Board 8 > Do you have health insurance?

(+) Yeah! (+)

As I'm getting closer to 30 I've been thinking of getting one.

Exactly, I know families who are eligible for basically free healthcare and they barely ever have to pay anything. Doctor visits, surgeries, prescriptions. It's crazy good coverage. And if you are poor enough, you are eligible for it.

As for everyone else, and while I agree with the comment about how it shouldnt be tied to work, the fact is that nonetheless, there are a lot of workers who get decent or even what one might consider "good" or "great" healthcare coverage through work.

Thanks to places like reddit and such, Europeans/Canadians/nonAmericans are actually starting to believe that nobody here has health insurance and we are all left to fend for ourselves with thousands of dollars of debt looming if anything goes wrong or if we want to have a baby or whatever. Yes...some people do face this problem. It definitely happens here. But it's not every person. We in America know that obviously, but the narrative has been exaggerated so much, that it's leading to some crazy misconceptions from nonAmericans.

I get a big tax credit for being poor through healthcare.gov, usually I pay anywhere between $40-$100 a month for a p good plan imo.

Yes, Tricare Prime.

No

if I get sick, I'll die

guffguy89 posted...

Exactly, I know families who are eligible for basically free healthcare and they barely ever have to pay anything. Doctor visits, surgeries, prescriptions. It's crazy good coverage. And if you are poor enough, you are eligible for it.

As for everyone else, and while I agree with the comment about how it shouldnt be tied to work, the fact is that nonetheless, there are a lot of workers who get decent or even what one might consider "good" or "great" healthcare coverage through work.

Thanks to places like reddit and such, Europeans/Canadians/nonAmericans are actually starting to believe that nobody here has health insurance and we are all left to fend for ourselves with thousands of dollars of debt looming if anything goes wrong or if we want to have a baby or whatever. Yes...some people do face this problem. It definitely happens here. But it's not every person. We in America know that obviously, but the narrative has been exaggerated so much, that it's leading to some crazy misconceptions from nonAmericans.

Okay but,

-Most countries extend that to everybody not just a small minority. Thats why its called universal healthcare.

-Even if you have insurance, the costs are sky-high AND at least based on my personal experience the prices of insurance itself (both through work contributions and paying individually) are actually higher than if you opt for insurance in countries with universal coverage due to said coverage driving the price down. Insurance will only cover some of the costs. The example that blew my mind was childbirth, with maternity care costing an average of $7,000 with insurance. That is unacceptable.

-And of course, the fact that it is even possible to be uninsured is absolutely disgraceful. That is tens of millions of people with no care at all. It gives a two-tiered society where a substantial portion are left to die.

Nobody thinks that no Americans have healthcare. The issue is that any Americans dont have healthcare.

Yeah the most mind boggling thing about insurance is that you still have to pay when you use it. Maybe because I'm originally from England so I'm used to free healthcare but it was a pretty big culture shock to know I have to pay for insurance and then I still may have to pay thousands even with it.

It also feels like a massive scam when there's times I have to pay more to use my insurance than if I tell them I'll pay out of pocket. Like that should literally never be a thing where it costs me more because I have insurance.

ShatteredElysium posted...

I have it subsidized through work (I pay like $60 every 2 weeks) but the plan isn't great. it would have been like an extra $200 every 2 weeks to add my wife to the plan and it worked out better just getting a private plan for her as she got better coverage than the plan I get at work.

That sounds like a sweet deal. I'm paying $87 every 2 weeks, I have a high deductible, and if I had a spouse or kids the premium would go much higher. Better still, our premiums are going to skyrocket next year. I was pretty much forced to downgrade so I can pay the same amount for an even higher deductible at the same rate I've been paying (which would have been higher except that I get a discounted rate for getting the COVID shot).

ShatteredElysium posted...

Yeah the most mind boggling thing about insurance is that you still have to pay when you use it.

I definitely get it. But I work in insurance (not health insurance though!) and one of the main reasons why deductibles exist is to incentivize people guarding themselves against health issues.

Also if there were no deductibles, then health insurance would just simply cost more. It's a wash.

A lot of insurance plans have higher-priced tiers with lower deductibles. I assume that's the case with American health insurance as well?

I'm a PhD student so I have insurance through the university (though even though it should be considered a work benefit for RAing/TAing it's actually stupidly considered to be something that I get in my capacity as a student and is therefore taxable). The coverage is actually quite good, though before they loosened the rules for covid you needed to go through the university's health services for any non-emergency treatment (or get prior approval) which can be really annoying.

FL81 posted...

No

if I get sick, I'll die

pretty much