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Biden Takes Aim at Grocery Chains Over Food Prices
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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politics
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This is hands down some of the stupidest shit to focus on.
The big expense in our lives isn't gas and groceries. It's fucking healthcare. Let's all just fucking ignore INSANE pharma profits and INSANE profits for health insurance companies who are legally required to not earn more than 20% of the 100% pie of healthcare spending for treatments.
We pay more for drugs, medical devices and treatments than anywhere else in the world because we do not collectively bargain. We don't regulate price changes AT ALL like almost every country in the world does.
Insurance companies are encouraged to raise the prices for treatments - and thus premiums - because they cannot make more than 20% of said treatments. So if a treatment is $100, they can only profit $20. If a treatment is $10000 - the insurance company can profit $2000. DOES ANYONE SEE THIS AS A PROBLEM!?!?!?
Biden specifically made the prices come down for 43 drugs as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/09/biden-administration-announces-savings-43-prescription-drugs-part-cost-saving-measures-president-bidens-inflation-reduction-act.html
Wait hold up. Did the federal Medicare program not have power to NEGOTIATE prices before?!!!?
Yes. Republicans made sure that Medicare was not allowed to negotiate lower prices. Republicans wasted government money again, like they do all the time.
Cool, now how about the shitty ass $2k monthly premiums for what is basically a catastrophic plan?
No one pays $2K per month for an individual plan. That would be for an entire family and it would be a Cadillac plan, not a minimum plan.
I just looked up some plans for a family of 4 on healthcare.gov. It was $329 per month for the cheap one. And that's before subsidies.
Last year my plan was family of four (Aetna), had individual deductible of 7,500 and family deductible of 10,000 and was 1,400 per month after subsidies. It was essentially a catastrophic plan and the cheapest one I could afford. Any silver plans were around 2,300/months.
You would have to be piss poor to get anything of 300 for a family plan. I would be smiling ear to ear for 300/mo. For last year you can guess that yup we had one ER visit that I’m still paying off because we didn’t hit the deductible. Thankfully nothing bad except RIP my wallet. I don’t know who enjoys paying 1,400 per month for such a shitty plan.
Best way for me to insure my family would be to quit my job so I can get max subsidies and get all my premiums covered. Thankfully my SO got a job with some healthcare so I could get rid of that plan.
First of all, you said it was at least $2K before (and never mentioned the whole family). So why should I believe that it's actually $1400?
Second of all, I literally just looked it up and a basic UnitedHealth plan for 4 people in Beverly Hills, CA was $329 (with no subsidies). If what you say is true, you must live in a terrible place with no healthcare options. It's not normal.
Because I have the receipts when Atena hit my card monthly until we cancelled.
CA does not represent the rest of the USA. CA is near if not the most top state in the USA for medical coverage, very progressive except maybe shy of Virginia. Hell they even negotiated insulin down to normal levels since they threatened to open the our insulin production.
And you are correct the healthcare market place for last year had two options, Blue Anthem and Aetna. My state sucks so much….
Oh, so now $1400 < $2000?
Oh also the 2k is assuming an increase for 2024. 2022 my premium for the same crappy Bronze plan was around 950, then jumped up that much to 1400 in 2023 when one the insurance companies pulled out of our states healthcare market.
For a silver plan, lower deductibles etc (3500), you can almost double the crappiest Bronze plan premiums. So 2,000 - 3,000 premiums wouldn’t be a surprise before subsidies. Also if you aren’t familiar with the subsidies those are calculated based an a certain income. So if you put down a range (55k/yr) and let’s say you got a raise at the end of the year ($62k) it may disqualify you and boom you owe an extra 7k during tax time. Happened to my dad.
The best thing to happen was getting employer backed insurance but now our insurance is tied to our employer, yay for employer latitude.
Healthcare expenditures are about 8% of average expenditures by Americans. Food is 12%, transportation is 16%. Housing is 34%. Maybe you can argue that healthcare prices have the most scope for reduction, but it's literally incorrect to say that healthcare is "the big expense in our lives".
Is that 8% figure including employer contributions to healthcare?
I myself pay a fraction of the $1500 monthly premium that is paid for me. I’m still working for that entire premium. I still have a high deductible plan and pay $300 out of pocket for the first several thousand dollars of deductibles for pcp followups.
I'm in a lot of healthcare debt.
I can pay it off slowly.
You know what I can't pay off slowly? Food and gas.
You're not wrong about those other things being major problems! But that doesn't make this shit stupid and gas and groceries hurt people in their daily lives. It can literally mean going without food or can't apply to jobs outside an area etc. Roadblocks.
Healthcare is also an extremely important right we should have that many agree that America is failing to provide. It's just a little higher on the hierarchy of needs and you treat the lower ones like they are non existing or unimportant.
People being forced to choose between rent or food so that some motherfucker can have a more profitable quarter is not a stupid thing to focus on, it's a serious problem. You're not wrong on that other point though, maybe they'll address it next, despite the memes they're pretty active for a status quo government.
Nothing you said is wrong, but it's an election year and if Biden can make the price of groceries at least stay the same it will help.
Democrats have too many constituents that are employed in the health insurance or pharmaceutical industries to ever make a meaningful changes.
Republicans too. All the big politicians seem to be in bed with the industries draining us dry. They both lie to us about how what they will do will fix it but neither are willing to stomach the price of dismantling the insurance ~~scam~~ industry.
Not really. Health insurers and pharma companies are concentrated in very blue cities, with the employees living there or in swing-district suburbs. If you co-sponsored a bill that put thousands of constituents out of a job, you'd join them in a couple years.
I'm not saying it's right, just that it is.