San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

just be thankful you are employed. Or that you are not someone that has major medical issues without insurance. If the costs are unbearable, try to find a better employer with better benefits.

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My deductible went up from $500 to $2000. And they increased the amount taken out of every paycheck from $150 to $260.

the good news is you will be getting 25% better care. NOT...

Coverage stayed the same and out of pocket premium stayed about the same as well.

To me, the current concept of medical insurance is to keep on feeding the Medical Industrial Complex.

I never go to the doctor. I would rather the employer give me the money so that I can buy my own health care.

I think that it would be better if the government would guarantee everyone a $5,000 per year medical spending account. Anything above that would have to be paid out of pocket. Anything over $50,000 would be picked up by catastrophic insurance.

Families could pool their $5,000 allowances and the unused portion, up to $1,000, would be refundable.

That way, people would self-ration their own medical usage and bargain for the best prices.

Employers would be completely out of providing insurance to employees and can redirect that money to higher salaries.

we live in a litigious society. we also live in a consumer is always right society.

the combination applied to medicine is therefore ALL doctors must be RIGHT 100% of the time. they also need to keep the patients happy by giving them what they demand.

how do doctors make sure they are RIGHT 100% of the time? they order tests, lots of them. they also give in to patients who want the newest (and therefore priciest) medication that was just advertised on TV.

the end result is the cost keeps going up, and the premium keeps rising.

Here's the example:

let's take 10 people showing up with cough in America. that 10 people will all get chest x-rays because the doctors don't dare miss anything. 3 out of the 10 will have an incidental finding on the chest x-ray that will require CT scan, 1 will need the CT scan repeated 2 or 3 times to ensure it is nothing. nothing was found but that's 10 chest x-rays, and 5 CT scans.

take the same 10 people showing up with cough in Taiwan. all told most likely cough would just go away. 2 comes back with the cough after a couple of weeks, those are the 2 that gets the chest x-ray. having only had 2 chest x-rays done, there are fewer incidental findings, no CT scan had to be done.

the result? the American gets more radiation, and the American then goes on a blog to complaint that his insurance premium is going up by another 24% this next year.

Time for tort reform and let health insurance be sold competitively across State lines. My costs went up $72. a month. We need reform, but not the Pelosi brand. Anyone watch V? I think she might be a reptile...

Hey Brian, knowing how you embrace religion, did you know that:

"A little-noticed measure would put Christian Science healing sessions on the same footing as clinical medicine. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state." This is from the LA Times. I hope this is a source you approve of...
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/l...

Our employee contributions went up over %60, year over year, for family coverage for the two HMO's offered. (By far the most popular plans at this corporate campus.)

I did some digging to find the raw numbers - the pre-stimulus adjusted COBRA numbers for 2009 and 2010... to determine how much the ACTUAL premiums went up (employer + employee contributions.) They went up 9% and 11% - depending on which plan.

So, not only did premiums go up... but my employer made the choice to shift a much higher percentage of the insurance cost to the employee.

In the past year we've also lost our 401k match, had our salaries frozen, and seen bonuses decimated.

But, as mentioned, we're lucky to have jobs.

I don't blame congress and the health care reform advocates. I blame the people at the corporate level who are determined to make sure our real wages go down significantly while they continue to pad their compensation packages pretty nicely.

Aecetia said:

California has had tort reform for a few decades. The max you can get for pain/suffering (vs actual medical expenses) is $250k. Not a lot if they amputate the wrong leg. But it's probably why insurance is much cheaper in CA than in many other states. I've lived in WA, GA, and PA - insurance was much higher in all those places than here.

Wow. CA is quite high enough for me. I would rather pay out of pocket and have an affordable catastrophic plan. My family does not go to the doctor very much at all. I would like to see some reform, but I am not happy with the 1800+ pages that will take lawyers years to figure out. I understand the insurance companies started raising rates in anticipation of having to pay for people with pre-existing conditions. Maybe they jumped the gun? It is another instance of corporate greed and largesse to themselves.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2...
That’s wildly exaggerated. According to the actuarial consulting firm Towers Perrin, medical malpractice tort costs were $30.4 billion in 2007, the last year for which data are available. We have a more than a $2 trillion health care system. That puts litigation costs and malpractice insurance at 1 to 1.5 percent of total medical costs. That’s a rounding error. Liability isn’t even the tail on the cost dog. It’s the hair on the end of the tail.

the issue here is the FEAR of litigation. All it takes it one lawsuit to bring a doctor's world upside down for years, regardless of how valid the lawsuit is. So here's a question: is it easier for a doctor to just order the chest x-ray or take the risk that he/she might miss something and end up with a lawsuit on his/her hand.

I agree.

Real reform will not happen until the health care system collapses just like the financial system did.

All the crap with mental health, christian healing, alternative medicine, etc... is superfluous.

We need basic government provided health care coverage with generic drugs only for everybody, capped to a certain amount. If the patient chooses an expensive doctor then the allowance will be used up faster.

Anything above the allowance needs to be paid out of pocket. And catastrophic costs would be paid by catastrophic insurance.

I'm not too happy with the Obama plan because it's another giveaway to the health insurance and medical industrial complex in the sense that more money will flow into the system. We need to spend less of GDP on health, not more.

But if Obama can get everyone covered, then reallocate health care dollars later, it's better than the old system.

yeah, that makes sense. People are lawsuit happy, these days.

"My deductible went up from $500 to $2000. And they increased the amount taken out of every paycheck from $150 to $260."

My changes are similar. This is why so many people, myself included, are screaming for a public option. I personally wish they would just open up Medicare to everyone, with premiums based on income, letting government subsidize costs. This would bring down premiums for private health care quickly.

But at this rate, I'll be dropping my health care before long. It just isn't affordable or sensible. The most I've ever seen the doctor for is a bi-annual checkup and heartburn. Told me to take Prilosec OTC.

It worked, by the way.

My vision plan changed, we now can have frames only every 24 months instead of every 12. We can still get new lenses every 12 months, but will have to keep the frames.

BTW I dont wear glasses/contacts.

(moral of the story is not every employer is trying to stickit to the employee)

Brian,
Good thoughts, but even under Pelosi's behemoth bill for corporate insurance lobbyists, not all will be insured. The whole matter is a boondoggle and needs to be scrapped. The Republicans supposedly have a proposal that would save money. The CBO says the R. plan would lower health care costs ($61 billion over 10 years). Mixed reviews on how many would be uninsured. Since many are uninsured by choice, (the young and the well) this number should not be a make or break. Put catastrophic coverage in for those people. Why can't they combine the two and come up with a win win for all?