r/HealthInsurance • u/pandapower63 • Apr 14 '24

Plan Choice Suggestions What can regular Americans who are fed up with their health insurance do about it?

I’ve written my elected officials in government. What else can we do? It’s depressing and it’s wrong. That people can’t get healthcare easily and affordably. People are dying early because they don’t get the care they need.

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

Neither side has the answer.

National healthcare is just a government version of what we already have.

We don't need insurance. We need lower prices.

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

I urge you to learn more about national healthcare and what it looks like around the world.

It is far from one size fits all.

Frankly, we have government t healthcare right now if you look at the preponderance of coverage. We just give 1/3 of the money spent to insurance companies that do nothing but push paper. They serve no purpose.

We would need to replace the jobs, taxes and place in the stock market that insurers have right now. That is a bigger challenge than making healthcare delivery paid for by a national model.

I think there are a number of ways to that, but we dp need to address it.

Health insurance companies are parasites.

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u/TrekJaneway Apr 14 '24

lol….i probably know more about it than you do. Perhaps you should take your own advice.

Source: lived in Australia and the United States. Also quite familiar with Ireland and British systems…along with other European ones as well.

Do your homework…

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

Feel free to enlighten us

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u/MrsB6 Apr 14 '24

I'm also an Australian living in the US. Last year my dad was sick so I flew back to Australia for 2 months. In that time he had two separate hospital visits for about a week each time. Had great treatment, 3 meals a day and snacks and didn't pay ONE. SINGLE. CENT. Sadly at the end of that time he died. After returning home, I was admitted to hospital late November when I developed a pulmonary embolism. Spent two nights in hospital. Cost? Over $40,000!!! AFTER insurance, I was left with a $7,000 bill, not to mention the $6,000 I owed the IRS after discovering that because of all the double shifts I pulled last year after a staff member quit, I earned just above the threshold for the govt rebate on Obamacare. F&*^# that for a joke!!!! In Australia, my contribution to "Medicare" was just over $2,000 AUD on a $110k AUD salary PER YEAR! If you earn less than the minimum wage you don't contribute anything but you still get free healthcare! Husband's job just got healthcare and now we are paying around $4000 USD per year on a$65k salary, with an $8,000 deductible! This is just downright outrageous. Give me the universal model funded by taxpayers anyday! How can anyone seriously say that they would be worse off with universal healthcare? If they do, they obviously don't understand how it works!

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u/GroinFlutter Apr 14 '24

I agree with you, but I just want to clarify that the billed amount - the $40,000 - is an arbitrary number. It doesn’t matter. They could be a billion dollars if they felt so inclined.

It’s the insurance contracted rate that matters. The rest is adjusted off. I assure you that your insurance doesn’t pay that full amount either.

The whole thing is a mess. We all pay towards Medicare (coverage for 65+ and those with specific conditions) anyway through payroll taxes. And then Americans have to pay premiums AND deductibles/coinsurance/copays on top of that.

I don’t understand how there’s people that think that less government regulation is the answer. What we have now is still a result of no regulation!! And it’s NOT going to change until there’s more intervention from somewhere. It’s not sustainable.

But I guess that’s a bridge we’ll cross when it starts collapsing and it’s deemed ‘too big to fail’. The same people who don’t want government intervention will be the ones with their hands out when they need bailing.

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u/TrekJaneway Apr 14 '24

My ex spent 10 days in an Australian hospital and walked away with a bill of $6.82….which he appealed because it was for aspirin and should have been free.

I spent 4 days in ICU in the United States and paid $500…WITH insurance. The bill for them was $32,000.

Never had to worry about getting diabetes supplies or insulin in Oz, worry about it constantly here. Can’t afford retail (it’s $5000/month for everything in the USA). Over there? Easily affordable without incomes. In any other country, you’re talking about a cost of hundreds AT WORST, not thousands….and in most cases, free.

Seriously…do. Your. Homework. Stop listening to the fear mongering because that’s all it is. Literally every first world country figured this out…except the United States.

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '24

Uh...please re-read.

I am in favor of national healthcare

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u/lucioboopsyou Apr 14 '24

Yeah I don’t think he realized you guys are arguing for the same thing

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u/TrekJaneway Apr 14 '24

And this sort of attitude is exactly why healthcare still sucks.

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u/Postcrapitalism Apr 14 '24 edited Apr 14 '24

we need...lower prices

Right. And the most well demonstrated way to lower prices is....NATIONAL HEALTHCARE.

I swear to God, if the wheel had been invented by socialists, you people would be trying to convince us that triangles roll.

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u/southernNJ-123 Apr 14 '24

lol. Nope. We have zero. Your insurance should never be tied to employment. We need something for ALL.

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u/MikemjrNew Apr 14 '24

No, we need less government regulation. 50 different states regulating a product is the issue. All insurance is plagued by this problem.

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u/GroinFlutter Apr 14 '24

Yes, let’s take the government out of it.

It was much better before when insurance companies could deny you care for pre-existing conditions. It was way better when there was a limit they would pay for. It was great being stuck in a job you hated for the health insurance.

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u/MikemjrNew Apr 14 '24

Glad you agree.

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u/GroinFlutter Apr 14 '24

Sorry, forgot to add the /s. I thought it was very obvious.