October Health Insurance Rate Hike

[H D]

Mine is only going up 15%. How exciting!



I wonder where it'll be next year when they drop our coverage and offer a different plan. That's not a fearful thought on my part. It came in a nice letter directly from BCBS that they would no longer be able to provide the premium family PPO we've been paying for but they would provide other options at that time.



I hope some of you old folks take advantage of the risk being removed and you can now put on weight, smoke and drink to your heart's desire (or demise) at my expense.:cheeky:

 

[Robert Thomas]

I'd like to express my personal thanks. Except mine is going up to.

 

[Robert Howell]

What is the cost of medical coverage in the States?

 

[EddieS'04]

What is the cost of medical coverage in the States?

More than some of us make. Gonna get worse, with lousy coverage. Even for the white collar.

 

[H D]

Well, I'm far from "wealthy" (very far) but I decided to purchase what this administration would label a "Cadillac" plan (because only evil rich people could afford it, apparently). I prioritize health pretty high so I don't have much issue paying a premium for the best care I can get but with the raise in rates, I'll be paying nearly $7k/yr just for the premium and have a $10k maximum deductible out of pocket for the family.



To put it in perspective, I pay about $9,500/yr in automotive ownership. So, if anyone wants to say I'm getting ripped off (as I've been told before), maybe you should check your priorities.

 

[Robert Thomas]

I am 68 years old and am being taken care of by Hugh and others like him. I pay approximately $6,000 and have zero deductible and just about zero risk. Last year I paid an additional $2000 for treatment not covered. For a total of $8000 plus. I could get by with just under a $400 a year with just required coverage. My total health care cost then would have been about $4,000 last year. Just like Hugh I value good coverage and zero risk.



I paid for high coverage for all my life. I can tell you two things. One, it was well worth it. Two, you don't want to ever use it.



Hugh, Just for clarification I suspect the 7K a year is for family coverage. It should be about 5.5 for self.

 

[H D]

Yeah, that's the family premium PPO with maternity that rolls over into coverage for children.

 

[Robert Thomas]

The real shock comes when you go on Medicare, is that the premium does not go down. Go Figure.

 

[H D]

Like Social Security, I'm just going to pretend that any semblance of Medicare will be long gone or completely different by the time I need it.

 

[Gavin Allan]

If you like your present plan, you can keep it.

 

[Richard L]

I continue to see more news articles related to extra cost for Health Care Insurance due to ObamaCare changes???? Didn't Obama promise that if you already had Health Care Insurance, that there would be no changes and that your costs would not go up??? Now all I hear is how everyone is complaining that their costs are going up and Obama does not have his face on TV explaining why these costs are going up.



It sounds like we were lied to, and now comes the Smoke and Mirrors part of the show !! :angry:



...Rich

 

[Gavin Allan]

It all smells like lies to me.

 

[Richard L]

Hugh,

I did not have a choice about Medicare. My military retirement Health Care was automatically switched to Medicare when I turned 65, like it or not. In fact it changed on the first day of my birth month even though I was born on the 29th of the month. My old military insurance is a secondary insurance to Medicare but I have to pay the Medicare Part "B" to get the Pharmacy benefits.



I used to pay $230 per YEAR for Tricare with a $12 co-pay per visit, plus a small small cost for prescriptions. Now I pay over $100 per month with no co-pay, but prescription costs have nearly doubled and I am getting a hard time from Medicare about paying some claims. It seems that Medicare keeps changing the rules and adding new documentation requirements which get passed to my medical providers and ultimately to me.



So, everything that Obama said about your old Health Care plans not changing is a lie. It has only increased the cost of health insurance for the majority of the people who already had health care plans, and the extra costs are being passed on to the consumers in the form of higher health insurance costs.



...Rich

 

[Mark K 2]

I think the insurance companies are hiking their rates to cover their bases before Obamacare kicks in. There is the 80/20 law in effect now, where insurance companies have to spend 80% of their premium income on paying the doctors, clinics, and hospitals. They can keep only 20% as profit. If they fail to stay within those guidelines, they have to issue refund checks directly to policyholders. That said, the doctors and hospitals are more than likely hiking their rates before Obamacare kicks in and the insurance company rate hikes are simply in response to that.



The one thing the Obamacare law should have done is limit the amount doctors and hospitals can hike their rates in the lead-up to Obamacare. Have you seen all the fancy improvements hospitals are doing right now? Christ... hospital rooms are luxurious. IMHO, your hospital stay should not mimic a vacation at a 5 star hotel.



So far, a few of the states have their Health Care Exchanges in place with insurance premium prices listed. The rates in many cases are much cheaper than private or group insurance through employers. It may be smarter for employers to shitcan their employee insurance plans, pay their employees the savings for doing so, and make the employees buy their own insurance through the exchanges. If I were an employer, that's what I'd do. In a minute.

 

[H D]

Anybody know someone that didn't have health insurance before but can now afford it? That's what this was about, right?

 

[Gavin Allan]

Are the ObamaCare benefits and coverages being watered down to lower the rates?

Not sure it is a good thing to make everyone more dependent on the government than we already are.

 

[Mark K 2]

I don't have insurance. The Wisconsin exchanges aren't set up, yet, but the Minnesota ones are. If the Wisconsin rates are like the Minnesota rates, I will most likely be able to afford insurance.

 

[Kevin Lang]

"Have you seen all the fancy improvements hospitals are doing right now? Christ... hospital rooms are luxurious. IMHO, your hospital stay should not mimic a vacation at a 5 star hotel."



If my area hospitals are like your area hospitals than you and I have 2 very different definitions of "luxurious" :bwahaha:



Well, I cast my vote against Obamacare for all the good it did. I think I'll go watch some old Milton Friedman videos where he argues against government in medicine. It'll lower my blood pressure lol.

 

[H D]

I sure hope so Mark; I do believe making health insurance available to all is a noble goal. If you don't, though, you'll have to find a way to pay the fine...I mean tax.

 

[Mark K 2]

Regulators in Utah offered an early look Thursday at the average premium for certain healthcare plans sold through ObamaCare's newly created insurance exchange.



Some consumers will pay as little as $162 per month for a middle-of-the-road policy, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Those premiums are significantly lower than expected, and cheaper than comparable policies in several other states.



Most consumers who buy insurance through an exchange won't pay the full cost of their premiums out of pocket. New tax credits will help offset the cost of premiums for low-income individuals.





Utah only released premiums for "silver" plans ? the healthcare law classifies policies as bronze, silver, gold or platinum based on how much they cover.



Two categories of plans will likely carry lower premiums than silver policies ? "bronze" plans and catastrophic plans, which offer limited coverage and are available only to people younger than 30. Utah has not yet released rate information for those policies.



Utah's exchange will offer 99 healthcare plans from six insurance companies, according to the Tribune. The new marketplaces are set to open in each state on Oct. 1, to begin enrolling people in coverage that begins Jan. 1.