No Insurance, Poor Health

In case no one has noticed, there are many employers and many more everyday, that no longer offer health care. Even some State and Municipal jobs are dropping, lowering, or asking employees to pay for healthcare. It gets more and more expensive everyday. My wife worked in the Insurance business for years. Their job is to keep charging more and more, but give you less and less. You wonder why Doctors charge so much? The insurance companies only pay a percentage most times, and your Doctor or Hospital jack's up the price, to get insurance companies to pay enough for the services, otherwise the Doctor passes the rest of it on to you. I had a Doctor that I paid cash. An office visit was 55 bucks. But if you had insurance and they billed the company the visit was 100 bucks. He said that way he would get about 50 to 55 dollars for the visit. Drug companies are making money hand over fist, and the prices keep going up everyday. I don't know where it all will end, but it ain't gonna be pretty folks. I only know, that I can't continue to pay as much as I do for health care and still pay my bills. I'll either have to drop my coverage, try to find another job that covers us both, or give up alot of what I have just to buy insurance. I can't imagine what it will be like when I get too old to work or if something were to happen to me to take me off of my feet. Something has to change, soon.

 

http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm

 

Exactly what I was trying to get out. There are many people that think you are at fault for not working for a company that provides the benefits. The economy could change all of this.

 

The real question is, am I sick? After a number of years working with people I can say if you call me to your house and ask me, can you help me improve it or find something wrong, the answer is yes. I go to a doctor when I am ill, and that's the only time. The entire country should be making a political issue of national health care, no matter who pays for it, the government is not going to do anything about health care until they have used up all other options. Prevention is better but still is a bit of money every month. drive55cat

 

"The insurance companies are not the only ones to blame in this mess. While they're not without their problems, there are some doctors and medical care providers that over charge."

In this day, the vast majority of care providers (hospitals, surgeons, physicians, etc.) are contracted with different insurance companies.(This would be your "network"). The providers agree to accept a certain amount for the services they provide. The providers can bill $1000 (this is the billed charge you see on the bill you get), but if the contracted amount (the amount they agreed to accept) is $100, then $100 is all they will get from the insurance company. Very few insurance companies will agree to a percent of billed charges as payment. Also, in the US, Medicare rates are generally used as guidelines. If a provider does not have a contract with a particular insurance company, only a portion of the charges will be covered (if at all) and guess who will get to pay the difference.