Nonsensical

It's been a while since I've ranted about health insurance, and the truth is, no matter how hard one tries to quantify the real costs of healthcare in this country, the information just isn't as available and accessible as it could (or should) be. But I am not deterred!

Back in March, I estimated that premium and deductible costs for my family of four would be:

$10,744 (employers/estimated); $2,440 (us): total premiums $13,184

I have since updated this figure to:

$10,744 (employers/estimated); $2,530 (us): total premiums $13,274

We met our deductible a few months ago, and are therefore blessedly no longer paying out of pocket at full freight. God bless co-pays! I've been keeping very careful track of our expenditures, and right now the scorecard is:

Year-to-date retail costs: roughly $9,000*

Our out of pocket service costs: $3,500

Now, granted I'm tired and on prednisone, but doesn't it look as though the combined premium costs of $13,274 has only bought us a $5,500 reduction from the full retail costs? Roughly?

Health insurance what?


*It is nigh impossible to estimate true retail costs for various reasons, not the least of which being that they simply WON'T TELL YOU the true cost. Also, the health insurance company negotiates a discount for lots of services and meds. $9,000 represents a generous estimate of our full retail costs to date.