2022 Health insurance vent

[Raido Free America]

I must say, I hate going through this health insurance crap every year about as much as doing taxes.

I'm self employed and have a family of 4. The cheapest plan on the site this year is $1344/month, from a 'Friday Health Plans', whoever that is. For that sum, you get an $8700 individual deductible and $8700 max out of pocket per individual. Family deductible and max is $17400. It pays basically nothing until the deductible is met. No primary care visits (except for immunizations apparently), no specialists, no x-rays, no labs, no outpatient, no prescriptions, no ER. Nothing until you've met the deductibles. So, it's basically a catastrophic plan for $16,188 per year in premium.

Want the Cadillac? Blue Cross has the Gold PPO for only $2785/month. It has a $1650 deductible and family out of pocket of $17400. But it steps up with a $950 copay for ER then 40% coinsurance after deductible, generic drugs are PAID, Primary care doc is $60 and specialist doc is 40% coinsurance after deductible. How awesome is that, and it only costs $33,420 per year in premiums.

Are they literally trying to stamp out self-employed? I find myself in no-mans land. I historically have made more than what would qualify for their subsidies, but not enough that $16k per year for CRAP coverage really works for me.

I seriously wonder if the family would be better off if I just folded up and got a job. Or try to scale business to a point where I could max out on the government subsidies, like they apparently want people to do. Whole thing is disgusting and frustrating.

Vent over. Can't say I feel much better.

I agree, there is something wrong with this! I don't know what the answer is, but socialized medicine from what I understand is no better, and likely worse. WE both know the government screws up everything they take over, just look at Indian, and VA hospitals, if you want to know how that would work! I was bitten by a brown recluse spider, they have a distinctive looking bite, After looking this up to see what had bitten me, I decided to go to the ER, this was a weekend. I have good health insurance, They looked at the spider bite, and said the at is a brown recluse bite, then this pup doctor call all the other pup doctors down to look at it, none of them had seen one before. After serveral hours he finially told me, there was nothing he could do, no anti-venom existed, , so he told me to keep it clean, and if it rotted a big hole in my foot to go see some other specialist. it didn't. We payed $100.00 copay for using the ER, the bill totaled $2500.00, and when we got the final statement our insurence had payed $250.00 to settle this bill! They had negotiated this bill down to 10%! If we had not had insurence, we would have been stuck with the total $2600.00 bill, right, instead of the $350.00 it was settled for! We don't need health insurance, we need an organization of crooked lawyers, to negotiate medical bills for us, so we can settle them for 10%! We could afford to pay them, easier than outragous insurance premiums! RIGHT?

 

[Sniper John]

I don't know if it is something you can do in your financial situation but one of the things to look into is what I did to qualify for full subsidies. I opened a solo 401K for my sol proprietor business and Traditional IRAs for myself and my wife. My wife has an employer that does not offer insurance. I contribute to those accounts pre tax up to the point it lowers our MAGI score to qualify for full subsidies. I also previously contributed to a HSA and Roth so I have a backup for years I make too much or have an emergency and need to draw funds without effecting my MAGI score. Our insurance ends up costing us around $300 a month total for three. The bad, I probably will not be able to spend any of that money until Medicare age. The good, those brokerage accounts are compounding and getting huge. There is more to it too as I am retired young with a pension and did a rollover with part of it to reduce my yearly pension income, paid off house, and paid off credit cards, and more to be able to do this.

 

[chadh2o]

https://www.ushealthgroup.comA lady with the above group (office in OKC) cold called me for over a year until 2016 when I finally had enough with the premium increases. I listened to her, decided to meet and look at plans.
My Obummercare had gone from $550 to 850 mo in 2016. The plan I was quoted from US health... $350 mo. This is for a single (wife and kids on school plan). I saved $6k which covered the tax penalty for 2016. Trump scraped the penalty in 2017, so I got to keep all of the $6k. Still have the same plan, cost $359 mo. 6 years of savings $36k. I haven't been to a doc in the above period. I have used quick care for minor bleeds, stitches and sore throats, pay cash no questions asked.
Deductible is $8500 then 80/20, max out of pocket $17,500. They have added some copay services and covered health screenings since, but I don't like docs and if something isn't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Seadog]

I must say, I hate going through this health insurance crap every year about as much as doing taxes.

I'm self employed and have a family of 4. The cheapest plan on the site this year is $1344/month, from a 'Friday Health Plans', whoever that is. For that sum, you get an $8700 individual deductible and $8700 max out of pocket per individual. Family deductible and max is $17400. It pays basically nothing until the deductible is met. No primary care visits (except for immunizations apparently), no specialists, no x-rays, no labs, no outpatient, no prescriptions, no ER. Nothing until you've met the deductibles. So, it's basically a catastrophic plan for $16,188 per year in premium.

Want the Cadillac? Blue Cross has the Gold PPO for only $2785/month. It has a $1650 deductible and family out of pocket of $17400. But it steps up with a $950 copay for ER then 40% coinsurance after deductible, generic drugs are PAID, Primary care doc is $60 and specialist doc is 40% coinsurance after deductible. How awesome is that, and it only costs $33,420 per year in premiums.

Are they literally trying to stamp out self-employed? I find myself in no-mans land. I historically have made more than what would qualify for their subsidies, but not enough that $16k per year for CRAP coverage really works for me.

I seriously wonder if the family would be better off if I just folded up and got a job. Or try to scale business to a point where I could max out on the government subsidies, like they apparently want people to do. Whole thing is disgusting and frustrating.

Vent over. Can't say I feel much better.

Thank Obamacare and the Democrats. Wasn’t this bad before Obama. I remember I could buy insurance for over 300 bucks a month Blue Cross Blue Shield.

