My wife and I are both healthy with no serious or chronic problems. I've been self-employed for most of my adult life so I am the employer who provides health insurance for my wife and I. Before Obamacare our insurance premiums were around $2000 per month, and it was only that low because we have group insurance through a regional council of smaller enterprises. Is $2000/month a "reasonable amount"? In the 5 or so years before Obamacare we were seeing annual increases on the order of 30%, so we increased the deductible to higher levels several times just to keep premiums in check. A year before Obamacare happened our deductible was already at very high catastrophic insurance levels. Since Obamacare happened our premiums have not decreased but we get all of the preventative care and tests at no charge only because of Obamacare. Without that we'd be paying 100% of all of that, plus a couple thousand dollars per month.
My wife recently had 5 one hour physical therapy appointments. On two (first and last) occasions an actual physical therapist saw her, and on the others she was seen by an "assistant". All of the sessions consisted of the person telling her what exercises to do and her doing them. No active treatment, like traction, etc., was ever performed and no special equipment except a big rubber band that you can buy for a couple dollars) was used. The bill to our insurance for this was $500 per session. Is that reasonable? Her appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, which included several x-rays was cheaper.
The health care system in America was broken long before Obamacare happened. Before Obamacare around 60% of all personal bankruptcies had a medical cause and now that's down to around 25%, so there has been a positive impact. Here's some "fake news" for you to digest:
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamacare-bankruptcy-20170509-story.html
Our kids in Australia don't sweat healthcare or insurance costs. Both have gone through having their own kids, and caring for one of those with special medical needs, all without a financial worry. Whenever I think about that I wonder why America can't do half as well for its citizens. My guess is because many fear any sort of change, bury their heads in the sand, and convince themselves that what we have is fine even though it's near the bottom of the heap for any developed nation.
In Australia, when you go to a physio, you get seen by a physio. My local practice has the owner with 25 years experience and his related degree, and his staff all have either a Masters or a Doctorate. The price for a normal 45 minute session (using any equipment required, hands on, and often with a colleague consulting as well if it's a tricky matter) is $90 at the top rate. If you are in one of the private health funds you'll generally pay slightly less - $85-, and then your health fund will cover a portion of that depending on your level of cover (for me, I'm 10% out of pocket). Of course, if you can't afford that you can get cover, based on a referral from a GP, for up to 4 sessions per injury, from Medicare which means you pay nothing. Or, you can be a public hospital outpatient and get unlimited care and pay nothing (but you may not be able to get short notice bookings - but when I snapped my leg in half 20 years ago, I had 2 sessions a week for 4 months learning how to walk again).
Of course, we pay taxes and a levy that covers that Medicare, but our tax rate is comparable to the US overall and we spend much less on health for better outcomes (I've posted the data before, and relevant data has been posted recently on this thread).
Private healthcare is optional, and gives you additional benefits. My wife and I have the highest possible level of private health insurance on top of our underlying universal cover through Medicare. It's $400- odd a month covering both of us.
So, yeah, the US problem is that every step of the way someone is making a margin and they throw people in between who aren't needed (like physio "assistants" and who knows what else).
Alan tells us 85% of people were happy. I would wager that 85% of that 85% simply didn't know they were being ripped off.
