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    Medicaid

    B wants to change agents. I think he is full boat*, but his 'medical partner'** is insisting that he has the best deal***.

    I am not getting much sense out of people from the medical profession, so if anyone has any pointers, please make them in bold.

    *he has full coverage.

    **company that is currently making shedloads of money from his prescriptions. He is unhappy with them. And he is probably right.

    ***B is slightly deaf, and has trouble with my accent, so he has a 'medical partner' with the same 'original tongue' as himself. Who seems to be giving him bum information. (I am fairly sure I translated that well from 'That bitch give me the 'You like?' treatment.') Sorry, I can't keep up with Chinese/Formosan racism.

    #2
    Yeah, that pretty much covers it.

    Healthcare is quite 'fearsome' here. This years quote is $715 per month, and I have stopped smoking. Last year was $520 and change.

    We tried on a joint ticket, but he doesn't smoke. Har. And they wanted $350 per week. Yep, I typed that correctly.

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      #3
      Your medical insurance is $715 a month. Fucking hell. That's like mortgage money.....

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        #4
        Why wouldn't it be? I'm of a particular ... where, I am ok, but not ok, and ... the more I ask, the less I am ok.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Tactical Genius View Post
          Your medical insurance is $715 a month. Fucking hell. That's like mortgage money.....
          Have we done the thing where the space shuttle goes up for the lowest fee, and everyone else in the world without water goes... fucking hell not again.

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            #6
            Originally posted by Tactical Genius View Post
            Your medical insurance is $715 a month. Fucking hell. That's like mortgage money.....
            Just to quote: "No, it isn't"

            Know what? Stay in your lane, sir.

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              #7
              That's in the same ballpark as what the missus and I pay for the two of us through the ACA exchanges. It feels like extortion for those of us who use medical care once a year - to get a flu jab - but it's not like there's any (meaningful) choice. I can't tell you anything about Medicaid.

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                #8
                There are places here that would charge you that much to park.

                Gero, are you in Dina Titus' district? She should have a staffer that knows the ins and outs of available coverage options.

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                  #9
                  Got my flu jab at work last week for free. It's also free at the pharmacy, the discount grocery shop, virtually everywhere. We are beyond fortunate up here.

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                    #10
                    A flu jab is $20 without coverage I think. Whatever way, it isn't really the measure you want to use to assess equity in healthcare.

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                      #11
                      Oh, quite. It's one piece of a larger puzzle, though. Giving free prescription meds to kids under 21 (which we now do) is also a big leap forward, so that families with thin pharmacare can look after their kids until the age of majority.

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                        #12
                        A strange part from employer to employer is how rich the policy is. My deduction at this firm is about the same as my previous. My out of pocket spend annually is now probably $5000 less.

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                          #13
                          I've lived in the US for over twenty years and my opinion hasn't changed. The American health care system is a fucking obscenity.

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                            #14
                            Major law firm recruiting departments were completely unprepared when I asked them about the details of their plans in 1993. At least we had a fact sheet the time I got back to New York.

                            “Benefits” and “health insurance” can mean just about anything over here.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by adams house cat View Post
                              I've lived in the US for over twenty years and my opinion hasn't changed. The American health care system is a fucking obscenity.
                              You'll find few people who disagree with that. Pre-Obamacare it almost stopped us moving here. Obamacare has removed some of the very worst aspects, but it left in place a lot of the obscenities.

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                                #16
                                You may be surprised SB. I, reluctantly, found myself talking about this to someone not too long ago. They trotted out the same old nonsense about 'socialized medicine' leading to 'socialism', 'communism' and the end of civilization. There are a lot of people who remain brainwashed.

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                                  #17
                                  I always get slightly horrified when someone shows me their health plan worksheet where they worked out the optimal plan. The fact that people are driven to that is crazy.

                                  (I typically go for the most loaded plan available cos small kids are just a bad decision away from a ten thousand dollar medical event)

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                                    #18
                                    In my experience, the vast majority of people who defend the US system either are financially dependent on it continuing as is or have zero knowledge of (let alone experience with) the delivery of health care anywhere else.

