Do you have "gold-plated' health insurance, like B*sh thinks you do?

[npincus]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/us/28health.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=97f3dc4b3af34e5e&hp&ex=1169960400&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

So, I ask you, fellow DUers: are YOU using "excessive" amounts of health care, because you have fabulous health care coverage?

For example: when you have a headache, do you opt for brain surgery instead of Advil? Did you decide to amputate that toe instead of using "Wart-B-Gone"? Did you have that gall bladder removed, because... well, what was it doing for you anyway? Ladies, did you let your OBGYN's practice their love on your private parts because you had some free time?



The economic rationale for Mr. Bush’s proposal is that too many people have “gold-plated, deluxe” health insurance, which encourages them to use excessive amounts of health care, driving up costs for everyone.

<snip>

Since Mr. Bush took office in 2001, the number of people without insurance has increased by more than 5 million, to 46.6 million, according to the Census Bureau. Administration officials said they hoped to reverse that trend by helping states that offered basic private insurance policies to their residents. To pay for such help, the administration would take federal money from hospitals that serve large numbers of poor people.

Under Mr. Bush’s proposal, employee health benefits would, for the first time, be treated as income and would be subject to income and payroll taxes, just like wages. At the same time, Mr. Bush would create a tax deduction for health insurance of $15,000 for families and $7,500 for individuals. The same deduction would be available to everyone with coverage, regardless of the source or value of the policy.

A family with coverage worth $18,000 would have to pay taxes on the amount exceeding the $15,000 standard deduction — $3,000, in this example.

[YOY]

1. The problem is the f***ing insurance companies

trying to make a buck every goddamn way they can and the chimperator's party is their favorite nest of cronies.

[OhioChick]

3. You're right........it's the insurance companies

UnitedHealth posts $1.2 billion quarterly profit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070118/bs_nm/unitedhealth_results_dc_2

[YOY]

5. All off of being middlemen and parasites

So what happens to health care costs when they are cut out...

Is someone going to tell me that costs are going to go up?

[TZ]

11. yes and not just with health care per se..

have you ever tried to get an insurance company to actually live up to their promises in terms of disability? That is the biggest scam yet. You pay a premium and yet when you are actually disabled they find the teeniest little loophole to say you are not disabled...I had a sister with a brain cyst which literally dropped her IQ and made it impossible to work as a software engineer. After a long and drawn out battle, she worked with a lawyer to right a letter detailing the reasons why it was not a "preexisting" condition (their claim). After that they rejected her claim based on the fact that she wrote a literate letter (she did have a lot of help) and therefore was not disabled. She had by then run out of money and patience after 3 yrs of that crap...:grr:

[napi21]

2. IMO, gold plated HC ins would be like what I used to have, YEARS

AGO! employer paid all the premiumms, IF you were hospitalized, you didn't owe ANYTHING yourselfbecause the ins. co. paid the WHOLE BILL, and a dr's office visit was $7.00.

I don't believe there are any planslike that any more!

In Sept I broke my ankle. MY portion of the hospital and dr. bills was $2,500.00, and the only reason it stopped at that is because that's the max out of pocket expense Icould have to pay in one year according to our HC plan. That did not include any costsI had at the drug store either! If THAT is gold plated, what in the world does a standard plan look like????

[Uben]

7. It looks like this

I pay over $10,000 a yr in premiums for a policy that I have to pay the first $5000 and then 50% of the next $10,000 with a max of $10,000 out of pocket per yr. I have been out $50,000 out-of-pocket the last five years (wife had breast cancer) as well as the premiums for a total of over $100,000. Since she had cancer, I can't get coverage anywhere else, and the premiums go up the max every year! This would bankrupt most people, but I am fortunate enough to have the resaources to pay it.

We are both retired and have a private policy, so I hope the proposed plan will allow me to deduct my premiums, at least! The medical bills have allowed me to recoup what taxes I had to pay in via deductions, but this year, I will not have enough to itemize.

Since we are in our mid-fifties, we are trying to hold out till medicare kicks in.

[napi21]

13. It's great that you can afford to do that, but there's no way I, or

anyone I know could! i couldn't even afford the annual premiums!

I hope your wifeis doing better, and at least in remission now.

