Wise Health Care Consumer Month on February, 2025: Do you not know this already about health care?

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Do you not know this already about health care?

Well I don't make comments like that, but I am against any form of National Health. I do believe that we have to address insurance and medical cost concerns in this country, but creating large entitlements will not be less expensive than the current system. Further, no one can point to any country which has such a system that does not have higher tax burdens as a result.

One of the major arguments people like to use in this debate is the one you espouse here. This is that we are already paying for it. This is a true statement to be sure because it is passed along to the consumer in the form of higher costs. However, have you considered the fact that under the current system people without insurance go to the doctor when absolutely necessary. Under a National Health Plan many of these people would go to the doctor every time they get a slight case of the sniffles. This would not only dramatically increase your expected costs, but would also create even more backlog and longer wait times to see a physician than we already experience.

As for Hillary Clinton's plan. This is no plan at all. She wants to force everyone to carry insurance at an average rate of 115 dollars per month. Then she wants to set the deductible at 2500 per year. Now if you do the research you will find that the average person does not incur 2500 in medical expenses per year. So what does this mean to the consumer? It means that you will pay a signifigant portion of your yearly income in premiums which you will never see a dime of benefit from without experiencing catastrophic illness. Additionally, do you really expect that people who are unwilling to pay for insurance now are suddenly going to be willing to pay out their co-pays to meet the required deductible? Highly unlikely!

In the case of Obama's plan. Well all I can say is that if he thinks he can lower health care costs by 2500 for every American then he is going to have to prove exactly where this money and the savings will come from. To date he has provided only abritrary numbers without hard economic fact to back them.

Given these 2 choices, I think I will continue to support the status quo. The devil you know is usually better than the one you don't in the end.

Nibiru: Some wise suggestions there, but I would like to add something to them.

Eliminate Double Pricing Structures - Make it a crime for any hospital or doctor to charge more to an uninsured "out of pocket" patient for a procedue or test than the amount they are willing to accept for the same procedure from an insurance company.

Extend HSA Benefits - Remove the one year use it or lose it cap. Allow individuals to accumulate their HSAs on a yearly tax free rollover basis. This will allow people to establish true medical savings accounts to help offset their cost burden. Upon the death of an insured the survivor should be allowed to utilize unused funds for burial expenses.

Is it worth chosing the "compounded for inflation" option when buying long-term care insurance?

Is it worth chosing the "compounded for inflation" option when buying long-term care insurance?

Long-term care policies for seniors living in major metropolitan areas with high labor costs can expect to pay $167 per day for nursing home care. This translates into $61,000 per year. If a consumer purchases a policy that pays a fixed $100 per day, with an inflation rate of six percent per year, $100 per day will pay less than one-third of the daily cost in 12 years, and 14% of the cost in 24 years.

The math is easy. At six percent inflation the cost of nursing care will double every 12 years and the daily charge will become $354. In twenty-four years the same nursing charge will have grown to $708 daily. So a consumer who purchases today at age 56 a long-term care with a fixed benefit of $100 per day who requires nursing-home care at age 80 will have to pay more than 85% of the costs out of his or her own pocket.

The answer is to purchase compounded inflation protection that increases the benefit the policy will pay each year. Since health-care costs predictably will continue to inflate, the U.S. House Select Committee on Aging concluded that "without inflation protection, long-term care insurance policies are not a wise purchase."

Five percent compounded inflation protection. Rather than increasing the daily benefit by five percent of the original benefit, this option increases the benefit by five percent compounded, meaning that each successive year's benefits are increased by five percent over the previous year. The compounded option at 5% compounded per year will pay approximately $265 per day, after twenty years. This approach is the best option available, but given the historical, as well as anticipated, six percent inflation rate for long-term care costs, this plan does not keep pace with inflation.

Why do you insist on calling it a government takeover of health care?

Why do you insist on calling it a government takeover of health care?

you're preaching to the choir my friend I agree with you. This in so many ways my friend reminds me of the words of a wise man who's council and guidance over the years I have sought and shall seek until my last moment on this planet

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

We are truly our brothers and sisters keepers....Be good and continue forward with the effort

Holidays also on this date Saturday, February 1, 2025...