About paying for unexpected bills, drugs, and unexpected costs. Tell us about your experience with Health Care Costs and what you think washington should do about it. Different lines today. Private insurance, 2027488000. Insurance under the Affordable Care act, 2027488001. No insurance, 2028488002. Medicare, 2028488003. Text us at 2028487003. Post on facebook and post on x and cspan wj. It was kaiser that looked at the cost for Health Insurance last year in 2023. Heres some of the breakdowns you can find online saying that average premium for single coverage in 2023, 8,035. That average premium per family coverage, that average, 23,968,000 per year. Thats from keyser. Also asking looking at the infacial of costs over time saying that average premium for single coverage has grown 22 since 2018. The same as growth in the average premium per family coverage. That 23,968 family premium in 2023. 22 higher. In 2028, 47 higher than the average premium in 2013. And this adds that the average family premiums for covered workers, small firms and large firms have grown at similar rates since 2018. 26 of small firms, 21 , large firms. Adding that for smaller firms the average family premium rose from 18,739 in 2018. To 23,621 in 2023. Kizer adding to that, saying it was about half of the adults saying it was difficult for them for Health Care Costs. Some of them also saying the cost of health care can lead some to put off needed care. One in four adults saying that in the past 12 months they have skipped or postponed Getting Health Care they needed because of the costs. Notably six in 10 insured uninsured adults, 61 , said they went without needed care because of costs. Maybe that fits into one of your categories when it comes to paying for health care and the cost of health care. Tell us about that experience on the lines this morning if you want to share that with us. 2027488000. Those with private insurance. If you have insurance under the Affordable Care act, 2027488001. If you have no insurance, its 2027488002. Recipient of medicare, call us at 2027488003. Text us at 2027488003. Some posting on facebook this morning when it comes to some of the responses. John from facebook saying hes part of a union. He has great insurance. Then he says i wonder why more companies dont unionize. Bob saying my health care is through the v. A. My wife pays 500 a month for medicare and supplemental for her. Its good coverage but on a fixed income its a burden. Steve saying the Health Care System was collapsing when the a. C. A. Passed. The a. C. A. Stopped the free fall and saved t is it perfect . No, but much better than before, yes. Thanking former president obama and all the courageous democrats who passed it. They knew the political risk. They did the right thing. Unlike republicans who have no idea but, quote, whatever trump wants. Amanda adding to the mix on facebook saying im always drowning in medical debt its 650 a month for families with premiums. My deductible is 5,000 and change. Then she adds, yeah, obamacare is great. They may be amongst your sentiment when it comes to Health Care Costs. Call the line, post on facebook, x available as well. Washington post reports this week when it comes to Health Care Cost that is will be a focus of the Biden Administration, particularly as President Biden campaigns for another term in office. An event wednesday expected to focus on Health Care Costs. It was at a recent stop in North Carolina that former President Biden appeared to talk about, amongst other things, the passage of the Affordable Care act and his role in it. Heres some of those comments from last month. President biden the laws i wrote and signed the American Rescue plan and inflation reduction act, both of which not a single solitary republican in the congress voted for. I enacted tax credits to save an average of 800 per person, per year retkaougs Health Care Premiums for millions of working families under the Affordable Care act. Those tax credits expire next year. Im calling on congress to make that 800 expanded Affordable Health care tax credit permanent. [applause] otherwise, Many Americans with that coverage could lose their coverage. Folks, its because they are making the a. C. A. Stronger, more affordable, a. C. A. Is breaking records. Today everyone can get affordable coverage through the a. C. A. 80 , 80 of the folks on a. C. A. Plan that can get a plan for 10 a month. 10 a month. 21 Million People covered under a. C. A. 75 increase assistance since we came into office that. Includes over 100 million folks right here in North Carolina. [applause] on top of that more americans have health care today than any other than under any other president. Its saving american taxpayers money. It saves money. Talk about overspending. It saves the taxpayers money. Its cheaptory pay for preventive mammogram than to treat a cancer. Today 100 million americans will no longer be denied Health Insurance because of preexisting conditions. Nearly 25 million lowincome adults have gained medicaid coverage because of a. C. A. , including as i said 400,000 right here in North Carolina because of roy cooper. [applause] and kamala and i are making health care more affordable and accessible in other ways as well. Americans pay more for Prescription Drugs than anywhere else in the world. I could get you on air force one you tell me if you have a prescription to fill out here in North Carolina, i can fly to toronto, to berlin, to london, to rome and i can get you that same prescription from that same company somewhere between 40 and 60 less than