Anyone's Health Insurance going up?
- Thread starter mrhotdice
- Start date
I didn't know insurance went another direction
Nope. $1100 a month is just stupid for a family plan, which is what I pay. Just your average PPO 2k deductible, 80/20 plan too.
I am a small business owner and I am very concerned about the health insurance future. There are so many problems; number of uninsured people, costs of drugs, costs of malpractice for doctors, the list goes on. And no one has solutions.
Not only did I save $2500...but I also 'kept' my doctor that I liked...'if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor'. Got him locked up in the other room.
Not including the $$ we've spent on advisers to navigate the changes we've been hit each of the last 3 years with at least 16% increases. We're with Humana Vitality this year and having very good success with participation so we hope to mitigate the large increase again.
My "cost" went up, a little, but it's a shell game. Last year it was $200/paycheck....twice monthly. Meaning there were 2 pay periods that they didn't take out premiums. This year, they advertised it as our cost went DOWN....ZOMG!!!1111!!1!11
When in reality, they're now taking it out 26 times per year, so it really went up. But it went down per paycheck... [eyeroll]
#thanksObama
When in reality, they're now taking it out 26 times per year, so it really went up. But it went down per paycheck... [eyeroll]
#thanksObama
26 pay periods a year
My part is $286 a pay period to cover me and my wife
Up from $205 4 years ago
WTF?
Anyways, studies have shown that people that don't have to directly pay their insurance premiums (like someone who pays $4 for something that is $1k a month on the open market) often abuse medical services and will show up to the doctor for a headache, thus driving up costs across the board.
My personal opinion is that we have to either go to a free market system (like car insurance) or go to a single payer system. This halfway ******** where 30% of the population gets it thru their employer, 25% get it thru the exchange, 25% are on medicare or poor children's insurance and 20% are uninsured just totally ***** up the entire system. And if you don't have insurance you should have to go to like a health department doctor or something. When I have to go to the ER for an emergency (like I did last week) and I'm insured and there are people there that don't have insurance and use the ER to get their booster shots or an antibiotic prescription, guess who's paying for it...
I have zero insurance and just paid the penalty...much cheaper. I'll wait until I need it to sign up.
I mean, having Insurance when you don't need it is for the DUMB.
I mean, having Insurance when you don't need it is for the DUMB.
You're being fecetious, right? How do you know when you're going to NEED insurance?
When you add additional benefits such as disallowing precondition rejection, allowing dependents to stay on until 26, and most of all removal of caps, guess what that adds tremendous costs to coverage. That combined with the fact that medical services are escalating at 4x inflation and there are no controls on escalation drug prices, it's no surprise that health insurance companies have no other choice but to raise rates.
I agree with crazyqz83, we should take out a clean sheet of paper and start over, modeling our system with the best features from some of the economically efficient and well managed systems around the world. I'm not ready to concede that France and Canada can do something cheaper and better than we can.
I agree with crazyqz83, we should take out a clean sheet of paper and start over, modeling our system with the best features from some of the economically efficient and well managed systems around the world. I'm not ready to concede that France and Canada can do something cheaper and better than we can.
I know it can't be this simple, but since they can't deny you for pre-existing conditions, what's to stop you from signing up from the ER? Was in the ER a few weeks ago and they actually had a Kynect kiosk in the waiting room.
In Houston, there were no carriers who offered PPO plans through the exchange or otherwise. And, most physicians will not accept an HMO. So, many individuals ended up with a EPO which is sort of PPO-lite with a VERY restricted network. No individual plan covered MD Anderson (world-renowned cancer clinic) or Methodist Hospital system, one of the largest in Houston. Existing patients who were being treated at MD Anderson for cancer had to switch doctors and hospital systems when their new plan didn't cover them anymore. Great f***ing solution, Barack/Harry/Nancy. Just great.
And, oh yes, my employer offers health insurance to us. Costs us >$1500/mo for family coverage with $3000 deductible. Went up 23% last year. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
And, oh yes, my employer offers health insurance to us. Costs us >$1500/mo for family coverage with $3000 deductible. Went up 23% last year. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
I was there for some work on my neck. A very exclusive and private plastic surgery clinic. It was cold but they have seafood.
You would almost be better off asking them to drop it and getting obamacare, if that's the oop premium cost.
