In otherwords, costs are going up, and you're upset that the insurers aren't biting the bullet.
Yes, I am upset that those least able to afford necessary things like healthcare are facing increasing hardship while those who want for nothing are reaping additional benefits. Doesn't that seem kind of backwards?
I blame the root cause of the price increase, bad policy. Its not "additional" benefits if they are maintaining margins.
I blame the ultimate root cause, that we allow a few people to own the keys to good health and deny them to people. The root cause is ownership and profiteering, not attempts to circumvent the greed of a few wealthy oligarchs.
Why not? There's always payroll taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, vehicle registration taxes....
Nobody cares what healthcare costs because so few people pay for it directly. Most employer-provided policies have a fairly low deductible...employees don't even know what it costs because they don't have to pay income tax on the premiums their employers pay on their behalf and employers don't tell them.
Hospitals and doctors rarely publish their rates so consumers can't comparison shop. And when they do?? Those aren't hard and fast as charged to insurance companies. They're much higher than what insurance companies pay.
Normal market forces aren't in play with healthcare. Healthcare will continue to rise exponentially until either the government steps in to control it or deductibles are higher. As long as Medicaid and Medicare patients continue to use emergency rooms for sore throats? Our healthcare costs are going to rise and our quality of service is going to fall. That's just a fact of life.
Federal income tax is a "payroll" tax. Actually there is no such thing as a payroll tax anyway, they are payroll deductions which include various taxes (fed, state, FICA, etc).
Medicare and Medicaid patients aren't the ones using an ER for sore throats. Uninsured patients are the ones using the ER to deal with things that SHOULD have been minor issues but were ignored due to cost and became major issues.
If I'm on Medicare, I can go to my GP for a cough.
Choo-Choo!
Train Wreck's a-coming. Hold on to your hats.