I do have to ask however, whether it was through taxes or my higher health insurance premiums over the last ten years, who was subsidizing his cancer treatment. The idea that this stuff is free or nearly free is absolutely wrong. I’m not saying he should have his policy canceled or that he deserves to die, I’m just saying that somehow he was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars of treatment for very little money. I’ve mentioned this before - my medicare drug supplement costs less than the monthly prescriptions I have been getting every month for twenty years. Who is paying for the rest of that cost?
The next three generations.
The same is true of the damned Bush drug scheme.
However, I am certain that you read the last paragraph of that article. If, for some reason, you didn't get that far it is reproduced below. I'm certain you read then ascertained that those who might chose this death option are ones like us who have paid 'through the nose' all through the years. That will leave the permanent underclass to enjoy the slum that this decaying nation will become.
Here in Florida the press is celebrating an African American woman with breast cancer who was paying COBRA $500 a month and now only has to pay $30 a month. She isn’t working if she has COBRA and is rewarded with practically free health insurance while the rest of us including Bill work to pay for insurance or die because we care more about our family’s finances than our own lives.
That is true, but so is this: between the govt and insurance (even before Obamacare), things cost a LOT more than THEY should have. The prices of medical care have been corrupted for years.
-— I do have to ask however, whether it was through taxes or my higher health insurance premiums over the last ten years, who was subsidizing his cancer treatment -—
Group policy holders, if he was receiving insurance through his employer.
I lost my job a year ago, and we switched to my wife’s unsubsidized policy. We pay $12k/year, with a $6k deductible. On top of that, our HSA was eliminated. So we are postponing necessary tests on all family members. Our healthcare costs were 1/3 of our income last year.
Fortunately I just found a job, but it represents a 30% pay cut over my previous position. It’s going to take us a while to dig out.
Thanks communist voters.
Health insurance is about pooling of the risk, just like auto insurance. Sure this guy had cancer and the insurance company paid out a lot for his claims, but lots of people, especially younger people, have healthcare and have very few claims like which are typically low cost.
Insurance is NOT designed to be profitable at any, specific individual policy level.
Insurance is a way of pushing off risk to an entity willing to assume that risk in exchange for regular payments (premiums).
The profit to the insurance carrier derives from detailed underwriting (define the risks at the individual level), controlling costs (payments out to service providers), and well managed internal costs, spread over their policyholders (the risk pool).
What has horribly skewed this over the past fifty years or so is the knee-deep involvement of FedGov in the health care industry. And, now they want it all.
So, to answer the question “Who is paying for the rest of that cost?”...the other policyholders in the same risk pool as you; the ones who don’t have prescription costs in excess of their premiums.
Isn't that what insurance companies keep selling in their ads? Trust.
Part of the reason for the apparent disconnect is that the healthcare industry uses fake pricing for most of its services. The price on the bill which you see if you don't have insurance is vastly inflated over the price which the hospital or doctor actually expects to get paid. So the hospital invoice may show a $800 charge, but the hospital accepts $175 from the insurance company and writes of the rest as a "discount". The real price is the $175 that changes hands, not the $800.
Similar situations exist with prescription drugs, so it is very hard to know how much medical care or drugs really cost. When a hospital says "We provided $5000 in unpaid medical care to an uninsured person" they are really saying something like "We provided the same care we normally get paid $2300 for by Blue Cross and every other insurer, and it actually only cost us $900 in labor and supplies to provide the care."
The amount of the discounts vary constantly, and even for industry insiders it is hard to know what the actual costs and prices are. But hospitals and drug store companies are building brand new facilities all over the country. That tells you a lot about whether or not they are making money.
“At this point, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?”
It was through your premiums. Premiums are based on paid out claims.
If he was healthy at the time he bought his insurance, the company took the risk that he may become sick...as you may.
That's how insurance works.
Under the old pre-obamacare rules, the insurance company couldn't cancel him or raise his rates any more than anyone else in his group. But, obamacare forced the cancellation that the insurance company legally couldn't do before obamacare.
It shouldn't have anything to do with your taxes. At least it was that way before ObamaCare. Now it is going to be your taxes, because there is no way enough young healthy adults will be enrolled in this mess. Someone has to pay for all the new subsidized high-cost insurance premiums. If this continues we will have the single payer system that the Dems wanted in the first place at least for us peons.
