Poll - ACTUAL non-subsidized heatlh care cost in ER.

[ashtondav]

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Living in the UK and UK resident. Private healthcare premiums $1,900 a year. Aged 52 and 53. That's with paying the first $1,000 of any treatment. Bad illness record in my early 20's probably boosts the cost

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Thank you ashtondav. The amounts provided are in US dollar or British pound? Why are you buy private health care insurance? Doesn't England have a universal health plan which you are already paying for thru taxes?

I've converted to dollars. When you're next over here come and see our hospitals and the wards. They ain't nice places! Also you can wait quite a long time to see a specialist. Care in the NHS (public sector) is fine in an emergency or for very very severe conditions (ie cancer). For other ailments (hips, knees, back problems etc) you can be waiting a year or so for treatment.

[USK Coastie]

Number of People : 2
Ages 57 and 55
Annual premium $6030
Dedeuctable: $3000 each
Pharmacy paid first $3000
Location: Usk WA.
Cola Option from Employer $13000/yr

[tangomonster]

Sam---don't mean to freak you out, but my numbers will show the high side of health insurance:

Number of people: 2
Ages: both 53
Annual premium: currently $1800 mine and $7500 DH--his will go up to $9600 next month
Deductible: $10,000 for me,$2500 for DH
Location: GA
Company: BCBS for me, United Health Care conversion policy for DH

Health care/insurance is truly our biggest expense in RE.

[magellan_nh]

DW and I each have individual HSAs with BCBS in NH

Here's the deal (same for both):
Age: 42
Premium: $251 per month (~$3,000 per year each)
Deductible: $5000
(includes preventative care such as physical, mammograms, pap, etc).

Total premium for both of us is $502 per month or ~$6,000 per year.

We could have gotten a joint policy that would have been ~$50 cheaper per month but with $10k family deductible. Also, DW was rated due to a foot injury (running) that has since healed and should yield a lower rate once she's been 6 months without treatment. The plan is to have her re-apply to see if she can get a better rate.

Even though neither of us has anything really wrong with us, it seems that the way the insurance industry works is that if you've been to the doctor for so much as a cold, you end up paying the standard rate which is about 40% higher than the preferred or best rate.

Jim

[Lagniappe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by magellan_nh Even though neither of us has anything really wrong with us, it seems that the way the insurance industry works is that if you've been to the doctor for so much as a cold, you end up paying the standard rate which is about 40% higher than the preferred or best rate. Jim

Is the rate we see quoted on the various web sites the standard rate or the preferred rate?

[magellan_nh]

I believe the rate quoted in online sites is the preferred rate.

Some people report actually getting that lower rate, but it seems to be a relatively small percentage.

Jim

[Sam]

Once again, thanks all for sharing. I now have a clear picture of the actual cost. Time to get back to my spreadsheet ;-)

[cute fuzzy bunny]

When you're factoring plans, you might want to do a little 'total cost of ownership'. Lay out a little spreadsheet with the coverages, co-pays, drug costs, out of pocket maximums and so forth, then figure what your average use is going to be and plug that into each plan.

Then you might want to look at the consumer reports ratings for PPO and HMO companies and weight that in to the cost accordingly. When we went through the process recently, we found that a particular PPO plan was more expensive but let us pick our own doctors, while the HMO plan was the cheapest, but we had to take the doctor of the day as they change often. However we've used the HMO provider before and had good luck.

When I looked up the PPO provider, they were among the worst in consumer reports ratings across the board. The HMO provider was at the top of their ratings. That flipped the 'on the fence' decision.


While the clear out of pocket costs for the PPO's Gold/Silver/Bronze offerings were only about a thousand apart, the TCO showed figures of 7000, 5000 and 4000 (approx) vs a cost of under 4k for the HMO. We'd need the $7000 PPO offering to equal the coverage of the HMO.

Of course, if you're healthy, dont use prescription drugs, dont balance on ladders with a nail gun in one hand and a paint gun in the other, etc...the cheaper PPO plan might TCO out to be pretty competitive.

