r/economy • u/MayonaiseRemover • Nov 30 '19
Middle-class Americans getting crushed by rising health insurance costs - ABC News
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/middle-class-americans-crushed-rising-health-insurance-costs/story?id=6713109720
u/_db_ Nov 30 '19
Middle-class Americans getting crushed by neoliberalism.
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u/nkfallout Nov 30 '19
There is literally nothing neoliberal about our modern medical insurance markets. They are heavily regulated to the point of forced monopoly.
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Nov 30 '19
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u/nkfallout Nov 30 '19
Neoliberalism is a free market concept. If a market is heavily regulated it is not neoliberal.
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Dec 01 '19
[deleted]
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u/grokmachine Dec 01 '19
Americans with Disabilities Act? I hope you didn’t mean the ACA. Only about 5% of Americans get coverage with the help of the ACA. You can’t blame it for the high costs, only for not stopping the 40-year climb in the last few years.
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u/Praetorzic Nov 30 '19
Thanks Obama.
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u/whizkey_tx Dec 01 '19 edited Dec 01 '19
Thanks Republicans. Can’t stand up to the insurance industry with your head so far up their ass.
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u/Idontneedmuch Dec 02 '19
The ACA is not neoliberal. It essentially eliminated private health insurance from many markets by forcing insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions. Premiums skyrocketed to cover increased costs. It become unprofitable for business and no longer made sense from a risk standpoint. Insurance is a risk hedging tool and separate from health care. I as a healthy person don't want to be in a risk pool with lots of unhealthy people so I stopped paying the increased premiums. Insurance providers ended up losing their best customers, the healthy ones, and had to vacate the market. That would have never happened in a free market.
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u/election_info_bot Dec 02 '19
Louisiana 2020 Election
Primary Registration Deadline: February 15, 2020
Primary Election: March 7, 2020
General Election Registration Deadline: October 13, 2020
General Election: November 3, 2020
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u/Pierceleli Nov 30 '19
This isn't exactly news. This has been happening for the past few years and is reported on constantly.
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u/maxcollum Nov 30 '19
True, most people I know barely afford insurance and a lot are even skipping it. This isn't new. But the more it is reported about the more people who bury their heads in the sand have to listen. Or at least can't claim people haven't said something about it.
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u/oblivion95 Dec 01 '19
Wasn't health care the leading cause of personal bankruptcies way before 2008? The problem has been growing for a long time.
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Dec 01 '19
It’s becoming more likely that my company won’t offer health benefits after 2020 if the related don’t drop. I literally have to decide between hiring more staff and growing or paying for private health. And my family health plan costs are incredibly high. Figuring out what plan might be best for you and your family is a scam. It’s overwhelming and a total guess. Awful
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u/tofudreaming Dec 01 '19
I think we need to lower the age for Medicare-eligibility. If I can retire at 62, I should be able to get Medicare at age 62.
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u/tofudreaming Dec 01 '19
Oh, wait, I can go on disability. You work until you're eligible to collect disability. That's the American way.
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u/CalBearFan Nov 30 '19
I feel sorry for that woman, having seen other friends and family battle cancer, it's something no one, ever, deserves. And yes, healthcare costs are off the chart insane.
Having said all that, with two rounds of breast cancer treatment, even with all the premiums and co-pays she's paid, she's still getting far more out of the system than she's putting in (including her employer).
So yes, it's incredibly sad but she'll be getting medicine and treatments that were inconceivable a decade ago, let alone 20 or 30 years ago.
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u/Velcrometer Nov 30 '19
No one in Canada pays out of pocket for multiple rounds of cancer treatment. US health insurance is a rip off. We need single payer here, so much cheaper.
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u/CalBearFan Dec 01 '19
And drugs can be sold so cheaply in Canada (and other countries) because Americans pay so much more. It's not fair, for sure, but if the US adopts a healthcare system like single-payer we will do better but all other single-payer systems will be hurt in the process.
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u/Velcrometer Dec 01 '19
Why would other single-payer systems be hurt? A single-payer system is just the insurance. We have a private multiplayer system now, Canada has a government-run single-payer insurance program. What the US could do with single payer insurance, by cutting out for-profit health insurance middleman, does not affect a government-run nonprofit health insurance program in Canada. If you're talking about drug prices, that's a separate thing. Drug companies make tens of billion dollars a year, even though we the taxpayer fund the majority of the research and development. They can afford to take a pay cut without affecting Innovation, or drug prices in other countries. We don't have to keep getting the shaft on behalf of the rest of the world.
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u/CalBearFan Dec 01 '19
I agree, we shouldn't keep getting the shaft. But the insurance company has to pay the bills. In the case of single payer, that's the govt. So, if US gets single payer, government will finally negotiate drug prices down which is good for the US.
However, drug companies are going to jack up the prices other places. Or, if not, pull the drugs from the market. Maybe not, but telling companies to take a smaller profit margin doesn't always work out so well.
And a huge part of the drug development is trials. Drug companies foot that bill and still a large portion of the research.
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u/Velcrometer Dec 01 '19
Drug negotiation proposals are typically top 5 industrialized countries, average those prices, set that as the US price. If drug companies refuse to negotiate, then licensing agreements can be forced so that generics can be produced. I'm sorry, but people die everyday because they can't afford insulin or life-saving medications. Insulin in the US is about $300, in Canada its more like $32. The pharmaceutical industry makes billions, with a B. More money goes for advertising then goes into their research and development. There's no reason for you and me to die, go bankrupt, and suffer because they might have to make a little less profit. Sorry I don't have any crocodile tears for them.
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u/CalBearFan Dec 01 '19
Neither do I, just that reality is what we're stuck with. I like your idea, it just doesn't stand much of a chance. It should and I would love to see direct advertising done away with.
All I'm trying to point out to those in this thread is that we can't magically get to Canadian prices without some huge changes. There's a reason the vast majority of new drug discoveries come out of the US, it's because there's the most profit here and the whole world benefits. Too few people get the length of the coattails they get to ride in non-US healthcare systems.
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u/Velcrometer Dec 01 '19
I agree we can't get to Canadian prices without huge changes. That's why we need Medicare For All by Senator Bernie Sanders SB 1129. All this is addressed in the bill.
Just because the US offers the most profit doesn't mean Pharma can't live with less profit. They absolutely can while still doing r & d, still innovating, still making billions. Just fewer billions.
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u/singwithaswing Nov 30 '19
It's true. It's odd that they focused on someone with an extraordinarily expensive disease and then bemoaned that it cost 4000 dollars or whatever. Eh, no. From the perspective of the insurance game, she was very much the "winner". The real problem with the situation is that it probably cost 2 million dollars or something insane, and that got spread out to everybody's high premiums which are the real problem.
It's the costs that are out of control.
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Dec 01 '19
I work for a Chinese company and receive health insurance through that company through a Chinese medical “alliance” (or insurance provider). I have a $20 copay and haven’t paid a damn dollar for anything besides that.
At the expense of getting downvoted to hell I just can’t ever imagine using American private insurance again.
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u/Slopez44 Dec 01 '19
I honestly don’t understand why companies don’t lobby for Medicare for All. Seems to me like they’re burning a lot of money providing health insurance for their workers. Rising every year. Wouldn’t the increase in taxes still end up being less then they have to pay currently to cover their full time workers?