patrick.net

Insurance in the US is complely f'd up compared to everywhere else on earth, because a lot of those premiums go to pay lobbyists in DC who make sure that premiums stay high no matter what.

Oh boy do I have stories for you about that going wrong, but I really should keep it to myself.

$700 is a very low premium if you're trying to get insurance for a family of four. I have an $8000 deductible with Blue Shield and it costs us $770/month. There is nothing cheaper.

Wow, I have good insurance. I now have a family of 4 and I figure that every year I will hit the out of pocket maximum. If I add my monthly premium to my out of pocket I get roughly 5000 out of pocket for the year . This year I was able to cover that amount with flex spending (pre-tax) so that leaves me at under $300 per month. Too bad the flex spending cap is going down next year.
Of course insurance varies greatly by employer, but most big tech companies in the bay area have great plans. Of course if you are self employed it is brutal...been there too.

Insurance in the US is complely f'd up compared to everywhere else on earth, because a lot of those premiums go to pay lobbyists in DC who make sure that premiums stay high no matter what.

The only thing the insurance companies fear is the public option, because insurance is one thing that government does far more efficiently and with lower overhead that the private insurance price-fixing cartel. So the public is never allowed the option to escape to a cheap government insurance plan.

God Bless America.

ArtimusMaxtor says

The port of Singapore, one of the world's five busiest, with the skyline of Singapore in the background.

http://www.ongpohlin.com/2012/03/capitaland-sky-habitat-bishan-condo-new.html is a link to Sky Habitat. Indicative average price of Sky Habitat at Bishan Street 14 is expected to range between S$1,700 psf and S$1,800 psf. That is, S$1 million can only buy a 556 sqft built-in unit.

FunTime says

tiny tina says

What are you doing eating cookies with people you hate instead of spending time with your child?

Maybe his baby likes cookies.

Now if they served baby cookies I would be willing to pay at least 100K more for a house. Forget granite counters, neptune W&D, sub-zero double-wide fridge. Baby-cookies would rock!

Also, just for the record I don't 'hate anyone'. However, I do not like some peoples intentions towards my hard earned money. Get back, go get your own! I wouldn't call that hate though.

fil says

Of course if you are self employed it is brutal...been there too.

I'm self-employed by Patrick.net.

So far, my direct experience is that the principle factor preventing small business formation in the US is Republican opposition to the public option.

Republicans talk about how much they love business, but what they really mean is that they love BIG business, and they don't want you to be able to compete with it.

If you are dependent on your big employer's insurance, that makes the big employer happy, and they donate to Republican candidates who promise to keep you dependent that way.

ArtimusMaxtor says

The port of Singapore, one of the world's five busiest, with the skyline of Singapore in the background.

http://www.ongpohlin.com/2012/03/capitaland-sky-habitat-bishan-condo-new.html

Indicative average price of Sky Habitat at Bishan Street 14 is expected to range between S$1,700 psf and S$1,800 psf. That is, S$1 million can only buy a 556 sqft built-in unit.

orbitron says

I remember arguing about gas prices with some uninformed guy and he was unaware that gas companies make around 30 cents per gallon of gasoline if you include upstream and downstream income while in California, federal and state gas taxes add up to around 60-70 cents per gallon!

Inform us all. Cite your sources. Margins, and cost break-downs, on any business are typically difficult to learn, unless you work in that business and watch a balance sheet.

fil says

Of course if you are self employed it is brutal...been there too.

I'm self-employed by Patrick.net.

So far, my direct experience is that the principle factor preventing small business formation in the US is Republican opposition to the public option.

Patrick - I don't get it. I too am self employed so I sympathize with the plight of the self employed but when you say the "principal barrier is..... etc" I am thinking we are living on different planets. I guess if the only reason you start a small business is to buy insurance than the cost of insurance would be an obstacle but even if you admit that you have to jump from there to various economic theories before you start thinking about "the public option" problem. At the very least I don't think you can say your opinion is intuitive. I'd have to hear your argument before I agreed.

Day in day out the biggest, by a wide margin, problems I face come from the government (city, county, state and federal) -- no I am not a drug dealer....

