Medicare Buy-in $700, A Month?

[Me.]

Was listening to Tweety and thought I heard him quote that amount. If so, that's $8400. a year. After tax money. If people can't afford to buy health insurance now, how's that going to work?And what kind of deal is that?

[virgogal]

1. A damn shitty one if the figures are correct.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. better to have single payer it comes out of salary

where the poorer pay much less

[kestrel91316]

3. Tweety probably just pulled a number out of his fat ass. I saw $400

bandied around last week. Which is still too high. If people could afford $400 a month, they's already have private insurance.

[ThoughtCriminal]

19. Private insurance is usually worthless

At least under current law. Private insurance can and will exclude for pre-existing conditions. And when it comes to paying out expensive claims, they will likely consider all conditions pre-existing even if all medical evidence goes against it. You pretty much have to be willing to fight them in court for years to get them to pay a claim. If you're lucky, you may live long enough to collect.

[MercutioATC]

28. Not within a system like FEHBP.

They're private insurers (Aetna, Blue Cross, etc.) but they have to abide by the rules of the program.

No exclusion for pre-existing conditions, mandatory list of things they must cover, everybody pays the same premium, and they can't cancel your coverage.

[endless october]

4. i read over $800 on another thread here.

is that incorrect?

[varelse]

5. Who could afford that?

that's just a little less than my share of the rent :(

[county worker]

6. I'm not hearing anything I like so far.

I'll be on Medicare in 3 years so for me I think it won't be so bad but for those younger than me, I'm sorry but we did not get what we were promised.

I remember words like "affordable health care for all." "If you like your present plan you can keep it, if you don't there will be a public plan that you can buy into that is affordable and provides the best care."


I forgot the "there will be competition for the insurance companies."


Now I hear, "never mind."

[Mimosa]

24. I remember words like "affordable health care for all."

Me, too, County Worker. We got fooled.

[Tunkamerica]

7. he said several hundred a month

[Me.]

9. Aah.

Still, could be more than some can afford

[Tunkamerica]

23. I thought so.

[timeforpeace]

8. I saw $800 also. What a deal. I'm paying $400 now for good coverage.

[dkf]

12. How much is your employer paying?

The total bill is how this needs to be compared.

[timeforpeace]

26. $400. That's me.

[PSzymeczek]

10. Are they freakin' high?

That's more than we pay for rent!

[Cleita]

11. Don't worry about it. There is going to be no buy in or public option

Just a mandate forcing you to buy their private crappy product that you couldn't afford to begin with.

[doc03]

13. HCTC will pay for 80% of my employers group

insurance when I turn 62 next year. I will pay far less that $200 a month, how is this going to help me? The company will no doubt drop my insurance and I will be forced into Medicare at $700 or $800 a month and on top of that have to pay for another medigap policy, what a mess!!!!!!! :argh:

[rgbecker]

14. If you're over 55 and paying less than $700/mo. better keep it.

Go out on the "Free enterprise market" the GOP loves so much and see if you can do better....Then let me know. By the way, we're talking no deductible and no life limit, no refusal for pre-existing condition. (Hint: you won't even find a company to cover you, much less for $700/mo.)

[MineralMan]

15. My wife, who is 54, is paying 700 a month, and is uninsurable,

should she lose this coverage. I'm 64, and am paying 720 a month. I agree that it's too high, but it's the going rate for individuals who are paying for their own health insurance at that age.

[Me.]

16. Jesus Wept

That's over 17 grand for the two of you per year, yes?

[MineralMan]

17. Yep. And that's not at all unusual for individuals who

are self-employed. For a lot of people our age, no insurance is available at all. We have ours because we got it in our 40s. If you're 50+, it's almost impossible to get insurance if you're an individual.

Mine is done in July, when I go on Medicare.

[NorthCarolina]

18. That will become the basis for private insurance for 55+

If you pay less than that now for private insurance, you won't after reform. What America needs is HR 676, but first I think we will need to reclaim the Democratic Party from the DLC/Blue Dog Conservatives.

[rgbecker]

20. I interested in where you get that idea. Is it in the present House or Senate Bill?

I'm for single payer too, but I'm looking for facts on the present possible bills. Will no insurer, non-profit or for profit be able to offer a rate less than $700/mo? Or is this your guess at what will happen without anyone but Medicare to offer competition?

Just wondering.

[NorthCarolina]

21. It seems logical that if the Medicare "Buy-In" is say $600 or $700

per month (Howard Dean indicated $600/mo on Hardball yesterday), then that would become the "bargain basement" default price for a person 55+. The insurance companies would likely charge UP from there. They will get an insurance mandate that will add legions of folks younger than 55 (and less likely to need other than routine medical care), so there will be little interest on their part to be price competitive with Medicare for a group of persons aged 55-64 who are on the horizon of increasing health care needs. The right way of course would be to open Medicare to everyone, thereby placing younger healthier folks paying into the program to offset the higher health care costs incurred with the 65+ crowd. I believe doing so would solve not only the health care crisis in America, but would also make Medicare solvent.....kill two birds with one stone. Of course, right now our Government represents corporate interests and profit at the expense and neglect of constituents. We can all thank Clinton/Gore and their legion of DLC goons for coming in and transforming the Democratic Party from an advocate of the people to a clone of the GOP.

[dysfunctional press]

22. DON'T WORRY! they're dropping the expansion of medicare.

[Ms. Toad]

25. A pretty good one, from where I'm sitting

My daughter would need to pay $14,400 a year to get health insurance - at age 19. For me at age 53 it would cost around $50,000 a year. Neither of us are insurable on the open market - her for real reasons, me for stupid nonsense that should not be permitted as a reason for rejection. $8400 for guarantee issue health coverage sounds pretty attractive.

[Raine]

27. That's supposed to be "affordable" WTF

for who?!? If you can't afford it now how the hell can you afford that?!? Even half of that is too much! These people are delusional. :crazy: They need to try and live on what the average working people does for a few months, then see what they think.

[SoCalDem]

29. The "lords" have no idea how the peons live

For MOST people who don't have insurance NOW, anything over the cost of a used-car payment is too much..and even then people will struggle with copays & RX costs.... and then there are the "excluded" procedures..

This will NOT help most people..

Consider a 55 yr old guy with a wife & a couple of teenagers still at home..

even if he HAD the extra $700, what about his wife (under 55) and the kids?

We need BLANKET COVERAGE for EVERYONE...

[pipoman]

30. It is high for sure...

Let's say there is a group of 55 year olds in your town...say 50 of them. How much would you charge each one to pay their medical bills? My dad was an insurance agent for 30 years selling only medicare supplement and nursing home insurance. He would often get turned down by people numerous times for nursing home insurance, then one day one of the couple would be diagnosed with dementia or parkinson's or some other debilitating ailment, then would call wanting insurance on the cusp of absolute confinement in a $5-7k per month facility. Before the diagnosis the coverage may have cost $5k per year. Where will the money come from when 20% of the 55 year old medicare customers consume $50k per year in benefits, 20% consume $30k, 20% consume 15k? $8400 is sounding better, no?