What may start to kill me is prescription costs. I have a $900 prescription deductible with tiered copays AFTER I reach that deductible. Just got prescribed Lialda for my IBD. $694 for a one month supply. $45 after I reach my deductible. Doctor gave me a savings card that got it down to $194 for 30 day supply. Luckily my plan told me that the savings card is a 2nd party, so the full $694 will apply to my copay, even though I just pay the $194. So now I have $779 towards my deductible and June's cost of $121 should fulfill my deductible so I'll only have to pay $45 for the rest of the year. Still, $585 OOP for 1 year's supply of one prescription sucks. Gonna have to bump up to a gold plan next year.
After recent developments such as United Healthcare pulling out of the exchanges citing huge losses, I think the correct answer to OP's original question is: Yes, everyone's is. Whether it's the monthly premium, deductibles and/or OOP maximums, everyone can expect healthcare to cost more (by about 6-7% according to industry spokesmen) this year, next year, every year.
Obamacare has been a huge disappointment. Universal coverage? Nope, only about 3 million less people without health insurance since it began and most/all of those due to Medicaid expansion, i.e. working people paying for 'poor' people's health insurance. Revenue neutral? Surely no one with half a brain believed that tall tale. Bending the cost curve down? Nope. Costs WERE coming down on their own and now they're heading back up again at a higher rate than before O-care. More competition? Nope. Fewer carriers are participating in the exchanges and over half of the government-run state exchanges have gone bankrupt. Keep your plan and your doctor? Nope. Fewer plans, much tighter networks of doctors and hospitals, policies being cancelled, etc. A perfect example of a government cluster-f*** if ever there was one. And, please, don't suggest 'Medicare for all'. A system that both sides of the political spectrum agree is going broke and we're going to add another 200 million people to it? Yeah, that's a solution.
Obamacare has been a huge disappointment. Universal coverage? Nope, only about 3 million less people without health insurance since it began and most/all of those due to Medicaid expansion, i.e. working people paying for 'poor' people's health insurance. Revenue neutral? Surely no one with half a brain believed that tall tale. Bending the cost curve down? Nope. Costs WERE coming down on their own and now they're heading back up again at a higher rate than before O-care. More competition? Nope. Fewer carriers are participating in the exchanges and over half of the government-run state exchanges have gone bankrupt. Keep your plan and your doctor? Nope. Fewer plans, much tighter networks of doctors and hospitals, policies being cancelled, etc. A perfect example of a government cluster-f*** if ever there was one. And, please, don't suggest 'Medicare for all'. A system that both sides of the political spectrum agree is going broke and we're going to add another 200 million people to it? Yeah, that's a solution.
Those must be Glen Beck numbers. Actually as of last year the number is 17 million people who got coverage under the new system:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-million-people-got-insurance-under-obamacare
the linked article and chart shows where the new enrollees came from.
It's true that Medicaid was expended under the ACA on a state-by-state basis depending on if they opted in or out, but the thing is without Medicaid impoverished people would show up at ERs and Clinics with the costs pass on to the insured or to tax payers anyway. By offering some level of preventive care it should lessen the overall burden over time.
The law made coverage more expensive for the insurers as I mentioned above and those costs have to be accounted for in rates. That and the fact that the cost of medical services and drugs is escalation dramatically means the cost of insurance is going to have to go up as well.
There are a lot of reforms that should be made to the system to keep the cost lower there is no doubt about that, and the number 1 problem in my opinion is the removal of caps. That created an unlimited liability for the insurer. Other health care systems like the Canadian or French system have caps. If a cap provision could be restored that would be the one best thing that they could do to keep rates from escalating so much.
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It's never gonna work as long as we have people with awesome plans that go too often because they never incur any costs, people without insurance or with medicaid that abuse it because they pay nothing, and then the people like me, who end up with combined premiums/copays/bills that amount to 20% of their net income because they don't get it provided by their employer.
It needs to be torn down and started over. The fact that government employees have miniscule premiums and deductibles is particularly egregious.
My wife recently injured her hip. Surgery to repair a torn labrum right at $30,000...we arrived at the hospital surgery center @ 9:30 am, she was out of recovery and dismissed by 2pm. ...and that doesn't include the Dr prescribed physical therapy (60 sessions @ $50ea) or pain meds.