Health Costs And The US Economy / Family

TheFrugalPlace

I am 37 and healthy. My husband is 47 and diabetic with end stage renal failure requiring him to dialize 3 times per week. The costs of health care, RX, co-pays, etc... are killing us even though he has both my work insurance and Medicare.

I am wondering if you all think the costs of health care are finally starting to hurt the average family enough to finally see some action/relief. And, what do you think that will look like? National healthcare??

bangfor1 · Mayor's Aide Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 88

Families are hurting because of the cost since most have to fork out at least one-third of their income and if there is a national program that could half that, it would put more money in their pocket, but since it could be very abused, coming up with some kind of a rebate system might be the better way to go. That of course would mean close to 50 million people will continue to go without insurance.

bangfor1 · Mayor's Aide Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 88

Families are hurting because of the cost since most have to fork out at least one-third of their income and if there is a national program that could half that, it would put more money in their pocket, but since it could be very abused, coming up with some kind of a rebate system might be the better way to go. That of course would mean close to 50 million people will continue to go without insurance.

julian4239 · Mayor Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 211

Health care is very expensive in the US. Why? Well, we do have one of the best medical and pharmecuetical technology in the world. The best drugs are invented in this country.

But cost of research and development and discovery is extremely high. The company has to pay for the best research facilities and medical researchers. This is not a cheap endeavor.

I'm afraid if we ever revert to socialized medicine and cost caps, there will be no incentives for these companies to invest millions of dollars to find the next cure. Why would anyone want to lose money? It's a fact, we need to let these companies do what they do best, not fetter them.