4 ms·

Imagine a regular sized family of 4, you have to shell out more than $20K/year for the most basic health insurance for your family if you are self employed, $20

by usaphp 8y ago

Imagine a regular sized family of 4, you have to shell out more than $20K/year for the most basic health insurance for your family if you are self employed, $20,000! and you still have to pay for EVERY doctor visit for your kids and regular checkups, and your family deductible is around $10-12K. And every year they send you a new increased quote by 10-15%. There should be some kind of a discount for families, like when you have multiple cars under your insurance your rate barely goes up when you add another one.

veryworried 8y ago
Eh, with cars you can only be driving one at a time so it doesn't make sense for insurance to double or triple just because you now have two or three cars. With family members, they are all absolutely living in parallel and at the same time.
- EvanAnderson 8y ago
  I've owned 5 cars at one point, and dropping or adding cars never changed the amount of the premium attributed to the other cars. (That is to say adding car 5 was an increase similar to adding car 4, for example.) I never understood why, seeing as how I can only drive one at a time, but I've always just assumed this is customary.
  - veryworried 8y ago
    Maybe I’m daft but it seems like the premium is for cases of theft or damage not caused by driving. Seems pretty clear to me.
cbsks 8y ago
In my expensive area of CA, a gold insurance plan for a family of 4 costs $20,400 per year. That’s an insurance plan with a $0 deductible and $30 co-pay per doctor visit. That is far from the most basic health plan. A plan with a $12k deductible is $13,500 per year. Even so, a $20k a year is peanuts compared to the out-of-pocket expenses of a serious medical emergency. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking insurance is not with it just because you haven’t had to use it yet.
- m0zg 8y ago
  In my area (Seattle) such plans aren't even available. So don't blindly assume that they're available outside CA. The deductible ranges between "high" and "crazy". Dental that you can buy through health exchange doesn't cover anything at all. I'm seriously at a loss as to why anyone would pay for it, if you can buy a better plan from the same company outside the exchange. And this year, Kaiser Permanente just nonchalantly raised the premium by a little under 20%. It'll probably do the same thing next year, too, because hell, why not. We need to seriously look into opening up (and stimulating) competition between health insurance companies, hospitals, and so on, to upend this blood sucker of an industry.
  - brianpgordon 8y ago
    > And this year, Kaiser Permanente just nonchalantly raised the premium by a little under 20%. I wonder how much of this is due to the repeal of the individual mandate, which Wikipedia says takes effect this year.
    - m0zg 8y ago
      Don't see why KP would be affected by that directly. KP doesn't eat the cost of the uninsured.
      - jimktrains2 8y ago
        But the uninsured are more likely to be poor (and use the error for basic care because they can't afford it, raising the cost for everyone) or healthy (adding less to the cost more than they share of it). Thise two ideas are the heart and trade-off of the individual mandate: insurers must cover anyone without giant markups and in exchange everyone was forced to buy insurance to help cover those costs.
- usaphp 8y ago
  > $20k a year is peanuts compared to the out-of-pocket expenses of a serious medical emergency. And that’s the most annoying part. The fact that $20,000 is considered peanuts in a medical condition is already outrageous. My friend’s wife had a c-section child delivery and was billed $38,000...for a 3 days stay at the hospital. No complications just a planned c-section. I understand that’s the reason why the insurance is so high

by usaphp 8y ago

veryworried 8y ago

Eh, with cars you can only be driving one at a time so it doesn't make sense for insurance to double or triple just because you now have two or three cars. With family members, they are all absolutely living in parallel and at the same time.

EvanAnderson 8y ago
I've owned 5 cars at one point, and dropping or adding cars never changed the amount of the premium attributed to the other cars. (That is to say adding car 5 was an increase similar to adding car 4, for example.) I never understood why, seeing as how I can only drive one at a time, but I've always just assumed this is customary.
- veryworried 8y ago
  Maybe I’m daft but it seems like the premium is for cases of theft or damage not caused by driving. Seems pretty clear to me.

cbsks 8y ago

In my expensive area of CA, a gold insurance plan for a family of 4 costs $20,400 per year. That’s an insurance plan with a $0 deductible and $30 co-pay per doctor visit. That is far from the most basic health plan. A plan with a $12k deductible is $13,500 per year. Even so, a $20k a year is peanuts compared to the out-of-pocket expenses of a serious medical emergency. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking insurance is not with it just because you haven’t had to use it yet.

m0zg 8y ago
In my area (Seattle) such plans aren't even available. So don't blindly assume that they're available outside CA. The deductible ranges between "high" and "crazy". Dental that you can buy through health exchange doesn't cover anything at all. I'm seriously at a loss as to why anyone would pay for it, if you can buy a better plan from the same company outside the exchange. And this year, Kaiser Permanente just nonchalantly raised the premium by a little under 20%. It'll probably do the same thing next year, too, because hell, why not. We need to seriously look into opening up (and stimulating) competition between health insurance companies, hospitals, and so on, to upend this blood sucker of an industry.
- brianpgordon 8y ago
  > And this year, Kaiser Permanente just nonchalantly raised the premium by a little under 20%. I wonder how much of this is due to the repeal of the individual mandate, which Wikipedia says takes effect this year.
  - m0zg 8y ago
    Don't see why KP would be affected by that directly. KP doesn't eat the cost of the uninsured.
    - jimktrains2 8y ago
      But the uninsured are more likely to be poor (and use the error for basic care because they can't afford it, raising the cost for everyone) or healthy (adding less to the cost more than they share of it). Thise two ideas are the heart and trade-off of the individual mandate: insurers must cover anyone without giant markups and in exchange everyone was forced to buy insurance to help cover those costs.
usaphp 8y ago
> $20k a year is peanuts compared to the out-of-pocket expenses of a serious medical emergency. And that’s the most annoying part. The fact that $20,000 is considered peanuts in a medical condition is already outrageous. My friend’s wife had a c-section child delivery and was billed $38,000...for a 3 days stay at the hospital. No complications just a planned c-section. I understand that’s the reason why the insurance is so high