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Originally Posted by TheDoc
I've paid cash for services before. It's about $8k or so to have a kid with State services helping you or it's $20k without any help. Which is roughly equal to 2.2 years of paying for insurance, just for the baby, without complications. To be put on the ventilator for 15 minutes is $1,800. Which is about half a year of paying insurance.
I can't assume the insurance will be bad... the VA isn't heaven but when you're down and out, it's the best damn place on earth.
Yes, many of those offer discount insurance services, that connect to blood work services, the visit, etc. It's insurance, but like liability and not full coverage. Yes, normal insurance that covers the costs, costs more.
I've had issues with hosptials, cars, insurance, phone companies, hosts, etc.. I still use a host even though one completely fucked me over.
If you want to drive on roads paid for by my tax dollars... you should have it for my protection then. If you don't care about yourself, then fine - might want to think of others though.
Sorry, I don't believe that, your friend was feeding you a load. Even if he paid $3k a month in insurance, it would still be cheaper than paying for cancer treatment yourself. And he has the freedom to ask how much, I do it all the time.
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If you are a cash patient, most doctors will give you a cash price which is lower than insurance.
If you need a $40k operation, you can go to Thailand and have it done for $8k, while staying in the equivalent of a four star hotel room your loved ones are welcome in, with a personal 24/7 nurse.
Let me give you a more personal example. Someone close to me has cancer. She has had multiple bouts with it. For most of her adult life, she has had the fabulous government option insurance everyone talks about being so great. So, for decades, the government has paid thousands of dollars a year and she has paid thousands of dollars a year to insure her and her family. She tells me that she appreciated the peace of mind, but, looking at the total math, the insurance companies still came out ahead.
The insurance company is the house and the house always wins. Insurance is a for-profit business. They want to take in more premiums than they pay out in claims. They want to gamble with your premiums in the market. And they want a government bailout, because you can't have insurance companies fail, if they lose your premium money in poor gambles.
Look at your own math. If having a baby with insurance supported inflated prices is equal to about 2.2 years of paying premiums, how many babies would you have to have before your premiums far exceeded the cost of having the child? I think the security issue becomes more important with children involved, but, with all the insurance companies dropping coverage for children, in the wake of this awful piece of legislation, I surely don't think that end of the population is being helped.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Those medical costs are inflated by the existence of the insurance industry. Take out the middleman scaring you with his protection racket premium pricing and medical services will charge what people can afford. It is basic business that the market would have to right-price, if it were not so heavily assisted. Why do you think healthcare in America costs so much more than elsewhere?
You don't seriously think there is a for-profit insurance plan out there where I could pay $25 a year, just in case I have a baby who needs to be on a ventilator at $1,800 a pop for every 15 minutes?