Anyone Else Worried About Health Premiums Going UP?

[runsandjumps]

For those of us down here in average-income land it certainly looks like it will make health insurance much, much more affordable. But I think the phased-in implementation was a mistake from the start, and I suspect a lot of what we're seeing with the big price hikes and coverage cuts right now are the insurance companies grabbing every last dime they can before the profit-limiting provisions of the act take effect.

I too think it is insurance trying I recoup their losses at now having to cover individuals they previously denied.

It looks like I will be paying about $950 OOP but prior to that for comparable coverage it costs us $1800 for a family of five - with a hold who has allergies and asthma.

I think a lot of posters on the dis are above average earners- hence the multiple trips to
Disney. I have a friend that hasn't even left the state before!

That YouTube video by mental floss really nails it on the head. The average American needs a healthcare boost, however the DIS is probably not an average representation of this.

Colleen27- I agree with a lot of what you post!

Ana

 

[mhfrau]

If this is actually true then you need to check into an HSA. I have never, ever heard of a family deductible of $12,000. Your husband's company has made very poor decisions regarding health insurance - I work for a small nonprofit with a large percentage of older employees and our health insurance is 100x better than that!

We do have an HSA as part of the plan. We just can't afford to contribute to it after paying the insurance premium deduction, taxes, and 401K contribution. And to be fair, his company does put $400 in at the beginning of every year. They are very proud of that generous benefit

It's by far the worst employer insurance we've ever had, but since he took this job after the whole "obamacare" mess was passed, I figure they might have had better coverage for their employees prior. Most people don't believe our coverage. Since he's always been in the service industry, he's always had horrible insurance, so we've never had all the wonderful plans that it seems like every one else on the Dis has.

The upside is that our son knows to work hard, go to college and major in something useful, and work in any other segment than the service industry... even in management!

But oh well, that's life! Could be worse! We could be dead!

 

[scbelleatheart]

If this is actually true then you need to check into an HSA. I have never, ever heard of a family deductible of $12,000. Your husband's company has made very poor decisions regarding health insurance - I work for a small nonprofit with a large percentage of older employees and our health insurance is 100x better than that!

We have had $5,000 individual/$10,000 family deductible for 5 years now and our premiums run $1600 a month for two people. Another option for us that was slightly cheaper was $7,000 deductible family/ $7,000 50/50 copay out of pocket so $14,000 total then they pay 100%.
October 1st will be interesting. Our company is dropping insurance for employees. We have well under 50.

 

[leahjade]

I'm a nurse. The ONLY good things I see in the ACA are the elimination of lifetime caps, insurance regardless of preexisting conditions and required coverage of preventive care.

These things could have been fixed without overhauling an entire system and throwing the baby out with the bath water. Any time government gets involved in the free market, it will never be a money saver for anyone who pays taxes.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I too think it is insurance trying I recoup their losses at now having to cover individuals they previously denied.

It looks like I will be paying about $950 OOP but prior to that for comparable coverage it costs us $1800 for a family of five - with a hold who has allergies and asthma.

I think a lot of posters on the dis are above average earners- hence the multiple trips to
Disney. I have a friend that hasn't even left the state before!

That YouTube video by mental floss really nails it on the head. The average American needs a healthcare boost, however the DIS is probably not an average representation of this.

Colleen27- I agree with a lot of what you post!

Ana

I totally agree..

 

[leahjade]

I think a lot of posters on the dis are above average earners- hence the multiple trips to
Disney.

I don't think that's true - at least in our case. We are strictly middle income earners who have learned to live within our means and work 2-3 jobs when times are tough or when we do want to take a trip to Disney.

My company is another one that is growing by leaps and bounds and would love to hire new workers, but will not go over the fifty employee limit to avoid all this Obama care mess. My college kids were even told at their part time jobs that they will not be allowed to work more than 20 hours per week as to not get close to the limit. So I'm not really sure at all who this is helping??

 

[dansamy]

These things could have been fixed without overhauling an entire system and throwing the baby out with the bath water. Any time government gets involved in the free market, it will never be a money saver for anyone who pays taxes.

That's just one of the many reasons I'm opposed to the ACA. Another is reimbursement based on "customer satisfaction" survey results. The people who will fill out & return them are the ones admitted for vague complaints & perfectly normal labs & test results who are pissy because they didn't get a cup of water in 15 nanoseconds. Meanwhile, my diabetic with a BG of 30 was a little more important.

