sure adding the family (2+ kids) puts it in the 25k range. We'll see.

mattchuck2 wrote

Since different states have different regulations, the insurance companies will all move to the state that allows them to fuck over consumers the hardest (race to the bottom). That's why all the credit card companies are in Delaware or South Dakota. States like NY don't allow 32% interest, but Delaware and South Dakota do.

That's true, but doesn't Obama have minimum levels of what needs to be covered for each tier?' The only real fix is single payer.

why do you think single payer is the only solution?  I wouldn't mind single payer, I think more people would be covered, but I don't think it would drive costs down unless medical professionals where compensated less and newer treatments and equipment are not as available as today.

noip wrote

why do you think single payer is the only solution?  I wouldn't mind single payer, I think more people would be covered, but I don't think it would drive costs down unless medical professionals where compensated less and newer treatments and equipment are not as available as today.

Because this public/private partnership is too rife with corruption and the possibility of more corruption and that ultimately big pharma / insurance companies ultimately just serve as middlemen or sell us a lot of products we don't need while taking billions out of the system in profit.

I don't understand why healthcare is tied to a person's job, that is an archaic way of thinking tied to an economy in World War and has zero bearing on how we live today. Single payer won't be a panacea, but it's the only solution to a problem where the train is totally off the tracks.

My friend posted her bill from a $630 visit to an ER the other day because she freaked out after cutting her 2 yo's nail too short. She was in and out of the hospital when the doctor said the kid was fine. The only thing shocking about the story is how commonplace those tales are. The only time I have used my insurance in years besides one physical in 2013(?) is when I went to the ER because it was late and I needed some drops because I thought I had pink eye (gross, I know, blame the subway).

After waiting 6.5 hours (!!!) at Mount Sinai Astoria, I was rewarded with an $850 bill. With insurance. Add to that the $100 aspirins and other garbage that people are still stuck with, the system is full on broken.

For the first time ever the uninsured rate among 65 and under has dropped under 10%, a 6% shift from the rate at the beginning of the ACA.

That is still 9% of at least 150M people. Americans. And even Trump is right, we do treat people in ER's who have no money. They wait in line, they get help. Thankfully we are not a country that lets people die in the street. BUT, this is at all of our expense anyway, so as I count it:

Rich people get care and the best care they can buy (and always will)
Poor people get care, the best care at ER's they can get hauled off to (and hopefully always will)

The rest of us get raped in the form of variable care, expensive bills (personal and for society), and NO LUBE.

ml242 wrote

 

The rest of us get raped in the form of variable care, expensive bills (personal and for society), and NO LUBE.

AMEN to that bro

By the time it was all said and done my knee surgery cost me roughly 5K out of my paocket. That's on top of the 400/month I pay for my insurance.