In theory, catastrophic health insurance distributes income from the premiums into payouts to those who need it. That's the deal we expect.
I’ve mentioned this before - my medicare drug supplement costs less than the monthly prescriptions I have been getting every month for twenty years. Who is paying for the rest of that cost?\
In theory, you paid your premiums during your working life. SS then takes the money it should have invested on your behalf and pays you an annuity for your care upon retirement. that's the deal you were promised.
In practice, government is instituting Marxism taking from those who produce and giving to those who don't.
Prior to Obamacare, your premiums were determined by actuaries who took the whole pool of policyholders, calculated the predicted costs to pay out claims for the whole group, and basically divided that cost (plus extra for profit and admin costs) amongst the pool. Profits are invested to further increase the ability to pay and ensure that their formulas don't break due to unforseen extra costs.
There are likely just as many in your group who are paying more than the cost of their drugs, but do so "just in case". That was how insurance worked. Now, after Obamacare, there is no more calculating....just a decree....cover it, d@mn it, but only charge a select few for the cost of the whole group.
Anyone who thought this had the remotest thought of this working is a complete and utter moron.
You pay a premium betting that you are going to need it at some point (though you hope you won’t). The insurance company charges a premium betting that you won’t need the money and sets the amount based on all the people who already have needed it.
You are right, we are indeed paying for everyone else’s misfortune, including Mr. Elliott’s. But he didn’t enter into the agreement with the assumption that he’d be taking the money out in a catastrophic way and the insurance company has, in the past, selected people who are least likely to need to in order to keep premiums down.
The whole delicate, though dysfunctional balance has been blown away by the mandate that pre-exsisting conditions be ignored. It is no longer insurance, it is now a giant collective prepayment and redistribution plan that no one can afford.
The real problem is health care costs. Market forces can naturally correct the problem, but have been inactive in that portion of our economy for decades. The supply and the demand have long since ceased to touch each other because the insurance company has been in the way taking advantage of both sides.
Reform should start by reintroducing free market forces into the system, not by turning the government in to a giant single payer HMO with unlimited power.
Obama”care” was never intended to be “care”. It is control over our health and, then, insidiously over every other part of our lives. Washington Leftists knew it from the start and hopefully citizens are finally starting to figure it out, though it is a little late.
This man with cancer and a premium of $180 is probably pretty normal. He needed coverage for a catastrophic illness he didn’t yet have when he enrolled in the policy and the insurance company underwrote his risk and decided to take a chance on him. That’s what insurance is. Transferring the chance of a risk that may or may not ever materialize from the policyholder to the insurer in return for premium payments. The premiums collected overall from all policyholders and held in reserves, in theory, will be enough to cover any claims or risks that actually materialize. In the case of Medicaid, portions of Medicare, CHIP or VA care, the federal government, meaning the taxpayers, pay for the care except for any co-pays required.
Just as your auto insurance is not designed to pay for new wiper blades or an oil change or for new tires or your homeowners insurance should not cover a visit by the plumber, small repairs or a new coat of paint, your medical insurance shouldn’t be used to pay for routine doctor visits, x-rays, lab work or most prescriptions. This makes the cost of the medical insurance go up dramatically. It should be reserved for big costs that the policyholders can’t cover themselves.
This ridiculous requirement under ObamaCare that EVERYBODY must have the same comprehensive coverage whether they need or want it, is part of the reason why the premiums for most folks are going to go up. And the fact that the government is trying to add 30-45 million uninsured new people also raises the premiums. And adding people with pre-existing conditions, which almost automatically will result in more losses to the insurers, will raise premiums. The hope that existing uninsured young healthy people will sign up for policies under ObamaCare is because they will pay for the old folks and unhealthy people who will use most of the care. People who are eligible for subsidies on the exchanges, get that money from the government via the taxpayers like you and me. So the taxpayers will continue to cover the costs of some people’s medical care whether it is under the old third party payer or under ObamaCare.
If the American people continue to use their medical insurance as a credit card to pay for every little nickel and dime cost in their medical care instead of for what insurance is truly designed for and that is catastrophic coverage for major injuries or illness to keep them from going bankrupt, we will continue to have this problem.