Check your W-2 for health insurance cost and ask righty friends to do the same

[yurbud]

Maybe I hadn't looked before, but I noticed on my W-2 line DD that said "Health Insurance Coverage," $6,393.28.

And that's just for me.

My wife's insurance covers the three of us for $22,604.25.

Since most people get their insurance through their jobs if they have it, I suspect they have no idea how much it costs.

Those who are self-employed or for other reasons have to buy their own insurance would know how expensive it is.

Before I had a job that covered me, I would compare the cost of buying insurance to my most expensive out of pocket spending, and insurance was always more. At best, it spread out the costs evenly.

If people had looked at this before Obamacare passed, I suspect it would have changed the debate dramatically, with at minimum, more people behind reining in the insurance companies, and possibly even more people wanting to drown them in the bathtub.

Besides asking people if they looked at this number, you could also ask them to guess what it is first. I doubt that most would be high enough and when they see the real number, they'll realize how well the free market has been taking care of them.

[joeglow3]

1. It goes much deeper than insurance companies

My company is self-insured and the cost is just as huge as yours.

[yurbud]

2. what's the difference in cost between self-insuring and insurance insuring?

Somebody must have done the math if they chose to go that route.

What are the factors that make the costs high? Drugs, fancy equipment, just the doctor visits themselves or what?

[joeglow3]

3. I don't know for sure

One thing that I know impacts it at my wife's office (an OB/GYN clinic) is medicaid. The payouts for work they do are TERRIBLE. She gave me example of a procedure they do where the equipment/drugs needed are around $500 and the reimbursement is $400. This means they LOSE money before any labor costs for staff, rent, utilities, etc. Obviously, an office with reimbursements along that level is quickly going out of business.

Thus, they are left charging more for procedures from those with private insurance to pay for what they lose doing work under medicaid. It has gotten so bad that they no longer accept new medicaid patients and put up zero resistance when an existing medicaid patient leaves.

[yurbud]

4. that's a tough deal. So they are harder on providers than drug companies

[JaneyVee]

5. Maybe the ob is overcharging medicaid.

Medicaid reimbursement is usually at par and sometimes better than insurance industry reimbursements, there was just a huge report on this.

[joeglow3]

6. Medicare pays well. Medicaid pays shit.

Do a quick search for "not accepting medicaid." There are Walgreens, hospitals, many doctors, etc. that won't accept it because of the shitty reimbursement rates.

[Exposethefrauds]

7. Interesting My wife's W-2 has the ins costs but mine is missing from my W-2

looks like I have to call HR and see why it is missing.

[alarimer]

8. We'd pay a LOT less with single payer.

I know that in most cases, it's cost shared between you and your employer, but with single-payer everyone would pay less.

Imagine most of that insurance cost coming to you as salary and they you paying a fraction of that in taxes for Medicare for All.

PLUS, the government (in my imaginary system, or in any single-payer that exists in the world today) would control costs by negotiating with drug companies, for one thing. And they could also limit the costs of procedures and the like.

The biggest failure of our system is the failure to rein in costs because the government refuses to institute price controls on health care costs.

Many countries have universal health care systems that involve private insurance. It can be done. Currently the system is opaque. You have no idea what it will cost when you go have something done. Plus the hospital charges this and that, then you get a separate bill from the doctors. Each insurance company has negotiated different rates and none of them are transparent.