How much of your budget is required to buy health insurance coverage?
If you receive subsidized coverage, somebody else is paying. But if you are a small business, or individual, you are.
With the passage of the ludicrously misnamed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA), millions lost their coverage. One big ACA lie was that “if you like your health insurance plan (or your doctor), you can keep your plan (or your doctor)”—assuming that the plan still exists or that your doctor is still in practice.
The graph shows the escalation in costs, which is continuing.
Who are the beneficiaries of the increased spending?
Not patients, who face higher deductibles and denied procedures. Not doctors, who face annual cuts in payments and increases in administrative costs.
Check the stock prices of huge managed-care conglomerates (misnamed “insurers”). Investigate the rebates (kickbacks) to pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), who determine what drugs are on the formulary. Consider the amounts received by purveyors of mandated deductible and copayment-free services determined by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (such as costly HIV pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis).
What you can do:
- Ask your pharmacist about the self-pay price for your prescription before telling about your insurance; it could be less than your copay.
- Check self-pay prices for imaging studies—you might be able to get an immediate appointment.
- Look into a medical sharing ministry instead of insurance.
- Look for a doctor with no government or third-party contracts (e.g. Join the Wedge).
- Consider joining a direct primary care (DPC) practice.
- Advocate for regulatory and legislative reform that increases permitted options outside of ACA, and that expands medical savings accounts.
Additional Information:
- White Paper on Repeal/Replacement of the Affordable Care Act
- Amicus brief in case challenging the “preventive care” mandate of the ACA (Kennedy v. Braidwood Management)
- Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs): Gaming the System
