Thread: What next ?
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Old 07-05-2009, 09:13 AM
wajobu's Avatar
wajobu wajobu is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 169
An overhaul is needed, but the approach is wrong.

Our health insurance premiums will be rising again next year between 20 and 32 percent (240% increases in the last 8 years...the 20 to 32% I quote is what Anthem Blue Cross has submitted to the State Insurance Rate Commissioners). I think that we should ALL be responsible for our own healthcare to a certain extent, and that there should be a National Major Medical baseline plan for EVERYONE who is a citizen. If you want more than baseline coverage, you pay on the private market...if you can't afford it, that's life. But EVERYONE gets a baseline plan that comes out of your taxes...everyone pays and everyone gets.

I think that many folks don't realize how much employers pay for group health insurance plans--no clue. We have a private non-group plan that generally costs about 35 to 50% less than a group plan provided by employers (but with a private plan you can be denied from the plan...this is a managed risk pool like auto insurance...with a group plan you cannot).

Next year, with the projected price increase, our insurance will again EXCEED THE COST OF OUR HOUSING!! Read that again. This is for a basic hospitalization plan with $5K deductible and an HSA that we fund out of a bank account every month. We pay for everything out of pocket against the deductible.

The plan that most employers pay for (if they have a group plan) will be thousands per month for a family plan. The larger the group (read ENTIRE COUNTRY) the larger the risk pool and the more the costs can be spread amongst many people thereby decreasing many costs with economies of scale. The private add-on plans will keep the private market alive.

A baseline National Health Plan is the right way to go.
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Last edited by wajobu; 07-05-2009 at 09:18 AM.
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