Rob Coffey wrote:If you need all 4, you pay cash out of pocket. Although, it shouldnt cost anywhere near $1500 to get a flu shot, a pediatrician visit, a massage and new glasses.
So ok now lets extrapolate out: take the example that I have 2 kids and a wife. Each kid needs new glasses plus two pediatrician visits a year plus dentist visits. My wife needs a check up and so do I. We all need flu shots against N1H1 and I still need new glasses.
Pay out of pocket? Again if both me and my wife work for Whole Foods at $10 an hour... with 800$ a year in health savings account benefits... Or maybe just let the kids go and I'll not get the flu shot or the glasses.
$2500 isnt the PREMIUM, it is the annual deductible. The premium will be much cheaper than low deductible policies. My company had considered changing to an HSA and the insurance premium for the high deductible policy is MUCH cheaper than we are paying now. I think we could put about $150 into everyones HSA account each month after buying the policy. If, like me, you go to the doctor about once every 15 years (although I turn 40 tomorrow, so I guess I probably need to schedule an appointment), $150 a month would build up into some big amounts.
The plan when I worked for Whole Foods was if you invoked your health insurance there was a significant premium. This discouraged the use of the insurance for normal every-day care or check ups and turned the policy into a kind of catastrophic policy. "Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in," John Mackey. It was great if you were hit by a car and needed 40,000$ in reconstructive surgery and hospital time, but if you just needed a check up you only option was out of pocket or the HSA dollars. What if you got sick three times in a year? This leads back to the above argument - sometimes things spiral out of control and people need more than just 800-1800$ a year in HSA monies to cover just the basics. On an average income of 25,000$ a year there isn't much left over for out of pocket medical expenses after paying for all the other basic necessities of life.
Which, what do you know, would help out a hell of a lot if I was unemployed or underemployed. If the plan wasnt tied to employment and had a cheap hi-D policy with cash building up, you can afford health care during the down times.
I believe one of the reforms being debated in Congress is to decouple health insurance from employment so when you leave your job or are fired you can continue to carry your policy.
As far as pre-existing conditions, see the article on the WSJ site today regarding term health insurance. There is no reason there couldnt be term health insurance like there is term life insurance. You know the cost of your insurance for the length of the term (the longer the term, the higher it is gonna be), but no change in conditions will cause it to go away.
I will read it.
My fundamental agruments against this kind of 'reform' stand. This will not bring the 47 million americans currently not covered into the system, nor will it drive down costs. The insurers still have an incentive to make otherworldly profits and there is no check on them as would be provided by a public option or the non-profit co-ops.
In the best of all possible worlds Mackey's prescription for health insurance reform might be a half step forward but this is the real world and it would barely change the status quo. his poolitics and policies are written clearly and for all to see. His motivations are still the same as they were yesterday: make as much money as he can for himself and the rest of the shareholders. Employees are not shareholders, they are at-will employees. They are only shareholders in America. That's why we need government to reform the health insurance industry. We are all stakeholders in our community and our country.
