2014 Healthcare a Vent!

[kellia]

Who do you think is going to PAY for the millions of uninsured who now will have healthcare?????

Oh, I know we'll end up paying for it one way or another. I just hadn't realized it was going to affect those with insurance THAT much. I've been hearing that it cost so much to get "obama" insurance that I thought maybe it wouldn't be passed on to others as much.

I also hadn't realized employers are penalized for having good insurance. I thought they were going to start making us pay income tax on it if it cost over an amount they deemed "reasonable", not tax the employer. Wow, very scary.

 

[bethy]

I paid a fortune in Healthcare costs to have my 3 children. All that testing and monitoring and time in the hospital costs a lot.

 

[kydisneyfans]

If it makes any previous posters feel better, welcome to the club. You are not alone. We are reeling here too.

 

[heartsy77]

I'm just throwing this out there bc I am wanting an answer! How do we know that all these employers and insurance companies raised our premiums because of "Obamacare"? I'm not trying to get political by any means, I just tend to be skeptical!

DH has employee based healthcare, as he works for a large publisher, and our health insurance increased $4,000.00 for premiums for 2014 ! We could have dealt with that but our kicker is our Rx coverage will not kick in until our higher deductible is met! This was deal breaker for us. Now I am nurse and I work for non- for profit hospital, who DID NOT raise our rates for 2014! I will have to get moved from a per diem position to at least part time so I can pick up my insurance from my employer.

My point is: my employer didn't raise their insurance rates and they are a small non for profit but my husbands huge employer doubled ours. This seems so shady to me!

 

[Viva Las Disney]

My employer of 10 years told us at the beginning of the year they were dropping insurance as a benefit for all new part time employees but promised us that those of that already had insurance would be grandfathered in, a few weeks ago they cut all part time employees to 3 days a week and last week they told us all our insurance would be gone January 1st and we'd have to apply for ACA. So I've gone from working 30-40 hours a week to 20-25 hours a week and now I'm losing my insurance completely.

At this point all I can do is shake my head, look at the silver lining that less hours at work means more hours at school and add more credits and summer school to my schedule and hope I can finish my degree a couple years faster.

I don't know who to be more angry with, my company for being greedy liar SOB's or the politicians that wrote a law that rewards companies for cutting hours and cutting benefits to their employees.

This law may have been passed with good intentions but because of the loopholes and penalties to both individuals and companies I think it will go down in history as the the worst law ever written simply because it encourages companies to do the wrong thing!

 

[kydisneyfans]

I'm just throwing this out there bc I am wanting an answer! How do we know that all these employers and insurance companies raised our premiums because of "Obamacare"? I'm not trying to get political by any means, I just tend to be skeptical!

DH has employee based healthcare, as he works for a large publisher, and our health insurance increased $4,000.00 for premiums for 2014 ! We could have dealt with that but our kicker is our Rx coverage will not kick in until our higher deductible is met! This was deal breaker for us. Now I am nurse and I work for non- for profit hospital, who DID NOT raise our rates for 2014! I will have to get moved from a per diem position to at least part time so I can pick up my insurance from my employer.

My point is: my employer didn't raise their insurance rates and they are a small non for profit but my husbands huge employer doubled ours. This seems so shady to me!

The question is a real one but nobody has that answer. From what I am seeing, the companies with good insurance policies pay the new Cadillac tax and are passing that on to the employees to pay. Others are making good policies crap to avoid the tax. Still others are using the ACA as an excuse to make sure their own bottom line looks better at the expense of their employees. My guess would be the real reason is split evenly among the 3.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm just throwing this out there bc I am wanting an answer! How do we know that all these employers and insurance companies raised our premiums because of "Obamacare"? I'm not trying to get political by any means, I just tend to be skeptical!

DH has employee based healthcare, as he works for a large publisher, and our health insurance increased $4,000.00 for premiums for 2014 ! We could have dealt with that but our kicker is our Rx coverage will not kick in until our higher deductible is met! This was deal breaker for us. Now I am nurse and I work for non- for profit hospital, who DID NOT raise our rates for 2014! I will have to get moved from a per diem position to at least part time so I can pick up my insurance from my employer.

My point is: my employer didn't raise their insurance rates and they are a small non for profit but my husbands huge employer doubled ours. This seems so shady to me!

