Obamacare

[Happy Monkey]

Preventative care is free, and one major hospital visit can blow past $14,000 easily.

You ought to be able to set up a HSA to use pre-tax money for most of the non-premium costs, if you expect to spend thousands of dollars a year, or want to build up a tax-free nest egg in case you do in the future. I expect you can do this even if you plan to go without insurance.

You may be able to deduct your premiums as well, if they exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income; ie if your AGI is less than $76,560 for a $638/month plan.

"Not being insured" was the ONLY option for many, and will be again if the law is repealed. Any cost savings you realize in that system will be at the expense of people who actually need medical coverage (who may be a future you), and are therefore dropped.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Preventative care is free, and one major hospital visit can blow past $14,000 easily.

Pete who actually supports ACA got burned for $500 in blood tests and urinalysis last time she went in, so no all preventative care is not free. I feel like our adherence to talking points on this issue is counter-productive. I'd almost rather single-payer so we wouldn't have to research who is in network, only to get burned by the odd anesthesiologist, or spend our days searching out which tests aren't covered because our in network doctors don't know what's covered but do know what tests they want etc...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Congress could fix all this shit, but the money doesn't want it fixed, they want it dumped.

[glatt]

Single payer seems to work just fine for all of Europe.

Our mostly employer provided system is totally insane. It's like a drunk monkey invented it. Our system is great only if you are rich. I think Obamacare is a step in the right direction, but it can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

[Griff]

Western Europe seems to have mostly functioning representative government. Ours seems to be good at representing the interests of oil companies, banks, and nutters. We've been told so long that government can't do stuff and the GOP works hard at proving it, that I don't single-payer happening without a huge movement and a popular change agent. Watching the manipulations and smear campaigns this election cycle makes me doubt we have the tools to build a sensible system rather than a special interest feed trough.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Griff

Pete who actually supports ACA got burned for $500 in blood tests and urinalysis last time she went in, so no all preventative care is not free.

Yes, I added a clarifying link in my next post; apologies for oversimplifying.

I'd almost rather single-payer so we wouldn't have to research who is in network, only to get burned by the odd anesthesiologist, or spend our days searching out which tests aren't covered because our in network doctors don't know what's covered but do know what tests they want etc...

Absolutely. Ditto for me minus the "almost".