24,000 A year for Insurance. Anyone else?

According to my pay package I pay 24 grand a year for insurance. If I work overtime then I contribute more to the pot. I have VERY good insurance but I still want Single Payer. It would allow me to leave my line of work and start something new. I am literally trapped by my fear of losing it. I am sure many others are in this position also, including the protesters.

they want Pres Obama's head.

on my Facebook page today. That the protests are NOT really about being against Healthcare reform.
I was actually resistant to Facebook initially but I soon discovered it was a way for me to speak out, and help ideas, lies, and videos go viral!! I'm sure all my RW acquaintances hate me now. No loss.

I almost lost it before and the amount was insane. Yeah, I'm making 300 a week on unemployment and you want me to pay how much???

And it's a major battle every time we have to put in a claim. I'd gladly pay the same amount to the government, just for piece of mind that claims won't be denied because the CEO needs to make payments on his 200' yacht.

I would gladly pay 2% out of my check for "socialist" healthcare. Christ with what I'm paying I'd be making 6 figures if they added the per hr for health insurance to my check.
To the last part of your post I am right fucking with ya.

It can't go on forever!!

That's just stunning.

Would it be cheaper to just get catastrophic coverage?

We are up for policy review every August so it may come to that next time around. But as you know, catastrophic with a large deductible puts the house in jeopardy if one of us gets sick.

If you could cancel your insurance and pay a few hundred for wellness, checkups, and prevention and put what's left over of the $24,000 per year in the bank, within about 4 years, you would have a large enough fund to cover all but the most catastrophic medical problems. If you remained healthy for 10 or more years, then you would be financially untouchable.

When health insurance is more costly than self insurance, you know the system is broken. When self-insurance is more economical than insurance, then you know that the insurance industry is sucking value out of the system, not adding value as an insurer and cost-spreader and risk reducer. That's econ 101.

About 15 years ago, I had a platinum type plan. My then wife also became extremely sick and had very, very costly medical expenses. But one day we went through the bills and discovered that even her expenses were less than what I and my employer were paying in premiums. Considering all the healthy people at my employer at that time, this was pretty scandalous.

The system is a complete fraud.

The problem is that every once in a while a family can rack up hundreds of thousands in health care cost, as was the case with my in-laws. One winter alone they had over $150K in claims and that did not include the surgeries, chemo and radiation of the prior four years. When disaster comes knocking it hits hard.

I'm a union plasterer and we pay $9 an hour. If I work all year thats $18,000. That is with a $700 deductable and pays 80%. Anything out of network is not covered at all. Its a ppo. It does cover dental and eye glasses. Its Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. We need single payer!!

For good insurance.

I'm looking at having to let some people go if this reform raises my cost. I'm barely hanging in business wise in this recession.