re: Bernie said the average american pays $12,000 a year in Healthcare

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Yea I pay $0 a month for my family of 5, no deductible, and $10 co pays, not sure where he’s pulling that statistic.

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The only people who get that kind of a deal are government employees, C-suite people, and people on medicaid.

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I pay $1,650 per month; wife and 2 kids

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Jesus Christ...what hell kind of health plan you got?

You can blame the Bamster , but really it was the insurance companies being opportunistic

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I pay 1750 per month plus deductible if 8000 for wife and I. Both in late 50’s and retired. Since I retired my income of course went way down. Total BS. So if I get sick and max out my deductible I spend almost 30k per year. Sucks

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But the system is working out to well for the poor health insurance companies, won’t someone think of them???

I pay 18k a year

Through BCBS of Louisiana. I’m self-employed.

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What is he smoking I pay nowhere near that, do people actually believe this guy? He wants to raise my taxes to pay for a healthcare plan that I pay nowhere near that for shittier insurance?

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I had company sponsored health care through my working life. It continues in my retirement until I go on medicare. I chose a coverage plan for about 5 grand a year that requires I pay another five to seven grand in deductible before it covers totally. So if I get sick, I'm going to shell out up to 12 grand out of pocket. I am one of Bernie's pay up to 12 grand a year. I was in the emergency room for a heart issue. You go to the emergency room on my plan then you are shelling out thousands out of pocket. I'm not complaining but unless you have some fine union negotiated pay nothing into health care plan, health insurance is expensive. And, my heart is fine. The e room visit was a total waste of money. Tell your PCP you have a heart anything, they send you to the e room.

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Bernie said the average american pays $12,000 a year in Healthcare
do people actually believe this guy?

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Yes, they do. Because they believe the numbers forming basis for Bernie's claims.

Where do Bernie's numbers come from?

CMS runs an annual calculation known as the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA). The NHEA is source of claims of annual US Health Care expenditures. E.g., According to CMS's NHEA, the US spent $3.65Trillion on health care last year. CMS is also a source of the claim that up to 27 million uninsured Americans meaning 300 million are paying for care.

So Bernie is simply taking those numbers and doing simple math:
$3.65T/300M people = $12,167 per person

More About the NHEA:

The NHEA measures annual U.S. expenditures for public health activities, government administration, the net cost of health insurance, all investment related to health care including stocks, bonds, and speculation, and all retail, and retail outlet sales.

Buy one of Brett Farve's Copperfit bands, or the latest male enhancement scam pill at GNC, or a massager at CVS and your bucks are part of the $3.65T. Buy a hover-round scooter chair, a home stair lift, or Walmart's Hearing Assist junk (as seen on TV!), and you're part of the $3.65T. Vitamins, reading glasses, diet pills . . . all part of the $3.65T.

Needless to say, no other country measures things that way. So it substantially inflates US healthcare spending vs that in other countries where measures reference only true medical spending.

Put bluntly, NHEA calculations are bullshite propaganda.
They have been for all 60 years of their existence.

They served as part of the rationale for formation of Medicare/Medicaid in the 1960's. They are now the reason Bernie can claim a family of four would average >$48,000 in annual healthcare expenses.

The numbers sound way off. Because they are way off.

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I’m self-employed.

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Ah, yeah.. Self-employed always get screwed in the arse over this.

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Something needs to be done about it.

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No doubt. But universal healthcare isn't the solution.