[antigop]

27. That's easy --- one with an even higher deductible and max out of pocket n/t

[kedrys]

4. Well, since the f*cking bean counters now decide what care we get

and not the doctors, with the shitty HMO we have, it's a wonder we can see a doctor at all. Both of us have preexisting conditions, which made us ineligible for self-coverage with at least 2 insurance companies. I just got a letter from the lab saying that my insurance company denies that I'm insured, which means I'm going to have to spend untold hours arguing over a $184 tab. And every year, the formulary that decides which meds are covered and which are not inexplicably either drops the ones we're taking, or makes it prohibitive to get brand instead of generic.

So go ahead and tax my ass some more, you little bitch. :grr: :mad: I'm already not getting what *I*, through payroll deduction, am ALREADY paying for. :nuke:

[npincus]

6. there's something so patrician, hateful, and condescending there...

Give the stinking masses healthcare, and they will use it!

Only let the poor stinking bastards get what they need, and WE WILL TELL THEM what they need, and not one medical procedure more.

[TZ]

8. I just ran out and overspent the poor struggling insurance co's

money on an expensive bone marrow biopsy to check to see if I had cancer. Turns out I don't (although I do have a chronic blood condition). I guess I just wasted everybodies money on such unnecessary testing. I will say at that time my good insurance paid the vast majority of the $5,000 cost for the procedure. Now with my temp job and its insurance (some crazy policy with a debit card to "pay" expenses). That procedure alone would have put me close to the limit for maximum yearly expenses.

[npincus]

10. glad you're OK... a friend of mine

has been bleeding out of her ass for about 2 months... her appointment with a specialist (she had waited for an appointment with a doc to get a referral) was postponed twice because the doctor wasn't available... she has another appointment scheduled for 'mid-February"! Mid-February! With those symptomes!

Yeah, gold-plated motherf*cking insurance we've got in this country! It's too good for us!

[TZ]

12. I'm very lucky..

not only do I have a livable condition, but my specialist is great. As long as my insurance is a problem he will "write off" my visits (every three months or so and the bloodwork is NOT cheap) so I don't have to worry since my condition needs close monitoring just in case...

[catmandu57]

9. Actually, I'm flying by the seat of my pants

No coverage at all, I'm reaching the age when shit starts falling apart too. If I fail, I hope it's catastrophic, because then I'll be taken care of I HOPE, if it's just some nagging little thing like high blood pressure, heart disease or something that kills you slow I'm screwn.

[RebelOne]

14. I have fabulous health insurance,

which includes eye and dental care, but I hardly ever take advantage of it because I hate doctors.

[abluelady]

15. It is Such a Huge Problem

Absolutely folks going uninsured is horrific. Imho, healthy citizens make a healthy nation. So to my way of thinking it is a crime that there are so many uninsured.

But even those of us with insurance struggle constantly. Our plan premiums are about $7,000 a month, with a 2500 dollar deductible and then they pay 80%. By the time we pay the 9500 dollars, it's hard to pay another 20%. But because of pre-existing conditions (which are bogus) we're stuck.

Our last insurance company denied every claim we made. After I called the company and was put on hold for ten minutes, I was told "it was a mistake." Mistake, my foot. They were perpetrating fraud, hoping I wouldn't call and I would pay the bill because it had been denied. When is that problem discussed?

Insurance companies should all be investigated. The system is more broken than our moron president could ever envision.

[Beer Snob-50]

16. Does anyone know if the 7,500 tax deduction is going to be a

itemized deduction or a credit?

Also would you consider a insurance plan that had you pay 500 for a four day hospital stay and have two stents put in a gold plated policy? we pay 75 dollars every two weeks for our insurance also.

[antigop]

17. It's a deduction not a credit.

<edit to add>

Here is the link:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthcare/

>>
The President's Plan Will Help More Americans Afford Health Insurance By Reforming The Tax Code With A Standard Deduction For Health Insurance – Like The Standard Deduction For Dependents. T
>>

Given the debt this country has and the continued expense of the Iraqi War, there is no way they could give a credit to everyone for healthcare, imo.

[Beer Snob-50]

25. DOA

Thanks. A tax credit would be the only thing that would help those who cannot afford basic health insurance (sort of like the earned income credit, you get the credit even if you pay no tax).