I have to agree. It can be difficult for small businesses to obtain insurance. In California it is a bit easier, since any corporation with two or more employees is eligible to buy insurance, though the insurance company surely sets the price, and the price will be high. However, I know a lot of sole proprietors who operate without insurance because they cannot afford or cannot obtain insurance as individuals. I also know a very bright engineer who spent years working for a cable company rather than for the innovative start-ups that would have suited her better, but could not offer good insurance right away. Access to insurance defines many people's working lives.

Wow, so it's Republicans who are making health insurance expensive?
What a bunch of total nonsense.
Which party belongs to the ambulance chaser lawyers? Hint: John Edwards was one.
Who should pay for the health care of the millions of people who refuse to buy insurance?
Why should health insurance companies be told to 1. cover pre-existing conditions 2. pay for nonsense fake snake oil treatments, e.g. accupuncture, chiropractic, coffee enemas?

Republicans talk about how much they love business, but what they really mean is that they love BIG business, and they don't want you to be able to compete with it.

I think that's a correct assertion. After all, who pays for their political campaigns?

Republicans talk about how much they love business, but what they really mean is that they love BIG business, and they don't want you to be able to compete with it.

If you are dependent on your big employer's insurance, that makes the big employer happy, and they donate to Republican candidates who promise to keep you dependent that way.

I don't think it is about dependence. Healthcare costs have been going up and up for many reasons. But biggest one is the supply and demand curve. And when healthcare reform attempted to push what government considered "affordable insurance" it sounded like anything but.

Insurance, as you know, is predicated on a risk analysis. Balancing higher risks with higher premiums with mixed pools of members and claims to create a wide risk offset. But in case of Obamas healthcare plan people are free to squander physician resources on everyday colds and other non emergency hickups at a very high cost.

My biggest concern here is that similarly to the housing bubble, this bill will force a subsequent Healthcare bubble which will be brutal. People can rent and save money, housing isn't all that. But healthcare...

OK, it's not all about dependence, but that is a large part of it. The US Chamber of Commerce, which is basically representatives of the F500, was intensely opposed to the public option and the logical conclusion is that it is a threat to their control over employees. Another factor preventing the public option is the large amount of money insurance companies can spend lobbying.

FortWayne says

But in case of Obamas healthcare plan people are free to squander physician resources on everyday colds and other non emergency hickups at a very high cost.

I don't see that at all. What makes you say that? Obama's plan keeps all the same expenses: no limit on premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc. Obama's plan does not squander money at all as far as I can tell.

Anyway, Obama's plan does not include the public option because he sold out to the insurance companies and Chamber of Commerce just to get something past Congress so he could point to that as an accomplishment.

And I'm not talking about a public option that covers everything. Just life-and-death stuff. Just enough to make it possible for people without large amounts of money to go out on their own and start a small business that competes with the F500.

clambo says

Who should pay for the health care of the millions of people who refuse to buy insurance?

So you're for the mandate that everyone buy insurance? Thath makes you an Obama supporter.

clambo says

Why should health insurance companies be told to 1. cover pre-existing conditions 2. pay for nonsense fake snake oil treatments, e.g. accupuncture, chiropractic, coffee enemas?

1. Because denying coverage for pre-existing conditions is rigging the game in favor of insurance companies and bankrupting lots of people through no fault of their own.

2. Those are straight off AM radio and just not true. For example, even though there is an accupuncturist lobby, they have not succeeded in getting it covered:

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/10/acupuncturists-lobby-hhs-to-be-included-in-essential-health-benefits/

Another factor preventing the public option is the large amount of money insurance companies can spend lobbying.

That one I agree and did not like either. Young people are now forced to enter into commerce involuntarily because of this, it was such a no brainer that all health insurance stock spiked.

I don't see that at all. What makes you say that? Obama's plan keeps all the same expenses: no limit on premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc. Obama's plan does not squander money at all as far as I can tell.

My fear here is that there is no incentive to keep costs down, insurance is required to spend certain amount on claims and send refunds if target isn't met... which to me seems like a huge incentive to simply spend more on claims. While trying to cover everyone for everything is also as I posted earlier would negate the risk pool aspect. And provider networks probably are salivating over that one since they've been strongly pushing for increases.

