Originally Posted by
Coptech
Helping millions of Americans? That is a stat with no backup. There may be millions on the plan but that does not mean it benefits them. We made it therough our period of rolling the dice...Meanwhile we got the notice that my BCBS plan gets worse this year and costs even more. The same effect that most health insurance plans have experienced since ACA because they must rate everyone for the worst case scenario. Granted, my good health has benefitted the insurance company. They get to collect a premium without spending any more than postage on letters explaining what they did not pay. If I had a catastrophic claim, then I get to see the world more from your side but right now, I am spending more for less. Your earlier posts on pricing of ambulance rides, and other procedures was way inflated from what I have seen but those are the numbers they tout to give a warm fuzzy feeling of "look what we are protecting you from". If the insurance companies were not allowed lobbyists, or to contribute to a candidate's campaign fund and the Health care industry was hobbled in the same fashion, I suspect more effort would be made to limit them from raping the public and pricing would fall into line. Everyone has heard the tale of the $30 tylenol. No attempts have been made to corrall the root of the problem. That is my whole contention. I believe that if I were able to capture every dime that was spent in my lifetime on health insurance and add to it the out of pocket expenses I had, and it was placed in an interest bearing account to pay the health expenses along the way, There would be money left over at my death. Again, Insurance is a slight of hand trick that makes the public feel that they pay retail prices and that is what the level of protection is. If the public was allowed to look at a bill, open it and say "nope, I am mailing you a check for 30% of that in it will be considered paid in full" they would see less value in their coverage. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Did the hospitals overcharge because the insurance industry had the power to name their price or did the insurance companies price on retail but pay wholesale? Again, if they only had to cover realistic charges driven and set by competition rather than an concontrolled pricing structure, and I nsurance companies were required to pay the same medical rates that were available to the public rather than a discounted rate, prices of both products would fall into line.
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