Most Americans can expect to pay significantly more each month for health insurance next year, whether they get it through work, the Affordable Care Act or Medicare. In some cases, the premium increases may be the largest in decades and are driven by numerous economic pressures. But they won’t look the same for everyone. Some will pay more in the form of higher copays or deductibles.
“Healthcare costs are going up faster than they have in years, and open enrollment is when the healthcare affordability crisis is really going to hit home for people,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan research group. “That’s true for whatever kind of insurance you have.”
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Has there been a single year in the last 15+ where health insurance premiums haven’t gone up?
Universal healthcare is a centrist position in every functioning country. It’s not radical. We live in a fascist shithole
It is truly a measure of how right-wing the US actually is, frustratingly. And how good (or at least pervasive) the fucking fascist propaganda for decades has been.
I think it’s also aeasure of how bad our economy is and how much it is and will be propped up by medical middlemen.
Free Luigi
well I’ll take two then!
Employers expect the cost of providing health benefits to each worker to rise 8.2%, on average, in 2027 — the largest increase since 2003[…]
Health insurance in the US is completely fucking broken and the current system is clearly beyond repair. People HAVE to have it, so the providers can keep charging whatever they want, outpacing inflation and fast outpacing wages, while they simultaneously enjoy record profits. We’ve gotta get with (checks notes) EVERY other first-world nation and move to a universal/single-payer system.
But that would also mean that 0.000002% of the population who “don’t deserve” care might get it, so of course the county will keep cutting off its nose to spite its face.
There ain’t a soul on earth that doesnt deserve health care.
Trump and his cronies.
They deserve to die from all preventable diseases
They deserve to live long lives… in a concrete box with a shitty bed, steel commode, and access to standard prison food. With no commissary.
It pains me to say it, but even them. Even more than rotting in prison, what I’d like is for them to receive the psychiatric care they needed decades ago, and for them to truly understand the horror of what they’ve done. Otherwise, they’ll go to their graves feeling justified.
The audacity of my healthcare plan brochure each year to include a column saying “and this is how much your employer pays for your plan each month!”
I would like to say I am angry, frustrated, confused…things need to change. How do I fucking protest harder? I write, I call, I try to show up…the gods themselves wouldn’t impose the fucking wothlessness I feel as a human in this system
They try so hard to keep us down with relentless fascist propaganda that said “nothing you do is worth it” “you’re the only one that feels this way” “both sides, so why bother” etc etc etc etc
It takes enough of us to get up and change the system. Hell, if all of the people who sit on the sidelines just voted, we could have supermajorities - of course, have to then fix the problem of the oligarchs, who control centrist Dems along with Republicans, but it’s a battle we could actually fight.
The main thing that you can actually do is support when good things happen - like this recent surge of DSA. DSA might not be the perfect answer, but it’s a pretty progressive thing.
The most important thing is to not give up - and the VERY most important thing is to do your best to live your life as best as you can, meaning taking care of yourself as best as you can. This is the only life we get, and that sucks. But there is only so much one human can do. If it all feels overwhelming, just remember to balance the outrage and depression with just making it through the day. <3
I’m with you, mind: I’m started dialysis in my 40s, have had seven heart attacks, below-knee amputation… and it’s because my ADHD wasn’t diagnosed until age 30 so when I got diabetes around that time, I had no insurance and was unmanaged for a decade. So my life is going to be a couple of decades shorter, and I’ll be surprised to see my 60th birthday in a few years. Fuck fascists for taking that from me and making my life hell. But on a day-to-day basis I try to find joy where I can, make people laugh, make the world a very very slightly better place in the little way that I can. So: Take care of yourself.
Fucking barbaric bullshit.
I pay a monthly fee for my ACA insurance. It’s generally not enough to cover the total cost of the insurance, so I have to pay the difference in my tax returns. In 2024 I got a $700 refund. In 2025 I owed $300. I likely won’t be able to afford the next one.
What a fucking scam. And I’m in my 40’s, which are prime cancer years. This is social murder.
I pay over $200 a week for my wife and myself. Employer supposedly pays even more. Just got an X-ray. Hospital couldn’t even give me an estimate before I got it done as to the cost. Thinking it’d be a $40 copay or something, went ahead. Get a bill for $340. At bare minimum, we need to be able to know how much service will cost so we can at least make an informed decision. Realistically the entire system should be demolished, but the only way that’s ever happening is if we get a few hundred or thousand more Luigi’s.
Not that you were asking, but I would recommend at least looking at ACA plans. I don’t know your situation or area, but I have excellent insurance through Obamacare and we are probably paying the same amount based on what you quoted for just you two. There’s no employer portion of the ACA plan, so they’re getting less money from having my family as a customer than having you two, but it seems like I’m getting better copay rates for a monthly premium that’s equivalent to yours. I also have a very low out of pocket max.
I recommend Kaiser or BCBS. If they don’t have those in your area you might be better off with your employer plan. I’ve heard terrible things about basically all other providers in my area at least. I’d stay away from United at all costs. Hope everything with the recent hospital visit resolved well.
I have Blue Cross now. Kaiser is also offered, but significantly more expensive. I actually just looked up my plan and the X-ray should be $20-$40 copay. So they’re just trying to fuck me over. Big surprise. The other BC plan, the PPO would be me covering until deductible is met, but I stopped using that plan because basic Dr visits were the same. No coverage until the deductible is met. My current plan has $20 pcp visits and $40 specialist or X-ray. But a higher deductible.
I’m alive thanks to my wife keeping her job at a place known for people working there because the insurance is pretty good.
I’m a retired programmer but I’m too young for Medicare, so I drive a school bus mainly because we get excellent health insurance as a benefit. Otherwise I’d be paying over a thousand a month for a shitty policy with something like a $7000 deductible and my limited finances couldn’t handle that. Hopefully I can make it onto Medicare before my school district privatizes the transportation department or replaces it with AI-driven buses. Also hopefully Medicare stays around.
It’s crazy the things we do to stay alive.
I’ve finally transitioned (well, medicare approval process ongoing) into a safer place only because my kidneys failed and I’m on dialysis. heh. Otherwise I’d still be potentially screwed.
Back when ACA was new and the plans were good compared to now… they still weren’t good. I remember my only affordable option was a fully subsidized plan costing $450/mo with a $12,000 deductible before ANYTHING kicked in, or something like a $750 plan that still had like a $3000 deductible but at least you could do some stuff with copays, but I couldn’t afford $300/mo at that time. So I got the plan that paid out and did literally nothing but fund the insurance company.