you pay for it here. Through the inflation reduction act, again, not a single republican voted for t. We finally beat big pharma. Finally. [applause] host that was the president last month. Hes expected to make more comments about health care on wednesday for private insurance holders, 2027488000. If you have insurance under the a. C. A. , 2027488001. No insurance, 2027488002. And if you receive insurance under medicare, 2027488003. Your experience with Health Care Costs n virginia, a holder of private insurance, ted, starts us off. Good morning. Caller good morning, pedro. Thank you for the show. I have private insurance. I work at a private school, which is a fairly small group. Our rates just keep going up. Consistent with what you mentioned earlier. I also consistently family of four, and consistently getting extra bills, and just all i have a Health Savings account, which i just keep paying every month. That just goes away really quickly. That seems to have really gone up over the last couple years. And also i have delayed some things myself just because i know there will be another bill coming down the road. I keep myself really healthy, i worry about something unexpected coming up. Host how much monthly, if you want to share, do you pay for health care . Caller actually, its over 400 per pay. And thats two pays a month. And then i put money into my Health Savings account. The interconstitution i work for gave us 1,000 in the Health Savings account, up front. Which is nice. It you put in dental, medical, vision, all that stuff i think its almost over probably 500 500 per pay. Host ted in arlington, virginia. Giving us his costs. He talks about some of the unexpected bills. It was one of those things the keyser bowl said the notable share of adults three in four saying they are very or somewhat worried about being able to pay for unexpected medical bills. Or the cost of health care service, 73 for themselves and their families. Additionally about half of those adults said they wouldnt be able to pay an unexpected medical bill of 500 in full without going into debt. Another holder of private insurance, france with a infrancois in maryland. Good morning. Caller can you hear me . Yeah. I have private insurance. Im insured through kaiser. I work for the federal government. For years it has been great. I have no issue paying my premium. But this year there was a National Association of the dental insurance i pay to, my preyum on top of the dental insurance that i used to have. So i end up having two coverages for my dental. The new one is called liberty. I went to do a root canal. It was about 1,300. They only covered 300. So out of pocket has to be around 900 close to 1,000 for me. I dont know where this idea come from to ad libert to my coverage. And i liberty to my coverage. I tried to it. I haveet in a i have aetna. I have been penalized for being with k aiser because i have to pay more than i used to pay with aetna. Its no good for anyone. Thats my statement. Host when you tried to call the company as far as to fight the bill, what was the response from them . Did they yield anything . Did they give you anything . I know ultimately you had to pay for it. What was their response . Caller now they are fighting among themself who need to be the primary and who need tonight secondary. But i have to pay out of pocket close to 1,000 to have the service i needed. I dont believe i have to do that. When i call aetna they were suddenly if i go solely through them, my bell would be less than 800. My bill would be less than 800. I dont know whats going ofpblt they need to figure that out. Host ok. Caller it is not good for the end customer to be suffering after having two different coverages and has to pay that much. Host maryland talking about the dental aspects. Maybe you want to throw that in the mix for the numbers. If you want to call the line. Again we have heard from private Insurance Company holders. 2027488000. But perhaps you have insurance under the a. C. A. , thats 2027488001. If you dont have insurance, 2027488002. And for those under medicare, 2027488003. How you call. From facebook, bob says when it comes to insurance costs its outrageous. He describes it. The worst part is on purpose the portion to buy into the upon stkeu scheme for insurance. They can get kick backs. Jason said, obamacare sent them through the roof. It should be repealed and not replaced. It would allow the markets to compete to keep costs low and innovation high. From x a viewer says its simply unaffordable for families. Its more than the mortgage, they add. Then this is rich from facebook saying, my wife just had back surgery. Went in the morning, home before supper, 178,000 the cost. And the operation was 2 1 2 hours. Other ways you can reach out as well. Facebook and on x. Send us a text if you want. 2027488003. When it comes to the Affordable Care act, it was at a recent event sponsored by the American Enterprise institute where Paragon Health intuits president brian institutes president talked about the issues he has with it. The a. C. A. In 2024 is largely the law that the Health Care Industry would have written. It just took time to get to it. The main components that the industry liked, the large new subsidies through the exchanges, through medicaid expansion, through 340b are all growing. Health insurers have reaped windfalls and enjoying their physician now regulated utilities. The main component that the industry disliked have disappeared. The cadillac tax, gone. The Health Insurance tax, gone. The medical device tax, gone. The