Re:The American Dream Is Alive in Finland
by adventured on Monday July 11, 2016 @08:19PM
(#12075825)
Most Americans are not paying out of pocket for their health insurance through the ACA. That's one of the biggest myths about the American health care market. The majority of Americans are either being covered by medicaid / medicare, or are mostly covered by health insurance at their job.
Americans receive compensation to the tune of over a trillion dollars per year via health insurance coverage at their place of work. None of that gets counted in the US income figures.
Of course most Americans are paying for their health insurance - just indirectly. This is actually a very smart system designed to keep people in the dark about how much things cost.
If people had to pay $2500/month for a family of 4 or $80 for a single aspirin in a hospital, they would go ballistic on day one. Also - health premiums go up 10-15% EVERY YEAR. That;s why your annual raise is 3% or less.
Insurance? Sure. I mean, a young, single person pays a bit above $250 in CA for a plan that meets ACA "Bronze" criteria, which pays about 60% of total cost. So minimal health insurance for a household should be easily doable under $15K per year. OTOH, total health expenses for a household would probably bring you right up to that $15K number, eating up the entire difference.
And healthcare isn't the only place where the US fails to provide services that governments elsewhere in the developed world provide.