As far as this continued escalation of costs and shaving of benefits, theres got to be an end in sight for it. Employers will simply stop bearing the cost burden at some point and nobody but the rich will be able to afford personal premiums.

At that point we degrade to a walmart like structure or a nationalized plan. I cant see a whole lot of room for other options. Either way the HC costs almost have to stabilize at some point.

[kcowan]

Number of people: 2
Ages: 62 and 64
Annual premium: $3955
Deductible: None. 20% copay and annual limit per person (e.g. $700) for each of dental, drugs, eyeglasses, etc.
Location: Vancouver, Canada

Includes travel insurance for multiple trips to US.

Estimated annual sin taxes paid to subsidize universal healthcare: $9980
(granted these are all discretionary but we are pretty sinful)

All USD at 5% exchange.

[JustMeUC]

I am female, 40 years old, I was quoted $10,560 a year 5K deductible for just myself. I can't imagine what it might be like in 15 years!!! I had a couple health issues a couple years back and 2 surgeries and I guess that is what threw me into the high cost arena. I decided to keep working for the time being......

[free4now]

Number of people: 1
Ages: high 30's
Annual premium: $1200
Deductible: $4000/person BCBS HSA
Location: California

[Meadbh]

Number of people: 1
Age: 49
Annual premium: $0 (included in income tax)
Deductible: $0
Dental plan from employer: 80% coverage
HSA from employer: C$500
PHIP for professional corporation enables expensing of discretionary health expenses
Estimated taxes paid to subsidize universal health care: <C$10000
Location: Somewhere in Canada

[Beststash]

Number of people: 2
Ages: both 56
Annual premium: $10,600
Deductible: $2,500/person
Location: TX
Other notable: ...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh Location: Somewhere in Canada

I think we've identified a shortcoming of the canadian system.

Its improperly medicating people until they dont know exactly where they are.

[Meadbh]

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Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny I think we've identified a shortcoming of the canadian system. Its improperly medicating people until they dont know exactly where they are.

[Sam]

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Originally Posted by Meadbh Estimated taxes paid to subsidize universal health care: <C$10000

I'm curious as to how you came up with this estimate.

[Freein05]

Age 62 and 59
Pacific Care HMO in California
Now on COBRA
Annual Premium $12,000

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam I'm curious as to how you came up with this estimate.

What I did was compare what we pay for liquor, wine and gas in our annual San Diego vacation, and then the Canadian prices with sin taxes applied.

Also Meadbh did not include Blue Cross (or equivalent) coverage for medical, dental, eyesglasses and drugs. If it covers all that and continues after retirement, then it is not what was asked for here.

Of course, travel health insurance is extra if any vacation time in the US is planned.

[starry night]

Coverage for 2, both age 53. North Florida
Humana One, $10,000 ded. with HSA
Mo prem $268.00 combined, annual = $3,216.
Just swithched to this one when premium went up with United. This one includes covered annual check ups and screening (outside of deductible). We are lucky to be in good health and on no RX. Hope that holds.

[Danny]

Age: 57 58 21
Annual premium: $4488 BCBS
Deductible: $10,000 each $30,000 Family
Dental plan $1188
Total Cost including premiums
2004 - $11,341
2005 - $ 8,779
2006 - $ 9,576
Location: Minnehaha, Minnesota

The first 18 months of Cobra premiums alone I had been paying were like $13,000 a year in 2001 - 2002, not counting the deductibles and co-pays. When Cobra was nearing the end, sweated the filling out of the family life medical history for 5 and waiting for months for the underwriter to decide whether they would cover and if they wanted to add on to the standard rate. During the wait I decided to go high-deductible.When I indicated I would go HD I got a quick OK.The premium has remained the same through the years, because even though the oldsters get nicked every couple years for more, we have youngsters that have been rolling off saving $50 a month each.
Even though we pay for everything we usually get a discounted negotiated rate which is about 10-20% off, more for x-rays and lab work.
I'm fortunate to be able to pay $30,000(20k in a couple yrs) each year if needed. Good to know there is a limit.