| ▲ | OldSchool 3 hours ago |
| I worked as consultant at a major west coast-based health insurer in 1993. A family plan, that is, two adults plus any number of children, was $300/month; a figure that wasn't far off from the cost of a studio or 1 BR apartment at that time anywhere but the most expensive coastal cities. Today, that family plan, even as a HMO, can easily be $3000/month. I would guess that mythical apartment is maybe $1200/month now. So what happened Health Care? how has the caregiver:administrator ratio changed in the past 30+ years? You've performed about 3x worse than Real Estate in terms of value, yet you're not quite as visible and complained-about because you hide behind employment. Hmmm. |
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| ▲ | jazz3k 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I'm not sure where you live, but I'm a consultant and buy my own health insurance for a family of 4. I pay around $1200/month. This includes doctor visits and prescriptions. My wife had both of our kids on this plan and my deductible was $3,000. "So what happened Health Care" Health insurance stopped being insurance when the government forced them to cover everything. You are paying for risks that will never apply to you. |
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| ▲ | 33MHz-i486 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The startup I started working for has a fake health plan,(no network, prior authz and reimbursement issues for everything serious). So I just priced our family of 4 for rudimentary PPOs on the BCBS in our state. Our COBRA offer was 2400, ACA Individual market was 2200-3300, Small group plan thru my wifes LLC was 1700-3000. These plans mostly have 6-8k deductibles and out of max out of pocket $17k. So I guess if you have a serious condition its post tax $40k/year until bankruptcy or death. How are you supposed to earn an extra 40k if youre not healthy enough to work. This is actually an insane system! | |
| ▲ | resoluteteeth 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Health insurance stopped being insurance when the government forced them to cover everything. You are paying for risks that will never apply to you. The pooling of risks is literally what makes it insurance. If any part of health insurance is arguably not actually insurance it's the annual preventative care that is certain to apply to you. | | |
| ▲ | tick_tock_tick 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes, but classically insurance wouldn't allow a guaranteed bad bet in. Health care is way worse then the classic 80/20 (20% of the people generate 80% of the costs). Pruning even just a fraction of these ultra high cost humans massively reduces the cost for everyone else which is what insurance companies used to do before the government stepped in. (I mean a lot of this discussion is fucked because healthcare is literally your life but the point still stands) | | |
| ▲ | TheOtherHobbes 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | The 20% of the people are likely to include nearly 100% of the population over time. With socialised health care you don't just avoid the corporate tax of insurer profiteering, you're saving money in return for access to care when you need it. Because - sooner or later - you will. |
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| ▲ | lotsofpulp 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Because your 1993 health insurance covered far less. There was no out of pocket maximum, you were denied for pre existing health conditions, and a surprise bill could show up anytime. Now, you can buy health insurance even if you know your anemic kid will need $1.5M of treatment in the year, and it will only cost you ~$10k to ~$15k per year. To be clear, today’s health insurance premiums are not premiums either, they are taxes, due to the legal ban on underwriting health risks and caps on premium price ratios between various ages. For example, my kid is going to use up more healthcare than he will probably ever earn in his life, before he even turns 7. Your premiums are what is paying for that, aka wealth redistribution via “premiums”. |
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| ▲ | bushbaba 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | We use an insurance model. Get upset how insurance works. Then complain it’s broken. Either it’s insurance or it’s wealth redistribution. | | |
| ▲ | lotsofpulp 43 minutes ago | parent [-] | | In the US, it is explicitly wealth redistribution, from the young and healthy to the old and sick. It is still called an insurance premium because it is more politically palatable. |
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| ▲ | TheOtherHobbes 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Unless your (kid's) care is denied because it's a pre-existing condition. Or for some other pretext. | | |
| ▲ | lotsofpulp an hour ago | parent [-] | | In 1993, it would have been. In 2026, he cannot be denied coverage due to Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. However, because more people are getting more healthcare, like my son, premiums are higher. Which, as I explained, are not premiums, but rather taxes. So OldSchool is comparing a $300 per month premium with benefit maximums to $3,000 per month taxes, which are not comparable. And it’s not the insurance companies that cause the $3,000 premiums, it’s the medicine manufacturers and hospitals and doctors. My son is on medication that costs $80k per dose, and each infusion visit is $10k at least. And, of course, the legal liability each step of the way. |
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| ▲ | nobodyandproud 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Have you assessed the size of United Healthcare? The number of paper pushers and executives is sustained by your premium. |
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