                                    Many, of course, qualify on both counts.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                      Major law firm recruiting departments were completely unprepared when I asked them about the details of their plans in 1993. At least we had a fact sheet the time I got back to New York.

                                      “Benefits” and “health insurance” can mean just about anything over here.
                                      I am suing.

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                                        #20
                                        Nothing to do with my original post.

                                        He wants to not be with a company who are unwilling to let him go. Admittedly, for several $thousand reasons.

                                        He went to a hospital, two days ago, unbidden, and decided that he wants to die "and shit", there.

                                        If he can remember his own name by Thanksgiving, he can have a fucking party, there.

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                                          #21
                                          I have a few Qs as I know very little about the more contemporary US healthcare system (I was more conversant with the "old one", 1980s-90s) apart from the main characteristics.

                                          1) First, aren’t US salaries adjusted upwards to make up for the high cost of health insurance + to cover the deductibles? For instance, nurses on $75,000 a year (the average for an RN apparently). Well, even accounting for the fact that the £ has lost ~33% vs the $ in the last 10 yrs (2007-08: £1 = $2; now: $1.30), it’s still a much higher salary than you’d get in the UK (I know, they don’t have 5 weeks off etc. but that's beside the point here).

                                          2) If you or your employer forks out a lot, say, $1,200 a month (presumably you'd get a fairly comprehensive health insurance policy for that), does it cover pretty much everything? If say, you need cancer treatment or something equally expensive, is there any risk of you being out of pocket at all with a $1,000-$1,500 policy or is it all covered?

                                          What is the monthly $ threshold at which you can be certain that your health insurance company will cover the whole cost even if it’s $500K? (apart from the deductible I assume). $2,000+ a month? $3,000+ a month? Or is there no such thing as an insurance policy that would cover 100% of the costs no matter what?

                                          3) Do you pay any compulsory health contribution (similar to the UK's National Insurance contributions, about 10% of yr gross salary) on top of your monthly health insurance premiums?

                                          4) I was reading a terrible riches-to-rag story the other day, it was about how many Trump voters had been duped etc. and this man in Michigan I think it was, who was earning a very good salary pre-Trump in the car industry had lost his job and was now on $4.20 an hour + tips as a waiter. I understand that the poorest get free healthcare (? - or has Obamacare been completely wiped out?) but what about those people whose situation change suddenly? This man, who was earning $50/hour, went from earning maybe $80K a year to being on the breadline overnight. He clearly couldn’t afford health insurance, or a very basic policy then, so would he instantly get Medicare, how does it work for people like him?

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                                            #22
                                            Dina Titus is unavailable for comment.

                                            But her underlings put me on the right path.

                                            Cheers Urs C.

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                                              #23
                                              1) No.

                                              2) No.

                                              3) Yes, but that is automatic, with or without my status.

                                              4) I am very much over the Nevada minimum ($7.25/$8.25) but still classed as a temporary worker.

                                              If I get huckled at work, I am fine, as long as a) not stoned, drunk, or otherwise unfit for work, and b) bleeding heavily (as has been notated on a certain date previously. Still in situ: they think I am paying for my head injury, and I am pretty certain, I am not.)

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                                                #24
                                                That is a big question.

                                                On (2) each policy you have has an out-of-pocket maximum declared per person per year. This could be $5k, it could be $20k (high deductible plans). The problem is the "no matter what". Virtually anything can be defined as a pre-existing condition which is the topic of huge debate (whether these should be covered or not), though thankfully seems to be migrating to some form of sense. You have a pre-existing condition of cancer, you aren't in a great spot.

                                                How your insurance works once you really get going on costs I am not really sure - I think the insurance provider has a lot of right to determine what is in-play and what is not (within some level of reason). I know when I screwed up my shoulder the PT guy wanted an MRI and they (fairly reasonably) told him to go screw himself and to give me an X-ray with an MRI not covered. Which in itself speaks to the madness of medicine in a way - you don't get an MRI on an old guy who's shoulder is a bit broken because he did something a bit daft lifting weights.

                                                (3) Everyone pays into Social Security / Medicaid.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Also,

                                                  I don't have 'his' health insurance. This is not about me. He wants to change from one group, to another, and I don't know how to help him.

                                                  That was my point. I can get skin lotion from CVS.

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