independent payment advisory board, gone. And all in big bipartisan votes. Looking back the conversations in the board rooms of the Health Industry were probably to support enactment to get all the stuff that they wanted and then to work to eliminate what they didnt like. Thats how its played out. In a way that substantially increased federal deficits. In retrospect president obamas guaranteed the a. C. A. Would not increase deficits appears only to have been made to get the law passed. One key example, the classroom, significantly contributed to the laws purported deficit reduction. Thats because collections needed to come in for five years before any payments were made. Just one year after the a. C. A. Was enacted, h. H. S. Secretary said the program had serious underlying problems and the administration would not implement it. One year later it was repealed. And although its out of my lane, i dont think that the student loan redesign which was used as an a. C. A. Payfor is working out as a favor for the government. The core Central Planning aspect of the a. C. A. Has failed. Most notably, i dont believe gabes paper addresses this, the centers for medicare and Medicaid Innovation is increasing deficits having failed to develop models that either improve health care or lower costs. And the experiment was a failure, harming many policyholders with coverage that collapsed. The first seven years of implementation of the a. C. A. Occurred within accommodating administration. They took many extra legal actions to ease political opposition for the law. Most famously, president obama admitted in the fall of 2013 that his promise that people could like plans, keep plans if they liked them, was not true. That led to the administration to create a new set of plans, grandmother plans, that could avoid the a. C. A. s cost increasing regulations. Host a variety of ways you can reach out this morning. Call and let us know about your Health Care Costs. Depending on type of insurance or no insurance. If thats the case. Cindy who gets insurance under medicare in maryland. Next up about your costs. Good morning. Thanks for calling. Caller hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Let me start out saying im a nurse. I have worked in the insurance industry. But i have also been all over the Health Care Arena from managed care. I was a certified case manager, which was a component that was necessary with managed care khopling out in the coming out in the late 1990s. I would like to say that overall, if you look at the big picture, looking at the big picture, managed kerrigan in the late 199 managed care began in the late 1990s. If you go back several decades with legislation coming into effect decades prior, this whole approach to managing care has brought to us where we are today. I dont think this is all about the a. C. A. Its about managed care, period. And this country still hasnt gotten it right. I dont know that there is a right, but i do know that as long as Insurance Companies are a forprofit company, are you not going to get good health care. Its going to be based on the cost of care. And having worked on that side of the fence, i have worked for patients trying to advocate for them as well as being paid by my employer and needing to push them out of the hospital. Because they didnt meet the criteria. As long as this forprofit institution, which is why i work for a nonprofit now because i am so tired of the greediness of Corporate Health care and big pharma making all the decisions. I dont know if i have anything to say that you were hoping to hear. Host its your experience. Caller yeah. I am a recipient of medicare today. I am now covered. I just got my card in the mail with a private Insurance Company through my employer. Im not sure how thats going to go. The caller who just spoke in front of me talking about dental coverage and vision coverage. Those carve outs, its horrific that people are paying more than their mortgage, their car payments for health care. I travel every year and when i got health care in india, it cost me 1. 50 to get an xray. That was the highest cost service that i got. Host ok. Cindy there giving us her experience. Beau in delaware, holder of private insurance, good morning. Thanks for calling. Caller good morning, pedro. This topic always gets me fired up. I have done a lot of research on this. It seems like everything started going downhill, i think it was nixon that kind of treated the program created the program where your Health Insurance is coupled to your employment t seems like nobody ever talks about what it would take to decouple your Health Insurance from employment. When you think about everything you pay every month. I probably pay 3,500 a year, my employer supposedly pays 25,000 a year for my coverage. I still have a 5,000 deductible. The Corporation Im sure is getting a huge tax break from that. If they did away with all the tax breaks to all these corporations, i think that would make the whole universal health care more possible, but nobody ever talks about it. Host ok. Beau giving us his thoughts. Hear from tim in tulsa, holder of insurance under the a. C. A. , go ahead. Caller yeah. The real concern i have is, we just got a report National News that biden has flown in 382,000 Illegal Immigrants and put them on our Health Care Program. How is that Health Care Program going to take away from us recipients as citizens . Nobodys talking about 20 million illegals getting Free Health Care from the Biden Administration . Cant we do something about that. Host aside from th