and this is only PART of the total picture for our household.
As part of the treatment every month for her as yet incurable but manageable (currently in remission and hoping to keep it that way) blood cancer my wife gets a bill from her insurance, which is from The Federal Employee Blue Cross Blue Shield program.
Please note, his is for only ONE of her treatments.
it does not include anything else, or for any other medical treatments either she or I receive.
This is for MAINTAINING a situation of an incurable cancer attempting to keep it in remission.
TYPE OF SERVICE |
Submitted charges |
Plan allowance |
chemotherapy |
205.00 |
117.00 |
Prescription Drug |
2,232.00 |
1058.94 |
Office Visit |
70.00 |
31.07 |
Medical Care |
304.00 |
136.15
|
Medical Care |
97.00 |
24.35 |
Prescription Drug |
19.00 |
.54 |
Prescription Drug |
30.00 |
1.50 |
totals |
2,957.00 |
1,369.62 |
So, worth noting. The insurance pays ALL of the plan allowance in this case. That means we pay nothing. Which is good.
Second, imagine what the cost would be were we responsible for the bills — if you do the arithmetic 2,957.00 — 1,369.62 = an additional 1,587.38 per month or 19,048.56 per year. There are few families that could afford that. Heck, few could afford the monthly plan allowance, which annually comes out to 16,434.44
As for the entire nominal cost? 35,484, when the median family income is < 60,000/year.
Which is why everyone needs GOOD medical insurance. And yes, by ACA standards this qualifies as a “Cadillac” plan.
One more thing to note. The various medical providers accept the plan allowances. Perhaps someone here who is a medical can provider can explain to me why the nominal amount is more than twice what accepted plan allowance is.
Oh, and if you were to replace this kind of insurance with vouchers? Wouldn’t than mean those vouchers would have to be applied against the Submitted charges? Would not that mean that most Americans could not afford this kind of life-saving medical care?
We are lucky. I damn well know it.
What I want to know is why all of our people can not be so protected from the catastrophic costs of medical care as are we.