 

[Colleen27]

Judy, you are NOT eligible for the subsidies, regardless of your income, if you are eligible for your employer group health coverage. So, even if your employer group is VERY expensive, like the pp whose ex has a plan that costs him 40% of his gross income, if you are eligible to participate in that, you are NOT eligible for the subsidies.

Edit: After some additional investigation, you may be eligible for subsidies if your employer group health coverage doesn't meet certain requirements of included coverage & affordability.

This isn't true either. If the employer plan exceeds a certain percentage of income you're still eligible for the exchange and subsidies. And even if your employer plan meets the affordability test, you can still buy insurance on the exchange at the going rate if you find a more attractive/suitable plan than what your employer offers - you just can't get any subsidy for it.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

Add me to the list who loves my high deductible plan. Currently we have enough to cover our deductible for 3 years (if we stopped contributing). I love watching that account grow and the security that it brings. It's great knowing that if we experience a horrible health year, everything is covered with that account. It has also made me an informed "health" shopper because I have to pay those bills myself. I see what things cost and try to get the best deal.

I wouldn't say I LOVE our HDHP and HSA, but we've certainly gotten used to it since we've had one since 2007. Dh has the max IRS limit taken out of his check each week, which is higher than the deductible. Some years we've drained the account, but usually we have more in there then we need and we've been able to cover almost 2 sets of braces with it. That's thousands of dollars that have passed through that account tax free.

 

[dansamy]

This isn't true either. If the employer plan exceeds a certain percentage of income you're still eligible for the exchange and subsidies. And even if your employer plan meets the affordability test, you can still buy insurance on the exchange at the going rate if you find a more attractive/suitable plan than what your employer offers - you just can't get any subsidy for it.

Yes. See my edit. If your employer coverage doesn't meet certain requirements of affordability/coverages, you can get the subsidies if you're below the income threshold.

 

[TwoAtDisney]

To the poster who responded to my previous post (sorry, forgot the name), yes, we are very lucky & grateful to be in the generation that got pensions. That is a great concern for us regarding our children & grandchildren - they do not have pensions, although well employed. We've spent many years saving money & setting it up in a living trust that will give them each a monthly income after our deaths. It won't be enough to support them - $3-5 thousand a year each, but we hope it will help some - maybe it will pay for health care!!!

RE: The income level of disers - may be up for a count, but from what I've read, there are a lot of disers using money for "I need" & "I deserve" trips to WDW & asking "how can I economize for this trip"????? How about - if your money is that tight, (1)saving it for an unexpected debit, and/or (2)putting it on your current debits, and/or (3)how old are you? saying "I need" & "I deserve" before "I'm a responsible adult?"

Anyway......sorry, had to get that off my chest! I guess because my brain has always made me responsible (thank goodness) & I've never allowed myself those "I needs" over adult logic - so I just don't get it when I hear it. In our family, "I need" / "I deserve" / "I want" from an adult is called whining & being self centered - the person would be laughed at, not encouraged!

ACA - Back to Health care - My question about ACA is - since one of the provisions is that insurance companies must pay-out 80% of their take-in for actually providing health care to their clients, (rather than CEO bonues & other garbage) will these now seen high premiums be forced down in a year or two when that 80% has not been spent? Will the deductibles be forced down so the extra insurance company payout will edge the company closer to the 80%. If so, that will be a great bonus! Anyone know anything about this issue?

DS works for a local hospital conglomerate & his employer provided health insurance premiums went down just a little & he also got a tiny check for back premiums because of the 80% law.

HSAs - For those who have these, I am concerned. You can build up a grand amount & feel really safe, only to have one health incident wipe out the entire account! Then what do you do for continued coverage? So scary!

 

[Colleen27]

I don't think that's true - at least in our case. We are strictly middle income earners who have learned to live within our means and work 2-3 jobs when times are tough or when we do want to take a trip to Disney.

It may or may not be true for you individually, though I have to say the definition of "middle income" here is like none I've ever encountered in the real world, but is certainly is true of the board as a whole. A couple years back someone posted an anonymous income poll... Check the results: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1782856&highlight=household+income compared to the national distribution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Household_income. More than 2/3 of the poll responses were 70th percentile or higher in national/statistical terms.

The statistical middle is around 50K. There are relatively few DISers, even here on the budget board, living at or below that mark.

 

[manning]

According to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation buying insurance through the health care exchanges will cost individuals "at least $2,988 a year on average" per person.

While that price will be discounted for some people through tax credits, fewer than half of people buying coverage will qualify.

