[jazz3k]

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.

[33MHz-i486]

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]

> 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]

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]

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.

[mancerayder]

> Health insurance stopped being insurance when the government forced them to cover everything. You are paying for risks that will never apply to you.

Your entire message is extremely localized to your state. In New York State, the state marketplace a, are only HMOs with limited networks, b, are expensive with high deductibles, c) don't have all that much coverage. In California, by contrast, the plans are a lot more extensive.

In many states, no one pays 1200 a month for a family. My COBRA would be 1200 a month, and if I went with a marketplace plan probably closer to 800. Me. Alone.

And yes, paying for risks that don't apply to you is how insurance has to work, or the insurance companies go bankrupt.