I do like some aspects of the reform, but as a whole package it makes me feel very uneasy.

Just enough to make it possible for people without large amounts of money to go out on their own and start a small business that competes with the F500.

How unpatriotic of you. The Forbes 500 are entitled to do business w/o competition. That's what America is all about.

Patrick you don't understand what insurance is.
Can you get car insurance to cover collisions AFTER you have crunched your fender? Try it and get back to us.
I don't get my information from AM radio. If the insurance doesn't cover snake oil and fake "treatments" then that is what I WANT.
The only part of the Obamacare nonsense that made sense to me was the concept that people must pay for insurance if they seek medical treatment.
I agree that people who have no insurance and who can afford it, should have to buy it.
How exactly to make this happen is the problem, because it's probably illegal for the federal govt. to force someone to buy something.
My solution would be repeal the law that requires hospitals to treat people who have no insurance.
For instance, the illegals from Mexico crash their bicycle and need to go to the ER for stitches. This happened to Daniel a few months after he came here illegally from Mexico.
He paid nothing for this medical treatment.
But, if Dominican had said to him "come up with $1500 or you can sew it up with dental floss" he WOULD have come up with that $1500?
How do I KNOW he could come up with the money?
Because he was HERE. How do you bleeding hearts think the Mexicans get up here? Do you think they have a star trek beaming machine operated by a tooth fairy? CASH got every single illegal alien across this border.
All of the illegals (except Maricela) has a ton of cash stashed and they can afford medical treatment and they SURELY can afford medical insurance.
I support the Swiss approach to medical insurance coverage. Of course, they've got an advantage of being Swiss and not idiots who have bleeding hearts for people who sneak into Switzerland to steal.

Do you support tort reform to rein in ambulance chaser millionaire shyster lawyers? Y/N
Do you support every person paying for his medical insurance? Y/N
Do you support every person having responsibility for his own luck? Y/N?
Do you support every person having to seek help from his family before the taxpayers? Y/N
Do you support people being able to buy insurance according to their needs and not conditions and treatments invented by government? Y/N
Do you support people being able to buy health insurance sold over state lines, like car insurance? Y/N
Do you support illegal aliens and indigent Santa Cruz trolls getting unlimited free medical treatment? Y/N
Do you support taking my money from my pocket to pay for health care for illegal aliens and indigent Santa Cruz trolls?
Are you nuts?

clambo says

Do you support tort reform to rein in ambulance chaser millionaire shyster lawyers? Y/N

No, but I only have the documentary "Hot Coffee" on which to base my opinion. The Chamber of Commerce seems to have it out for anyone's ability to prosecute cases of tort. If someone is torted, I want them to have a legal process to help them negotiate the entity responsible for the tort.

The idea of countless cases of tort resulting in millions of dollars of cost appears to be a marketing job by the Chamber of Commerce.

Clambo gives me a new idea: pretend to be canadian here illegally and get free treatment at ER if im caught uninsured.

"I crashed my bicycle, eh!" "The street traffic is much safer in Toronto, eh!".

Does this work for whiteys? hmmmm

PockyClipsNow says

"I crashed my bicycle, eh!" "The street traffic is much safer in Toronto, eh!".

Classic!

absolutely right Goran_K, savers are being screwed... stock market is volatile... houses are a depreciating asset just like cars, but it is a nice day!

gromitmpl says

Day in day out the biggest, by a wide margin, problems I face come from the government (city, county, state and federal) -- no I am not a drug dealer....

Government is controlled by Big Money a.k.a. Big Business.

Big Business uses Big Government to do their bidding against the interests over everyone else.

fil says

Of course if you are self employed it is brutal...been there too.

I'm self-employed by Patrick.net.

So far, my direct experience is that the principle factor preventing small business formation in the US is Republican opposition to the public option.

Republicans talk about how much they love business, but what they really mean is that they love BIG business, and they don't want you to be able to compete with it.

If you are dependent on your big employer's insurance, that makes the big employer happy, and they donate to Republican candidates who promise to keep you dependent that way.