 

[RickN]

I am going to chip in against government run healthcare. Not only Medicaid but the VA are prime examples of how screwed up single payer can be. Both have a long history of poor care for people using them. I spent over 20 years in the healthcare industry and dealt with a ton of them. The VA has gotten better, but you still stand a good chance of getting a doctor who barely speaks English. At least I did ever time I used them.

I have also dealt with people from other countries where they have socialized medicine. A few of those countries do an OK job but take huge amounts in taxes. Most are just as bad as the worst of the VA hospitals ever were. In some their hospitals are run like the worst of our nursing homes back in the 70s. England has huge problems with their system and they are getting worse because of all the illegals pouring into that country.

We need to work harder to get government out of healthcare and to make the hospitals, insurance companies, etc compete.

 

[El Pablo]

I must say, I hate going through this health insurance crap every year about as much as doing taxes.

I'm self employed and have a family of 4. The cheapest plan on the site this year is $1344/month, from a 'Friday Health Plans', whoever that is. For that sum, you get an $8700 individual deductible and $8700 max out of pocket per individual. Family deductible and max is $17400. It pays basically nothing until the deductible is met. No primary care visits (except for immunizations apparently), no specialists, no x-rays, no labs, no outpatient, no prescriptions, no ER. Nothing until you've met the deductibles. So, it's basically a catastrophic plan for $16,188 per year in premium.

Want the Cadillac? Blue Cross has the Gold PPO for only $2785/month. It has a $1650 deductible and family out of pocket of $17400. But it steps up with a $950 copay for ER then 40% coinsurance after deductible, generic drugs are PAID, Primary care doc is $60 and specialist doc is 40% coinsurance after deductible. How awesome is that, and it only costs $33,420 per year in premiums.

Are they literally trying to stamp out self-employed? I find myself in no-mans land. I historically have made more than what would qualify for their subsidies, but not enough that $16k per year for CRAP coverage really works for me.

I seriously wonder if the family would be better off if I just folded up and got a job. Or try to scale business to a point where I could max out on the government subsidies, like they apparently want people to do. Whole thing is disgusting and frustrating.

Vent over. Can't say I feel much better.

Cheapest I could find 3 years ago was 2k a month, for 3 of us. The medical system in the country if fundamentally broken, and has been for decades.We pay a fortune to support for profit insurance companies.. Drug reps.. Have just clear up front pricing, that alone would let one compare procedures from different hospitals.

 

[trekrok]

Cheapest I could find 3 years ago was 2k a month, for 3 of us. The medical system in the country if fundamentally broken, and has been for decades.We pay a fortune to support for profit insurance companies.. Drug reps.. Have just clear up front pricing, that alone would let one compare procedures from different hospitals.

I agree its broken. And definitely think pricing should be simplified and clear. There's a surgical center here in the city that does procedures for cash. If more did that or at least were up front about the charges, AND everyone had skin in the game, that would be a step forward.

The problem is, or one of the problems is, say I was willing to forgo insurance and pay for my own doctor visits and assume the risk of coming out of pocket for a surgery that would cost $8-10k. What do I do about the risk of getting cancer and getting a $500k bill? So I still have to buy coverage. It just boggles my mind that a policy for a healthy family of 4, that pays basically nothing until I'm out of pocket $8700 (at least) cost $16k per year. That's basically how I would define a catastrophic plan, but it's not priced like it.

We need to have the ability to have long term catastrophic insurance coverage that doesn't cost a stupid amount.

The system was bad and broken before obamacare, and that just accelerated the decline IMO. Coverage has gotten progressively worse and more expensive. To the point of it being the determining factor of how people make a living. They don't want a middle class.

 

[1911Sooner]

Man this sucks guys I had no idea it has gotten this bad. I work for a private company and they just kind of take care of everything. I have a $20 copay but no deductible and no max. I never see a bill and its damn near free. Just something I guess I never really think about.

 

[El Pablo]

I agree its broken. And definitely think pricing should be simplified and clear. There's a surgical center here in the city that does procedures for cash. If more did that or at least were up front about the charges, AND everyone had skin in the game, that would be a step forward.

The problem is, or one of the problems is, say I was willing to forgo insurance and pay for my own doctor visits and assume the risk of coming out of pocket for a surgery that would cost $8-10k. What do I do about the risk of getting cancer and getting a $500k bill? So I still have to buy coverage. It just boggles my mind that a policy for a healthy family of 4, that pays basically nothing until I'm out of pocket $8700 (at least) cost $16k per year. That's basically how I would define a catastrophic plan, but it's not priced like it.

We need to have the ability to have long term catastrophic insurance coverage that doesn't cost a stupid amount.

The system was bad and broken before obamacare, and that just accelerated the decline IMO. Coverage has gotten progressively worse and more expensive. To the point of it being the determining factor of how people make a living. They don't want a middle class.

Yep, I just blame both parties for this mess. Way too much overhead right now, which doesn’t help either. Pricing should be clear with insurance, it’s not. There are just so many things broken about it, and massive overhead for just billing and insurance. The right blames the left, the left blames the right. Both sides are most likely partially correct, but fix it already.

What we have has not worked as long as I remember and have been paying into the mess since 1999.

My daughter broke her arm in March. That cost me 5k, with insurance, and I paid stupid high premiums on top of that.

Health insurance and retirement being tied to your job is part of the problem. Less competition with a somewhat captive customer base, as you can’t switch providers without switching jobs. So they can be awful to deal with.

 

[El Pablo]

Man this sucks guys I had no idea it has gotten this bad. I work for a private company and they just kind of take care of everything. I have a $20 copay but no deductible and no max. I never see a bill and its damn near free. Just something I guess I never really think about.

You are quite lucky.