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The medical care number has to be distorted. I don't know any American families whose contributions toward their insurance premiums alone would amount to only

by roc 15y ago

The medical care number has to be distorted. I don't know any American families whose contributions toward their insurance premiums alone would amount to only 7% of spending. Not counting co-pays or co-insurance or any out of pocket costs. To get down to 7% they must not be counting employer contributions, those who get medical care from the VA, Medicare or Medicaid, nor people going uninsured and then filing bankruptcy when they get hit with notable medical costs. There is simply no way.

ImprovedSilence 15y ago
I would guess they are not taking into account employer contributions, as that is not money I as a consumer ever see in my paycheck. my medical bills (including insurance premos) the past few years average out to $1200/year (significantly less than 7% of my income). If I didn't have a job/insurance, they would be zero. I would guess there are a significant number of un-employed/un-insured, that don't have medical bills, averaging this number down.
- roc 15y ago
  > "I would guess they are not taking into account employer contributions, as that is not money I as a consumer ever see in my paycheck" No, but it's money that has a direct impact on wages and given the inconsistency of rates of employer contributions, it would mean that "What Americans Spend Their Money On" is not equivalent to "What Things Cost, That Americans Buy". Similarly not counting government payments toward health-care breaks that equivalence. I wasn't trying to dismiss a potential usefulness of seeing where net consumer spending is going, on average. I was just responding to what I saw as a casual conflation between "we're not spending much more out of pocket" with "the price of healthcare isn't that big a deal". I saw the GP post as suggesting that large year-over-year percent increases hadn't amounted to a large net impact when compared to earnings. I may have misread that, but that's the implication I was responding to. And there's simply no way 7% of net consumer spending is the right picture from which we can deduce the impact of health cost increases.
pdx 15y ago
My insurance (healthy young family of four, $1K deductible per person) costs me 12.6% of my pretax earnings, not including what my employer kicks in. It was over 14% before my last raise, and it would be even higher if my company hadn't aggressively shopped around among several insurers. That's for me as an engineer making almost 100K. What about the guy making $70K with a family of four? It is a huge drain.
- wiredfool 15y ago
  Yeah. Looking at my household, mortgage and health insurance are neck and neck as the biggest costs, with food a close third. That's not even counting copays and deductables and other out of pocket stuff, in other words, the best case if no one gets sick. Significantly behind is child care, and well behind that are taxes.
- tocomment 15y ago
  That sounds way too high. Have you looked into HSA's?
- kingnothing 15y ago
  On the flip side, I'm paying insurance premiums for only myself and spending less than 1% of my pretax income. The medical, dental, and vision is all excellent. Shop around. You can certainly do better than $1,000 a month (12% of 100k / 12).
  - roc 15y ago
    > "You can certainly do better than $1,000 a month" For a family of four? Not that I've seen. Even after employer contributions people in my orbit are usually looking at ~$1000 out-of-pocket (granted, pretax) for family medical/dental/drug/vision.

by roc 15y ago

ImprovedSilence 15y ago

I would guess they are not taking into account employer contributions, as that is not money I as a consumer ever see in my paycheck. my medical bills (including insurance premos) the past few years average out to $1200/year (significantly less than 7% of my income). If I didn't have a job/insurance, they would be zero. I would guess there are a significant number of un-employed/un-insured, that don't have medical bills, averaging this number down.

roc 15y ago
> "I would guess they are not taking into account employer contributions, as that is not money I as a consumer ever see in my paycheck" No, but it's money that has a direct impact on wages and given the inconsistency of rates of employer contributions, it would mean that "What Americans Spend Their Money On" is not equivalent to "What Things Cost, That Americans Buy". Similarly not counting government payments toward health-care breaks that equivalence. I wasn't trying to dismiss a potential usefulness of seeing where net consumer spending is going, on average. I was just responding to what I saw as a casual conflation between "we're not spending much more out of pocket" with "the price of healthcare isn't that big a deal". I saw the GP post as suggesting that large year-over-year percent increases hadn't amounted to a large net impact when compared to earnings. I may have misread that, but that's the implication I was responding to. And there's simply no way 7% of net consumer spending is the right picture from which we can deduce the impact of health cost increases.

pdx 15y ago

My insurance (healthy young family of four, $1K deductible per person) costs me 12.6% of my pretax earnings, not including what my employer kicks in. It was over 14% before my last raise, and it would be even higher if my company hadn't aggressively shopped around among several insurers. That's for me as an engineer making almost 100K. What about the guy making $70K with a family of four? It is a huge drain.

wiredfool 15y ago
Yeah. Looking at my household, mortgage and health insurance are neck and neck as the biggest costs, with food a close third. That's not even counting copays and deductables and other out of pocket stuff, in other words, the best case if no one gets sick. Significantly behind is child care, and well behind that are taxes.
tocomment 15y ago
That sounds way too high. Have you looked into HSA's?
kingnothing 15y ago
On the flip side, I'm paying insurance premiums for only myself and spending less than 1% of my pretax income. The medical, dental, and vision is all excellent. Shop around. You can certainly do better than $1,000 a month (12% of 100k / 12).
- roc 15y ago
  > "You can certainly do better than $1,000 a month" For a family of four? Not that I've seen. Even after employer contributions people in my orbit are usually looking at ~$1000 out-of-pocket (granted, pretax) for family medical/dental/drug/vision.