Why is health insurance so incredibly expensive?

Question

I am 32 years old with high blood pressure and obesity. I just started a new job (a small employer- only 3-4 employees), and we all desperately need health insurance.

Kaiser wants to charge me $550 per month for my single policy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only earn 900 per month. If I go with Kaiser, I will only be taking home about 90 dollars each week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is absurd and unconscionable.

I guess that Kaiser has a legal right to charge people whatever the hell they want to, but it's immoral. Wouldn't you agree?

That high of a cost for health insurance is ludicrous.

To JANET P-

Excuse me- I have never heard anything so obtuse in my life. Excuse me- I don't care about my life at all? That is not only reckless, narrow minded, and irrational, but it's just plain offensive. Shame on you.

Answer 1

Its not unconscionable. Where have you been for the past 10 years? You plan is EXTREMELY typical. That whole 'national health care debate' thing... Health care, state of crisis, ring any bells???? Its not out of line. Suck it up, and apply for medicaid... try union insurance. Or, get healthier. If you're healthier, your insurance will be less expensive... OR,
Go work for a company with better benefits. Most group insurance plans actually cost between 450-750 per person, per month. Mine is about $500.00 per month. My job pays about 80% of my premium... So, everyone's insurance is expensive... But, you're getting a raw deal because your employer isn't kicking in to help with your premium. Its not immoral... Kaiser has to pay their doctor's and electricity bills... They also run a fabulous research foundation. I'd rather pay them for insurance than pay for all my medical care alone. I'm pretty healthy, but know I couldn't afford it all on my own... Health insurance companies are greedy, and doctor's are greedy, and people are sick. mbrcatz17 is right. listen to her. she sounds less bitter than I.

Answer 2

Well, you're not going to like to hear this - but the premium charge is based on lumping you into a group with other people of your age, weight, and blood pressure, and determining how much, on average, they're going to have to PAY OUT.

Just like, your CAR insurance is much cheaper than it would be if you were a 16 year old with an at fault accident.

The insurance companies make a relatively accurate guess of how much they're going to pay out for you. I'm guessing if you're not a type 2 diabetic yet, you will be soon, which will incur additional MONTHLY costs and fees to manage. Then there's potential heart issues based on your weight. Not to MENTION the possibility you'll want lap band surgery, which is NOT CHEAP.

People USE health insurance. There are GOING to be claims, even if nothing goes wrong. That gets factored in.

So, like everything else about insurance, it's about the odds. Women live longer than men. Heavy people have more health problems. So do smokers. Teenage boys have more car accidents. Women have childbirth issues. They factor that in.

You can't buy a brand new Cadillac for $25. Why is that? Same reason you can't buy health insurance for $300 a month - what someone with normal blood pressure & weight, and no preexisting conditions, would pay. Because the company can't operate at a loss for long, without going out of business.

Answer 3

When you consider the fact that insurance started as a scam and to my mind it still is, as example I cite that during the Civil War "insurance" agents would sell death benefits to the soldiers for their families. However since a certificate of death was needed, and the casualties were so great a death certificate was usually out of the question. The company made out like bandits, and bandits they were and still are to this day. Oh they do their best to try to project an air of legitimacy, and tell us why there is a need, in truth, they care very little beyond the money they take in. Auto insurance in a great example. You pay premiums on the "what if" something happens. However if nothing happens do you get a return on your premium, or at least a pass on the payment for the next year. Oh my God NO!! So it shouldn't be that much of a stretch to see that the price will always go up as long as our health system is governed by a for profit organization, and predicated on a what if, thought pattern.

Answer 4

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RE :Why is health insurance so incredibly expensive?
I am 32 years old with high blood pressure and obesity. I just started a new job (a small employer- only 3-4 employees), and we all desperately need health insurance.

Kaiser wants to charge me $550 per month for my single policy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

I only earn 900 per month. If I go with Kaiser, I will only be taking home about 90 dollars each week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is absurd and unconscionable.

I guess that Kaiser has a legal right to charge people whatever the hell they want to, but it's immoral. Wouldn't you agree?

That high of a cost for health insurance is ludicrous.
Update: To JANET P-

Excuse me- I have never heard anything so obtuse in my life. Excuse me- I don't care about my life at all? That is not only reckless, narrow minded, and irrational, but it's just plain offensive. Shame on you.
Follow 13 answers

Answer 5

That's why according to some people there is a looming healthcare crisis in this country. It is unconscionable and unfortunate, but we are powerless to stop it on our own. This is going to be a major issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.

This is actually why I work for a large company that pays my full premium. My hubby doesn't have insurance through his job, so I'm pretty much stuck here.

I should add that while a lot of people like to blame the insurance companies, doctors, and the huge amounts awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits, pharmaceutical companies have a huge part in all this. My husband once had a prescription (a fairly common one, I might add) that cost $750 a month (30 pills). That's more than our monthly insurance premium. Meanwhile, the same drugs go for less than half that in Canada. Figure that one out.

Answer 6

The cost of health insurance is directly related to the outlays which health insurance providers make when someone makes a claim. If you have not experienced a hospital bill recently, you are in for a shock. A simple screening colonoscopy will run you over $2,000. You mentioned obesity. If an insurer ends up paying for a gastric bypass operation, the outlay will be over $25,000.

Money does not grow on trees, my friend. The insurer must collect enough in premiums to cover the insurer's expected outlays, plus enough to pay its staff and make a profit.

Answer 7

Kaiser may not be morally right charging so much per person for individual insurance, but you have to think of it from their perspective; they're a business, and they're trying to make money.

Not to say they're "picking" on you, because they have a standard set of guidelines as to what a person does/weighs/has to help them know what to charge person. That being said, when someone comes in and is overweight and has high blood pressure, their health is not going to be as "good" as someone who is average weight and without high blood pressure, meaning that they'll be more susceptible to getting sick, so they have to charge more based on those risks.

If you and your company feel that this is still unfair, shop around! It won't hurt Kaiser's feelings that you're looking at some place out; in fact it may provoke them to lower their rates if they think they're going to loose a customer.

Answer 8

You are at a very high risk to have serious health problems of your own choosing. You decided to become obese, which documents to the health insurance company that you don't care about your health or life at all. If you got sick within the next 5 years they would not even break even.

Shop around or loose some weight. I have a good friend with Kaiser, 57, in great health and they charge him less then half that. He is not part of any group plan either.

Answer 9

That's because health care costsare so high.
Today, you could go for a dr's visit and have to pay 60-80 for just the visit, a couple dollars to a couple hundred for simple lab work, plus a lot more for a prescription.
A case of bronchitis could involve more than $ 500.00 in bills.
. Health care providers must provide free care for illegal aliens, ( California has very many .) Those costs simply get passed on to you and the ins co's.
Yes, it absurd but health ins co's are not the bad guy, even though it may politically popular to have you believe this.

Answer 10

Well, Mr. Troll, it's because America has a health care system based on making money not curing disease. Have you ever wondered what the most profitable industry in the world is? Answer: Pharmaceuticals. Pound for pound, it thumps its nearest competitor, oil.