Health care costs going up

[Yaph]

Getting older so been following this thread.

Just finished open enrollment for 30,000+ person company.

For standard plan 1500 deductible and 6000 max out of pocket

Personal cost increase 42%. This include an additional $1,000 I have to pay for being smokers. 15% for non-smokers

Employer cost increase 43%

Combined minus smoking. 29% increase

[Tom]

Someone once said good health was priceless.

He lied.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by mostpost

Drug companies have a profit margin of 20%. Less than half of that goes back into R&D.

I'm not going to argue in favor of drug companies. I'm no fan. But I will argue the business economics.

R&D is an investment in the future. Very few companies plow back all their earnings into either R&D or capital investment. They budget according to the expected return on those investments. If there was a good return to be made by increasing their R&D significantly, they would be doing it out of greed.

Drug companies NEED high profit margins to justify their investments because they have much higher risks than the average company. They only have X number of years to both recover their initial R&D investments and also get an appropriate profit return before their drugs go off patent. They also have a huge number of failures you don't hear about and are under constant risk of lawsuits that could theoretically destroy a company.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by mostpost

Then why bring it up if you are OK with it? The reason drug companies have to give medications to some without charge is that those people have no insurance. Does it not make more sense to see that they have insurance and charge them for the medication.

It makes perfect sense to want everyone to have insurance, but your math is suspect.

You understand that people pay more healthcare in general because some people have no insurance, but you leave out the fact that if we give them insurance we will have to pay for it anyway. The money still has to come from somewhere. You just want to be someone else's taxes.

[davew]

Originally Posted by mostpost

Then why bring it up if you are OK with it? The reason drug companies have to give medications to some without charge is that those people have no insurance. Does it not make more sense to see that they have insurance and charge them for the medication.

It makes more sense to realize that people should not be kept alive longer than they were genetically programmed for - especially if they can not afford to pay for themselves.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by davew

It makes more sense to realize that people should not be kept alive longer than they were genetically programmed for - especially if they can not afford to pay for themselves.

I probably won't be alive long enough to see the day, but at some point the economics are practically going to dictate that we spend more on children and young adults and less on people in the last couple of years of life. It could get very ugly in 30-50 years when the demographics really start kicking in and the country is strangled by debt.

[Tom]

The Roman Empire fell.
We are not too big to fail.
I would suggest cashing in all government bonds post haste.

[Hoofless_Wonder]

Originally Posted by davew

It makes more sense to realize that people should not be kept alive longer than they were genetically programmed for - especially if they can not afford to pay for themselves.

It does make some sense, but of course broaches the topic of "death panels", something else that MostPost has assured us we have no reason to worry. Soylent Green, anyone?

The problem we face with ObamaCare is that the data on everyone's health will be readily available for making decisions which maximize profits and taxes - and that goal supersedes any goals on providing better health care for all, or respecting personal freedoms.

If Uncle Sugar was truly concerned about our health, all that was needed (at least initially) was to enforce the anti-monopoly laws and promote open competition in the health care market.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Hoofless_Wonder

If Uncle Sugar was truly concerned about our health, all that was needed (at least initially) was to enforce the anti-monopoly laws and promote open competition in the health care market.

Federal regulations in general, and ObamaCare in particular, greatly discourage competition and provide strong incentives for industry consolidation. And state co-ops, supposed to provide more competition, are not able to do so. Over half of them have shut down and most of the rest are in deep financial trouble.

[Dave Schwartz]

I would suggest cashing in all government bonds post haste.

And, what? Exchange them for government-based money?

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Dave Schwartz

And, what? Exchange them for government-based money?

Insurance company stock.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Dave Schwartz

And, what? Exchange them for government-based money?

Bonds will be worthless long before the currency will be.
Obama has already demonstrated that stocks and bonds are to be handles as he sees fit in stead of the legal ways.

Put some of it into guns.
The only votes that will count are bullets.

[Clocker]

Health Republic, the ObamaCare co-op in New York state, is broke and is being shut down by the state at the end of the month. The co-op owes hospitals $160 million, and state regulators have told the co-op not to pay in order to have an "orderly" shut down. The co-op charged premiums well below those of private carriers, and was unable to cover benefit pay outs.

Over 200,000 New Yorkers who like their health care plan will not be able to keep their health care plan. Further proof that the ObamaCare model is unsustainable.

http://www.syracuse.com/health/index...15/11/bag.html

[Tom]

How can that be?
I heard the system was fully vetted!

[Clocker]

UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest provider of health insurance announced this morning that it may choose to stop offering individual coverage after 2016, and will “pull back on its marketing efforts” immediately in this market.

The company expects to lose $200 million on ObamaCare plans in 2016, and after 2016 all ObamaCare programs to help insurance companies expire. The problem is too many older people getting benefits, not enough young and health paying premiums. Gee, who could have predicted that?

Wow, does this mean that people who like their UnitedHealth policy might not be able to keep their UnitedHealth policy? This couldn't result in higher premiums from other carriers, could it?

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/11/1...es-after-2016/