A misguided person thinks that his employer-paid health insurance and continuing Medicare coverage is “free”:
One gentleman said he never has to pay for healthcare. He gets his for free.Free? uh-huh “” sure.
I asked him if he works for a living. No, he said he is retired. So I asked him if his employer paid for his medical care and he said yes “” and that’s why he gets his healthcare now for free.
I waited until after the workshop was over, but I felt compelled to explain this truism to him. For all those years he worked, his employer was paying premiums for health insurance on his behalf. That doesn’t mean it didn’t cost him anything “” what it means is that because the employer had to pay those premiums, that was money that didn’t get paid to the man! In addition, he had money taken out of his check for medicare and social security “” and that’s why the government pays for part of his healthcare now. Even today he’s paying into the system with his retirement checks.
He had never thought about it that way.
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{ 13 comments }
It’s scary how many folks genuinely do think that way. I have an ultra-lefty friend in law school (she might actually be done by now) who is a huge fan of “free health care”, which to her is the same thing as government funded health care. Presumably, she sees things she purchases with her credit card as “free” too, since she doesn’t actually hand cash to someone at the point of sale. And people like this have a hand in shaping the legal system and public policy. Genuinely sad and frightening.
And are those who think the health care is free any more appreciative of your efforts?
You’ve ignored an old bit of good advice and tried to smarten up a chump. Understandable, but mistaken, I fear.
I don’t think many people think it is free.
I have a health insurance, but my company also employs contractors. They usually get higher salary but no benefits. So we all know that our benefits is part of our whole compensation.
Most contractors are not self-employed but work for a consulting company, in which case consulting company pays for the medical (or not).
One of our contractors – a rather young guy – was an employee of the consulting company. His company gave him a choice – medical or significantly higher salary. He though that since he was young and healthy he’d take the money. Then his wife got pregnant, but at this time her pregnancy was “preexisting condition” so he couldn’t buy insurance to cover it. He ended up with 20K+ in bills…
Must have been complications with the pregnancy for the bill to be that high.
My brother and his wife had a child while uninsured. As soon as he knew that she was pregnant, he went to the hospital’s business office. They had a deal whereby for a fixed fee paid now, he was covered for all routine services and any complications that arose. It was about 2500 or so 5 years ago. It was sort of like insurance for a specific episode. I thought it was a great deal and smart for the hospital also. We have a lot of uninsured in this area, especially among young adults of child-bearing age. By rolling the fee into an insurance product, the hospital induced people to pay up front, and they got peace of mind with regard to finances months before delivery.
I think they would have still been bare to huge bills if the child were serverly handicapped or something. I am sure that wasn’t covered. But that sort of thing exceeds many people’s lifetime caps anyway. You can’t insure against everything.
I think the child was fine, but we live in a fairly expensive area. At any rate, this was what he told me. I think he negotiated it down a bit and they agreed on some payment plan. He was making around 125K a year, so it wasn’t like he had to go hungry. The only problem was that he had just started working, so he had no savings – both he and his wife were in the US on H1B – but he could pay in installments.
Also, I think this was total including prenatal care.
I think this was made up..No one could be so simple as to not know that medicare is not free. NO ONE could believe that except someone in the medical field who thinks a good day is to humiliate a medicare recepient. Those of us on it absolutely know that we worked all our lives and paid into our health ins and that we also paid into ss for retirement and medicare
Hell we even know that we pay out more in prescriptions, than what our retirement check is for. We know that all those tests medicare doesn’t cover we pay for. We know we pay our 20% co pay on services that are covered by medicare so unless this guy was suffering from severe dementia, which you don’t mention. Kevin, is just once again messing with the folks on medicare. God, if you were my Doc. I would fire you so damn fast.
I buy my own insurance. If I had to pay a 20,000 healthcare bill, but had not paid insurance premiums for 2 years, I would actually be ahead of the game. Really it is just a risk-benefit analysis like every other expenditure. Over the last 8 years I have spent about 90,000 in health insurance premiums–and have used about 10,000 in services. That includes one dependent with diabetes and 2 minor outpatient surgeries. So far, it hasn’t been a very good deal. If I’d of had the guts to go bare and saved that money (and I am a saver) I would be well on the way toward paying for a CABG or bone marrow transplant or such.
I am not there yet, and so if it happens this year, then I am ahead. If I remain basically healthy without really major stuff for another 6 years or so, then we can, retrospectively, say that I purchased peace of mind am financially the loser in not being willing to take more risk.
It is just a personal finacial decision like any other and the government should not make it for people.
Note to anonymous 9:15AM –
You should look at some other options.
A medical savings account would be one, making sure you understand how the rules work.
The other thing would be putting money aside, maybe in a liquid CD or something, then getting insurance with a high deductible to get your upfront cost down. All you really need protection for are the potential 5- and 6-figure (or more) bills that are not so likely but catastrophic if they would happen.
And make sure you’re not short-changing yourself by not having disability insurance.
1031:
I wish I was your doc and you fired me. I had to quit accepting medicare last year and I need the remaining 150-200 medicare patients to fire me.
The only way I can see that the retired man would think his health care is free, is if Medicare paid for 80% of his medical bills, and his former employer’s retiree health plan picked up the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover.
But it seems odd that he wouldn’t be aware of the paycheck deductions for Medicare and his former health insurance premiums. Even Social Security checks have the part B premiums automatically deducted.
It could be that he has a wife who’s always handled all the bills, and he has just never paid attention to what money’s coming in, and what is going out.
Or he’s elderly enough that he doesn’t understand anymore who pays what for medical care. My elderly father no longer understands what a medical bill is, or who pays it. He hasn’t been able to understood this for a good 8 years. And he used to be an accountant.
I still have to say, the story about the retired man seems odd.
>>”God, if you were my Doc. I would fire you so damn fast.”
You sound like a real jerk yourself, and no doubt been fired fot it too.
“God, if you were my Doc. I would fire you so damn fast.”
This is the first time I have heard of a patient who fired God!
I don’t know of many family doctors who accept Medicare; guess there will not be many patients who will have the opportunity to fire them.
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