r/MedicareForAll

Got a political ad in the mail.

"This candidate wants government run health care, that would raise your taxes by $2000 a year!"

I pay $9000 per year for me and my family. Next year it jumps to over 10k so I'm going down a tier and hoping we have no emergencies. If I could pay an extra 2k in taxes and not spend 10k on insurance that would be amazing.

Most employees are happy with their employer supplied private health insurance benefits but do they realize how expensive they are and how it affects their wages and costs of buying any product or services? It’s HUGE and growing every year.

Employers pay 84% of the total cost of employer supplied health care for its workers. Adding their costs and employee contribution, the total price is about $19,000/year per employee. More money spent on healthcare means less money on wages and other benefits. Higher costs for healthcare for every business means they must increase the price of their products/services to consumers. High healthcare costs are inflation for everyone. We all pay for skyrocketing costs of healthcare.

If America had the same costs associated with developed nations that have Universal healthcare systems, we would save nearly $2.5 trillion/year not only in lower healthcare costs but lower prices for every product or service we buy. These high costs are not sustainable or moral. They are devastating to the public and hamper our businesses from competing with other nations that have much cheaper healthcare costs.

Employees must realize that higher healthcare cost means lower wages, less benefits and higher inflation. Universal healthcare w/single payer is the only rational/cost efficient plan that will lower costs and simplify healthcare process in America.

Everything is ok (I think!) and thank God it wasn't a big deal. I've never been to the ER on my private insurance, so this experience was my first time.

I had a painful ear infection a little while ago, and it was on a weekend, so my primary care doctor wasn't available.

My health insurance company provides a 24/hour nurse line (thank God for that, it's quite helpful), so I gave them a call to inquire about what I should do. The nurse recommended I go to the ER and sent me a list of in-network ER providers.

I had to pay $75 out of pocket, which sucked, but is standard with my insurance. But I couldn't help but think about this: in-network ER providers?! That means there are out-of-network ER providers!

What if I had been bleeding out on the floor? Or what if, God forbid, something like that happens to me in the future? I have to look for my list of in-network ER providers so I don't become financially ruined! Thankfully I've saved the list to my phone. This system is straight out of a dystopian novel.

There should be no such thing as health insurance networks, but if there are going to be in the meantime, at the least it should be illegal to have ER care be part of the health insurance network system.