Beginning January 1, 2014 those not buying health insurance will be fined $95 per month per person, far cheaper than buying health insurance. There are far more young people who are healthy and feel they are immortal (remember your youth?) will go the cheaper route and take the penalty. All the savings are based on the young signing up for health care. What are the odds of that happening? I think I'll take my chances buying a lottery ticket. Winning the big one is 1 in 175 million.

 

[Jennabeth]

HSAs - For those who have these, I am concerned. You can build up a grand amount & feel really safe, only to have one health incident wipe out the entire account! Then what do you do for continued coverage? So scary!

We've had our HSA for 3 years now. Every year we put more than our deductible in there. The first year was little scary because we didn't have a cushion, but we had an emergency fund we could use if we needed it. Now we have enough that even if we use our deductible, we will have to cover another year's deductible while we rebuild the account. A health incident wouldn't wipe out our entire account because after our deductible my insurance covers everything 100% for the remainder of the year.

We try not to use HSA funds unless we need to (we used it for braces) and look at it more like a Health 401k. We'll keep adding money to use when we retire.

 

[Colleen27]

According to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation buying insurance through the health care exchanges will cost individuals "at least $2,988 a year on average" per person.

While that price will be discounted for some people through tax credits, fewer than half of people buying coverage will qualify.

Beginning January 1, 2014 those not buying health insurance will be fined $95 per month per person, far cheaper than buying health insurance. There are far more young people who are healthy and feel they are immortal (remember your youth?) will go the cheaper route and take the penalty. All the savings are based on the young signing up for health care. What are the odds of that happening? I think I'll take my chances buying a lottery ticket. Winning the big one is 1 in 175 million.

I'm interested in where you got the idea that fewer than half of people buying coverage will qualify. The subsidy phase-out ends at 400% of the poverty level. The median annual wage for a single earner in the US is 26K, well below the 40K that represents 400% FPL for a household of one. Someone at that median wage would receive a subsidy to offset roughly 1/4 of the annual premium.

Yes, the penalties will be cheaper for some people. But I'm not sure it follows that many will choose that. They get nothing for the penalty, which starts out at 1% of annual income and goes up from there, and while young people often think of themselves as immortal by the time they're entering the health care marketplace for themselves (now that they can remain on parental coverage into their 20s) they're at the tail end of that stage. Plus the new coverage mandates speak directly to the concerns of young people, unlike under the present system where the things they're most likely to need - preventative care, contraception, etc - are paid OOP on top of any insurance premiums rather than being covered.

 

[crisi]

HSAs - For those who have these, I am concerned. You can build up a grand amount & feel really safe, only to have one health incident wipe out the entire account! Then what do you do for continued coverage? So scary!

My out of pocket maximum for a year is less than half the amount I've built up over three years - one health incident won't wipe us out - unless it lasts three years. And my out of pocket maximum is only $2k higher than it was on my previous HMO style health care - it really isn't a huge change over what I had, but the premiums are a third of the cost and I pay the first $1500 out of pocket. My old plan didn't have a deductible within the system, but it did have co-pays, and those copays were getting to be more and more of the total cost of the visit. Especially for something like a med check.

 

[mom2my3kids]

Will it go by how much each person makes or for me a joint income as I am married..My husband makes the most and he carrys insurance on him and the kids..I serve tables part time so I make much less then him per week...

 

[mrzrich]

I'm confused by those saying they are happy they can now cover their kids till they are 26. I guess this a helicopter parent, millennial generation thing. I was kicked way, way out of the nest by the time I was 26. And I thank my parents for it.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I'm confused by those saying they are happy they can now cover their kids till they are 26. I guess this a helicopter parent, millennial generation thing. I was kicked way, way out of the nest by the time I was 26. And I thank my parents for it.

When my husband switched jobs last year I was glad, because his new health plan covered my daughter till she is 26..are old plan stopped on her when she turned 19, she is a college student still living at home so I am glad we can provide this for her...Guess I kinda want more for my kids then I had, I dont want her saddled down with a job she hates and kids on her hips by the time she is 21...

 

[Southernmiss]

I'm confused by those saying they are happy they can now cover their kids till they are 26. I guess this a helicopter parent, millennial generation thing. I was kicked way, way out of the nest by the time I was 26. And I thank my parents for it.

Yea I don't get the until 26 thing either. By 21 I worked full time, was married and carried my own healthcare. By 26, I had a child. I hope my kids are off our health and auto insurance and on their own around 21.