Health insurance costs went up because they have to cover more. They MUST cover birth control even if you don't need it or want it. They MUST cover routine gyn exams and mammograms, whether or not the person being covered is male or female. They MUST cover childhood immunizations whether or not you have a child on the plan. Now, my premiums are going up in 2014 even though the above mandates were already met by the plan in 2013.

Another reason could be that the insurance rate went up but the employer is not absorbing the rate hike at all or at least not proportionate to how they covered their employee in the past.

The hospital that you work for may be "self-insuring", providing healthcare to their employees for a low-cost premium as long as you stay in-network (meaning use hospital doctors, the hospital lab, the hospital pharmacy, hospital diagnostic and treatment centers, etc.). They can keep their administrative costs low by acting as their own mini-HMO. Think of it like the old "professional courtesy" that healthcare professionals often extend to one another.

Any of those reasons could factor into why premium costs have gone up. Some are due to Obamacare mandates and others are simply due to the increased cost of delivering healthcare...period. Under Obamacare, the insurance companies must send rebates to customers (either the employer or the individual who purchases their own insurance) if they fail to spend at least 80% of premiums on health care. I got a check for $1.89 this past summer and yet my premiums will still go up again next year!

 

[heartsy77]

Health insurance costs went up because they have to cover more. They MUST cover birth control even if you don't need it or want it. They MUST cover routine gyn exams and mammograms, whether or not the person being covered is male or female. They MUST cover childhood immunizations whether or not you have a child on the plan. Now, my premiums are going up in 2014 even though the above mandates were already met by the plan in 2013.

Another reason could be that the insurance rate went up but the employer is not absorbing the rate hike at all or at least not proportionate to how they covered their employee in the past.

The hospital that you work for may be "self-insuring", providing healthcare to their employees for a low-cost premium as long as you stay in-network (meaning use hospital doctors, the hospital lab, the hospital pharmacy, hospital diagnostic and treatment centers, etc.). They can keep their administrative costs low by acting as their own mini-HMO. Think of it like the old "professional courtesy" that healthcare professionals often extend to one another.

Any of those reasons could factor into why premium costs have gone up. Some are due to Obamacare mandates and others are simply due to the increased cost of delivering healthcare...period. Under Obamacare, the insurance companies must send rebates to customers (either the employer or the individual who purchases their own insurance) if they fail to spend at least 80% of premiums on health care. I got a check for $1.89 this past summer and yet my premiums will still go up again next year!

I work for a Catholic Hospital, I was told and time of hire they had a year variance to not cover birth control. I wonder if the new health law changes this!?

 

[mistysue]

I suspect a lot of people are victims of their employers covering less- didnt the ACA give an amount they had to help to qualify? Well, now they can drop their support to the minimum leaving employees to pick up the tab.

I know both mine and DH's employers cost for the same policies went down for both this year and next year. Same policy. My copay went from $20 to $25 for next year, no deductible.

 

[Narnia_girl]

OP, I also feel your pain. The limits on flexible spending accounts equals a tax increase for us and we haven't even hit the medical device tax yet.
My husband works for one of the largest employers in our semi-rural area. They treat their employees well, but if their costs increase and they cannot hire as many people, it negatively affects the local economy.

 

[DVCTX]

Our poicy was also a "cadillac" policy before being downgraded to avoid the 40
% tax. Employers are being punished for providing top notch coverage. It makes no sense at all. This law is such a huge tax burden on the middle class.

Just for reference, the excise tax for "Cadillac" health plans does not take effect until 2018.

 

[disneywithfive]

I'm just throwing this out there bc I am wanting an answer! How do we know that all these employers and insurance companies raised our premiums because of "Obamacare"? I'm not trying to get political by any means, I just tend to be skeptical!

DH has employee based healthcare, as he works for a large publisher, and our health insurance increased $4,000.00 for premiums for 2014 ! We could have dealt with that but our kicker is our Rx coverage will not kick in until our higher deductible is met! This was deal breaker for us. Now I am nurse and I work for non- for profit hospital, who DID NOT raise our rates for 2014! I will have to get moved from a per diem position to at least part time so I can pick up my insurance from my employer.

My point is: my employer didn't raise their insurance rates and they are a small non for profit but my husbands huge employer doubled ours. This seems so shady to me!

