Blue Cross huge rate increase what to do
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It's even worse than that. If you go in as a cash customer, you'll be billed at a much higher rate than a patient who has insurance. And both of you will be paying for the individuals who can't or don't pay.
Those people need to have their own insurance
Kronk
Full time employment: Posting here.
I can't see going without health insurance. You might be healthy now, but what if you get cancer while you have no insurance? Your life savings can disappear very quickly.
Our coverage is an HSA plan around $300/month for 2 35-year-olds, with a $5700 deductible. For a few years we didn't come close to the deductible, but we smashed through it this year and almost hit it last year. Cash price for my shoulder surgery was somewhere around $30,000.
I'd trim a whole lot from my budget before I tried going bare of health insurance. Even though the chances of horrible health issues might be pretty low, the downside risk is too much for me to contemplate taking that chance.
Our coverage is an HSA plan around $300/month for 2 35-year-olds, with a $5700 deductible. For a few years we didn't come close to the deductible, but we smashed through it this year and almost hit it last year. Cash price for my shoulder surgery was somewhere around $30,000.
I'd trim a whole lot from my budget before I tried going bare of health insurance. Even though the chances of horrible health issues might be pretty low, the downside risk is too much for me to contemplate taking that chance.
teejayevans
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IIRC, the average cost of cancer treatment back in 2000 was $32K, brain cancer was 50+K. Lets assume today that would be 50-75K. The question is at what point do you just opt out of HI, and put the money away for the possibility of a severe illness. If HI is 10K/year, then in 5 years you would have enough to self insure. Obviously, these are only averages and the higher costs could far exceed 100K, but at some point you will say, I'll take that chance.
For example, most people don't have disability insurance, so even if you have HI to pay the costs, if unable to work, you may be in the poor house. What's the phrase, you paid for a ticket, you take your chances.
Regarding paying top dollar for health care if you don't have insurance, here is one option I found on the web, but have no experience with:
How the Plan Works
TJ
Last week I had pain medicine filled (kidney stones ) and went back to pick it up later. When I paid I noticed the price went from $5 to $26. I was in pain so I paid and went home. My wife noticed the increase and got me to go back. There are two people in this town with the same name and they got me mixed up with the other. The other person did not have health insurance and I do. Why would they give me a discount ? when I have health insurance that pays most of it anyway. Is that fair? I say heck no. This needs to stop. Because they knew I had caught them in a mess they called me at home later and said I would be give a $20 gift card when I return. Of course I got it but again it is not fair. I did a little research and found that the person with the same name as me is on Medicare, he is four years older than me (67). I found that out when I went back for the gift card. I should call someone about this but what good would it do. Because I have health insurance I got a big discount. I guess when I get on Medicare I will have to pay much more for prescriptions. What a mess this country is in. oldtrig
Kronk
Full time employment: Posting here.
I think you're seriously underestimating costs. Disclaimer: I have no first-hand knowledge of cancer costs. The following came up on a Google search:
I think you're talking more in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a few years to deal with cancer. At least that's the assumption I'm making when deciding to keep health insurance.
I don't know where you're getting that info from, but a year of cancer treatments could easily exceed $300k and could reach over $1 million for some types of rare diseases.
The rates the OP posted are high because they are in New Jersey. The rates for NJ & NY, are much more expensive than other states with full underwriting. I know NY is guaranteed-issue community rating, pretty sure that NJ is also, but I could be wrong.
teejayevans
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See attachment...
On some strange level this post is wierd in the sense that there are still against health care / insurance reform. I'm not saying I agree with everything being proffered by these so-called fools , sorry , I mean representatives, but we damn sure better do something as a nation fast or no one will be able to afford the premiums...what happens then 
My solution is simple, quick, and no rocket science....offer everyone who wants it the same plan Congress has...DAH !!!! This shouldn't even be up for debate. Just expand the plan to include everybody and charge the same rates. If its good enough for Congress its good enough for me. If 50, 75 or 100 million folks wrote to Washington and demanded then we'd see some results, QUICK. However, Americans are being bamboozled by the fake partisonship and BS that keeps us divided....what suckers we are !
My solution is simple, quick, and no rocket science....offer everyone who wants it the same plan Congress has...DAH !!!! This shouldn't even be up for debate. Just expand the plan to include everybody and charge the same rates. If its good enough for Congress its good enough for me. If 50, 75 or 100 million folks wrote to Washington and demanded then we'd see some results, QUICK. However, Americans are being bamboozled by the fake partisonship and BS that keeps us divided....what suckers we are !
It should be noted that the cost that an insured patient pays for treatment is far different from that paid by someone that doesn't have insurance. For instance, I had surgery in October and the surgery center billed $7416 for the use of the facility. My insurance paid $791.24 and I paid $383.86. An uninsured person would have had to pay $7416. (791.24+383.86) + 531%(791.24+383.86) = $7416
I think there should be a law put in place that would make it illegal to charge two people differently for the same procedure within the same facility. I find the current behavior highly unethical.
I think there should be a law put in place that would make it illegal to charge two people differently for the same procedure within the same facility. I find the current behavior highly unethical.
ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
On some strange level this post is wierd in the sense that there are still against health care / insurance reform. .... but we damn sure better do something as a nation fast or no one will be able to afford the premiums...what happens then
I keep hearing this repeated, but it is a gross distortion IMO. Many of us are 100% in favor of reforms, but we are not in favor of the present proposals. Big difference. There isn't anything "strange or weird" about that at all - have you read/studied the bills?
I don't think there is much of anything in the proposals to contain costs (some say just the opposite), so that does not address your second issue at all. Going from the frying pan to the fire would be "doing something", but not want we want/need. Let's be careful what we wish for - we need real solutions, not just "action".
Would you outlaw buying clubs like Sam's and Costco? Hotel "loyalty" programs, etc?
I agree it's a problem, but I don't think more laws addressing the symptoms rather than the causes are the solution.
-ERD50
Rich_by_the_Bay
Moderator Emeritus
Not sure how these things work: was that before or after bonuses, dividends, 7-figure executive salaries, saturation marketing costs?
No, but then again I believe that buying a lightbulb or a pair of shoes is different than buying health care.
So what "causes" a facility to charge one person more than another?
I'm not an expert, everything below is what I've heard from others.
I believe the differential pricing is the result of negotiated contracts. Some insurers (Medicare?) specifically stipulate that no other payer can be charged a lower rate for any service. So, if a hospital has signed a bunch of these contracts, then the individual who comes to the door with cash and no previous contract or arrangement is gonna get nailed.
Some doctors have set up small clinics that are cash only. The doctors and the patients are very happy with the arrangement. The fees are moderate, the doctors get to practice medicine with very little back office overhead, etc. But, they couldn't offer these low rates to walk-in customers if they also saw insured people, because they'd be in violation of the contract ("None of your customers can be charged less than what we paid you for the people we insure.")
We already don't have a free market in insurance. Maybe the government intrusion of mandating a "same price to all customers regardless of payment by cash or insurance" requirement would decrease the cost and friction of getting people to spend their own money for medical care, and thereby reduce the costs. I'd have to explore the consequences more to know if this was a good thing. But it would go hand-in-hand with requiring price transparency, which I think that would be a major step forward in creating an efficient market and thereby drive down costs more effectively than government caps.
Dude, that's from 10 years ago....things have changed a bit in the last 10 years. One dose of Erbitux (colon cancer) costs about $15,000. Sometimes it is administered twice a month. That's $360k in prescription cost alone for one year, not including the treatment itself.
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