Could most afford catastrophic health care?

Studies show it’s only $3,000 per year. Most uninsured choose not to have it:

As Congress revisits health insurance next year, we must reach a national consensus that families earning $25,000 or more can spend $3,000 on catastrophic health insurance premiums.
If they don’t choose to buy it for themselves, middle-class taxpayers should not be forced to buy it for them. When politicians come to understand this, they will “get it” on healthcare.

Comments

Anonymous
Have you tried to calculate the expenses of, for example, a family of 4 with a couple of kids? Because it is very easy for those of us with 6-digit salaries say what a family leaving on $25,000 a year can afford.
I was curious so I found this article listing budget for a family of four in 2000 that added up to $34,732.28. It did include $3000 for all healthcare expenses (not just catastrofic insurance – kids may still need to go to the dentist). But this budget was from 2000, since then gas prices went up and apartment prices went up. For example, the article quotes only $628 a month for a 2-bedroom apartment. I don’t know if there is still a place in the US when you can find one for this price. And before you suggest living in a one-bedroom – try finding a landlord that would rent a one bedroom to more than 2 people.
So if in 2000 a family needed over $30,000 for basic expenses, how would $25,000 be enough for expenses and $3000 insurance in 2006? Inquiring minds want to know.
Working the shallow end of the gene pool
If a couple only makes 25K a year then THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE TWO KIDS (or 4 or 6 kids). They should work on acquiring some skills or education to increase their earning power.
However we are just not talking about people with two kids making 35K. Yesterday I took care of a trauma patient that crashed his late model Porsche and DID NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE. People are stupid and society has to pay for it.
Anonymous
We can argue on the ‘right’ dollar amount, but the underlying argument is that the insurance market is very good at catastrophic coverage and rather poor at primary care (mostly because primary care isn’t something you can insure in a market – the economics of insurance ensure that).
Also, to the Anon who took the trouble to look up the cost of living: national figures are very misleading. You can actually get a 2br for 600-700 in many parts of the country. My roommate and I pay three times that because we live in boston. My brother lives in Durham and he rents a HOUSE for something on the order of 1/2 what we pay ….
But geographic variation is OK because the people who are going to solve the the uninsured crisis in America aren’t the feds, it is the states because they’re the ones who REALLY feel the medicaid pinch. Let each state set the details of mandatory insurance and then subsidize the people below the cut-off.
Anonymous
We need mandated insurance for at least barebones catastrophic coverage nationwide.
Ned in DC
Ms. Erbe is OBVIOUSLY out of touch with what it actually costs to live in middle-Income America. An income of $25,000 a year cannot possibly feed, house and cloth a family of four—no matter where they live. Insurance isn’t even on that financial radar screen. Neither are visits to the Doctor and Dentist….until it becomes catastrophic and lands in the Emergency Room.
THAT is how things work now, Ms. Erbe. Welcome to the real world.
Gasman
Those with limited financial resources might be in that boat because they have inadequate education, but they are not stupid.
There is no rational reason for someone with few assets to bother with catastrophic insurance. If severely injured they will receive care, be unable to pay and the debt is written off by the health care system (or if the system tries to make things tough, the just declare bankruptcy).
They do have great difficulty accessing routine health care for small stuff through office visits. Here catastrophic insurance provides no help, but has just sucked $3000 from the family budget that otherwise could have helped with basic care.
The people who need catastrophic care insurance are those with in the Two Income Trap zone (http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/11/10_400.html); any relatively minor illness for one spouse that takes them out of the workforce for even a few months, while tacking on new debt will fatally criple them financially.
Anonymous
“There is no rational reason for someone with few assets to bother with catastrophic insurance.”
That is why barebones cat ins needs to be mandated.
Anonymous
“”There is no rational reason for someone with few assets to bother with catastrophic insurance.”
Provided you are indifferent to the stigma of bankruptcy or the possibility of future wage garnishment.
Darlene
It use to be no issue to my husband and I. We had three children with no insurance and did not care. Then we had a 25 week premature boy that doctors insisted he went on life support. He was sent home at the age of one on life support and is now twenty on life support. He has to have twenty four hour care. I and my husband have four other children and one still to put through college. Insurance is a must for any one who needs it. If we only spent what was necessary then there actually would be alot more money for those who really need it. I can not even go to a doctor unless I am so sick. Just the thougt of using the money knowing it cost over $300,00.00 per year for our son at home kills me. A mom who says, if you need it, it should be there.
Anonymous
It’s very difficult to hear people say that it is the poorer of the people who do not have insurance. And the poorer of the people who do not have an education. My husband and I both have a degree, but since we do have a critically ill child, we end up being very poor due to the amounts of money it costs us above the insurance. It is not that we are uneducated when we had a child with a tremendous amount of diseases at birth. We were educated. Wake up and smell the roses. The politicans eat up more money than you can imagine and they would get all the care they need. They are not neccessarily educated. Just many people think they are educated. It is we the people who have to make the difference in healthcare. Don’t be afraid to ask for everything. We as a county have plenty of money to receive what we medically need weather we are rich or poor.

Could most afford catastrophic health care?

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