Health Care Insurance costs

[LastManOut]

All that have health bennies at work, would you rather have the company pay you the equivalent amount of your health insurance to allow you to pay for the best health insurance for your needs?

No trick question, just that as a self-employed grunt, I paid my own premiums (after tax dollars of course), and tailored the coverage to what I could afford or need at that time, usually with a high deductible. (I paid for boo-boos out of pocket).

It's my belief that if everyone did this, health care costs would need to be more competitive and thus cheaper for better service. When someone else pays the bill, I could care less what service costs.

[ALS]

Yep paying out of your pocket for routine problems is cheaper. Example my Dentist takes 20% off the bill for cash. Want to bet that $75 doctors visit would cost $50 if you paid cash? I don't have dental or vision and both give me a discount for not having insurance and paying cash.
If people were forced to pay out of their pocket for the minor problems and routine yearly visits I bet the cost of medical care would drop like a rock.
I had an employee that had three small children. Her husband worked at Westinghouse and had the bling plan. It cost her $2 out of pocket for a doctors visit. One kid got the sniffles all three kids got taken to the pediatrician at $75 each. It cost her $6 and the insurance company got hit for $219 for a 15 minute visit. You should have heard her howl when Westinghouse decided the employee's needed to contribute to the plan and the deductible went up to $20 per visit.

[Exbiker]

When you get the EOB and see what big insurers negotiate as the rate accepted you`ll see it is far cheaper then what a paying cash customer would pay.