Health Care: can you answer the following 4 Q's?

Question

1) How much do you pay for health insurance per year (if provided by employer you are still technically paying since it is part of your compensation)?
2) What type of coverage is it (full coverage, catastrophic, individual, family, HMO, PPO)?
3) Is that more or less than what you paid in 2006 federal income tax?
4) The June 2007 US labor force was estimated at 153+ million workers, if each worker paid what you pay for health insurance to create a non-profit consumer co-op funding the exact insurance program you receive, would our national health care be better or worse off?

*My employer pays my health insurance ~$10K/yr for full coverage family plan PPO, slightly more than my federal income tax, slightly less than all payroll and income taxes put together. This would amount to over $15.3 Trillion to cover the 153+ Million workers and their families.

For those of you who do not know what a consumer co-op is, please read about it before answering #4. Do not ASSume that I'm talking about some form of socialized medical system!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_co-op

Answer 1

Yes, I can.

but it's personal, and irrelevant to just about anyone else. So I don't see the purpose in it.

We don't have "national health care" here in the US - which means, socialized medicine. THANK GOODNESS. I've heard too many horror stories about "national health care" from friends that live in Canada and the UK.

If you like the government taxation methods, government housing, and such, then I suppose you'd like national health care. I, for one, am NOT lining up to move into government housing. There's a reason for that.

Answer 2

1) I pay $2,028 per year for health insurance - $78 deducted every 2 weeks from my paycheck. My premiums are excellent because I work for one of the largest insurance companies in the country.

2) I have a family HRA (Health Reimbursement Account).

3) Not sure what you mean - is $2,028 roughly the amount of federal tax withheld from my pay in 2006 (is that the question)? No. I paid more tax.

4) If it happened the way you explain it, I suppose our national health care would be better off. However, wouldn't we still have the issue of uninsureds? Those people who are not working full-time or are not eligible for their employer plan would remain uninsured, wouldn't they?

Answer 3

In the order asked:
1. $6600 for a single person
2. HMO
3. I think it's less
4. It might be better off