Thread: Should Food Stamp Recipients have to work?

Originally Posted by GloriaInTX

I think things would be so much simpler if they just took insurance out of the picture. If everyone just paid the actual cost of the Dr visit and took out the middleman. Insurance should be for what its intended for, if something terrible happens. Most people don't get bumper to bumber coverage on a car for every little thing that goes wrong, they get insurance for if something unusual happens like an accident. It should be the same for heath insurance. Insurance should cover something catastrophic not a runny nose. One of the local urgent care clinics here charge $12 for school physicals if you pay for it without going through insurance. It must be cost effective or they wouldn't do it. A lot of the expense a Doctor has to pay is to hire someone just to file the reams of paperwork insurance requires, and then they get paid less and less for each procedure.

I very much disagree. Without insurance I would never go to the doctor. Caitlyn's NICU stay was probably at least $100,000. I had someone try to get me to buy into an emergency only insurance plan one time before. No maternity coverage. Each of my pregnancies have been very complicated. Preeclampsia, PROM, Gestational Diabetes, IUGR, several m/c, very low progesterone, RH incompatibility, PIH and probably more that I am not remembering right now. Wouldn't it have been nice if I had listened to that insurance agent try his hardest to talk me into an insurance plan that did not cover pregnancy. He said the same thing "Insurance is for things that are unplanned, you plan for a baby".

The last thing I want to be thinking about when my kids are sick, is that I can't take them to the doctor because we can not afford it. It still costs $35 each time I take my girls to the doctor, but it would be three times that without insurance.

IMHO - It is very foolish to not have insurance.

Originally Posted by GloriaInTX

I think things would be so much simpler if they just took insurance out of the picture. If everyone just paid the actual cost of the Dr visit and took out the middleman. Insurance should be for what its intended for, if something terrible happens. Most people don't get bumper to bumber coverage on a car for every little thing that goes wrong, they get insurance for if something unusual happens like an accident. It should be the same for heath insurance. Insurance should cover something catastrophic not a runny nose. One of the local urgent care clinics here charge $12 for school physicals if you pay for it without going through insurance. It must be cost effective or they wouldn't do it. A lot of the expense a Doctor has to pay is to hire someone just to file the reams of paperwork insurance requires, and then they get paid less and less for each procedure.

What is "catastrophic" though?

I was in a car accident last May. Thus far, my medical is about $9600 and will continue for at least another 2 months. I wouldn't necessarily consider my injury "catastrophic" but I can't pay that out of pocket. Yes, the car insurance coverage will ultimately pay it, but I can't front the money. Even if my cost would be 1/3 of that, I don't think I could afford all of my appointments.

My daughter had surgery last year. Her appointments started out with a few visits to urgent care and to her primary doctor. Then an MRI, then specialists, then 4 days in the hospital. Honestly, if I didn't have insurance that covered the MRI, I'm not sure I would have been able to afford the $1500 for one. She would still be in pain and we still wouldn't know the cause.

With a bumper-to-bumper warranty, I know what to expect. It doesn't matter what goes wrong with my car because the cost will max out at the bluebook value. IOW, if I got an estimate that it would be X to fix what is wrong, but the car is only worth 1/2 that, it might not be wise to repair it. My $5K car is never going to cost $50K. This isn't true with humans. The list of diseases I've never heard of is probably longer than my car manual. And the level of training to treat/fix the problem is night and day.

Originally Posted by wlillie

Well then you should know that 8-10 cents on every dollar is spent on something other than healthcare. ADDING to healthcare costs. People can do all those same things you just said you guys pay people to do on their own if they didn't have insurance.

Yes and that pays for other things/perks we offer like 24 nurse line, case and disease management and the like as well.

What do we pay people to do on their own? They don't file their own claims the doctors/hospitals do. Deductible plans have a cap so when you have say a 100,000 NICU stay x2 for extremely premature twins....you don't lose your home.

Originally Posted by ethanwinfield

I'm a little confused by this. If you are paying $800/month for insurance, that's $9600/year. The penalty is $1000/year?

Yes that's true. It doesn't make much sense. Of course you have that AND no insurance.

Originally Posted by Jessica80

Yes and that pays for other things/perks we offer like 24 nurse line, case and disease management and the like as well.

What do we pay people to do on their own? They don't file their own claims the doctors/hospitals do. Deductible plans have a cap so when you have say a 100,000 NICU stay x2 for extremely premature twins....you don't lose your home.

$100,000 for a 32 weeker. I would guess a 26 weeker would be closer to a million.

Originally Posted by AlyssaEimers

$100,000 for a 32 weeker. I would guess a 26 weeker would be closer to a million.

Exactly. I had a member once that they were super early. That above example is true. I don't know who can plan for something like that (that amount was insurance rate....not hospital charge btw)

The thing is that the prices are so high BECAUSE of insurance. If it was an actual person paying those bills the prices would come down to what a reasonable person could pay. The system is broken and putting everyone on insurance isn't going to solve the problem. All it does is push the costs to someone else.

Originally Posted by GloriaInTX

The thing is that the prices are so high BECAUSE of insurance. If it was an actual person paying those bills the prices would come down to what a reasonable person could pay. The system is broken and putting everyone on insurance isn't going to solve the problem. All it does is push the costs to someone else.

What about in the mean time? How many people would be completely bankrupt in the process of trying to fit it?

Originally Posted by AlyssaEimers

What about in the mean time? How many people would be completely bankrupt in the process of trying to fit it?

I'm not saying it could be fixed overnight, I am saying that we are going in the wrong direction. Putting everyone on insurance without even a choice of what is covered and just making other people pay for it is not the answer. The costs are just going to go up. All Obamacare does is pay other people's medical costs by forcing a young healthy person to buy insurance they don't need. Someone has to pay for it. Insurance doesn't provide coverage for free, the amount they take in has to cover the amount they are paying out, plus all their expenses of hiring employees to handle all the paperwork involved and paying themselves which just adds to the cost.

I definitely do not think Obamacare is the answer either. But taking away all insurance is definitely not the answer either.