OT. How much does it cost the average American (family) for health care insurance.

[terry]

There's been so much debate here and on other forums about Universal US health care (pro and con) that one gets curious about how much it NOW costs, say, the average US family, to have 'Health Insurance'.

We guess that the cost is either fully paid by the subscriber? Or in other cases, partly by the subscriber and partly by their employer? Then there are others, we gather who have no health insurance at all? And we understand there is something called Medicaid?

Insurance cost numbers a) As little as 'a few hundred' b) Over $12,000, per year have been mentioned?.

But what is a 'typical' (or average) USA cost?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Where I am up here in Alberta Canuck land, we don't pay anything. No premium payment. Our system is not perfect but everyone is taken care of. I understand U.S. spends more than us per capita on health care. And many are left out? That is something I don't understand. To me health care is service for the public, not profit generating business.

[Kurt Ullman]

You pay. It is just that your premium is hidden in the taxes.

[Ralph Mowery]

I live in North Carolina. The company I work for lets you retire before 62 if you have worked over 30 years for them. They used to pay part of the insurance and it would cost a man and his wife around $ 300 or less per year. They quit doing that and the average cost for the same coverage is around $ 1000 per month or $ 12,000 per year. You can get some high deductiable insurance that only starts paying out after you pay around $

3000 for medical bills or more for around $ 300 a month.

[Doug Miller]

Absolute nonsense. Did you think health care was free, that the doctors and nurses work gratis and all the medicine and equipment and facilities just magically appear at no cost to anyone?

"No premium" is not the same as "no payment". You're paying for it.

You figure out how.

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, Our tax rate is lowest in Canada and no sales tax here as well. Why then your tax does not cover those who don't/can't have coverage? When we go down there I notice more over weight folks and the portion of meal they eat at restaurants!!!! Wife and me, one order is enough to fill us up. Ultimately health is individual responsibility. We just came back from week end alpine trek reaching up to ~7000 feet in the rockies. Our ages are closer to 70 now. I retired in '96 from Honeywell. Wife from hospital operating room in '92. One of my kid is MD. She takes care of us here half year, then she goes away for volunteer service the other half. October this year she is going to East Timor to work at TB clinic there run by Aussie nuns and American doctor. About 5000 suffer from TB over there due to climate.

[ransley]

When you are sick you cant get it, or you might pay 10,000 a year for

1 person and co pay alot of it. Insurance companies are in business for profit , not to pay claims. 62% of the 1.5 million US bankruptcies are medicaly related and any imigrant can walk into Cook County hospital knowing its free for them.

[norminn]

In the US, the cost is "hidden" in everything purchased or paid for in tax dollars. Wonder what would happen to small business if Workers Comp suddenly disappeared, and just plain one-for-all universal coverage replaced it? Is it possible highly profitable businesses, small or large, would pay more than those less profitable? No more ambulance chasers or insurance adjustors....ohmygosh, watch out for the horrible "bureaucrats" from the gov.; they might shoot you rather than video-tape you, with your bad back, up on the roof throwing bundles of shingles around :o)

[norminn]

3k is not at all bad for a deductible. In the early days of working in employee benefits, folks screamed bloody murder when the ded. went from $75 to $100 for FREE, EMPLOYER-PROVIDED INSURANCE COVERAGE. Probably the same morons who thought Reagan's plan for using temp. workers was going to work miracles for the economy.

[Shy Picker]

I'm self employed and my health insurance just for me $500 a month now and goes up every year. That's with no drug or dental coverage, $1k deductible per year and I pay 20% of everything else until I pay another $1k out of pocket a year.

I hope Obama does something but I am skeptical about the huge bill(s) that are going through congress. I would rather they just do something about the run-away costs for insurance, drugs and health care. The way my insurance costs are rising, there is no way I will be able to afford to pay those costs for 9 more years when I reach 65.

David

[Steve Stone]

A friend of mine is a building contractor. His monthly Blue Cross family plan for his wife, himself, and 3 children is $1,250 per month.

For me, working for a large business the PPO plan for a family of 3 is $150 per month, but I have to spend close to $10k in annual family medical bills before it starts covering anything. Until I hit the magic number the cost of treatment is reduced if I use in network doctors. FWIW the dental plan has a $2k annual cap. You can run thru that in one sitting.

[EXT]

Well Alberta is a Province that is rich with oil and gas revenues. That is why they have no health care surcharges nor sales tax.

In Ontario, it is a different story. In addition to part of our Federal and Provincial Income Taxes covering health care, every employer has to pay a head tax, sometimes called a payroll tax to cover health care plus every wage earner has to pay a surcharge on their Provinical income tax to the amount of about $550.00 per year. The only people who get free health care are the unemployed, retired, welfare cases and ill people who do not earn any wages. Doing it this way evens the cost over everyone. This is only for basic health and hospital care. Drugs, dental and other costs are paid by suplimental insurance or out of our pockets.

[Kurt Ullman]

Is that total premium or just what you pay? The OP was discussing total premium, you and employer parts.

[Kurt Ullman]

They also tend to pay the lowest per capita for health outlay of all of the prov.

>

[HeyBub]

If it works for you, keep doing it.

In the United States, we don't want to die early from heart failure or cancer and we don't want to wait eleven months for an abortion.

[Ralph Mowery]

What some do not know is that the very large companies do not really pay any insurance. They pay the insurance companies to handle the billing, but they are the ones actually paying the claims. That means you are really giving the company some money back. It would be just as easy for the company to pay for all the medical insurance and cut the wages. It just does not make the dumb employee feel like the company is treating him badly.

[charlie]

a lot of smaller companies self-insure too. it's much more cost efficient to do so. of course, those companies that they pay management fees to have a strong incentive to hold down costs by limiting certain things (new fangled drugs not on a approved list, new types of operations, etc).

[Steve Stone]

Employer pays equivalent of $7k, plus my $1.8k annual. Employer has 120,000 employees in USA. Employer is "self insured", meaning they pay to have multiple insurance companies manage claims, but claim payments come out of the employer pocket, not the insurance company pocket.

[Phisherman]

I have not seen a doctor in a few years except for free prostate cancer screenings, don't take any prescriptions, and no health/dental insurance. My cost is currently zero, but my concern is what the government's health care will charge me.

[joevan]

I have been waiting to see where this subject would go. It is outrageous that our insurance industry handles our health so they can all have big yachts and big houses and big bank accounts. I was paying over 13,000 per year when my wife was dying of cancer 5 and 6 years ago. On top of that we got bills from all sorts of hospitals etc. Some has to be done and soon or the average person will be having to pay double that for basic coverage. I am on social security now and my deduction for med and pharmacy is about 80 bucks a mo. I will be 67 in Nov. and my daughter will be 19. I would rather have my wife back including the charges from hospitals but can't arrange it. Alas it would have been even better if she could have been healty, continued on with her nursing career and lived past the 51st year. Been gone now 5 years this nov 28.