Healthcare Costs

Demiurge

Tour2ma wrote:

But the tax rate on both is only 2.9%... not much of a rearend there. What is your business ponying up for private health insurance as a percantage of wage?

We have 7 employees that take advantage of our private healthcare, quite a few others are using their spouses health insurance at much larger companies (Mercury Marine, Harley Davidson, and Kohler, Inc.). We're a really small business, but we serve large industry (Boeing, Pratt & Whitney AutoAir, Inc., GM, GE, etc, as well as lots of small manufacturers).

Anyhow...for those 7 people we paid $4,684.07/Mo. in private Healthcare costs in 2005. There is an SEC 125 Pop Plan in there as well, but that is in addition to the above costs.

Of those 7 people, 4 are an E, 2 are ES, 1 is ESC.

Medicare costs aren't as ridiculous as the private health insurance costs, and I didn't mean to convey that. It is surprising how many people don't know what's coming off of their paychecks and that it's matched dollar to dollar by their employers.

I-SIG

venomclan wrote:

The government needs to come in and take over fast. Lawyers and insurance companies are raping the American public. We are the most advanced country on the planet, but we have the most primitive health care system. every other industrialized nation has government health care. Except us. What is sad is that most hospitals havr to take care of every immigrant right off the boat. If you are a citizen you get nada.
Venom

Let me get this straight: You want a government that wants to spend $230 million on a bridge to an island with 33 people on it in Bumblefuck, Alaska to manage YOUR health?

No goddam way.

Wes

Tour2ma

Demiurge wrote:

We have 7 employees that take advantage of our private healthcare, quite a few others are using their spouses health insurance at much larger companies (Mercury Marine, Harley Davidson, and Kohler, Inc.). We're a really small business, but we serve large industry (Boeing, Pratt & Whitney AutoAir, Inc., GM, GE, etc, as well as lots of small manufacturers).

Anyhow...for those 7 people we paid $4,684.07/Mo. in private Healthcare costs in 2005. There is an SEC 125 Pop Plan in there as well, but that is in addition to the above costs.

Of those 7 people, 4 are an E, 2 are ES, 1 is ESC.

Medicare costs aren't as ridiculous as the private health insurance costs, and I didn't mean to convey that. It is surprising how many people don't know what's coming off of their paychecks and that it's matched dollar to dollar by their employers.

Thanks God that you've got some customer diversification there... So private health care is like 15% of direct wages for the seven???

What are "E, ES, ESC"?

"Dollar for Dollar" did have a "big read" to it. At first glance I took it to mean something completely different... You should have seen that reply...

Demiurge

We pay all the healthcare for the plan (unless I am misunderstanding your question), at least all $4,684.07/Mo., but there is also a SEC 125 POP Plan they pay into which is a total of $213.22/wk. on average. That's not split down the middle 7 ways either, it's all got to do with what age bracket you fall into as well as who else is on the plan. That's the only portion of the private plan that they pay, as well as their obvious medicare costs each week. Healthcare costs would be much higher if we didn't do that plan. There was a time where we didn't pay anything off of our paychecks each week, but Healthcare costs have gone up so much we didn't have much of a choice for a while there.

If Soc. Sec is $558.11/wk., we pay $558.11/wk. If Medicare is $130.53/wk., we pay $130.53/wk.

We also pay into WI SUI & FUTA, which is basically money down the **** each week because we really haven't had to lay anyone off in a while, but I do understand it. It just seems to be a bit of a racket considering the ammount we pay into it each week.

I mean, there is tax implications for all of this stuff both ways, but taxes here are I believe the highest in the country. Tack on those high healthcare costs and it can really put a choke hold on small business when you have a slowing trend in manufacturing purchases.

E = Employee
ES = Employee & Spouse
ESC = Employee, Spouse, and Child(ren).

Costs go up exponentially in that order.

Mike Reeter

Very valid points,I'm grateful to have Health Insurance,and I know we in U.S. enjoy the"best of the best" I just hate the thought of being raped...

MacLeod

All this talk about $400 band-aids and $100 asperin reminded me of an old joke.

A shop manager had a maching quit working so he called in a technician. The tech showed up, tinkered with the maching a bit and then reached in his toolbox, pulled out a hammer and stuck the machine one good time. Bingo the machine started working. When the manager got the bill it was for $5000!

The manager was furious and called the technician's company and demanded to be sent an itemized bill. The next day the manager received the itemized list.

Hitting maching with hammer - $5
Knowing where to hit the machine with a hammer - $4995

I guess the moral of the story is that youre not paying $400 for the band-aid but rather the extreme knowledge and expertise of the person that treated you so all you needed was a band-aid as opposed to your leg rotting off from infection.

