HEALTH INSURANCE

Why medical health insurance premiums are higher in manhattan

expensive John: I noticed the item for your Sunday column from the reader who wrote in regards to the tax paid on a fresh surgical procedure at NYU sanatorium and desired to give you — and your readers — with some additional information.

A 20-12 months-old ny legislations universal as the fitness Care Reform Act (HCRA) imposes some thing referred to as the “patient capabilities surcharge” on every inpatient and outpatient manner. The surcharge — an extra word for tax — is 9.63 percent.

a different HCRA-imposed tax your readers could have an interest to study is the “covered lives evaluation,” a tax on every fitness insurance plan bought in long island. In ny city it’s presently $185 a year for a single policy and $611 a yr for a household policy.

Most patrons by no means know about these fitness care taxes because they must be constructed into the can charge of your health insurance premiums. but these HCRA taxes together charge New Yorkers essentially $5 billion (sure, with a “b”) a yr, and they're one of the vital causes big apple’s medical insurance fees greater than that in most different states.

So now you and your readers know.

Leslie Moran, senior vice president, long island health Plan affiliation

expensive Leslie Moran:

Thanks for the guidance and for making our day a bit brighter.

pricey John: Do you actually believe you’ve figured it out?

Writing a prescription is the key to this whole fitness care debacle?

I’d love for you to ask what number of americans think a physician’s talk over with is nugatory unless they get a prescription.

Then I’d like you to figure out how a doctor basically sees a affected person, will pay his/her help group of workers salaries, taxes, scientific assurance, employee’s compensation insurance, employ, substances, mobilephone/internet, utilities, knowledgeable, metropolis, county and state licenses, and malpractice assurance for $300 an hour.

Oh, did I forget to mention the doctor is trying to make a living too?

Go decide upon a combat with a person your personal dimension. B.B.C. (a really disheartened family unit follow medical professional)

expensive B.B.C.: I’m no longer picking a fight with anyone.

I’m simply sitting here minding my own enterprise and a person writes to me about why fitness care costs are so high. Then I make some sarcastic remarks and (say “ah”) you’re leaping down my throat.

sure, doctors have a lot of costs. in order that they — like everyone else in the united states — are trying to make the most cash they can.

The solution will come when nobody desires to be a physician anymore. after which the scarcity will make american citizens recognise that the provide/demand steadiness in health care is off-kilter and that whatever thing has to be done.

in the meantime I’m going back to identifying fights with automobile rental organizations.

expensive John: As a doctor, B.M.’s Letter was extraordinarily offensive. He has no thought what in fact goes into medical doctors’ visits and costs.

basic, medical doctors’ costs are continually less than 20 percent of the whole fitness care pie. A.G., MD

pricey A.G., MD:

I’m all the time sarcastic. It’s a genetic defect.

See any other comments.

pricey Readers,

Your letters to John Crudele are streaming in quick and furiously, asking dear John to appropriate the wrongs you’re facing. because of this inflow, The post enterprise section will function extra of your inquiries in the hope of helping you with your troubles.

send your questions to expensive John, The long island submit, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, the big apple, the big apple 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com

guest EDITORIAL: medical health insurance from a buyer standpoint

Rick Burke

St. Augustine

i admire to accept as true with myself a conscientious consumer for this reason I do sufficient research to make knowledgeable purchase selections. typical experience applies the higher the buy the greater scrutinizing. Being blessed with respectable fitness over most of my existence i am entering core age now and the need for healthcare is likely on the boost for me. during the last 12 months I even have been coping with a herniated disc in my returned. The assurance plan that I currently have has a health reductions plan whereby I have to pay every little thing out of pocket for until we meet our family unit deductible.

i admire this theory of the use of funds I have saved to cover these medical fees except for one huge difficulty. Getting a price for provider for anything else just before having the technique is probably the most onerous project I even have ever encountered, and 90 % of the time i'm unable to get this answered ahead of the provider or instructed that they cannot provide me this counsel.

If we wonder why medical charges are outrageously high then simply use some fundamental financial experience. If the conclusion customer like myself is completely void of input and potential and this is left to the clinical business, insurance corporations and govt to make a decision everything, then it's easy to peer why this doesn't work.

until anything can be figured out how the free market can operate with consumers who can make more suitable trained selections concerning their health medicine, then this concern will under no circumstances get resolved.

I applaud the conception of getting extra americans to make use of fitness mark downs classes to complement their medical health insurance coverage like me. despite the fact the current system does not guide this idea.

The industry regular working process is “you've got assurance, excellent. come in for something provider, we will bill your insurance issuer and they're going to let you comprehend what you owe in a month or so. Why will we settle for this as adequate? There isn't any other purchasing choice that we make like this.

to date, after countless hours of analysis, I actually have discerned that my discectomy surgical procedure can be billed out when it is all referred to and performed to over $50,000. What with a view to cost me continues to be very unclear. i am not one to name on our executive to fix our problems. We, as buyers, need to step up and demand more from every person and prevent just accepting this preposterous method of “just bill me what I owe” after the fact, and hope that massive month-to-month investigate we send to our health insurance issuer by some means will deal with us.”