I started a new thread although this has been discussed recently.

Wow! Thanks for posting this. I'm having to pay my primary $120 for an office visit just to get a referral to the kidney center. They won't see you without a referral. Health care in this country is beyond ridiculous.

Anyone who buys health insurance in the USA today, is in effect paying for one or two persons who don't buy insurance.

Call it what you want, my favorite is "redistribution of income", it's what's in the future for this country.

Who's at fault? Insurance companies, doctors and providers, drug companies and of course, your government.

Sad.

DT came, but will go in 2 years or 6 years...then the USA will become more left of the farthest left there is.

Can you spell Venezuela?

Ever since I turned 18, I've had to purchase private health insurance. Before the "Affordable Care Act" passed a few years ago, my monthly premiums were going to be $1,024 a month, this is for one healthy adult male around 50 years old. No deductible. Other members of my family has a policy under the wife's employer.

Under the Affordable Care Act, my premiums dropped to around $700 a month. This is because everyone had to buy health insurance of they were going to be penalized on their taxes.

I am afraid that I do not understand all of the fuss.

I have something called a "Medicare Advantage" plan. It is administered by Blue Cross and replaces Medicare by processing claims and collecting from Medicare, and then adding supplemental benefits (for a cost, of course).

I can go to any doctor that I want, so long as they have a Medicare contract. I can see a GP for $10 ($20 for a specialist), including the best doctors in town. Outpatient tests are $20 (100% covered if hospital inpatient). I don't need prior approval to go to see a specialist. I just pick who I want, and call up to make an appointment. Sure, the premiums are expensive, but this care has to be paid from SOMEWHERE.

In my town, the best doctors in town are pretty good, equal to the best in the world. I get the best of first world medicine and at a high but affordable price.

Fred:

...I am afraid that I do not understand all of the fuss....

The population that you describe, Nicole, is still able to work and to buy insurance. Medicare provides excellent benefits, of course, but that is for those of us no longer able to work and provide for ourselves. Those who don't yet qualify for Medicare can work and buy insurance. You may be assured that there are insurance products out there that provide good benefits, but you are expected to use the product of your work to buy them and provide for yourself before spending on yourself. There's no free lunch.

Thats because I don't belong to the working class, despite having been born into it.

If you are unhappy about the high cost of insurance, consider the cost of buying heath care retail, without insurance. Insurance is the best thing to happen since sliced Challah.

For those who are looking for a free lunch, there isn't any.

What a joke. Who are you trying to fool? I was able to purchase a low cost (under $100/month) plan with a high deductible before the last Prez decided to destroy that option for me. After the ACA passed I was no longer able to get any plan like that. All I would have been able to purchase was a super high deductible plan with still outrageous monthly premiums.

" Moishe,how much is a Challah loaf,the unsliced one,with raisins "

Depends on where you buy it.

In the supermarket, you get one price. In a good Kosher bakery, you get better stuff but at an exorbitant price. For an actual figure, I would have to ask my wife, but she buys it in a Jewish bakery that is NOT kosher. Slicing is free.

Before I became eligible for Medicare, I had a similar plan that gave similar benefits without billing costs to Medicare. I handled it the old-fashioned way: I EARNED the money and paid for it. Being younger, I didn't have as much medical needs as I do now, but I was glad to have the insurance (for both myself and my family) to ensure that my potential costs would be capped. Insurance is a good solution to the health care problem, but it is not a free lunch. We have to pay our share, and thats what we get up for in the morning and go to work for, to earn our daily challah. Not to buy new cars, vacations, fancy clothes and real estate. Thats for hard workers who can rise above expecting a free lunch.

P.S., Charlie, where I came from, maybe I wouldn't have to mortgage the house, but I sure got what I paid for. My mother-in-law had breast cancer that infiltrated to her bones, and the doctor prescribed "Bankes" which is the application of heated glasses to the back. The "scientific" explanation is that, as the glasses cool, they will create suction which will draw out pain. She died at 59, of course. My wife's step-father who was diabetic, got an infected toe, and his doctor (an ophthalmologist) put him in the hospital, where the hospital discipline was so bad that he never got whatever medication the ophthalmologist had prescribed. He never got out of the hospital except in the hearse (a Susita "tender", which in Israel is a Triumph kit with a fiberglass body bolted on locally in what used to be the old FORD plant in Ashdod, while the British were still running the country.

The meaning of that is, of course, that medical care is so good here, professional and effective, that it beats anywhere in the world. I wouldn't trade it UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES for ANYWHERE ELSE. Besides, you are forgetting that medical care in Israel is paid for by (guess who?). This care, bad as it is, so that Israelis won't have to mortgage the house or buy expensive insurance, is paid for by OUR government, from our taxes, and to the exclusion of benefit for Americans. Talk about getting your lunch stolen. If you want a free lunch, go to Israel. But don't be surprised if the lunch is spoiled, served by surly, rude and arrogant ignoramuses, with no seconds, consisting of hummus and cucumber (and pita bread, not challah).

Moshe, the cost of healthcare is no where near affordable for the young or the old average working person. I went without insurance for two years after O care (in reality it was don't care as we saw when the jerk railroaded it through).

I not longer have to pay the penalty so I may just start shopping for health care in another country. It PO's me to no end that O caused my mother to lose good healthcare and replaced it with crappy healthcare that doesn't even cover a heart medication she needs to live!

Don't be so immature, Mickie.

The cost of healthcare with insurance is affordable to everyone who works hard and puts first priorities first, Cars are expensive, gas is expensive, rent is expensive, RE is expensive, clothes are expensive and even the cost of going to the movies keeps increasing. We all have to compete and work hard to make a life for ourselves. Health insurance reflects the cost of health care, and that is expensive. Those who want something for nothing want a free life without having to work hard and compete for it. Health care should come before a new car, a new IPHONE and recreational drugs.

I came to the US with basically nothing but the promise of a meager stipend. My new father-in-law staked me to a wardrobe, because he didn't want the Americans to think that Israelis are poor (i.e., less than Americans). I had a new wife to support and in less than a year, my first child. I held two jobs in addition to my studies and I worked my tuchus off to make something out of this fantastic opportunity of America. I succeeded, and never forgot those difficult days and the lessons that they taught me. Your reference to the "normal working class" reflects how that limits what you are. I was born into a level of poverty that you can never comprehend, because you know only American working class. I rose above my birth status by EXTREME hard work, the likes of which you can never comprehend. I served in the Army (not US), fought in a war, built a career in the Army while attending University at the same time and EARNED!!! a place at a outstanding US graduate school. I held multiple jobs, long hours, built a professional reputation for myself, did some significant things, and learned how to invest. During much of this time, I supported my family, drove old used cars, took buses, lived meagerly, and paid for health care insurance myself. The greatest revelation is that ANYONE can do this in America if they work hard. Thus, when I hear people like you hiding behind their status as "normal working class person", and stagnating there as "normal working class person", I can only point to my own contrary experience.