And I have "good" insurance.
*Granted that largely depends on how much I've paid YTD, so it could be more than $400, or less, but hell who knows as the plan changes every year.
To be clear I can foot the bill just fine, but it demonstrates how on the edge and out of control you are when $400 breaks the bank.
> And I have "good" insurance.
Well, not really, because even a crappy HMO gives you better guarantees than that.
You have a “good” insurance plan probably in the sense that providing the illusion of choice while heavily exposing you to cost for “covered” services is widely sold as “better” than a slight reduction in mostly illusory choice with far performance on the risk protection function that is the whole reason to buy insurance.
Example:
1. My plan could cover squat of the first $400 for the year... but cover EVERYTHING after $400 of out of pocket costs for the year. If you've got a family, that's a hell of a plan.
2. My plan could cover squat of the first $10k ... that would suck.
A single $400 bill doesn't tell you much as far as what a good plan in the US is or isn't.... and we haven't even gotten into what the premiums are per month.
Of course this also goes to show how much of a pain health insurance in the US is ...