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That's bananas, and that's still not as much as some other people are gonna be on the hook for. Someone else in the article said they're being charged $30,000 for insurance for the year. How the fuck are the upcoming generations supposed to afford to pay for housing, food, and essentials when half of their paycheck (or more?!) is going directly to health insurance?
It appears that the choice many are going to opt for is to simply forgo insurance. Which is really extra fun because that means even if they're injured in an accident they didn't cause, they can still be on the hook for thousands of dollars if they are taken to a hospital. Not to mention, it's totally normal for a person to need to see doctors for various reasons, elective or otherwise. It might actually make sense to start figuring out what the non-insured charges are for my usual annual visits and see if we can try saving a few grand next year by opting out of insurance as well. What other recourse does one have except to try to secure a job that pays their medical benefits fully...
...and don't forget, having insurance coverage doesn't mean you won't be paying anyway! I'm getting charged over $1000 for taking an ambulance to the hospital after being struck sitting in my truck at a red light. (Due to all kinds of other ridiculous rules regarding insurance, nobody's insurance is covering it, leaving me to hope my health insurance will... They kicked in what they thought is appropriate and sent me a bill for over $1000)....I supposedly have pretty decent insurance and we've been paying about $700/mo for 2 people through my wife's plan. Can't wait to see whether that's gonna double or triple! Perhaps that'll just make our choice for us and we'll start rolling the dice as well.
That's the cool thing! They aren't!
Republicans want health care tied to employment so that you are forced to choose between your job and your life.
If you want a slightly based view on how this system got developed, the Acquired episode on Epic is a great listen.
The US system of healthcare was invented around the same time as the UK's and we got a choice on how to handle it.
TL;DL: there was a salary cap on many jobs due to WW2 and companies offered health insurance as a way to make their jobs more attractive. Back then most people didn't have health insurance nor was it needed so this was considered a fringe benefit. Labor unions, frustrated by the lack of political movement on salary cap, fully supported private health insurance.
Added bonus: Less people on insurance means higher rates for the rest as the pain can't be spread around any more.
It's almost like that's what the individual mandate was supposed to do. This country is so stupid, single payer just makes sense but no, dEaTh PaNeLs, as if that's not what fucking Aetna has always done.
The country is not stupid, we are under siege from an aggressive oligarchy that is waging class war. We NEED to organize and fight back.
This country is absolutely in the midst of an ongoing class war. It is also incredibly stupid. This shit don't work, son!
Uneducated and brainwashed, maybe, but you can’t fix stupid and I choose to have more hope than that.
The people are not terminally stupid, but the situation we find ourself in is. Stupid can also mean vexatious.
Fair enough
Yes but also this country is stupid as fuck. I'm not particularly bright but I swear to god I'm fucking Einstein compared to the average mouth breather you encounter in the day to day. I legitimately can't understand how some of my co-workers don't manage to drown in the shower they're that fucking stupid. And that's like the average person, not even the really fucking dumb ones. Go talk to people at Walmart for an hour. Americans are stupid as fuck.
I'm not in the US so any comparisons are pretty much worthless, but 30k/year sounds just ridiculous. Myself and my wife make slightly above average by local standards but if we'd need to cough up another 2k/month for insurance that just wouldn't happen. With mortage and other living expenses with kids there's practically nothing left from what we make. Sure, we could cut our expenses a bit, we're living pretty comfortably, but there's no way we could squeeze 2k/month out of our "non necessary expenses".
But, again not being in the US, that's taken care of via taxes. 30+% is a lot out of salary but at least I don't have to save for college fund nor worry about visit to hospital/doctor.
That's the wild thing to me: we are taxed nearly as much but we don't get jack shit in return. I'd gladly pay even more taxes if it guaranteed things like health care and education.
That’s the wild thing, your taxes are used to support the tax cuts for Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Yeah, my household tax rate last year was ~32% after Federal, State, and Local. That's not counting the other taxes I paid on gas, or fees for my car, or property taxes. I would not be surprised if 50% of my income was taxes.
Bezos paid like 0.9% I think. Fucking ridiculous.
Can you explain to us noobs in Europe why you guys continue to let this happen and continuously vote in people who keep selling trickle down fairy tales?
Because an uneducated bible-thumping yeehawdist's is given the same (if not more) weight than a well-researched and rational vote.
My unpopular opinion from the last 26 years is that equality in voting means pandering to bottom half of the population. If you want an intelligent and effective government, it needs to be run by intelligent and effective people. Democracy is representative of the people, so if you have everyone voting equally, then at best, you're going to end up with a 50% intelligent and effective government.
I honestly don't know how to solve this problem. I can't see a way that you can weight a vote by intelligence or "connection to reality" without having a system that is very vulnerable to oppression, and still protects the rights of the morons and sheep who want to get rid of social services while they are receving substantial welfare.
I'm not advocating for removing or watering down anyone's right to vote, I'm just calling attention to a fundamental flaw in the system.
Because Americans have been trained to think that they're just one step away from the billionaires, and have absolutely zero class consciousness.
That bites. I had insurance offer to pay 900$ for my 4k ambulance ride (involuntary) , despite my insurance clearly stating 50$ co pay. I signed the check to the ambulance company from my insurance and they kicked me a bill for the 3k$ and change remaining. Send that to BCBSRI, they denied it. I had to appeal and remind them of the policy I had where JT clearly stated 50$ co pay for ambulance and they finally coughed up the rest as a "one time exception". Fucking racket this shit is they were just hopeful I wouldn't go through the 3 months or so of bullshit and being harassed by collections companies to pay. Never gave the collections a penny and medstar ems can SUCK MY DICK fuck those guys.
And the only way out of that is to never give your name if you go to a hospital. The problem with that plan is they have no records to work from like medical history, allergies, etc, so the outcomes will be worse.
Don’t do this if you’re a brown person. You’ll find yourself in an ICE facility.
That's a good tip! I would hate to be in a position where i needed to use it but what else are you supposed to do? It's absolutely bonkers how much they charge for this shit