Employers near ‘tipping point’ on ending health coverage for workers, study says

Kansas City Star ^ | 12/06/07 | Diane Stafford

[driftdiver]

‘My point is, if you do not have an insurance plan, you get raped. The cost, with or without insurance should be the same.”

I disagree, if you pay cash the cost should be significantly lower as their costs are much lower.

Instead its the reverse.

[driftdiver]

“You will never see an insurance company go bankrupt like an oil, finance, car maker, or other industrial business.”

They did in Florida after the hurricanes. They did it to protect their assets and keep from having to pay for all the policies they sold.

[Kakaze]

I work for the Family buisness now..but I didn't opt in I set up an HSA for myself, through a different provider.

I like it because there really is no one to blame its all up to me to fund and administer.

[visualops]

For alot of folks it’s not quite like what many of the posters here are saying. My employer pays half my policy, which has a Dr co-pay and prescription coverage.
Other than vacation the insurance is my main benefit, I don’t get sick days. So those of us you really can’t afford to miss any hours, you only go to the doctor if you really have to.

The real killer though is medication. If you don’t have insurance a lot of medications are exorbitantly expensive. Insanely expensive.

[Huntress]

My family doctor does not contract with any insurance companies. Instead, her patients pay up front, and then submit the claims to their own insurers. I have noticed that her rates are very close to what insurance companies pay to their contract providers after the write-off. When I submit a claim to my insurer, I am usually reimbursed for the full amount. This is a great deal for her, as she doesn’t have to employ an army of staff to process insurance claims (she has a secretary and shares a receptionist), and she has a near 100% collection rate. It’s a good deal for her patients, too, since she spends more time with a patient than most other doctors, and we pay no more than we would have otherwise paid through the insurer’s contract provider.

[tacticalogic]

There are always plenty of crises looking for a government program.

There is a cottage industry built up around the beltway of orgainzations of "experts" who's job it is to find "unmet needs". When they find one, they find some way to make it the government's problem, and set themselves up as the conduit for the money to "meet" them.

[clyde asbury]

It's basically impossible to prove, but I bet the employer takes the other half from your salary. All they are doing is writing the check.

My employer pays half my policy, which has a Dr co-pay and prescription coverage.

[driftdiver]

“It’s basically impossible to prove, but I bet the employer takes the other half from your salary. All they are doing is writing the check.”

Thats true, its called a benefit and the total amount of pay and benefits makes your total compensation.

If you distrust your employer that much why don’t you find a new one?

[socialismisinsidious]

Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.

[socialismisinsidious]

That is true b/c no one, not the individual nor the corporation wants to continue to pay for health insurance. The individual believes the asinine notion that health care is a right and corporations do what they always do..try to keep costs down.

It is not true of small businesses however. They do not have the huge profit margins that corporations do and they KNOW that they will carry the burden of socialism....corporations are the John Kerry's of the world: rich enough to hide their money (and pay lobbyists, lawyers etc...)....the small business is like the guy making 180K..."rich" but not rich enough to hide his money so he will be the one ruined by socialism.

[Rick_Michael]

They have a right to be mad, just not at him. They should be mad at the state and the given mandates.

[Greg F]

Yah, I think with a family of 3 and a small employer contribution (less than 50%) it’s a coin flip with a healthy family whether it makes more sense to bank your premiums and negotiate treatment with the doctors. What costs 10,000 with insurance ends up costing half that when you don’t have insurance. They skip the nonsense tests, and don’t tack on the extra costs, but charge what they are really willing to work for. It’s a farce.

You are left with a huge potential liability if anything serious goes wrong though. Assume the risk and don’t pay the guaranteed excess with the modern system. Depends on the assets you have. Paradoxically, the richer you are the more the insurance may make sense.