My health insurance

Read it and weep, literally!

Seriously, my intention in sharing this is not to elicit your sympathy for me or my friend, but to demonstrate that many Americans who have health insurance through their employer aren't happy with it, and/or have a hard time affording it.

"Best health system in the world," my ass! The status quo sucks.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:

Date: Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 5:19 PM
Subject: RE: my health ins.
To: J

I sent you the ______ plan for this year, right? What kills me is that people say they are fighting to keep the status quo because they want to keep their choice. We don't get a choice—our insurance provider changes practically every year and I have to have a doctor who is in network, so all that bull about not getting the doctor you like with socialized medicine is no different than what we already have. Even if I choose the office I want to go to based on the reputation of a doctor in the practice, and they happen to be in network, I usually have to see whoever's available the day I can get in. I still haven't seen the doctor I wanted when I chose my PCP a few years ago, so I might as well have gone somewhere else more convenient (they're all the way out past ______). So now I've been trying to find a different PCP (the one ____ liked is not in network for Humana) but most aren't taking new patients. So what freaking choice are these people fighting for again?

From: J
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 2:54 AM
To:
Subject: my health ins.

I got the details for our company insurance plan from CIGNA for 2010. It's worse than I thought. I will have to pay $894 per month for the family plan. Fortunately, there is no coinsurance or deductible. But still, that is __% of my net pay.

It is a "Platinum" policy and my only choice, take it or leave it. I have no choice, I have to get it, even though having a baby here will be about $6,000 out of pocket (but reimbursable by insurance), and health insurance for the year will cost $10,728, and I am not likely to pay the difference (ca. $4,700) on other family health expenses here. So I will be paying for insurance, in the truest sense of that term, against the need for emergency or acute care in W. Europe or USA for my family.

Since my company contributes up to $3,333 per year for health insurance, I know that the plan's total cost is $14,061. That sounds like a heck of a lot -- and it is -- but per the article by health care economist Uwe Reinhardt, the average cost of health care (including employer's contribution and all other health spending) for a family of four in 2009 is $16,700. So I am actually below the curve, as unbelievable as that sounds.

By buying this insurance, I will also be paying for the "right" to keep my health insurance in the USA via COBRA if I am fired or quit my job, so that I have decent health insurance for my family, although COBRA on this particular plan would cost about $1,200 per month. (COBRA typically costs 102% of your plan's total cost.)

I should admit that I personally have health insurance locally, too, as a benefit of my local (overseas) employment. I chose the plan for our company. It costs about $700 per person per year, including dental and emergency care, all at private clinics. Realistically, I will use it only for dental checkups and cleanings.