More Healthcare Fun

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...anges-and-without-medicare-for-all-2019-08-15

 

This article has no grounds on reducing cost of 75%. Where is world did they get that number. Such a typical bait article. Also anyone can get an HSA. It is like a IRA, but for health care spending only. Good on Whole foods for matching employees that want one. It is not an actual plan though. I wish it were that easy to just simple put a price on procedures, and I am sure it could work for some. Unfortunately things like surgeries, especially trauma related, is just too case by case basis.

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Not true. An HSA can only be contributed to by an individual covered under a high deductible insurance plan. Not just anyone can get one.

 

With Singapore’s citizenry empowered by deductible security and price tags, competition has worked its magic, forcing providers to constantly figure out ways to lower costs and improve quality. The result is not only 77% less spending than the United States but also, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, one of the healthiest populations in the world.

 

I don't know about ALL HSAs, but the one my wife and I enrolled in a couple of years ago was an utter fuckin scam. Point blank.

We just dipped our toes in with a 2000 contribution figuring that would be easily used up by two fat fifty-somethings who have neglected their health for their whole lives. (MURRICA!!!)

Turns out, not so much. Insurance co-pays? not covered. Root canal? not covered. Doc-in-a-box visit for a dog bite? not covered.

The best part of the scam is that there's no roll-over to next year, and it's use-it-or-lose-it. We finally managed to get the last of it spent but it was tooth and nail with those MFers.

Never again.

 

It has nothing to do with lifestyle and diet I guess.

 

That wouldn’t have been an HSA. Sounds to be a poorly administered FSA. HSA is a savings account. That’s the real benefit of them. FSA is a flex SPENDING account ... use it or lose it.

 

Could be. The acronyms involved anymore are a bit convoluted .

 

What he said. A Health Savings Account can be set up by almost anyone and is just an account set aside for medical expenses. They’re usually very liberal about what you can buy. A Flexible Spending Account is similar, but is for set expenses like ongoing prescriptions, contact lenses, or even daycare.

 

Did the lifestyle and diet of the average Singaporean change when their government adopted this system?

 

Good to know, but the tribulations we went through make me leery of any of that bullshit.

Perhaps now would be a reasonable time to try an HSA, but I'll only put money I can afford to pour down the drain for the first year while I feel them out.

 

It’s not poured down the drain. It doesn’t go away at the end of the year or anything. It sits there, builds, and even earns interest until you use it. You can even withdraw it (and face penalties and taxes) if you need it for non-medical issues.

It’s basically like an escrow account but for your body instead of your house.

 

I'm kind of a "Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me" type person.

It doesn't help that all this is through my wife's workplace so I get all the info secondhand through her filters.

 

HSA is also pre-tax. look at it as an IRA that you can pull out of, without penalty if used for healthcare. Thus, depending on tax bracket, you save 15-30% of every dollar spent on healthcare. it is also portable, so if you move jobs, it stays with YOU. We look at it as additional retirement savings in effect, knowing that between the wife and i, we will need plenty of healthcare dollars one day.

 

I don't know, but to compare a system in a mostly homogenous nation with an entirely different culture is interesting only so far as seeing it done. It does not automatically translate into an answer here. FWIW, if you look back, most of us have mentioned that the cost side is what needs to be fixed and that our system's removal of the customer from the cost is a huge part of the problem.

 

My bank advised me that if you don`t make any withdrawl form an HSA for x years, the g takes it.

 

The real trick to an HSA is that most holding companies have the option of being able to invest the money once you have $1000+ in it. It functions more like a Roth than anything else. The money you use is untaxed, AND the growth is untaxed, as long as it used on proper qualifying expenses. But again, NOT just anyone can set it up. It can ONLY be opened/used by those that have a qualifying high-deductible insurance plan.

 

We're talking all about the HSA side of that article, but I 100% agree with is making a price sheet for every procedure. I think the author is spot on. Put the prices out there as plain as day and make doctors and hospitals compete. I keep seeing time and time and time again politicians want to tax people to pay for healthcare. Why is no one doing a damn thing about lowering the cost of said health care? That should be step number one, period!

 

Right path, but then we need to get to the real root of the cost versus price. Real life example from a hospital hat we did due to a benefits provider change I was making at work a few years back. MRI - hospital charged $7000. Insurance contracts would knock that down to $3500. Good deal, right? What did that MRI actually cost them to perform? $421 per their own documentation. Audit firm we worked with would go back and say here’s your cost, plus 12% for profit. You can eat the rest. Don’t like it? Take us to court. That firm has never lost a case.

 

Why? Because the healthcare and pharma lobbies own virtually every single politician and bureaucrat in DC and every statehouse in the nation. The cartels are dimestore shoplifters in comparison.