Health Insurance Degeneration Continues

[BamaRider]

Isn’t it interesting how “wise” the young have become these days? I can remember being an idealist when young, then I grew up and was hit square in the face with reality. I think we would be foolish to turn the whole of our health care system over to government at any level. I am not saying that we should not help those who cannot do it on their own, but too many of us are getting fat and lazy, willing to sit back and let someone else be responsible for us, with somebody’s else’s money.

I sense your frustration.

I have excellent Blue Cross, mostly paid for by the city I retired from after 26 years. The benefit package was one of the reasons I joined the fire dept all those years ago. If the city cut retirees off TODAY, I’d take a job delivering *pizzas * to pay for it, before I turned my health care over to the govt. :nope:

I once discussed this with a guy who said, “well you have good insurance and health care, but you gotta pay for it.” To which I just said, “well imagine that.”

But hey, thats just me.

 

[BamaRider]

Socialized medicine = mediocrity for everyone!!

But some are bound and determined to learn it the hard way. All I am sayin is leave ME outta the experiment cos its :whacky:

 

[vern_humphrey]

Socialized medicine = mediocrity for everyone!!

But some are bound and determined to learn it the hard way. All I am sayin is leave ME outta the experiment cos its :whacky:

Ah, but that’s the whole point of socialism, you know. They won’t leave you out.

 

[pathia]

I sense your frustration.

I have excellent Blue Cross, mostly paid for by the city I retired from after 26 years. The benefit package was one of the reasons I joined the fire dept all those years ago. If the city cut retirees off TODAY, I’d take a job delivering *pizzas * to pay for it, before I turned my health care over to the govt. :nope:

I once discussed this with a guy who said, “well you have good insurance and health care, but you gotta pay for it.” To which I just said, “well imagine that.”

But hey, thats just me.

Some of us are quite unable to get that sort of plan. The quotes I get would require me to work three jobs to pay for the plans I qualify for and shocker, I’m not exactly healthy because I’ve been without health insurance for 6years and I can’t quite work that much.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

Isn’t it interesting how “wise” the young have become these days? I can remember being an idealist when young, then I grew up and was hit square in the face with reality.

Funny thing about that…I used to be an economic “conservative” (read right wing)…then the fact that I work for a living and that the people I work for (and most people for that matter) don’t give a darn about their employees and are only in it for their god, namely money. That’s when I started to see that perhaps working people need protection from the predators among us, particularly money worshipers.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

Some of us are quite unable to get that sort of plan. The quotes I get would require me to work three jobs to pay for the plans I qualify for and shocker, I’m not exactly healthy because I’ve been without health insurance for 6years and I can’t quite work that much.

Well, you know…you’re part of the class of people that that Right doesn’t care about…the unusual and hard case. They would say, “sucks to be you.”

Reminds me of what St. James says about people who say “be warm and fed” and do nothing to help you make it so…

 

[vern_humphrey]

Well, you know…you’re part of the class of people that that Right doesn’t care about…the unusual and hard case. They would say, “sucks to be you.”

Reminds me of what St. James says about people who say “be warm and fed” and do nothing to help you make it so…

Ah, the old gratuitous insult, eh?

 

[BamaRider]

Some of us are quite unable to get that sort of plan. The quotes I get would require me to work three jobs to pay for the plans I qualify for and shocker, I’m not exactly healthy because I’ve been without health insurance for 6years and I can’t quite work that much.

I’m not saying the system is not broke, because it is. There should be a plan for someone in this situation, but I don’t know enough to present one. A pre existing conditon can make it hard.

But stripping me of MY Blue Cross, and shipping me off to a govt run hospital if I’m not already sick, will really gonna make me* ill*.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Let me repost:

MSAs

The fundamental principle behind Medical Savings Accounts (MSA) is that you buy cheap, high-deductible catastrophic health insurance, and then save an amount each year equal to the deductible with tax-free dollars. You use that money to cover any medical expenses up to the deductible. You roll any unused dollars over at the end of each year into your IRA. The institution holding the MSA would issue a credit card, and this card would be used to pay for health care. This would have several important impacts:

1. Paperwork makes up from one-third (in private health plans) to two-thirds (in government programs) of the total cost of health care. The use of this credit card approach would dramatically reduce the paperwork and result in lower costs.

1. The current systems of paying for health care have long delays built in. The pay-on-the-spot approach would allow care providers to further lower costs.

1. MSAs provide an incentive for people to bargain for health care – when people spend their own money (and know they can keep all they save), they have an incentive to bargain for better rates.

1. MSAs provide an incentive to avoid over-consumption of medical care.

People who cannot afford MSAs can apply for assistance, based on their most recent tax return, and would receive proportionate assistance – not an automatic 100%. They would get help with insurance premiums and with each payment from their MSA – so they would always have the chance to save something by bargaining and not over-consuming.

Young people would especially benefit from this – since they could build up substantial savings in their healthiest years.

 

[pathia]

Let me repost:

With what savings? I have more medical debt than my own parent’s mortgage and I’m only 27. I’ve never been able to save a penny my entire life, every cent and about 300% more goes straight out into medical bills. I’ve already flushed it once at 23 with a bankruptcy, I can’t do that again for a few more years.

I’m not exactly ‘poor’ either, I am well above the poverty line, in theory, but when you have medical bill payments that are larger than your rent payment…If you go by my W2 I look pretty darn rich considering I’m technically single. However, I go deeper into debt every month despite living on mac and cheese and ramen noodles

You keep saying this plan over and over, and I haven’t seen a single one of the possible candidates or any congressman talk about such a plan.

