I get it, I really do. Had something similar(kid had the flu) and doctor said it could be a blockage. Ended up in ER with a $5k bill. With kids, I will not take a chance though.

Hank, the premiums have to go down. You're not getting traditional coverage. The doctor's costs are borne by the employee. I think you might be misunderstanding what other people have gotten. The "coverage" is worse because there is no coverage until you hit the annual cap. You are getting a stop loss product in exchange for lower premiums. Since the individual incurs their own healthcare costs, they are more likely to watch what they spend.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I'm to guess you mean physician liability?

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Correct, in addition to incentives for referrals.

Yep. Denis makes a great point about HSAs being your own money so you shop around and analyze costs but when you are in the ER with a sick kid and they say they need to do an endoscopy, you aren't telling them to stop while you call around for price quotes. You tell them, "Do whatever you need to make sure my kid is OK".

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This goes back to my point earlier about tort reform being needed.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Once again, no one wants to talk about the entire approach seemingly. When you reform something you should take into account all of the parts of the whole. In this case they just try to "reform" the way people pay to have the same insurance pretty much in the same system pretty much.

If they wanted to go big they should go big. They could address medical professional's compensation while at the same time examining malpractice premiums. Address the tort reform while at the same time creating a fair and equitable table for wrongs and how they should be compensated. I think they already have tables for value when you lose a finger for instance.

If the visionaries could truly work on this you get to a place more closely resembling how people can pay for their heatlh care. You simply give the doc $50 for a visit out of your pocket like you paid a car maintenance cost. You don't pay $50 because the doctor as the price set at $450 so the insurance will give him $300 and "discount" the rest. You can have insurance for big costs but if you examine everything even that should go down.

Lastly, none of that will ever happen.

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Elections have consequences.

And that is exactly right. But you have stop loss coverage. My son had surgery this year and hit our "high" deductible in January.

The healthcare system is driven by the mundane year in year out costs. Of course people need coverage for catastrophic stuff. Once you hit that deductible it is taken care of. Where dollars are really wasted is by people running in all the time for minor stuff and poor lifestyles as Ugie points out.

I can't even begin to explain how much we have changed because of the plan redesign.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Farms to factories is not that big of a jump in duties. You go from manual labor to manual labor. If you want employment now you have to be skilled so people pay huge dollars to go to college. Within 5 years everything you learned there will likely be obsolete.

It's becoming what Marx predicted. Knowledge is far more important than labor. The knowledge inside our machines is going to replace labor, so what happens when this knowledge is controlled by a select few. Right now Apple is sitting on almost $300 billion in cash.

I expect this to grow. How much money will the first self-driving truck program be worth?

How much is the value of of the program that controls the Amazon stores that have no cashiers or checkout lines?

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

No, I'm not misunderstanding. We had a traditional $20 co-pay plan that we paid X for bi-weekly. They got rid of that plan and offered the high deductible plan with an HSA and our bi-weekly premiums went up. In addition they would match what you put into the HSA. So you had to pay even more money per check.

When I say the coverage is worse, I mean that I get the same thing and pay more per check and more out of pocket at the Dr.

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Then your company may have used that transition to cut the overall employee benefit. If you don't mind me asking the following:

1) What was your biweekly rate before?
2) What is your biweekly rate now including your HSA contribution?
3) How much is the biweekly match?

What I am really wondering is if the biweekly rate that went up includes the HSA contribution, meaning part of your premium is going into the HSA. The premium now is only for the network access and stop loss coverage, so the rate should never go up. It would be like you calling State Farm and going from a $20 deductible to $2,500, and then they charge you more. Something doesn't add up.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

This is exactly my point.

AHCA is just changing the bloody band-aid that ACA has become, but nobody stops the bleeding. You can't throw frosting on a shitty process and call it "better."

Automation would not stop on the farm. They do automation at car plants. Less jobs because of it.

And that amazon website is putting payless and other store a like out of business.

No.

If sprinkles are involved, you can!

Yeah, it was a bloodbath. No one in HR could explain it and it became a salary cut for everyone. I quit that job because of it.

The new job also has a HDP with an HSA and similar premiums but they give you a free chunk of money in the HSA at the start of the year and then you choose to add more in if you wish.

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I think we can all agree that the old, the disabled, and the infirmed should just be liquidated so as to really bring healthcare costs and taxes down to a reasonable level.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Mmmmmm... I've got a hankerin for some Soylent Green!

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I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Tuesday.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/09/co ... t-disease/

Someone had posted this earlier, and it is interesting. Cost disease and healthcare. We keep getting less for more.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Even though her diabetes due to poor lifestyle choices will be responsible for driving up costs?

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

My goodness, I think that's what I have been saying in thread after thread. Look at how much money we are throwing at these "problems" and then look at out comes.

By all accounts, our health care and educational outcomes are mediocre at best. And our spending on those is off the charts.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

what we need is a nice universal payer system like Venezuela. Obesity rates there are non-existent! I bet literacy rates are off the charts too!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

our costs went down the first year, and by year two they are up, with a higher premium. I pay the bills...I saw the numbers. We're small here but still.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Costa Rica has a better healthcare system than the United States.

you'd be healthy as an ox if all you ate was rice and beans and plantains all day.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

You posted something earlier that ties into this. People do not act rationally. So in some industries markets do not work. I believe that health care is one of these.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

A great point that could be applied to other areas (substitute "bad decisions" with drug abuse, having babies out of wedlock, etc.) As with the "bad luck" element of poor health (which is real), it's unfortunate that policies are created under the assumption that every malady is due to unforeseen bad luck and nothing is ever anyone's fault. The trick has always been creating a safety net without introducing excessive moral hazard.



The CYA aspect could be part of it, but I think it's even more likely the doctor is just doing what he can to maximize his income (through whatever deal he has with the xray folks...who knows, he may own the company).

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What about their deadly roads just like the Dominican Republic?

lot of people love CR. I had to go there for 3-4 days on business once. could not get out of there faster. I was out in the country visiting farming operations. lot of poverty there when you get away from the tourist encampments.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest