Mickey7This has happened to me
PotatoLibreWhat’s the average price for an insurance for a middle class person living in a big city?
Does families get an all-in-one or it’s different for any single person?
For a single guy in his 30s with no major health issues it was going to be close to 400 dollars a month for me to get insurance through my work.
As someone in a union mine is $76 a month for decent benefits
I know you’re asking about the US, but for comparison:
In Sweden it’s a flat 3.55% of your labor income, so about €100-200 a month for most people, and usually caps out at €200 for people doing tax planning. In either case, it’s paid by your employer so you don’t have to think about the cost.
Out of pocket yearly maximum is €145 for Healthcare and €380 for prescriptions (which was raised 30% this year by the far-right coalition 😑). Dental care is also mostly covered by insurance, but there’s a co-insurance between 50% and 15%.
I live in Sweden too (not swedish), but I actually didn’t know about the cost up here.
Yeah, it’s something that people don’t really think about.
För klarhet, fackordet för skatten är arbetsgivareskatt och “pocket maximum” och “coinsurance” är engelsk fackord för högkostnadsskydd.
Yeah, I followed you there.
Honestly, I thought it could be higher. Then compared with US it really depends of how much they earn, and some has a really high salary there.
Counting on the average I guess welfare does better, but I’ve on my side only Tuscany in Italy (which is between the best five), and Stockholm. Coming from Sicily probably I would have rated walfare a bit worse 😕.
Yeah definitely, the US system is very dysfunctional. A good amount of money simply gets lost in the bureaucracy.
Insurance companies are massive conglomerates that have to negotiate deals with tens of thousands of providers, millions of products, and millions of customers. Every Healthcare provider needs dedicated bureaucrats that can navigate the sea of paperwork. I don’t have the data in front of me, but I believe the US government pays about the same amount of money on healthcare as the Swedish government.
Any difference between what a Swede pays and what an American pays is just pure waste. A wasteland of pointless jobs.
There’s definitely some fuskbolag and dysfunctionalities in the Swedish system, but for the most part, Swedes are not wasting money keeping dozens of massive office towers filled with bureaucrats, and Swedes have a happier life because of it.
What’s the average price for an insurance for a middle class person living in a big city?
In the USA, shit’s so convoluted that it’s highly debatable whether average price is relevant. But, also, good luck finding someone willing to track that info down, assuming it even exists.
The costs depend on what state you live in, whether you’re getting insurance through your employer or the open market, whether you’re getting family or individual coverage, and a myriad other factors.
For insurance through your employer – The employer usually gets a group discount on a set of plans that range from shitty coverage to slightly less shitty, a range of costs based on how much the employer is willing to pay for each plan as a “benefit” to employees, and whatever other add-ons the employee selects (ex: dental, vision).
I don’t have average data, but I’ve paid as little as $50 a month for employer sponsored insurance, but it was the shittiest shit tier of insurance that was basically worthless (and that was over a decade ago). For my last few employers, the employee paid part of the plans seemed to be in the $200 to $400 range, again depending on the plan and the options selected.
For open market – This is even more complicated and complex. But basically everybody can get it through some version of what’s known as Obamacare or ACA. Costs and plans available vary from state to state. Technically, individuals are on the hook for the entire cost of the plans. In my area, when I last checked, there were a few options as low as $350 USD (but they were utterly terrible) to $2,500+ USD for ultra-premium plans. The caveat here is that the cost of these plans is partly based on income. So, in my state, basically everybody making below $60,000 USD (or so) gets a discounted rate (or rebate on taxes at the end of the year), such that people in the lowest income bracket can get health insurance for free or close to it.
Does families get an all-in-one or it’s different for any single person?
Cost-wise, there’s a different price for individual insurance versus family coverage. Usually the family coverage is priced so that it’s a bit cheaper per person than getting separate individual plans, but even then there are exceptions. Family plans tend to have a shared max out of pocket and deductible (which are basically the annual limits on what you pay) that’s higher than the individual plan.
Thx for the answer!
Is there many tiers or you can chose between 2/4 steps (like basic-normal-premium)?
Depends on whether you are buying insurance in the general marketplace or through your employer. The general marketplace might have several dozen options depending on your state. An employer might offer 1-6 options, the selection of which will be different per employer. They vary not just in level of benefits/cost but also where the risk/cost is (high deductible plans mean cost is paid largely as you use medical services. Traditional plans will tend to weight more of the cost in your monthly premiums for a generally more narrow band of potential total out-of-pocket costs, although there are plenty of exceptions to that rule). Different plan structures will also have different methods available for you to cover co-pays and deductibles with money that you put in tax-advantage accounts like HSAs and FSAs. Different employers will have different selections, so one company’s “basic” option might have coverage more in-line with another company’s “normal” option. They will also have different rates depending on the size of the company and the amount the company contributes to the plans, so a comparable pair of plans in terms of benefits could easily triple or more in price between the two of them if they are offered by different employers. Different companies will have different open periods where you can select your coverage for the year (also the time when coverage prices and benefits can be changed by the provider, so you have to pay attention even if you like your current plan). These open periods can range from a month-long with a month’s worth of notice to review the plan options for the next year to a week long with no prior notice (and that week is often scheduled right around the holidays when folks have lots of other thimgs going on). It’s a mess here, do not let your government do anything that makes your system more like ours
Woow, seems quite complicated from here. 😐
grrgyleThanks for taking the time to explain all that.
I’m really sorry you have to deal with that.
I’m bad at personal admin, so I would be so lost if I had to manage my own healthcare logistics. It really is a crime what rich people put you through over there.