Patrick, I work for a big company, but I agree with you. Especially for someone who has a pre-existing condition; pre-ACA there would be little chance of getting coverage. And even if one could get coverage, there's the good chance that the insurance company would cancel your coverage if you made a significant claim.
ACA should address these cases, and therefore remove one barrier to self employment.

gromitmpl says

Patrick - I don't get it. I too am self employed so I sympathize with the plight of the self employed but when you say the "principal barrier is..... etc" I am thinking we are living on different planets. I guess if the only reason you start a small business is to buy insurance than the cost of insurance would be an obstacle but even if you admit that you have to jump from there to various economic theories before you start thinking about "the public option" problem. At the very least I don't think you can say your opinion is intuitive. I'd have to hear your argument before I agreed.

Day in day out the biggest, by a wide margin, problems I face come from the government (city, county, state and federal) -- no I am not a drug dealer....

I get zero problems from the government at all in running Patrick.net. I make so little I paid zero federal taxes this last time, and I'm not incorporated so I don't pay those fees either.

There is zero regulation that applies to me as far as I can tell. The government is WONDERFUL to me, meaning that they leave me entirely alone. So I don't know what you're talking about.

Now insurance is quite another story. They raised my rate 73% in one year with no justification and there was nothing I could do about it, because there is no free market for health insurance. It's just pay or go without, and perhaps bankrupt yourself or die.

Taxes are at least proportional to income. Health insurance doesn't care who the hell you are. You just pay whatever they say, no democracy, no competition, no nothing.

I repeat: the principal impediment to small business formation in America is the private health insurance cartel, NOT government.

[...]

Goran_K says

How do you win

You don't. You either take risks, ranging from calculated to outright foolish, or you are insanely lucky. If you took ANY one-percenter and stripped them of all their wealth and their contacts, they COULD NOT rebuild themselves. Take any one-percenter, take all their assets and force them to change their name and 90-95% of them wouldnt be able to earn it back.

So, what can you do? Take a huge risk. And be prepared to fail , to go broke. Just about every mogul shrugged off failure a few times, but for those middle class with families, its a horrible, rough fall to the bottom. You need to be mentally unstable to take the risks some people take. Unfortunately a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, and I want to try like hell to protect the kids from poverty. House debt slavery in my mind is increasing risk. Why people want to service a mountain of debt, taxes and carrying costs to the tune of 75%+ plus of dual income is moronic. And only the landed gentry benefit.

is that it is a threat to their control over employees

Yep. The only way to get a raise is to quit and come back. And they know this. And when you quit, you lose seniority (and vacation), and you disrupt health care coverage, so if you have a sickness, you MUST stay put and your wage slave job. Its all about pinning the middle class firmly into place.

Republicans talk about how much they love business, but what they really mean is that they love BIG business, and they don't want you to be able to compete with it.

All big business got a LOT BIGGER (banks, energy, the monopoly tech stocks, etc) both in 2008-2010, and 2010-present.

It doesnt matter anymore.

I know I've posted this, but it remains true.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/fOaCemmsnNk

Mick Russom says

Yep. The only way to get a raise is to quit and come back. And they know this. And when you quit, you lose seniority (and vacation), and you disrupt health care coverage, so if you have a sickness, you MUST stay put and your wage slave job. Its all about pinning the middle class firmly into place.

I recently threatened to quit in order to get a title change & promotion, plus some cash. Aside from knowing that management was freaking out over a couple of other people quitting recently, I also knew that they knew I was serious because I have no kids or mortgage. My coworkers with kids & a mortgage can't believe I told my (former) boss, to her face, that they had 5 months to give me what I wanted or I was gone...they all tell me that they can't take that risk, despite some of them wishing that they could. I still get along fine with my former boss, and we have joked around about it since then. I told her that her group really should be finding people with kids & a mortgage and enough experience to know that they want to do the job...she chuckled and agreed. Employees with fiscal burdens don't rock the boat.

Mick Russom says

Yep. The only way to get a raise is to quit and come back. And they know this. And when you quit, you lose seniority (and vacation), and you disrupt health care coverage, so if you have a sickness, you MUST stay put and your wage slave job. Its all about pinning the middle class firmly into place.

