If we were to have a public option, would recipients pay premiums?

[bluestateguy]

I don't hear this being talked about. If you have private insurance you pay premiums, either out of your paycheck, or by writing a check each month.

So let's say you elected to be in the public option, would you pay for that out of your paycheck, or as a monthly bill? I certainly think it is perfectly reasonable to ask public option recipients to pay a small premium if they can afford to do so.

[lyonn]

1. Maybe there would be plans such as Medicare has

We had money deducted from income and received health care through that plan. If you also opted for Plan B then you pay extra each month. Social Security same thing. Good question. Wonder what the discussion is up on the Hill?

[JimWis]

2. I am quite sure there would be a premium. You would choose and

compare between that or a number of private plans.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

3. Yes in the current bill it's $5,000 a year for individuals.

[pnwmom]

7. It also includes subsidies for people who can't afford that. n/t

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

8. Yep I don't know the levels, though.

[SeattleGirl]

11. That't not much of a change for me. I pay $480 a month for my

husband, which is $5760 a year. I don't think that's much of a savings at all.

[pnwmom]

13. But what if you lost your job? After you ran out of COBRA, what would you and

your husband do?

I don't see the plan as a way of getting much in the way of immediate savings for most of us -- but hopefully much more security.

And, over the long term, our health care costs will just keep rising, unless something is done now to stop that. That's another purpose of the plan -- not to effect immediate savings, but to help limit even more increases in the future.

[MADem]

4. They'd pay "taxes." nt

[liberalpragmatist]

5. Yes

Actually, most European systems require people to pay premiums, though they tend to be on a sliding scale. Britain's is unique in that everything is free at the point of use. (Although their system also ranks significantly worse than the French, the Dutch, the Germans, etc. - still way better than what we've got though.)

[pnwmom]

6. There should be, at a level people can afford. nt

[subterranean]

9. Yes, there would be a premium, which would be subsidized

up to a certain income level.

[TaffyMoon]

10. In Canada for the first 10 years or so we paid a low monthly premium.

Then that was dropped and we have never paid a premium again.

[SeattleGirl]

12. Do you recall how much the premium was?