I am the human resource manager for the company I work for. We have been maxed rated for many years due to the age of the employees in our group and their health - almost all members of our group are close to 50 and older. We were offered a new renewal date (12/1/13) with our carrier (BCBS) in order to avoid the anticipated higher premiums that will kick in beginning 2014. The new renewal date does mean an 8% increase over current premiums but that seems small compared to most premium increases I hear about. Shortly after the offer to renew early, we received further correspondence from our carrier that they have evaluated our company further and we might benefit in waiting to renew after 1/1/2014 due to the anticipated new "community rates" being less then what we are currently paying. We decided to not take a chance and changed renewal dates with only an 8% increase. We have confirmation that should the new community rates be less, we could change to those rates but we would not be able to until April. I say all this because you asked why some are being hit with huge increase and other not. Possibly this is the answer. Max rating and Community Rating might really play into this in a huge way. We've paid huge premiums for many many years. Now it sounds like our premiums are the same and possibly less then what is coming for 2014.

Someone asked about deductibles and out of pocket expenses. All that depends on the type of policy you have. We have a PPO but there are POS, HMOs, Traditional health plans, etc. And within those types of places are many options in regards to deductibles and OOP maxs. At one time we have a plan with a deductible of $3,0000 and then we paid 20% until we reached the next $3000 out of pocket. We changed to another PPO plan where we pay $5000 deductible but then the plan pays 100% so there is no additional OOP unless their are co-pays. With our PPO, we've always had co-pays which don't go towards deductibles or out of pocket maxs. One thing that I've noticed with reviewing MANY MANY different plans is RX coverage can raise your premiums A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankfully our company still values RX coverage at all levels - not just generic coverage.

I should say, we work for a small company with less then 50 employees. So thankful they offer major medical. It has literally been a life saver for our family.

Edit: the deductibles I mentioned are per family member - not total for family. So it's quite high.

 

[Marionnette]

Just for reference, the excise tax for "Cadillac" health plans does not take effect until 2018.

Yes, but businesses are reacting to it now. They have to. Some will engage in collective bargaining agreements with their employees which will impact the healthcare insurance policies beyond 2018. Others will have long-term projects that will necessitate hiring more employees. Those project costs will also need to include any anticipated costs for benefits, including taxes to be paid for Cadillac plans or for not providing any coverage. Businesses are not going to sit by and wait to see if the teeth are taken out of this law. They're going to react now.

 

[ScottOKW2K]

First let me say up until this time I have been fortunate to have excellent health insurance. My husband works for a fortune 50 company. Our family insurance costs were just about $3000 annually for medical. We had a 20% co insurance. With an out of pocket maximum of $4000 for our family. As someone who has ongoing yet random medical issues this has been a blessing.

I just received the documentation for our 2014 insurance. There is a premium increase to $4000 for the family which is something we can absorb. However our new out of pocket in network maximum is $12,500. If I had to go out of network it is now $25,000. Yet my maximum FSA is now $2500!!

I literally don't think I can afford to have a second child. I had a very easy pregnancy (despite my issues) and was monitored regularly. I ended up with a semi-emergency c section but was discharged 32 hours later. We have just begun thinking about putting in extra effort for a second child. I know with my third trimester twice weekly visits I would hit that out of pocket maximum.

Seriously, I'd be better off getting divorced and going on public aid if I become pregnant. How is that a plan for the country?

Called HR when I saw what was going on, just to ask some questions. Had the company left the 2013 insurance in place they could not afford the fines. So my husband's company which took great care of us, now has been penalized? Gotta love this country. This will effectively ensure the educated middle class who understand their policies will not be having additional children. Yet the judgment proof masses can reproduce without consequences. Of course the highest wage earners and those with family fortunes will be marginally effected, if at all.

Told my husband to start considering some of those international job offers he gets, since our life is certainly going to be changing dramatically her in USA.

Vent over, carry on with your day!

You should rent the movie Idiocracy. Not the greatest movie on the planet, but I sometimes wonder if the premise of the movie will come true.

Or to quote Heinlein:

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."

or

"Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader - the barbarians enter Rome."

or

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." Benjamin Franklin

"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." Alexis de Tocqueville

"There is no slippery slope toward loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders." Alan K. Simpson

 

[MommyBryn]

I posted on another thread, but will post here also.

Our premium through my dh's work, will go up 114%. We already have an HSA with a very high deductible for our family, and our well visits ARE NOT covered as others have stated would be the case. Now, we are a fairly healthy family and work hard to remain healthy by eating right and taking care of ourselves.
I have friends who are extremely overweight and have health issues. She was bragging to me that they could finally get insurance (they had been denied coverage before because of their weight) and that they quality for the subsidy, so their family of 4 is not paying much of a premium at all.

