Today we got our health insurance renewal rates. Because we have our own business, we purchase our own outrageously priced health insurance.
In order to keep the EXACT SAME COVERAGE for the next year (which already includes a hefty deductible and out-of-pocket charges, copays, partial prescription coverage, etc.) our monthly premium is going up 21%.
YES, I SAID TWENTY-ONE PERCENT.
THAT’S A 2 IN FRONT OF A 1.
21%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How many businesses do you know that are increasing their profits by even 10% a year? How about a measly 5%?
This means our monthly insurance premium will be more than our mortgage payment, property taxes, home insurance, and phone/DSL bills combined.
I truly do not see how the American Dream is even possible for most people any longer. You can, of course, argue whether the American Dream is an appropriate goal for a Christian, but that’s not my point.
Do you think the American Dream is still a possibility for most people? Let’s define the American Dream as the ability to get an education of some kind (military, college or trade), work hard, and achieve what your parents achieved or better when it comes to financial return, advancement, and security.
I am really starting to believe that the American Dream is not a possibility for a growing segment of the population. How about you?
Sallie: regarding your point, “I also think if people got back part of their premium if they didn’t use it, you would see a totally different mindset about running to the doctor for everything.” What you’re suggesting here is kind of an enforced-savings, payment-up-front system. I guess that would work if our need for health care were limited to vaccinations, pap smears and the occasional broken arm. But it’s not the same thing as a functioning insurance market for the worst-case-scenarios out there: heart bypass, cancer, acute diabetes. Come to think of it, those diseases are so very common now that they can hardly be described as worst-case scenarios. If one’s payment is refunded, even partially, the market cannot work.
Interesting quote by health care economist Uwe Rheinhardt about our desire for cheap, widely-accessible, private health care:
“Americans must realize that, in any market system, the supply side will always seek to minimize the consumers’ surplus left on the table for consumers to enjoy. It is part of the suppliers’ natural instinct to maximize their profits and must be judged perfectly fair under the ethics ruling the marketplace. If Americans find that ethic unsuitable for healthcare, they question the suitability of the market approach for healthcare.”
daily mail ^ | 3rd December 2007 | EWAN FLETCHER
Posted on 12/03/2007 7:39:26 PM PST by Coleus
More than 100,000 people in Britain suffering from dementia are being prescribed drugs by doctors and care homes that at best offer few benefits and at worst are lethal, according to shocking new research. The controversial drugs, which are often used to sedate patients, have been described as a “liquid cosh” by one expert and the study has provoked a call for stricter limitations on their use.
Professor Clive Ballard from King’s College, London, investigated the effects of anti-psychotic medication, which is given to nearly half of dementia patients in care homes at an annual cost of £80million. He found that those who had been given it were nearly twice as likely, over a four-year period, to die than those who were not prescribed it.
Professor Ballard said: “People who weren’t taking the anti-psychotic drugs had a 62 per cent chance of being alive by the end of the study while the people who were taking the drugs had only a 36 per cent chance of being alive. “For the vast majority of people there are no benefits, and considerable harm, from using these drugs. There were clearly deteriorations in some of the core symptoms, particularly their ability to communicate effectively.”
But of course they need much less attention because they are in a zombie state! And their families can not “shop around.” They are stuck in the NHS system. There is no competition.