2024 Health Insurance

[Frederick]

What people don’t realize is hospitals lose money on Medicare patients. CFO of a large medical center told us in a meeting that the hospital loses over 4K for every patient we admit with Medicare.
Remember Bernie calling for “Medicare for all” at the cost of 30billion more over 10 years? If that happened every hospital would close-wouldn’t be able to pay its staff or the utility bills.

i think the number you're thinking of is 30 trillion.

Australia and Germany seem to be doing fine, as does most of Europe.

healthcare in this country is insane.

what do all these countries except the US have in common? universal healthcare

all of their systems rate better than ours does in terms of quality.

 

[Pstmstr]

What people don’t realize is hospitals lose money on Medicare patients. CFO of a large medical center told us in a meeting that the hospital loses over 4K for every patient we admit with Medicare.
Remember Bernie calling for “Medicare for all” at the cost of 30billion more over 10 years? If that happened every hospital would close-wouldn’t be able to pay its staff or the utility bills.

What's strange to me is the astronomical charges hospitals bill and the money they actually accept from insurance companies. Medicare and insurance combined paid over $186k to doctors, hospitals, PT, and labs in 2022. They were billed almost twice that. The whole process is ridiculous. The PA for my doctor billed over $4k and actually got paid $350. I wonder if they bill those kinds of charges to those without insurance?

 

[John6185]

I know sometimes I can be a bit dense but Obamacare was touted to take care of everyone. Yet, I hear of some people not having insurance and going to gofundme for aid. Recently Mary Lou Retton did that because she had no insurance. She has made millions of dollars since '84 when she won 5 Gold Medals so something is amiss.
What she did with her millions is her business but why isn't everyone covered if we are paying higher premiums for health care insurance for that reason? If everyone isn't covered health wise and money is being thrown into the health system by the consumer, someone is making money hand over fist.
Aside from that, it seems healthcare costs have gone up but the quality of care has gone down.
Mary Lou Retton's shocking lack of insurance raises …

 

[HillsideDesolate]

You should use more caps so people would know your opinion REALLY MATTERS!

I read just the caps. Really gets to the core of the issue.

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

i think the number you're thinking of is 30 trillion.

Australia and Germany seem to be doing fine, as does most of Europe.

healthcare in this country is insane.

what do all these countries except the US have in common? universal healthcare

all of their systems rate better than ours does in terms of quality.

I don't believe all that for a minute. I know several people from the UK and they all say the National Health Service (NHS) is a disaster. They all complain about how long it takes for routine care. Canada isn't much better. That's why so many people come to this country for health care. It's worth it to them to pay out of their pockets and actually get the care they need.

Yes...health care in the US is expensive. But it's also readily available to pretty much everyone...even if that's only emergency care.

Tort reform and less gov't bureaucracy in how drugs are researched and manufactured would go a long way towards lowering health care costs. Getting gov't out of insurance would be a great way of lowering costs, too.

 

[MilitantBEEMER]

I have a good friend in Canada, he comes to the states for his major medical care as the weight list and sub par care he and his family receive is disgusting.
I had my open heart surgery in Cleveland at arguably one of the best Cardiac hospital in the world. They have wings with apartments for the wealthy from all over the world that also leave their free universal health care systems in order to receive EXCELLENT care.

 

[Frederick]

I have a good friend in Canada, he comes to the states for his major medical care as the weight list and sub par care he and his family receive is disgusting.
I had my open heart surgery in Cleveland at arguably one of the best Cardiac hospital in the world. They have wings with apartments for the wealthy from all over the world that also leave their free universal health care systems in order to receive EXCELLENT care.

i hear a lot of ancedotes...but those aren't really reflective of general experiences...i'm not saying Canada's healthcare is perfect, infact they're ranked higher than the US but much lower than other countries....like Australia and Germany, for example. They could stand to spend more on healthcare to lower wait times. but Canada has some of the best medical systems in the world.

Sure, there are folks with tons of money or good insurance who can get into those 'luxurious wings' but i think that's actually a sign of a bigger issue...that those who are wealthier have greater access to care. A billionaire should, as a matter of principle, not receive greater medical care than a coal worker or a truck driver.

I think Australia or Germany are better comparisons, than Canada.

Also, do canadians live longer than Americans? it doesn't really make any difference how great your health care is if you can't afford it....It's also bad for business, since being an entrepeneur is much more difficult if you've got to spend thousands of dollars a month for **** healthcare....

 

[okcBob]

i think the number you're thinking of is 30 trillion.

Australia and Germany seem to be doing fine, as does most of Europe.

healthcare in this country is insane.

what do all these countries except the US have in common? universal healthcare

all of their systems rate better than ours does in terms of quality.

Correct. I meant 30 trillion.

add:
However, I would caution about “quality” ratings for US healthcare being rated so low.
Depending on who does them, these rankings are often designed in a way that favors more government control and are frequently used by progressives to call for a government provided single payer system. The WHO rankings for example are partly based in ideology. Their rankings index is based on 5 factors. One of the factors is called “Financial Fairness,” which composes 25% of the index. How is this an objective measure of health quality? Its not a clinical ranking.
Another example is how infant mortality numbers bring down the US ranking. Even WHO acknowledges the method of calculating IMR varies widely between countries. While US adheres to the WHO definition of live birth, many other countries underreport the live births of babies who die shortly after birth, which improves their ranking.
The best healthcare clinically speaking is here in the US, i wouldn't go anywhere else for a procedure.

 

[dennishoddy]

Man... I've always tried to look at having a life-altering injury from military service as a blessing in disguise. After seeing what people pay for health insurance these days, I definitely know it is. The care I get thru the VA is as good, or better, than what I've received from civilian doctors. And there's no premiums and no deductibles. I can choose community care or go to a VA hospital. After dealing with civilian doctors and hospitals, usually at least as far away as the OKC VA, I've decided it's easier and better to just make an occasional trip to the OKC VA hospital for whatever I need. Routine stuff gets handled in the Ada VA clinic.

My wife has a small federal retirement. It's only about $350 month...but it allows her to continue the same health coverage she had while working at the same cost. It's like $187 month and it's pretty decent coverage. She also has Medicare Part B (I think...it's for hospitalization only) but there's no premium for that. The premiums for her other coverage are creeping up so we're gonna check on regular Medicare coverage to see if it makes sense to switch.

We couldn't afford health insurance if we had to pay what some of you guys are paying.

Agree. I basically get 100% of my health care through the VA in OKC and the clinic in Blackwell, but still carry Medicare and a supplement in case of an emergency of some sort when we are traveling. Probably overkill, but it is what it is.
I do use community care as we are 100 miles away from OKC but some of the community care doesn't come close to what I get at the VA, so just use community care for getting an Xray or vision care.

 

[caliberbob]

what do all these countries except the US have in common? universal healthcare. all of their systems rate better than ours does in terms of quality.

And you wanna know who they poll to get those results? The people they allow to get treatment and government people. They don’t poll the 75 year old man who has stage 3 cancer and could beat it but he’s too big of a risk/gamble so they give his spot to the 25 year old with the same illness who has more to offer economically.