"So… in terms of the real economy, this was an $83 transaction, equivalent to what you might spend on dinner for two. But instead of being paid with a credit card swipe, there were apparently multiple clerks involved at the doctor’s office and the insurer. Negotiations happened behind the scenes. A paper invoice was printed and put into an envelope by hand. A check was mailed through the U.S. mail"
The idea behind health insurance is spending other people's money. If health insurance provides no benefit over just putting money in your savings account, people will just do that instead. Then the system collapses.
(Pooling the money is more beneficial than keeping it to yourself, because the insurance companies can invest it better than an individual can. Think of the interest you get on $1000 vs. what you get on $1,000,000. One buys you a cup of coffee, the other supports you for life. When the insurance companies leverage your premiums in this way, it means that the actual money the spend is nearly free. It's a pretty good deal.)
My high deductable plan doesn't cover anything until I spend $1.5k on health costs in a year. (Except preventive health stuff, that's all covered.) After you pay 1.5k they cover everything. My company and I pay a premium for this coverage (it's not nearly as high as the co-pay and HMO plans available).
Really, when I got to the doctor once or twice a year, for a whopping grand total of about $70/visit, then spend MAYBE $100 on prescriptions/other medications with my prescription discount card, it's really not worth that extra $30 every two weeks.
I don't want to pay for my hypochondriac neighbor's daily doctor visits, or for their kid's sniffles. The way I (and a lot of other Americans) see health insurance is that it should pay for things that would bankrupt you, I can handle the small stuff.
The best part about HSAs is that they are pre-tax accounts, so they help with your income tax costs. This also has the effect of making medical things cheaper because you didn't lose 30%+ on that money before having to spend it. I'm just hoping Congress doesn't cut the usefulness of HSAs with their new health care garbage...
It's only tax-free if your contribution is less than the standard deduction. I don't spend $7500 on healthcare per year, so I can't even deduct it. Maybe if I buy a house I can't afford, then I'll have some deductable interest to push me over...
(If your employer handles the FSA/HSA, then it's pre-tax no matter what. I'm W2, but my employer simply doesn't offer that benefit because it costs them too much money.)
I don't want to pay for my hypochondriac neighbor's daily doctor visits, or for their kid's sniffles.
Well, that's what the co-pay is for. $20 every time you visit the doctor adds up if you visit unnecessarily -- the real cost that the doctor bills the insurance company isn't even much higher than that. Insurance companies aren't losing money on people who see the doctor every week.
(Why do I like the current system? Because the premium I pay is almost exactly matched to my monthly health maintenance cost. And I have protection in the case of disaster, or generally expensive medical procedures.)
Maybe, but only if that forced a real market in healthcare, with transparent and advertised prices and no tying between different services and specialists, so one could actually shop around. Right now, it's damn near impossible to get a rate sheet out of a doctor's office or a hospital, and they don't much like giving quotes on the phone either. Even auto mechanics are more transparent than that (they'll at least give you a quote or estimate if you insist on one). Why can't I go to five different doctors' websites and see five different rate sheets for what they charge for a range of common things, like standard office visits or vaccinations? Why won't a hospital tell me up front how much a surgery will cost, in total after all the different fees (surgeon, anesthesiologist, materials, etc.) are included?
If you actually think that the UK's financial problems have anything at all to do with NHS, well there's probably an extreme right wing party waiting for you.
Thats not a very constructive comment, but taking the trollbait - there are examples of other countries around the world (my own for example) that have public option health cares who's economies aren't in the tank.
Just to clarify: all of the industrialized world (except for the US) has universal health care.
As for the troll, a couple of points:
1. Britain has government-controlled health care, not just government-funded health care. In Canada, where I live, the government is the single payer but health care itself is provided by a wide variety of small and large businesses, including doctors' offices, walk-in clinics, testing labs, and so on.
2. Among industrialized countries, Britain is at the very low end of the spectrum for health care expenditures, either per capita or as a percent of GDP. Government-funded and -controlled health care in Britain has done a phenomenal job of containing costs.
Exactly. The effort required to meet insurance and then government regulations for a doctor or hospital to get paid is through the roof. I was at the doctor not long ago and noticed a sign at the desk that if you paid in full with cash or credit he would give you a price that was close to or below many people's rising co-pays.
"So… in terms of the real economy, this was an $83 transaction, equivalent to what you might spend on dinner for two. But instead of being paid with a credit card swipe, there were apparently multiple clerks involved at the doctor’s office and the insurer. Negotiations happened behind the scenes. A paper invoice was printed and put into an envelope by hand. A check was mailed through the U.S. mail"