health care's forgotten crisis, part 1: most families can't afford medical care

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/health-care-s-forgotten-crisis-part-1-families-can-t-afford-medical-care-1370096051

The real health care battle in this country isn’t the one being fought over the bill everyone now calls “Obamacare.” In fact, it’s not a battle between Republicans and Democrats at all. The real battle is the one millions of Americans face every day as they struggle to pay medical bills that now average nearly $10,000 per year – if they’re “lucky.”

The United States is now the only developed nation on Earth where the average family with insurance pays more for health care than it does for groceries. That includes both the family share of premiums and out-of-pocket costs for medical treatment. In fact, those out-of-pockets costs alone exceed a family’s average yearly cost for gasoline, according to a new study.

That study found that the average household medical bill for a family of four with “good” PPO coverage is nearly now $9,144 per year. That’s a crippling and unsustainable expense for most family budgets, a burden that is crippling the economy and ruining lives.

This struggle seems to have been forgotten in all the back-and-forth over Obamacare. Who’s fighting for these American households as they wage their losing battle against health care costs?

[WinkyDink]

1. $9144 for a family?! My GROUP PPO payment is $7400/yr FOR JUST ME, ALONE, NO DEPENDENTS.

[lhooq]

5. You're right. $9144 seems awfully small for a family.

So, naive youngster that I still am (at 51), how did health care work in the olden days, before CT scans, before every other child in school was diagnosed with ADHD, etc.? How many families carried health insurance then?

Let me guess. People saw the doctor only when sick, and "sick" was far more narrowly defined than it is today.

Are we really more healthy now, now that we have all of this expensive technology and celebrity doctors (Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Dr. Ruth) telling us what we should and shouldn't eat or do (sometimes contradicting themselves along the way)?

[PADemD]

10. Back in the olden days

The family doctor came to the house when you were too sick to go to work or school. He carried with him pills, which he left for you to take, or he gave you an injection. There was no running to the drug store with a prescription. When you visited his office, there was no nurse or receptionist, just him; and you waited your turn in his waiting room.

[Mnemosyne]

2. What's health care? nt

[Zorra]

3. Not to worry. The Blue Links of Obama read that this will end in 2014 and everyone

in the US will be able to afford quality health care forever after.

Here's hoping.

[xchrom]

4. happy days are here again...

[freedom fighter jh]

12. That was lovely

I don't think there have ever lived two other people on this planet who could have pulled that medley off.

It was beautiful.

[ProSense]

6. There is so

2.Out-of-pocket costs for Americans will still be extremely high. And the Affordable Care Act won’t reduce them, merely (and hopefully) slow the rate of cost increases.
3.Many states are refusing to even set up their exchanges for political reasons.

...much misleading information in that piece, it's hard to know where to start.

Out of pocket expenses will be capped. The states that refused to set up an exchange defaulted to a federal exchange, which is even better.





Why is it necessary to mislead in order to claim the law doesn't go far enough?

[SunSeeker]

14. Exactly. My brother will finally be able to buy insurance for the first time in his life.

CA has announced some amazingly low state exchange rates; $400 for premium coverage as I understand it. My brother has a pre-existing condition and is self-employed. He has struggled without health insurance his entire adult life because he just can't afford it. And once he got to middle age and developed a preexisting condition, he couldn't buy it at any price.

So he has ignored his chronic condition--except when it gets so bad it puts him in the emergency room. Good thing he is judgment proof as he has no assets. But one of these days, without treatment (which the ER doesn't provide), the condition will kill him. With the coverage he will finally be able to buy in 2014, he can go to a doctor's office and have it treated, avoiding expensive emergency rooms...and huge amounts of misery. In fact, as imperfect as the system is, it will save his life.

Of course, single payer would be better, but we can't get that without filibuster reform and huge lib Dem influx into political office. My brother would die waiting for that to happen.

[gtar100]

7. It's those out of pocket expenses that keep me from going to the doctor.

Even though I have insurance, how they have deductibles and copays worked keeps me from going to the doctor. A visit any more than a basic checkup (no lab work) ends up costing me hundreds of dollars. Seems quite intentional. They'll gladly take the $800 a month for me and my family (and others have far higher payments) but as soon as we start to use the service, the extra bills start coming in. I actually paid less when I was uninsured. I guess I'll get my money's worth only if something catastrophic happens to me.

Single payer is the only sane health care choice in this world.

[L0oniX]

8. Once you pay the premium you have nothing left to make the co-pay.

[bluethruandthru]

9. +10000

Until we, as a country, get fed up with being pawns to the insurance/pharma industries...nothing will really change. We'll just keep rearranging the deck chairs and some will get a slightly better seat for awhile, but in the end...we'll all lose.

[lhooq]

13. unthinkable ?

gtar100 -- what if you opted out of health insurance altogether? Keep your doc but pay out of pocket for everything. That sounds expensive but so does $800 / month. As you write,

I actually paid less when I was uninsured.

Of course, if something catastrophic happens, you might be looking at bankruptcy as a means of disposing of medical debts. But, how sure are you that the very same thing wouldn't happen to you with your insurance? If you have large expenses, the insurance company will do everything it can to weasel out of paying them.

I've been uninsured since losing my job in 2009. COBRA was supposed to allow me to remain insured for another year, but $6400 annual premium just for me was not going to happen now that my job and income were gone.

[freedom fighter jh]

11. Thank you for bringing this up.

It's just like the article says: I think about this issue every time I hear arguments about ObamaCare. Medical care is unaffordable for many with or without insurance.