Amazing how much lifesaving meds are overpriced in the US

[Eric Sedletzky]

Why not just pay the $850 penalty in California and save the $1,000 per month for insurance you're not using? If you have a serious illness, you're screwed but it sounds like you're in pretty good shape.

I’m not sure but I think it’s more than $850.
I know people who do that and I’m about ready to myself.
What sucks is there are other foreign insurance plans available for $300 mo that would cover something really bad, but they are not Obama care compliant.
Those would be for something like a bad car wreck or something.
Or move to Italy ?

 

[DandyDon]

Hopefully I will never need to be on any expensive prescriptions.

If you do, shop Canadian pharmacies. Start by searching Buy (name), find a few with the lowest prices, then check out their credentials. My Xarelto cannot be sold in generic in the US because of the contract from the patent owner, but it can in India, where my Canadian pharmacy buys it to ship direct to me. Always allow an extra month to deal with lost mail.

Why not just pay the $850 penalty in California and save the $1,000 per month for insurance you're not using? If you have a serious illness, you're screwed but it sounds like you're in pretty good shape.

Then there is that rub. My brother was in good shape when they discovered his late-stage colon cancer.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Or move to Italy ?

Italy is good, but almodt any other EU country provide free healthcare to residents.
What differentiates the locations is the quality of care received, not the cost.
In Italy the quality of treatment is quite variable.
Poor in South and islands, decent in center, good here in the North.
Here we have some hospitals truly excellent in principal towns, as here in Parma.
So I am lucky...
I do not know if other EU countries have the same large variance in care quality.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Italy is good, but almodt any other EU country provide free healthcare to residents.
What differentiates the locations is the quality of care received, not the cost.
In Italy the quality of treatment is quite variable.
Poor in South and islands, decent in center, good here in the North.
Here we have some hospitals truly excellent in principal towns, as here in Parma.
So I am lucky...
I do not know if other EU countries have the same large variance in care quality.

Here the quality of care varies state by state, but it also goes according to how much money you have and the quality of your insurance. The very rich get the best care.
If you want good health care don’t be poor!

 

[tridacna]

If you want good health care don’t be poor!

You don’t have to be rich. Just work for a company that cares about their employees. Or the police, fire dept, military or other gov entities. Our local PD had a hissy fit last year because our town asked them to pay $5 for a tier 2 Rx med. Cops won.

 

[Ghost95]

The thing about health care that pisses me off most is the fact that you can work at a job making $100, or $150k and still not be able to afford care without insurance. The costs are out of control. It's seems like the more care costs the more insurance you carry, and the more insurance you carry the more care costs. It's like a sick feedback loop.

 

[L13]

It's seems like the more care costs the more insurance you carry, and the more insurance you carry the more care costs. It's like a sick feedback loop.

That is exactly the problem! Insurance doesn't care how much it costs, they run a cost-plus business. Much like defense contractors. And part of the cost that they are plus-ing is all the administrators needed to manage all the complications they keep adding to the system.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

One thing’s for sure, insurance companies won’t lose.

 

[berndo]

Defense spending.
With the amount we spent in Afghanistan we probably could have given every man woman and child in the US free health care and had money left over for that time period. What did we get for all our efforts?
What does it cost us to maintain a defensive stance in Europe, and what do they pay for their own security in comparison?
Some things to think about when wondering why we don’t have free health care like some other nations.

You mean what's actually spend on defence or what's spend on invasions? Keeping forces that are supposed to keep the Russians away is proabably much cheaper than invading places and staying for 20 years.
BTW: There is not free health care here either, you're paying for it as long as you have a job, it's only free for people on wellfare.

I would love to keep the grand a month and just pay out if pocket but Obama won’t let me. I have to pay for every other poor person who doesn’t want to work, and I’m not a rich man by any means.

Well, that's the deal in a more or less civilized society. Would you really wanna live in a places where some child has to die because their parents don't have money to go to the doctor?
I'm sure a lot of poor people do work or would like to work. I'd rather pay less in tax and social insurance too but I'd rather to that than have more homeless and people suffering, especially when it's kids.

I still have to pay about $7000 out if pocket before the deductible is met if something serious happens. The $1000 mo. covers nothing, that’s just for access. I still have to pay a lot of money.

Wow, that's nuts.
IMHO, healthcare is better when controlled by the government to avoid this type of price gouging. 7k otu of pocket really is crazy. I'm pro free markets but not for necessities like health care.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

You don’t have to be rich. Just work for a company that cares about their employees. Or the police, fire dept, military or other gov entities. Our local PD had a hissy fit last year because our town asked them to pay $5 for a tier 2 Rx med. Cops won.

This is a problem when people begin to look at what types of employers and jobs will be the most beneficial when it comes to health care, instead of seeking the job or career they really want and are cut out for. This stifles entrepreneurship because people have way more to lose if they have to pay rediculous prices for health insurance. There are only so many police, fire, public service, government jobs available. When 3000 people show up for three open positions that’s not very inspiring.
Public service jobs also don’t produce anything material, they are service jobs instead of production jobs. We also need stuff to get done like building, small business manufacturing, etc.
I’m self employed and have to eek out a living everyday. Nobody hands me a damn thing. I produce, I make products, I make stuff.
It’s the absolute hardest for a guy like me to make it in this country. The system is not set up for a person in my position to thrive.
Think about this, Elon Musk would pay the same money for health insurance as me (actually a little less) because he is younger. But because he is so rich he is exempt from needing insurance because he can easily cover any medical catastrophe that could hit. He is basically self insured.
Every year that I get older my premiums go up a little over $100. As I get older the less energy and more burned out I get to be able to be as productive as I once was and make the same income, so the increasing cost if insurance is compounded.