I agree, there is something wrong with this! I don't know what the answer is, but socialized medicine from what I understand is no better, and likely worse. WE both know the government screws up everything they take over, just look at Indian, and VA hospitals, if you want to know how that would work! I was bitten by a brown recluse spider, they have a distinctive looking bite, After looking this up to see what had bitten me, I decided to go to the ER, this was a weekend. I have good health insurance, They looked at the spider bite, and said the at is a brown recluse bite, then this pup doctor call all the other pup doctors down to look at it, none of them had seen one before. After serveral hours he finially told me, there was nothing he could do, no anti-venom existed, , so he told me to keep it clean, and if it rotted a big hole in my foot to go see some other specialist. it didn't. We payed $100.00 copay for using the ER, the bill totaled $2500.00, and when we got the final statement our insurence had payed $250.00 to settle this bill! They had negotiated this bill down to 10%! If we had not had insurence, we would have been stuck with the total $2600.00 bill, right, instead of the $350.00 it was settled for! We don't need health insurance, we need an organization of crooked lawyers, to negotiate medical bills for us, so we can settle them for 10%! We could afford to pay them, easier than outragous insurance premiums! RIGHT?I must say, I hate going through this health insurance crap every year about as much as doing taxes.
I'm self employed and have a family of 4. The cheapest plan on the site this year is $1344/month, from a 'Friday Health Plans', whoever that is. For that sum, you get an $8700 individual deductible and $8700 max out of pocket per individual. Family deductible and max is $17400. It pays basically nothing until the deductible is met. No primary care visits (except for immunizations apparently), no specialists, no x-rays, no labs, no outpatient, no prescriptions, no ER. Nothing until you've met the deductibles. So, it's basically a catastrophic plan for $16,188 per year in premium.
Want the Cadillac? Blue Cross has the Gold PPO for only $2785/month. It has a $1650 deductible and family out of pocket of $17400. But it steps up with a $950 copay for ER then 40% coinsurance after deductible, generic drugs are PAID, Primary care doc is $60 and specialist doc is 40% coinsurance after deductible. How awesome is that, and it only costs $33,420 per year in premiums.
Are they literally trying to stamp out self-employed? I find myself in no-mans land. I historically have made more than what would qualify for their subsidies, but not enough that $16k per year for CRAP coverage really works for me.
I seriously wonder if the family would be better off if I just folded up and got a job. Or try to scale business to a point where I could max out on the government subsidies, like they apparently want people to do. Whole thing is disgusting and frustrating.
Vent over. Can't say I feel much better.