You are planning to get another tattoo, it costs $200.
You are going to take your best friend out for fine dining, it will cost $175.
You promised your children to take them to a local theme park, $200.
You receive a bill from your doctor because you hadn’t met your deductible, $200.
Which expense is unaffordable?
Okay, a bit of a trick question, but there is no doubt the answer is nearly always the medical expense is unaffordable. That’s because we have been conditioned (since around 1943 when health insurance took off) to believe medical bills should be paid by insurance – actually meaning anyone but ourselves.
Years ago I had an encounter with an employee’s wife who was incensed that our health plan would not cover Lyme disease vaccinations for her teenagers. She claimed her children were at risk and could die without the vaccine. I said she could always pay herself – $60 at the time.
Boy, was that a mistake! She screamed, “You expect me to pay with my own money?” Remember, “could die”
This story may be anecdotal, but from years of experience, not an unusual attitude. How many times have you heard someone complain about paying a deductible – even before they were in the thousands? Have you ever heard complaining about a $35 prescription co-pay? How about a $35 dozen of golf balls?
Think about this. The law says all forms of contraception must be free. Generally not expensive, often a voluntary purchase, but our mindset says it is unaffordable under all conditions – so they are “free.” Of course we know they are not free, the cost is buried in everyone’s premiums and taxes.
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I can agree with the first three posters that no one wants a bill for healthcare. That has been a universal truth going back before our lifetimes. I was in collections for mobile home accounts more than 50 years ago. I had to track some of the accounts down and would look through their credit apps for leads on where I might look for them. They all had a laundry list of unpaid docs. They owed them because the docs back then didn’t demand payment when you walked in the door. Many didn’t have health insurance so that wasn’t in play. Of course I was dealing with folks who owed everybody for everything. We blame credit cards today but back then folks just borrowed wherever they could. Cars, furniture, jewelry store for wedding rings, doctors as well as their homes and a string of bad checks to top it off. I was busy every day. Not wanting to pay has always been universal.
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Sorry, but I remember a time, back in the 1970’s, when you paid for most doctor visits out of pocket, they used to call it base and major medical, where Americans seldom satisfied their major medical deductible and regularly paid over one third of the cost of health services out of pocket.
Just like the idiots who took over elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, the idiots who took over health care ended up contributing to ever inflated charges and ever higher costs.
People are only too willing to believe that they are entitled, that health care and education is a right that someone else should pay for.
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I’ve said it here perhaps a hundreds times before: “People want the best health care coverage YOUR money will buy”.
No one knows the real cost of a service. Those in Medicare and Medicaid and receiving coverage via the VA get a government controlled/set price well below the actual cost of services. Everyone else gets the real cost plus a healthy dollop or two of additional charges to cover for the lack of proper reimbursement for those under a government plan.
People actually believe Medicare is free, until they are enrolled. And then, one in five Americans actually get free or nearly free coverage because they are dual eligible under Medicare and Medicaid.
Why would anyone think they should pay for a Lyme disease vaccination?
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nobody wants to pay because we teach folks how we want to be treated–too many people are conditioned to the free lunch because that is what we have been provided–recent example is transferring student loans to the working class–deficit spending is another good example–why pay for something when you can borrow the $?
nobody is surprised that folks don’t want to pay for medical care–it should be free–let’s call it Medicare For All and then convince people it really won’t cost, in dollars, any more than your current premium–sort of like all the promises we heard for Obamacare.
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Thirty odd years ago, I managed a small company; our employee benefits were generous, health insurance premiums were paid in full by the firm, the only cost to employees was a $100 deductible for single coverage and a $200 for family coverage. Our premiums increased significantly (Nearly 100%) and I announced that the deductible would rise to $200/ $400 respectively. There was an immediate wailing and gnashing of teeth, with bitter complaints of financial hardship, etc.; etc. In my personal experience Americans want health care that gives them total choice of providers, but the bill is paid by someone else.
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