Why is my insurance so f-ing expensive?!

[bohemianbanshee]

Okay, for anybody thinking the Affordable Care Act actually solved insurance problems in the US for the poor, get this - even though I made only $5,000 last year, my insurance as an employee of the university is $300 a month. If I choose to get the student insurance instead, that's a mere $200 per month....still not affordable. And even though I

Comments

[anonymous]

Yuck. Well this makes me even more sure that we need to keep our differences. Practically all of Europe has nationalised health care.

I'm guessing that it's so expensive because it has to be funded somehow - it's not "free", the taxpayer pays for it! But because the system is so screwy in the USA they can't just nationalise it, they have to carry on with this weird insurance system and enormous, out of proportion costs that are charged.

[bohemianbanshee]

Yes, it's not fun. But isn't it under nationalized healthcare that the taxpayer funds it through taxes? I mean, how else is the government paying for it? The money for anything always comes from the people, I believe. That's not to say that something like healthcare wouldn't be worth paying more taxes....I'm not sure how much more would do the trick, but I'd be down for paying a bit more in taxes for better healthcare. Would depend on how much more, I guess.

You're commenting anonymously, so I'm not sure if I know you, but I was in Scotland for 2 1/2 years and was very happy with the NHS services. Thankfully, I didn't have any very serious health concerns while I was there, I'm not sure how it would've stacked up in that case.

[anonymous]

What I mean is that if healthcare is nationalised, it's not a profit-making venture. So businesses can't charge ridiculous amounts of money for it (which is why US health care is so expensive, and I am guessing that this has to be paid for somehow when the US is persisting with privatised insurance-based healthcare instead of nationalising it).

IIRC, the NHS provides just as good healthcare as pretty much most places.

[bohemianbanshee]

"What I mean is that if healthcare is nationalised, it's not a profit-making venture. So businesses can't charge ridiculous amounts of money for it (which is why US health care is so expensive, and I am guessing that this has to be paid for somehow when the US is persisting with privatised insurance-based healthcare instead of nationalising it

[anonymous]

oops, this is bethan.. i clicked on the old lj link and it posted my comment as anonymous!

[bohemianbanshee]

Oh, okay, now I see it, down here at the bottom! :P