Looks like prescription cost increases ( note: increases....not expenses ) were definitely leveling off but overall hospital and physician care expenses were cumulatively much higher than the last '98, '99 and 2000. I woiuld like to see the same numbers for the years 1993 thru 1997. On the other hand....insurance premiums and in my experience co-pays....which combined are the real out of pocket expense for American families went up appreciably in the years you listed: "Between 1999 and 2008, employer-sponsored family health insurance premiums rose by 119 percent nationally, while median family income rose by 29 percent.."
Not that it is any of your business, but according to Quicken records, just in payroll deductions, we have paid $103,038 over the past 20 years. Twenty years ago, I was paying $3851.90 in payroll deduction. This year, will be a little over $6452.46. That $6452.46 figure is a little less than 3.3% of our gross income. Now this is only for two people and reflects two job changes for me and four job changes for Cindy. Want to tell me why you wanted to know?
You made the statement that I don't want to pay for my health insurance so naturally I wondered if you paid for yours. Seems like you have. My premiums have been around $110,00.00 during that time with at least an additional $60-70,000.00 out of pocket for co-pays and deductibles.
My deductibles and co-pays have been at least that. I am on prescription drugs that just the co-pays are about $300/quarter. I have paid deductibles and co-pays on ~80 ER visits for Kidney stones in that 20 year period. I have paid deductibles and co-pays on three knee replacements (two for me and one for Cindy). We have had other major surgeries as well. See Dave, we all have these issues. However, there is only one person on this board that whines about it constantly.
Also, I never made that statement. I said that I did not want to pay for your 22 year old boy's insurance. Oh, and by the way. Read your beloved Obama's healthcare bill a little closer. Unless I have been given bad info, it appears that this provision that lets you add him to your policy becomes law in January but does not go into affect until your boy is 26 years old (4 years from now).
Actually my wife's HR person already informed her that he will added by Feb. 1st of 2011 as per the new law. And....I take it back about not wanting to pay for health insurance.. I sure as hell have paid more than many, many Americans have for my family's healthcare costs over the past 20 years and I certainly would love to pay less.......no question about it. I would be a fool not to.
We all would Dave. I would like to be filthy rich, look like Tom Cruise, and still have my same wife. Two of these things just are not happening but you don't see me whining about it every single day. You know, we all have issues with healthcare, bad refs, etc. We just don't take the complaining to excess. You are so outspoken that it turns people off.
I don't whine about it....I just post startling truths when I read them and I wonder why the GOP base...which isn't the GOP elite of America by any stretch.....just bucks up and takes what they are dished out by those elite. It's almost comical.
The perception is that you are whining. You are presented with facts that you ignore and continue to whine. I'm going to equate this to the harmful process of sexual harassment in the workplace. You may not mean harm. It is, however, the perception of the one being harassed that is important. You must change your approach or be fired. Here, it is the perception of the reader that counts. If it is only one reader, then maybe that reader is wrong. If it is all readers, then there is no doubt who is at fault.
It's no secret that 95% of the posters here range from right-wing to extreme right right-wing. There is a natural abrasion with differing views that are left of center. I don't drink the Fox News kool-aid like virtually everyone else here.
... No you don't. You drink the LIBERAL battery acid that ABC, NBC, and CBS spews forth. Then you repeat it here over and over and over again. I can listen to differing opinions but after the 300th time, i draw a line. What would you do Dave, if everyone on this board started spouting off differing opinions to yours 15 times a day, every day, for the next 2 years? We do have different beliefs that you but we only force them down your throat in rebuttal to your posts. That is all I care to deliver on this topic.
"What would you do Dave, if everyone on this board started spouting off differing opinions to yours 15 times a day, every day" ...ignore them....as I usually do.
What do you do, Sid, when Dave goes off on his endless rants about politics, health insurance, and Florida football? :lol:
How is that? You post many things that aren't "startling truths". And even at that, simply because you proclaim something as a "startling truth" does not make it so.....
Going back to the OP here's the result of the Health Care Legislation http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/09/22/Some-insurers-to-stop-covering-children/UPI-61321285198268/ Insurers are now not writing policies for children. The reason is simple. Why would you pay for insurance now when you can wait and if your child develops a serious medical condition you can buy insurance with no exclusions for pre existing conditions? It like letting people drive around with no auto insurance and allowing them to by a policy after an accident that has to cover the damage. Those insurers who continue to write will have to greatly increase their premiums since there will be no insureds who do not have serious conditions to spread the risk. And of course the government will react by preventing the higher premiums and the companies will completely stop. That of course means the entry of the government option which was planned from the beginning.
Ahh yes, another wonderful result of the unintended consequence of government intervention. The invisible hand of collective rational human behavior always finds its way in the end over the arbitrary designs of any singular interest......no doubt, Nancy, Harry and Barack are smart folks and there are for certain many people who are happy to have them make their decisions for them but their infinite wisdom will ALWAYS pale in comparison to the invisible hand. Surely this is Bush's fault.....