I don't mean to be negative, but that makes me angry.

Oh man, you sound like us!! We've always carried insurance, but we rarely EVER use it (the care we choose is OOP, generally), and we work hard to keep ourselves healthy and do what we can at home (which is usually a lot more than people, in general, think). Yet now our insurance costs are rising a LOT more than they usually do each year, as well as our coverage dropping more than it ever has. That's HUGE for us, because insurance companies have been getting our thousands upon thousands for years and we've only filed a small handful of claims in our 10 years of marriage/4 children. It's hard to feel like we're being penalized (by being forced to pay MORE for something we rarely use) for working so hard at taking care of ourselves BY ourselves (both health-wise AND financially, even though we don't make a lot of money, really!).

I know we're not alone in this, but man...it's hard to reconcile with!! Thankfully we have a decent solution via Samaritan, but it' still something we have to work into our budget in ways that didn't exist prior to the ACA.

I do have a SIL and a brother who the law will greatly benefit. But everyone else we know is taking a hit.

 

[starry_solo]

I work for a Catholic Hospital, I was told and time of hire they had a year variance to not cover birth control. I wonder if the new health law changes this!?

Unlikely, pretty sure the government cannot force religious organizations to provide services against their religion (separation of church & state)

 

[pat fan]

Unlikely, pretty sure the government cannot force religious organizations to provide services against their religion (separation of church & state)

I think you will find the govt. is forcing itself onto Christian groups in many ways. Christianity won't be tolerated in school, work or the Dis, but the govt. sure likes to tell them what they can and can't do. Or at least try to. They'll keep pushing and pushing. Watch and see.

http://news.yahoo.com/government-force-catholic-hospitals-birth-control-181200841.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2012/01/obamas_ruling_on_birth_control.html

http://audio.wrko.com/a/51598986/obama-forces-birth-control-on-catholics.htm

 

[Meshell2002]

You should rent the movie Idiocracy. Not the greatest movie on the planet, but I sometimes wonder if the premise of the movie will come true.

I've been thinking about that movie a lot since the marketplace opened.


As someone that buys their own plan we've seen our premiums increase 60%. That's with a $5k deductible. Our insurance would be 13k a year for 5 people, and since we live in a red state no subsidy for us.

We r considering putting that money in a savings act and hoping for the best/ taking the fine.....it's tempting since u can't be denied for pre existing now...... So if I need insurance I'll buy it when I need it. We r also looking into Christian Medical sharing it's exempt from ACA and much more reasonable given our current plans deductible.

 

[Ofinn]

First let me say up until this time I have been fortunate to have excellent health insurance. My husband works for a fortune 50 company. Our family insurance costs were just about $3000 annually for medical. We had a 20% co insurance. With an out of pocket maximum of $4000 for our family. As someone who has ongoing yet random medical issues this has been a blessing.

I just received the documentation for our 2014 insurance. There is a premium increase to $4000 for the family which is something we can absorb. However our new out of pocket in network maximum is $12,500. If I had to go out of network it is now $25,000. Yet my maximum FSA is now $2500!!

I literally don't think I can afford to have a second child. I had a very easy pregnancy (despite my issues) and was monitored regularly. I ended up with a semi-emergency c section but was discharged 32 hours later. We have just begun thinking about putting in extra effort for a second child. I know with my third trimester twice weekly visits I would hit that out of pocket maximum.

Seriously, I'd be better off getting divorced and going on public aid if I become pregnant. How is that a plan for the country?

Called HR when I saw what was going on, just to ask some questions. Had the company left the 2013 insurance in place they could not afford the fines. So my husband's company which took great care of us, now has been penalized? Gotta love this country. This will effectively ensure the educated middle class who understand their policies will not be having additional children. Yet the judgment proof masses can reproduce without consequences. Of course the highest wage earners and those with family fortunes will be marginally effected, if at all.

Told my husband to start considering some of those international job offers he gets, since our life is certainly going to be changing dramatically her in USA.

Vent over, carry on with your day!

I feel your pain. My dh works for a company that employees over 120,000 people. Not a fortune 50 company, but a company that is an American staple. Our insurance is going up about 1000 dollars next year. That's all I'm going to say I don't want to get another 20 points for saying what I really think.

 

[pat fan]

Christian Medical sharing it's exempt from ACA and much more reasonable given our current plans deductible.

What's that?