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> For example, I enroll my family in my employer's HDHP. The total premiums from our plan is about $19k this year (employer pays about $14k, I pay about $5k). F
by defen 7y ago
> For example, I enroll my family in my employer's HDHP. The total premiums from our plan is about $19k this year (employer pays about $14k, I pay about $5k). For this, we have $4k deductible and an $8k max out of pocket coverage.
Posts like this really emphasize to me how broken healthcare in America is. This is a fairly standard setup and yet you're paying $23,000 per year before you get anything from your insurance other than price negotiation. The median annual personal income in the USA is $31,000.
- bradfa 7y agoRegarding price negotiation, my wife and I have asked multiple doctors, nurses, and billing departments to tell us how much a given service we have received will cost. Both before the service and after the service. We've even called the insurance company with the billing codes from the doctor's office to get quotes. NO HUMANS CAN TELL US HOW MUCH ANYTHING COSTS! We are continually told that we have to wait for the insurance company to come back with the pricing after the service has been rendered. This is the most infuriating part of it, there is no way for us to understand the costs of services which are recommended to us by our doctors. We are not able to shop around or to understand if we could/should delay any particular service because of cost/benefit ratio because we do not know the cost of anything ahead of time. At least our preferred local pharmacy will usually call us prior to filling any expensive prescriptions to make sure that we understand the cost. I assume the pharmacy has enough people balk at the cost after they've already filled the prescription and then they have a bunch of headache dealing with putting the pills back so they've gotten proactive about it.
- evgeniysharapov 7y agoWhen I was shopping around I was told by hospital rep, that they can't tell me the price, because of a) they don't know until they talk to insurance company, b) EMTALA prohibits that.
- tptacek 7y agoI had to negotiate an emergency CAT scan for my daughter about 8 years ago, and they ultimately had to make up a price on the spot for me ($1000). Lack of price transparency is an enormous problem with our current system. Of course, it's a problem on the provider side of the system, not the payer side, which is where everyone spends all their attention.