[TZ]

18. I would call that--

actual health insurance that works and is reasonably priced. You are lucky.:)

[napi21]

21. FIRST...STOP saying "is going to be"!!!!!!

I don't believe this idiotic plan will EVER go though! I know what Shrub is up to. He wants to get the burden of paying for any health ins for employees away from ALL employers and make it the full responsibility of the individual!

Unless there is a total restructuring of the way insurance premiums are set, this idea is just plain stupid!

Large companies have the bargaining power to negotiate good premiums, all based upon their prior year's useage. When an individual goes into the marketplace, they are at the mercy of the ins. company andwhat theythink they canget away with charging. You have NO bargaining position at all, and God forbid you had some medical problem in the past!

It also makes NO senseto use the tax system to give any benefits to lower income people. They make barelyenough money to survive day to day, and most don't pay any income tax, or very little. Even giving a credit wouldn't enable them to buy heath insurance throughout the yearwhen they would only get the credit once, after 4/15!

[antigop]

22. I hope you are right, napi21, but we need to pay attention

I believe you are correct that they want to move everyone to the private market.

However, the plan is to move everyone to high-deductible policies and health savings accounts (HSAs).

Bush's plan is a windfall to the insurance companies and to the bank and mutual funds who will be ever-so-happy to manage that HSA for you.

I don't see this idea getting much traction -- even the press doesn't seem to be buying it. But, nevertheless, we need to keep a close eye on what is going on. And we need to work like hell that the Repugs don't make any gains in the Congress in 2008.

[spinbaby]

19. I have GREAT health insurance

It's the only reason I'm sticking around in a rather dull job where I haven't had a raise in seven years.

[antigop]

20. Could I please ask for a minute of healthcare activism here?

I posted this thread on the CA and TX state forums.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=141x26518

I am asking for a few moments of your time to hold the media accountable.

[NashVegas]

23. This Is Solely to Fuck Over Middle Class Laborers

If you are one of the lucky few who have insurance benefits through work, you pay more taxes. (Anyone want to be there isn't a CEO exception?)

Pay X dollars out of your own pocket to private insurance companies, and the gov't rewards you for subsidizing them.

[RB TexLa]

24. I guess B*sh think's my wife's is since her employer pays $9600 for it

[Deep13]

26. I have aluminum-plated health coverage.

[antigop]

28. Congress has a "gold-plated" plan -- will they be taxed on it? n/t

[cgrindley]

29. I have silver electroplated health insurance

I'm a professor so I have a pretty good union.

[atommom]

30. Mine is tinfoil-plated. nt

[slackmaster]

31. I have decent insurance but wouldn't call it gold-plated

At the moment I'm very glad to have the health plan that I do. As of Friday I have a condition, new to me, that is likely to require surgery to correct.

For this policy my employer pays a handsome sum - They cut back on some other benefits (and probably pay raises) this year in order to maintain the quality of the plan. My payroll deductions are significant. I'm paying about $110 per month for a Preferred Provider Plan option, over and above the minimal HMO, for just myself.

[DuaneBidoux]

32. Sorry, mine is gold plated, at least in my opinion

$15 per doctor's visit no matter what is done.

$35 for any drug for a 3 month period (and some of the drugs I take are over $600 for three months).

When my son was born we paid a total of about $400 on his birth.

I had to enter the hospital for two weeks solid last year (and you don't even want to know what that bill was) and I paid a total of $100 "admittance" fee.

I became severly depressed last year (after getting real sick) and started seeing a psychiatrist 4 times a month (once every week). The visit costs $200 but I pay $15 per visit.

I am not sure what my employer pays for this every year but it is likely more than $20,000 so for me I would probably have to pay taxes on Bush's new plan. That in and of itself doesn't bother me that much because I am fairly well off and I could pay a bit more to help less fortunate people get the coverage they need. The real problem with Bush's plan is that he gives tax deductions and a great majority of people who really need insurance don't even make enough to pay taxes in the first place. For these people something is needed that guarantees every one of them insurance. Perhaps a guided credit to several basic plans (I wouldn't want people using their credit for other than health care since that is the point).

[bleedingheart]

33. I have reasonable health care and I expect it does cost more than $15K

for my husband's employer...BUT I pay out $6K a year of that insurance amount...and the frickin idea that I should have to pay payroll taxes over and above that amount is sheer lunacy.