I visit a doctor once a year at the most, and I hardly require prescription medicine. The cost of my health insurance premium is about $800 this year for my HMO plan. My employer pays a larger percentage of the total premium, but the prices increase each year by a percentage much higher than inflation. A similar HMO plan, if I were to quit my job and buy individual health insurance in New Jersey, I would pay more than $800 a month, though there are less expensive options.
I’m lucky I don’t have any dependents.
The more individuals in the world with access to good and affordable heath care, the healthier the world will be in general, so I am in favor in reform that brings better care to more people. While reduced costs for me would be nice, that would be just an ancillary — and selfish — benefit. Will any of the various sets of proposed legislation succeed? I don’t know anyone who can answer that question with any sort of definitive answer. Health care is a monster, a complicated system with many moving parts that won’t be fixed right away.
The Congressional Budget Office released their cost estimates for the version of the legislation that is up for a vote within the Senate Finance Committee, and the numbers look better than expected: The bill would could $829 billion over ten years and actually reduce the budget deficit by $81 billion over the same time period. This bill doesn’t include a government-run plan, but it also leaves more people uninsured than some would like.
This legislation has a long way to go. The version of health care reform offered by the Senate Finance Committee needs to be combined with the version being considered by the Senate Health Committee. The Senate then needs to vote on and pass a bill. The House of Representatives also needs to vote on and pass its version of the health reform bill (H.R. 3200). Eventually the bills that pass both the House and the Senate need to be combined, voted on, passed and presented to the President.
None of this will happen without more changes and compromises, and even then it may not gain the votes needed to succeed.
Please share your thoughts and join the discussion. What issues should health reform address? What are your experiences with health care?
According to a recent survey of 1,004 individuals born between 1960 and 1980, roughly Generation X, many expect their family or the government to provide care or funding for care as they age. Here are some of the more interesting statistics from the study, released by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an association of health insurance providers with a mission to expand access to health care.
- Among survey respondents who do not own long-term care insurance, 36% plan on relying on government assistance, like Medicaid, to finance their long-term care.
- 55% of respondents within Generation X plan to rely on a family member for providing long-term care. 10% will rely on a visiting nurse and 9% believe they will live in an assisted-care facility.
- 95% of Generation X do not own long-term care insurance, and over half of those who are not covered do not realize that health or disability insurance most likely does not cover long-term care.
Today, long-term care in a nursing home in the United States carries an average annual cost of over $70,000 (according to AHIP). I can only imagine that just like health care costs, this price tag will continue to climb faster than the rate of inflation.
I’m not currently covered by long-term care insurance, but I decided to take a look at what is offered at my current employer. They offer their own group long-term care insurance. They have four separate plans based on coverage level. The first level would cover nursing home care up to $100 per day or home care up to $75, with a lifetime maximum of $182,500. The level offering greatest coverage would cover nursing home care up to $250 or home care up to $188, with a maximum of $456,250. There are two intermediate levels of coverage, as well.
Based on AHIP’s annual cost of $70,000 of a nursing home, I decided to look into the $200 per day coverage. My first thought is inflation. If I need long-term care, it will most likely not be for forty or fifty years, maybe more. After five decades of inflation, I think the daily cost of long-term care is going to be much more than $200. I am surprised that something basic, coverage adjusted for inflation, is offered at an additional premium.
According to my company’s calculator, I would pay $22 per month starting now for coverage at $200 per day once I enter the assisted care facility. But if I want my coverage adjusted by 5% every year, the premium jumps to $81.20 per month. The projected lifetime premium payments jump from $13,992.00 to $51,643.20.
If the cost of long-term care rises at that same 5% annual rate for fifty years, I could be looking at a daily cost of over $2,000 a day! A $200 daily benefit won’t help much if that is the case. Why both with coverage that is not adjusted for inflation?
Do you have long-term care insurance? Or do you plan to rely on family or government?
You can download AHIP’s survey results here [ppt].
Here is the second couple featured by CNN Money in their series about five couples living on an income of $46,000 a year. Michael Thibault is an insurance claims adjuster and Lisa Thibault works part-time. Together, they may earn about $60,000 this year in Indianapolis, Indiana. That seems to put them at an income significantly higher than the rest in CNN’s series, but this couple has three children.
They had to apply for food assistance for their children. The Thibaults are earning more than the median household in the United States, but still can’t afford to feed their children.
With a family of three and fluctuations in their employment status, the couple spends about $1,700 per month for full insurance and medical visits.
As Hazzard noted, 42% of their income is spent on health care. To me, this seems high, even for a family with three children, but I have no personal experience. Perhaps this will stabilize as the children get a little older. Their medical issues are not entirely clear from their profile.
Regardless of their struggles, the couple still tithes to their church an undisclosed amount. The article says they have asked for public assistance in order to pay for food; I wonder how much they receive in assistance and how much they give to their church.
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