So basically, the cost of ‘going to the doctor’ needs to be assumed to be at least $3000.
And that’s after you’ve already paid multiple thousands of dollars per year in premiums (remember: you pay for the whole premium, including the “employer portion” which would’ve been extra salary if the employer didn’t have to pay it on your behalf).
While I agree, I wouldn’t expect my salary to grow to include the health insurance costs; that’d totally end up just being rolled into taxes to pay for the/a universal option and not be money I suddenly got paid.
But yes, it’s $3000 after the ~$6000 for the insurance, so let’s say the cost of being insured with insurance that covers anything at all in the US is, basically, $10,000 a year.
that’d totally end up just being rolled into taxes
That’d partially get rolled into your taxes. Without the need to extract profit – and even more importantly, without the ridiculous inefficiency of having all the insurance middlemen – the taxes needed to provide the same quality of service would be vastly cheaper than what we’re paying now.
I’m certainly not an economist, a politician, or in healthcare but I’d be surprised if you could actually build a working healthcare system for less than we spend now even if you took out the profit motive.
You need to rebuild rural hospitals, hire more doctors and nurses, build clinics and staff them in underserved (read: poor) areas, and basically spend an awful lot of time and money to fix the broken mess that the insurance companies have caused.
I mean you COULD just change who pays the people and places that exist now, but that’s not really… fixing anything.
Perhaps it’s me, but I’d be fine paying what I’m paying similar amounts for an actually funded and working healthcare system, if it covers everyone. Just need to tap into the AMERICA #1 bullshit somehow, and get the uh, poorly informed, on board and do it. Again not a politician or political strategist so that’s someone else’s problem, but I won’t complain about paying for it.
At a minimum $10,000 a year. The COBRA option I was given to continue my health insurance after leaving my previous employer, was $1,500 per month, so $18,000 per year, and that was on the low cost end for relatively crappy coverage. I’ve seen them cost $2k-$3k per month. Of course, that’s just to have the insurance and doesn’t include copays, deductibles, or out of pocket costs.
I’m not disagreeing with you at all; I’m just always astounded by how much we have to pay to receive so little.
And that’s after you’ve already paid multiple thousands of dollars per year in premiums (remember: you pay for the whole premium, including the “employer portion” which would’ve been extra salary if the employer didn’t have to pay it on your behalf).
While I agree, I wouldn’t expect my salary to grow to include the health insurance costs; that’d totally end up just being rolled into taxes to pay for the/a universal option and not be money I suddenly got paid.
But yes, it’s $3000 after the ~$6000 for the insurance, so let’s say the cost of being insured with insurance that covers anything at all in the US is, basically, $10,000 a year.
That’d partially get rolled into your taxes. Without the need to extract profit – and even more importantly, without the ridiculous inefficiency of having all the insurance middlemen – the taxes needed to provide the same quality of service would be vastly cheaper than what we’re paying now.
I’m certainly not an economist, a politician, or in healthcare but I’d be surprised if you could actually build a working healthcare system for less than we spend now even if you took out the profit motive.
You need to rebuild rural hospitals, hire more doctors and nurses, build clinics and staff them in underserved (read: poor) areas, and basically spend an awful lot of time and money to fix the broken mess that the insurance companies have caused.
I mean you COULD just change who pays the people and places that exist now, but that’s not really… fixing anything.
Perhaps it’s me, but I’d be fine paying what I’m paying similar amounts for an actually funded and working healthcare system, if it covers everyone. Just need to tap into the AMERICA #1 bullshit somehow, and get the uh, poorly informed, on board and do it. Again not a politician or political strategist so that’s someone else’s problem, but I won’t complain about paying for it.
It’s so hard that only every other first-world country has managed it.
At a minimum $10,000 a year. The COBRA option I was given to continue my health insurance after leaving my previous employer, was $1,500 per month, so $18,000 per year, and that was on the low cost end for relatively crappy coverage. I’ve seen them cost $2k-$3k per month. Of course, that’s just to have the insurance and doesn’t include copays, deductibles, or out of pocket costs.
I’m not disagreeing with you at all; I’m just always astounded by how much we have to pay to receive so little.