Jun
Each of us has been faced with the dilemma of asking ourselves the question, “How costly is health care insurance today?” The worst part is that health care costs are skyrocketing causing some individuals to have to pay premiums as high as $700 per month, or even more for a family coverage plan. It appears that in today’s economy, people can’t afford health insurance and can’t afford to be without it, either. Health insurance is a Catch 22 situation. You can’t live with it, and you can’t live without it.
What is the answer to the increasing costs of health care? Some believe that it’s based upon the number of malpractice lawsuits that face doctors and hospitals, but that is more than likely only a small portion of the problem. In many places, there are no county hospitals, so the private sector must pick up the tab for the indigent patients who have no health care and don’t qualify for state assistance.
How costly is health insurance today in terms of hospital costs? There is a direct correlation between the rising cost of health insurance and medical costs. Insurance companies are often paying for procedures that were never performed but billed to the insurance companies, thus increasing the cost of health insurance. Sadly, many of these errors are not caught, and the question arises whether they were deliberate errors or where they honest mistakes. Whichever the case may be, these billing errors cause the cost of health insurance coverage to escalate.
In spite of the cost of health insurance today, their admission policies have become stricter. Many companies put restrictions on covering certain conditions such as cancer, asthma, epilepsy, heart conditions, and many more that require long-term treatment. They restrict the type of medications they will cover in an attempt to force patients to use over the counter medications that are less effective, especially for allergies. They want subscribers to pay more money, while they cover less on their end.
To ask the question, “How costly is health insurance today?” is to admit to oneself that a problem exists within our health care system. Patients are being sent home within hours of surgery because insurance companies don’t want to pay the additional cost, and surgeries that used to be in-patient are now out-patient. This can be seen largely in the maternity areas where some insurance companies want new mothers to return home less than twelve hours after giving birth.
Medical professionals have questioned the safety of insurance companies demanding patients return home before their doctors feel they are ready. In many cases, approvals have been granted for the doctor to make that decision. In spite of those variances, many insurance companies still continue in their attempts to push surgical patients out of the hospital before they are medically ready for the transition.
With subscribers in many cases paying more of the cost of their own health care, they are faced every day with the reality of the answer to the question, “How costly is health insurance today.” Even with those whose employers foot the bill for the majority of the cost of their health insurance, they are still receiving less care at a higher cost, whether it’s their expense or the employer’s.