GMontag's Journal: Health Care: Oh the Humanity!

Just completed open enrollment on my health insurance.

[sarcasm]
OMFG! My health and dental insurance rose by over 11%!

I read on some weblogs that I should be mad as hell and not take this increase of $3.32 every two weeks sitting down! I need a union! (mewonders if the union will charge me more that $3.32 every two weeks to be a member)

Being somewhere near the top 10% of wage earners in the USA I must be doing something wrong. I thought I was supposed to be strong-arming the little guys into paying for this! At my firm the little guys pay 10% of their own health insurance, the middle guys pay 15% and guys like me pay 20%!

Part of that increase was an INFINITE increase from $0.00 to $2.77 for the dental PPO!

My word, this is a horrible state of affairs. Something must be done! We need more Socialism and an end to end Wal*Mart!
[/sarcasm]

Devil's Advocate

[banky]

Every year, my insurance goes up, but my level of service goes down. Every year I pay more for a premium, co-pay, and get less and less covered. Clearly this is going against basic capitalist principles; I have no real choice in my health care (I can take what work has, or I can pay STILL MORE to get it on my own).

OK I was gonna finish it up with "maybe a centralized solution with large-scale oversight could be a solution" but that's just stupid. I don't think I can even pose the devil's advocate position o

Re:

[GMontag]

You are not engaging in a free market. You are engaging in one of the most restricted markets in the USA.

Re:

[TechnoLust]

There's always Papa TL's Affordable Health Care Plan. We keep the costs low by cutting out the middleman, those greedy doctors! That's right, at Papa TL's, WE DO ALL THE WORK! And we aren't just limited to medical, no-sir-ee-bob! Got a tooth that needs pulled? I'll get my pliers! Got a loose filling or crown? No problem, I'll get the duct tape. Painful glaucoma, no problem, we even grow our own "medicine" for that! Call 1-888-PAPA-TLS today. Operators aren't standing by, because those bitches want

Compare to what my family pays

[Com2Kid]

$200/month per person.

Shutup.

kthxbye

Oh I am Union (for the time being), I pay $25 per month for the premium plan, the other ones cost $0 per month.

Re:

[GMontag]

So I could make $200/mo. more and cut my own deal with the doctor?

Shut up in your own journal.

Re:

[Com2Kid]

So I could make $200/mo. more and cut my own deal with the doctor?

You are an intelligent person, please act like it.

In your entry, you made a point that your employer was not charging you exorbitant health care rates. I was making a point that what is true in your case is not true in everyone's case.

Health insurance is just that, insurance against something horrible happening. If some large issue comes up, most people are not going to easily pull together tens, possibly hundreds of thousands, of dollars

Re:

[GMontag]

You are an intelligent person, please act like it.

Get some sense and learn to read. I am perfectly aware that all cases are not the same, thank you very much.

In America employers began offering health insurance to compete for employees during times of wage and price controls. When the wage and price controls were eliminated the "benefits" remained.

Today, every single "benefit" an employee gets is traded for a higher salary. You are not getting something for nothing and my example was a perfect example of

Just about to write about the same thing

[robi2106]

I just went to the doctor for the 4th time im my life. This was the second while an adult. The first was for a sprained ankle, but I had state health coverage (when I was a cop). This one was on my own HSA PPO plan. Ouch. Details at 11.

jason