 

[vern_humphrey]

With what savings? I have more medical debt than my own parent’s mortgage and I’m only 27. I’ve never been able to save a penny my entire life, every cent and about 300% more goes straight out into medical bills. I’ve already flushed it once at 23 with a bankruptcy, I can’t do that again for a few more years.

I’m not exactly ‘poor’ either, I am well above the poverty line, in theory, but when you have medical bill payments that are larger than your rent payment…If you go by my W2 I look pretty darn rich considering I’m technically single. However, I go deeper into debt every month despite living on mac and cheese and ramen noodles

Did you miss this part?

People who cannot afford MSAs can apply for assistance, based on their most recent tax return, and would receive proportionate assistance – not an automatic 100%. They would get help with insurance premiums and with each payment from their MSA – so they would always have the chance to save something by bargaining and not over-consuming.

You keep saying this plan over and over, and I haven’t seen a single one of the possible candidates or any congressman talk about such a plan.

This plan does not benefit the insurance industry – it only benefits the people. Therefore for Congress to consider it, the **people **must demand it.

 

[pathia]

Did you miss this part?

This plan does not benefit the insurance industry – it only benefits the people. Therefore for Congress to consider it, the **people **must demand it.

You said it would be based on income. My income is quite sufficient, W2’s do NOT show anything about my medical bills, all W2’s do is show my paycheck amounts for the year.

Edit: I see you say tax returns. You can only use so much medical debt to reduce taxes, I pretty much get max taxes back every year but it’s still not enough, and I continue to be buried deeper.

 

[pontoon]

I wonder once we have socialized medicine and become a socialist country where will the Catholic church fit in? Will there be Catholic school or all equal state run schools? What will happen to all the Catholic Hospitals won’t the state have to run them? I wonder will there just be socialized religion run by the state? Once they get in power and redistribute the wealth no organization is safe not even the boy scouts. Where are our priests and bishops and why don’t speak out against these so called catholic politictions who support abortion and same sex marriages. I am Irish Catholic and I was ashamed again yesterday having this senator endorsing someone else and acting like he speaks for all Irish Catholics. Why doesn’ t kmy church leadership say something?

 

[vern_humphrey]

You said it would be based on income. My income is quite sufficient, W2’s do NOT show anything about my medical bills, all W2’s do is show my paycheck amounts for the year.

So you think the form on which you apply would not have a block for last year’s medical expenses?

From: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_4_55/ai_73328592

Medical Expenses Can Be a Valuable Income-Tax Deduction - Brief Article
Healthcare Financial Management, April, 2001 by William G. Kistner
No one wants to pay more income tax than the law requires. When preparing their returns, many taxpayers itemize their tax deductions to reduce their Federal income-tax liability. Maximizing deductions is a good way to reduce the taxes owed to the government. When tracking expenses that can be deducted, taxpayers should consider their medical and dental expenses.

From:hrblock.com/taxes/tax_tips/deductions_credits/medical_expenses.html

(H&R Block website)

Tax Tip #48
Overview
To deduct medical expenses, you must itemize and expenses must exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI).

Disability is taxable if you receive payments based on premiums paid by your employer, but not taxable if you pay the premiums.

The Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) pays for 65% of qualified health plan premiums for eligible trade impacted workers and certain Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) recipients.

Clearly, you need a new tax accountant.

 

[pathia]

So you think the form on which you apply would not have a block for last year’s medical expenses?

From: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_4_55/ai_73328592

From:hrblock.com/taxes/tax_tips/deductions_credits/medical_expenses.html

(H&R Block website)

Clearly, you need a new tax accountant.

Read my edit. I am claiming the maximum amount allowed, I pay almost no taxes at all each year. I have an MBA I am my own accountant.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Read my edit. I am claiming the maximum amount allowed, I pay almost no taxes at all each year. I have an MBA I am my own accountant.

If you are claiming the maximum amount, then clearly there would be medical expense data on your tax return. Proof of additional bills, over and above the maximum allowable would also be added to your application.

What’s so hard about that?

 

[pathia]

If you are claiming the maximum amount, then clearly there would be medical expense data on your tax return. Proof of additional bills, over and above the maximum allowable would also be added to your application.

What’s so hard about that?

Nothing about it is hard. However it is just a pipe dream. I can’t even get my congressman to agree that I deserve the right to not be fired for my private life. How could I ever get them to talk about this?

 

[vern_humphrey]

Nothing about it is hard. However it is just a pipe dream. I can’t even get my congressman to agree that I deserve the right to not be fired for my private life. How could I ever get them to talk about this?

There is an old saying, “People by and large get the kind of government they deserve.”

If we will not work for a program that benefits us, and prefer to surrender to the interests of the big insurance companies, shame on us.

 

[whatevergirl]

Not true, Vern. Not true at all. I’ve been in this business most of my adult life and that isn’t the case. Admin costs are not 20-30% of health insurance costs.

I have been in the (commercial side) for some time, and personal lines before…and I agree with that. I think it depends on administrative costs…what it meant by that. Servicing policy holders is taxing, and there is a lot of overhead, if that’s the right term, alloted with paying that personnel to service the healthcare accounts. (and all accounts as well)

 

[vern_humphrey]

I have been in the (commercial side) for some time, and personal lines before…and I agree with that. I think it depends on administrative costs…what it meant by that. Servicing policy holders is taxing, and there is a lot of overhead, if that’s the right term, alloted with paying that personnel to service the healthcare accounts. (and all accounts as well)

And let’s remember, every piece of paper processed by the insurance company was created by the healthcare provider – so it’s actually a double expense.