Then they can pay more if they have bad health. I understand perfectly how insurance works, but I also see no issue with paying more if you are in bad health. We accept this with bad drivers. We accept this with bad credit.
The difference is that people in bad health often don't KNOW they are in bad health. A distant relation of mine ... guy in his early 50s, runner, very fit.... started to feel unusually tired and goes in for a checkup...
Stage 4 Pancreatic cancer.
Almost no warning signs till its too late and then it progresses fast. 7 figures of experimental treatments etc, and I'm sure you know what the prognosis is.
What if he had said " I feel healthy, I wont bother to buy cancer insurance"
This graphic doesn't really show the rates lower in MA, it shows them higher than average.
https://howmuch.net/articles/health-insurance-rates-by-state
MA appears to be 2nd in the country for state spend per capita on health care. Maybe that is keeping individual costs down through subsidization?
https://www.beckershospitalreview.c...akdown-of-per-capita-healthcare-spending.html
Only a little higher than average - but look at the second graph you posted of deductibles. Some of the "cheap states" have deductibles 3x as high or more for only 5-10% less in monthly premiums. Wouldn't the guy in the white house call that " a bad deal... sad."
You can also use the Kaiser Foundation calculator to see what a plan would cost you in each state:
https://www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/
I don't doubt that a lot of this is due to state subsidies, remember that that our system was what Obamacare was modeled after. But the funny thing is that even with all those subsidies our state income taxes are right in the middle nationally , and in fact lower than most of the sates on your map with high insurance deductibles :
https://taxfoundation.org/state-individual-income-tax-rates-brackets-2017/
My wife worked for a very big insurance company and she underwrote/priced small group and individual health care plans. As a nurse, she would look at their medical history, prescription history, ect..and price the plan. One of the biggest factors was what state they were in. The minimum coverage's where so different state to state (set by state government), that many insurance companies would not do business in those states. This gives the ones that do, a sort of small monopoly on the citizens. The state, through minimum coverage standards, prevents the citizen from using all of the collective competition of many ins companies and that prevents them from getting the best price possible for what they want. When insurance companies compete for your business, you win.
My points are in no way to defend or empower insurance companies. In fact, I believe the recent Obamacare has simply made them even more powerful and rich. My point is that we can't in any way blame a free market system for our rising health care costs. We have government meddling everywhere and every step of the way. Our health care and health insurance is very far from free market.
We have to look at why health care costs so much. If we got that cost down, insurance would follow.
Something to ponder....there are facilities opening up that will not take any insurance. Cash only for operations. They cost about 10% what the operation would cost in a normal hospital and their success rate is high and their infection rate low. Everyone gets the same price.
No argument that there is tons of waste in the system. My mom takes a cancer medication that costs $12,000 a month. In Canada or Europe it would cost less than 1/10th that..
But call me cynical, people are.. well... dumb. Set those minimum coverage's very low and most people will only buy the minimum coverage and then be devastated financially when something unexpected happens like the cancer diagnosis I mentioned, or a serious head injury, or a complicated childbirth (remember some idiot in congress wanted to make childbirth an "optional" coverage. WTF) . I see it all the time when there is a house fire in town and people start go fund me's to help the affected family eat because folks are not prepared and skimped a few bucks on homeowners coverage
I would be all for a single payer system that eliminates all the middle layers of bureaucracy, but I am well aware our current system is far too entrenched to make that possible without massive economic disruptions....
