On healthcare
So I’m learning first hand what a frakking mess the American health-insurance situation is. And I’m not just talking about “Bush to poor kids: Drop dead.”
My wife and I are both professionals, and both capable of easily earning in the range of $30,000 to $50,000 per year in freelance and part time work, which is what we’d both prefer to do. But we can’t. We couldn’t afford the health insurance. You would think that a household income of $80,000 a year would be more than enough, but it isn’t.
Right now we get our insurance through COBRA — I’m on the same plan I was on when I was working for the Roanoke Times, but I pay the full cost. That’s about $1300.00 per month for my family — more than my mortgage. And that’s under a group health plan.
What that means is that one or both of us will have to get a job in an office simply to get cheap health insurance. Because when COBRA runs out, trying to get insurance that would cover my wife’s high blood pressure and Sam’s growth hormone will be impossible. (And if not impossible, prohibitively expensive.
So an office it is.
Imagine if we weren’t able to make that kind of money, or didn’t have the skills to work at a job that paid benefits. (Attention Wal-Mart customers!) We would be uninsured. If I broke my leg, or my wife had a serious illness, we would probably go bankrupt, as many people have.
Something is wrong with this picture.
Pricing structures
Of course, one reason health insurance costs so much is that health care costs so much. Take drugs.
While waiting for COBRA to kick in, I went to fill a script at Walgreens for a generic medication. It cost $45.00. I pointed out that the same meds cost $4.00 at Wal-Mart and Target. (This is old news, that different pharmacies charge way different prices for the same meds. The New York Times wrote about the problem in 1897.)
Anyway, the pharmacist at Walgreens said those stores must have a different deal with the drug manufacturer. I was going to get reimbursed by my insurance company, so I didn’t worry. But it got me thinking.
Even with the clout that Wal-Mart has, it couldn’t get the drug manufacturers to sell their products at a loss. So even with a retail price of $4.00, the drug companies are making money, although obviously not as much as they are from Walgreens’ suckers customers.
Therefore, the price being paid by insurance companies (and people without insurance who shop at Walgreens) is outrageous.
Certainly they have the right to charge what the traffic will bear. But the “traffic” in this case in the insurance companies. They’re paying that much, and they’re passing that cost on to us in the form of outrageous premiums.
It’s time for the traffic to stop bearing the weight of those profits.
Message time
I am all for the pharmaceutical industry making profits, even huge profits. They invest a ton of money coming up with chemicals that help us live longer. Let ‘em get filthy rich. But there’s a line somewhere beyond which their profits are bad for the country as a whole, where they’re able to get away with a bit too much.
Capitalism says that prices are regulated by the buyers. In this case, we’re not talking about one kind of widget, but of an entire industry. And it’s time for the buyers to push back. Government in this country is us.
Perhaps healthcare reform is about us telling the drug companies that We the Traffic don’t feel like bearing their costs any more. That absurd drug prices lead to absurd premiums, which leads to people being unable to get basic health care. Sick people aren’t good for the country. The millions of man-hours lost means labor lost, productivity lost, taxes lost. It’s an ebbing tide that’s lowering all our boats.
If the only way to get the message to the pharmaceutical companies is to get the government to step in, then so be it. The problem is widespread enough that the government should step in.
I have health insurance — expensive insurance, but insurance nonetheless. But too many others don’t, and that’s intolerable.
Jeff says:
Andrew:
Why in the world are you paying for health insurance under COBRA? That is usually, hands down, the most expensive way to get coverage (I’ve been there).
Unless you have some sort of pre-existing condition that is going to throw you WAYYY off the charts (which existed BEFORE you had health coverage at the newspaper)… you should be able to get a family plan for less. Now, it might not be life-altering in terms of savings, but it should be enough to matter at least a little.
For example (and by doing a little guessing about your family’s birthdates), Aetna and Anthem in your area have plans that will cover all of your for as little as $176 (granted, it’s a super high deductible)… but there are DOZENS of plans available with a variety of costs and deductibles. Try http://www.ehealthinsurance.com just to take a look.
Good luck!
~Jeff