Watch doctors perform operations sometime on Discovery Health. It is simply aweinspiring the knowledge and skill these people possess. All that doesnt come cheap.

Just a thought.

aaharvel

StopherJJ1980 wrote:

YEAH, OF COURSE!And never mind your post says he didnt have medical insurance, well in my opinion, thats what you get when you dont get medical insurance. Thats why it is so important to everyone else.

that's an **** suggestion if i've ever heard one Stopher. "That's what you get when you dont get medical insurance." Are you kidding me?!?!?

Did it ever occur to your peabody of a brain that maybe (not saying) he can't afford health insurance or maybe he works at a job that doesn't provide for insurance- hence prob. the fact that he can't afford it? Millions of Americans are in this predictment as we speak. And the vast majority of them are NOTwelfare whores.

OR maybe he has a medical condition that forces his premiums to skyrocket above his budget?

I have epilepsy and had my first seizure in between my last job at Lowes Co. and when I went back to school. 2months later i had another one. 1 week later i had another one. 4months later i had another one. Guess what? No one would insure me and if they did the INSURANCE PREMIUMS WERETOO HIGH for me to pay for. I'll prob. be paying for this for the rest of my life..

use your brain and stop dumbing everything down to "well he either has health insurance or it's fault that he doesn't"- or Republican good, Liberal bad... what a crock of ****. and oh yeah speaking of "TONS OF LIBERALS?" I'm a Liberal and i'm not for Socialistic healthcare. But I also know that our own medical system has its faults. BOTH SYSTEMS HAVE THEIR PROS AND CONS. And please, PLEASE name 20 Liberals BY NAME that favor Canadian-style healthcare. I'm so anxious to hear the names of a TON of Liberals..

Oh no, you're not being political at all. Wake up tomorrow and have a Grand-Mal, then we'll talk.

What a dick

Demiurge

Mac-

While you're right about that, there is a lot of outright price gouging. Most of these prices DO stem from the costs of insurance for the doctors agains malpractice suits and what have you. To me, that's square one. If we don't put an end to all of the abulance chasers and the people trying to win the lottery on **** suits these costs are going to keep rising. There's so many dynamics to this issue, but for me that is the starting ground.

Doctors should get paid for their skill, no doubt. More of the money should go there way instead of to the insurance companies and then ultimately to the trial lawyers.

aaharvel

i agree a big problem if not the major one is out of control mal-practice lawsuits that can't be substantiated. The question though is, where do you draw the line with what qualifies as a strong case or not? I honestly don't know- and that's what sucks about it. Is it a problem that can ever be solved?

Demiurge

aaharvel wrote:

i agree a big problem if not the major one is out of control mal-practice lawsuits that can't be substantiated. The question though is, where do you draw the line with what qualifies as a strong case or not? I honestly don't know- and that's what sucks about it. Is it a problem that can ever be solved?

If I knew the answer to that i'd be a rich man myself....wait... Damnit! :cool:

In all honesty I don't know how you'd solve it. Most trial lawyers go after entities with deep pockets, and then these entities settle for fear of the $100 Million Dollar lien against them (or whatever large sum you want to come up with). With that fear looming over their heads they're almost stupid not to settle...so I don't know. You may start by putting limits on the rewards.

Whatever happened to the idea of an accident? **** things happen to people, but since when does that entitle us to huge sums of money for it?

I had a lady hit me on the way home from work one night. She hit me as she was decelerating from 45MPH while I was just about to a complete stop at a light. Sent me sailing through the intersection into oncoming traffic, and she ended up taking down 2 traffic lights. She turned out to be intoxicated just under the legal limit when a blood test was done. So...she was drunk, but didn't get pinched for it. I didn't go to the hospital (I was fine, back a little messed up) and just had things worked out between our insurance companies. I could have sued her, but why? She ended up filing for bankruptcy after all was said and done and she got her just punishment. I recouped my lost property and that was the end of it. It was still an accident.

aaharvel

yup that's pretty much it- no answer. I don't think anyone has one.

And Stopher if i was rough with you earlier I apologize, but only half-heartedly.
Put yourself into other peoples health and financial positions before you rant about the gray areas of being insured.

No, I still don't have insurance. No one will insure me as the risk is too high. No fault of mine. None at all. But I am an American. I do pay taxes. So does the government have some obligation to help me ? You goddamn right. And they do- i get my medicine for free through the Epilepsy Foundation. And if anyone thinks that i'm a **** of the financial sort (lol) they can kiss my ****.

Demiurge

Well...putting settlement/reward restrictions in would help. The real joke of it is that the bulk of the money goes to the lawyers, not the 'victim'.