I recently threatened to quit in order to get a title change & promotion, plus some cash. Aside from knowing that management was freaking out over a couple of other people quitting recently, I also knew that they knew I was serious because I have no kids or mortgage. My coworkers with kids & a mortgage can't believe I told my (former) boss, to her face, that they had 5 months to give me what I wanted or I was gone...they all tell me that they can't take that risk, despite some of them wishing that they could. I still get along fine with my former boss, and we have joked around about it since then. I told her that her group really should be finding people with kids & a mortgage and enough experience to know that they want to do the job...she chuckled and agreed. Employees with fiscal burdens don't rock the boat.

bmwman91 says

Employees with fiscal burdens don't rock the boat.

Yes. Those who can takes risks because nobody depends on them wins. Those who have dependents either do what Steve Jobs did, take huge risks and pretend his kids don't exist for some time, or you quietly work your bum off in wage slavery to try and save your kids from breadlines.

And Steve Jobs is the billionaire "hero," who runs a sweat shop, pays low, encourages a nasty aggressive corporate culture and shunned his kid for some time, he is the big hero. And its his executive minions who run out and take their loot-money and jack up the house prices in Cupertino so only the upper echelons can enjoy a middle class+ life, while the rest of us rot in the shadow of these nasty, cash hoarding greedy never-give-back mega-corporations. And the shame is Jobs was a normal middle class kid, so was Hewlett and Packard. All these people who built this with innovation have indirectly created a Ponzi monster.

curious2 says

the AMA cartel

The AMA cartel makes things a lot worse. Cash price for superior care and triple coverage (3 docs for the price of one) is available in India. The Cash price for care would SHOCK you. They have enough doctors there, they are good quality, and the prices are market, unlike the fake market fake economy we have here.

At this point with the cost of travel skyrocketing, our last accessible health care, overseas in India and Costa Rica, is closing. Maybe I cna steal away to Canada - problem there is not getting hypothermia.

OK.. I didn't read all the posts, but here's the problem for us renters. If you want anything more than a 2 BDRM, you usually need to rent a SFH, as the stock of 3 BDRM apartments is a small portion of the rental market as a whole (at least in my area).

Granted my grandparents raised six kids in a 1200 ft2 house, so perhaps all of us are just spoiled. Do I NEED a third bedroom - no. Would it be nice to have? HELL YES!

When you look at the cost of renting a 3 BDRM space, the asking prices are such that it makes buying a more affordable option with a breakeven point somewhere between three and seven years depending on the underling assumptions.

In short, I might be compelled to take the leap sooner rather than later. No I don't like spending 30% of my income on housing when right now I only spend 15%, but as a wise man once told me "The key to life is to know the rules. You may not like them, and they may not be fair, but if you know the rules, you will find ways to use them to your advantage."

bmwman91 says

Employees with fiscal burdens don't rock the boat.

When legendary Chicago Cubs shortstop and first baseman Ernie Banks went into city politics after baseball, someone asked him about the ideal employee, and he said, "Someone who's married and in debt."

I'll say it again here bless Patrick.net. Freedom of speech is bullshit in a one way conversation like the media has with its hired monkey troup. True Pat has about 20k readers a day. Deal is I can say what I want here. I don't have to sit here like a little kid and get lectured and information in a continual one way diatribe from the debt merchant owned media and their highly trained monkeys. Listening and never allowed to speak.

Seriously you can't eat flowers. All the BEST to Patrick and the good people on here.

For all the crooks heres a bucket of shit enjoy it.

For those of you that have been reformed I will go through my index cards later. Then again WE know.

Michinaga says

When legendary Chicago Cubs shortstop and first baseman Ernie Banks went into city politics after baseball, someone asked him about the ideal employee, and he said, "Someone who's married and in debt."

God Bless America.

Michinaga says

bmwman91 says

Employees with fiscal burdens don't rock the boat.

When legendary Chicago Cubs shortstop and first baseman Ernie Banks went into city politics after baseball, someone asked him about the ideal employee, and he said, "Someone who's married and in debt."

I don't rock the boat because I prefer staying under the radar, where I can do my job with mediocrity and fleece my employer for annual salary. I have so much more of a life outside of the 50 hours I waste at an office each week.

It's been a lucrative scam for 10 years running now. You only feel cheated if you're not cheating them back.

Philistine says

You only feel cheated if you're not cheating them back.

Good one.