How have rising costs in health care affected you, your family, or people you provide health care to?
HSAs are a terrible means of managing healthcare. I have a $1500 high-deductible policy through HealthPartners with an HSA component. When this plan was implemented at my workplace, my per-paycheck contribution to pay for the health insurance increased 600%. In addition, about $58 per paycheck is withheld to be placed into the HSA. My prescriptions cost about $250/month, but the HSA receives deposits of only about $120/month. I have no other source of funds from which to pay for prescriptions. As a result, I have to pick and choose each month which prescriptions I can "afford" to take, often going without one or the other. The plan is unmanageable. The ultimate result (which is, in my opinion exactly what HealthPartners wants) is that I pay more for health insurance, spend my own money for prescriptions, and HealthPartners never has to cover anything! It is a great deal for them, but lousy for me and many others. I know there are people out there who try to "share" unused or expired medications with others, because it is the only way they can get care. The HSA simply does not provide sufficient funds for prescription coverage.
What have you done to take charge of your health care?
There is nothing to be done. HealthPartners, which set up the plan and the HSA, does all it can to distance itself from the problems that HSAs have created. HealthPartners does not respond to letters, and refuses to assist people in getting proper credit for the legitimate purchases made on an HSA. As a result, people like myself reach their $1500 deductible, but still have hundreds of dollars of medical bills to pay because HealthPartners refuses to recognize the use of the HSA for legitimate medical expenses (like paying doctor's bills). This occurs despite the fact that HealthPartners was instrumental in setting up the HSA plan!
What else should we know about this or other health care issues?
HSAs do not work for people who have recurring medical expenses and no alternate source to pay those expenses while waiting for future reimbursement from the HSA. As has been argued from the beginning, these plans are fine for the rich, but disastrous for the poor. People who cannot take prescribed medications (because they do not have enough money in their HSA to pay for them) only get sicker and end up costing the health care system even more in the long run.
Kenn Murray
Minneapolis, MN
What have you done to take charge of your health care?
Because my husband is self-employed, we have a low-premium, high-deductible ($3,500) policy with 100 percent coverage after we reach the deductible. His company prepays the deductible into an account that is drawn down as we incur medical expenses. Two months after signing up for this plan, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. (I eat low-fat foods, exercise, and have never smoked.) Needless to say, we blew through the deductible in about two days, because one chemotherapy treatment is $7,500. Unfortunately, I was unable to use my coverage for lower-cost, alternative medicine treatments, like acupuncture and yoga, to treat pain and nausea. The insurance would pay for me to go to the hospital for IV therapy or physical therapy for pain. But these treatments cost much more than a $50 acupuncture appointment and $15 yoga classes. If I had control over how I spend my health care dollars, I would want to use them most efficiently, which is not always with MDs, hospitals and prescription drugs. Health care includes the foods we eat, exercise, mental health, stress management, and surgery, medicines and board certified MDs. However, the western medical model does not have a monopoly on health care treatments.
As an aside, while I was having chemo treatments, I met a woman who was also receiving chemo. She was on welfare and told me that she could not leave the state of Minnesota, because she would not qualify for medical coverage from any other state. She made her income by cleaning houses.
Julie Brown-Price
Eden Prairie, MN
How have rising costs in health care affected you, your family, or people you provide health care to?
As an employer, especially in the insurance business, I don't want cost factors to affect employee performance, especially when discussing insurance with customers. We've always paid 100 percent of a fully-funded, low-deductible plan for both employees and family. Obviously, the cost is staggering and lowers profit. But the positive benefits of high morale and loyalty outweigh the cost.
Ken Ogden
Buffalo, MN
How have rising costs in health care affected you, your family, or people you provide health care to?
Having just become eligible for Medicare, I couldn't help noticing that 80 percent of my health care needs are covered for $78 per month. The remaining 20 percent are covered for an addition $120 per month through a supplement. Do the math.
What have you done to take charge of your health care?
I raised my deductible every year until I qualified for Medicare. Then I purchased the cheaper supplement; with a deductible.
What else should we know about this or other health care issues?
A major factor in the cost of health care is that it includes the cost of treating those who aren't covered. As the cost rises, more people aren't covered, leading to even more increases in health care costs. It is, and will continue to be, an upward spiral. The U.S. and the Union of South Africa are the only two modern nations without national health care. We pay twice the average of other developed nations for care that isn't any better based on longevity and infant mortality. The question becomes, then, would you rather pay $200 per month for your present coverage or have your taxes raised $100 per month and have national health care?
Bill Gerrells
Vergas, MN
How have rising costs in health care affected you, your family, or people you provide health care to?
During a period of unemployment, I opted to not seek treatment for known conditions because I had purchased an individual plan that was the most affordable, but which had a high deductible.
What have you done to take charge of your health care?
I recognize the need to diet and exercise, and I do those things. I keep informed about medical practices and lead a healthy lifestyle.
What else should we know about this or other health care issues?
I have postponed retirement in large part because of the high cost of medical insurance.
Kenneth Gilmore
Oakdale, MN
How have rising costs in health care affected you, your family, or people you provide health care to?
Health care premiums cost more than our mortgage each month. Our son has autism, and we had a Medicaid waiver through the state, but they raised our premium from $150 per month (for only our son) to an unaffordable $540 per month (for one person!). This meant we had to return to paying over $300 per month in co-pays alone for therapeutic visits. Our out-of-pocket expenses for premiums and co-pays for health care is often over $14,000 per year. Sometimes it represents more than a third of our take-home pay.
What have you done to take charge of your health care?
We have a very healthy lifestyle (regular exercise, weight/portion control, healthy eating), but sometimes things just happen (like having a child with a disability). And things cost money. I don't feel there is much more we could do to live a healthier lifestyle.
What else should we know about this or other health care issues?
Mental health issues and therapeutic care (physical therapy, things that are classified as "other") all fall into a grey area that is only sporadically covered by insurance. There are extremely few child psychiatrists working in Minnesota, so it often happens that providers go out of network and families are left paying huge amounts to keep up psychiatric visits.
I also really don't want coverage to devolve into a discussion of personal responsibility. Type 2 diabetes may be largely avoidable, but many other illnesses and conditions are simply inherited or caused by environmental factors that individuals cannot control, for example, living next to a mercury-emitting power plant because you are poor.
Margaret Sullivan
Minneapolis, MN
Tell us your story! What experiences have you had taking charge of your health care? Please share your story with Minnesota Public Radio News.
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