Going to the poor house:2015 Inusrance premiums

[havaneselover]

Complain to your HR department about the surcharge. They are the ones charging it not the insurance company or govt. They pocket the money.

How are they pocketing the money? It's offsetting what the company is paying.

As others have said, it's not uncommon for spouses and dependents to get NO subsidy. So the company is incentivizing those with other options to use them.

Companies have to offer competitive benefit and pay packages to attract and retain talent. It is what it is.

 

[havaneselover]

Sad thing is that the winners are riding on the backs of the losers because of the subsidies, the only way you can pay less is if someone else is paying more (but that was the idea wasn't it?). Our deductible went up to $10,000 for our family this year which was a 100% increase.

This was never about health care IMO. It was a wealth redistribution scheme.

ACA did not make insurance more affordable. It effectively expanded medicaid and paid for that expansion by penalizing everyone else.

 

[Bildmouse]

Got a letter from Anthem (BCBS) - we grandfathered in last year - $755 a month with $11,000 deductible - next year new plan would be $1275 a month - $12000 deductible and only good in our state with no out of network coverage at all.

Needless to say, our agent is looking into other options for us.

 

[Gracie09]

How are they pocketing the money? It's offsetting what the company is paying.

As others have said, it's not uncommon for spouses and dependents to get NO subsidy. So the company is incentivizing those with other options to use them.

Companies have to offer competitive benefit and pay packages to attract and retain talent. It is what it is.

I agree with you. But its not about the evil gov't taking money and making it unaffordable. Its the individual company making a chose to deal with a certain situation in this manner. If enough employees complain, they may opt to do it a different way next year.

 

[mistysue]

I agree with you. But its not about the evil gov't taking money and making it unaffordable. Its the individual company making a chose to deal with a certain situation in this manner. If enough employees complain, they may opt to do it a different way next year.

Exactly.

I find a very sad part of these conversations to be the number of people who confuse who is charging you money- if you employer is changing what you pay, you have to look at whether they are changing what they pay before you blame the insurance company.
DH's rate went up this year, but his employer contribution went down... so did the actual cost of the insurance! So BCBS lowered the rate, but we paid more. Blaming BCBS would be misplacing the blame. One of the things happening with the ACA is you had some states where people paid some crazy higher amount for no real reason. I see the rates people have and can't believe they think insurance is that cheap. We have seen rates from the insurance companies go down every year since 2012.

 

[Marionnette]

Exactly.

I find a very sad part of these conversations to be the number of people who confuse who is charging you money- if you employer is changing what you pay, you have to look at whether they are changing what they pay before you blame the insurance company.
DH's rate went up this year, but his employer contribution went down... so did the actual cost of the insurance! So BCBS lowered the rate, but we paid more. Blaming BCBS would be misplacing the blame. One of the things happening with the ACA is you had some states where people paid some crazy higher amount for no real reason. I see the rates people have and can't believe they think insurance is that cheap. We have seen rates from the insurance companies go down every year since 2012.

Before you start blaming your husband's company for reducing the amount that they contribute toward your insurance premium, ask your self how many more employees are now signing up for the employer-sponsored plan. That benefits pie is only so big and when you start slicing it up into more pieces, somebody's piece is going to get smaller.

A lot of people who would have skip paying for health insurance before have to purchase it now. You can thank the ACA for that (whether it's a good thing or a bad thing in your opinion).

And if you have seen your own premiums go down every year since 2012, you are one of the lucky few. Personally, I don't know of anyone who is not receiving a government subsidy who can say that their premiums have gone down.

 

[havaneselover]

I agree with you. But its not about the evil gov't taking money and making it unaffordable. Its the individual company making a chose to deal with a certain situation in this manner. If enough employees complain, they may opt to do it a different way next year.

I try not to complain to my employer, it's frowned upon. If I think my total compensation package is too low, I'll look for a better opportunity.

 

[wendow]

So our 2015 benefit guide just came out. I have BCBS PPO. I know working PT and needing a family plan is expensive. I am paying $560/month!!!! I am sure to many this is cheap,but health care reform is here to stay. My family deductible is $3,0000. 80/20 max $9,000. Hopefully we will not need to use it this next year. How about everyone else?

Your plan sounds absolutely great to me!! We are paying almost that much per month and our family deductible is 10k. They pay not a single penny until we meet 10k. The plan works well for us b/c we are a healthy family but the cost per month is very high for that type of plan. And it's an HMO.

 

[mistysue]

Before you start blaming your husband's company for reducing the amount that they contribute toward your insurance premium, ask your self how many more employees are now signing up for the employer-sponsored plan. That benefits pie is only so big and when you start slicing it up into more pieces, somebody's piece is going to get smaller.

A lot of people who would have skip paying for health insurance before have to purchase it now. You can thank the ACA for that (whether it's a good thing or a bad thing in your opinion).

And if you have seen your own premiums go down every year since 2012, you are one of the lucky few. Personally, I don't know of anyone who is not receiving a government subsidy who can say that their premiums have gone down.

Actually, they have fewer people signing up because they have had some changes in hiring practices- not ACA related- that end up making more people ineligable. For what it's worth, my parents own their own company and saw their premiums go down. A point I wanted to put out there was that in some states premiums are raising fast, but they have had lower rates for decades. Two years ago our policy was $1700/month. This year it is closer to $1500/month.

 

[lauradis]

You do realize how insurance works right. Some years we barely use it, others by march we have been paid back our premiums for the year.

Fully aware how it works. Are you aware that we as a family in last 11 years we have made the insurance company a profit every year.

As in last major medical year for us was the birth of our last child.

So conservative est of profit is well over 250k mark.

Yes we are blessed so far with good health.

But our premiums still increase and the benefits decrease. Simply it annoys me.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Aprilgail2, just curious, the contract you speak about, was it union? Our union contract is coming up for renewal next month and am nervous about the outcome.
I truly believe that the current trend will lead to universal health care.

Union coverage is no guaranteed thing, we have union coverage too. Benefits are not etched in stone for life. We lost dental and vision 5 years ago, or something.

Still pretty Cadiallac though, no deductible and $10 copays. But retirees USED to get $1000 a month to pay for the coverage, until Medicare, that went away 2 months before DH retired, a few years ago. So we pay almost $900 for health care now.

 

[Gracie09]

I try not to complain to my employer, it's frowned upon. If I think my total compensation package is too low, I'll look for a better opportunity.

That's your choice. I have addressed changes with my company's policies in a calm and respectful manner and although it doesn't alway result in a change back to the way it was it did open their eyes to unintended consequences to their changes and they would sometimes try to alleviate the issues.

 

[millerjmls]

So our 2015 benefit guide just came out. I have BCBS PPO. I know working PT and needing a family plan is expensive. I am paying $560/month!!!! I am sure to many this is cheap,but health care reform is here to stay. My family deductible is $3,0000. 80/20 max $9,000. Hopefully we will not need to use it this next year. How about everyone else?

I have the same insurance and also received my benefit guide today! I had no idea that the changes were going to be so drastic. I have been unhappy about this all day.

 

[Marionnette]

Actually, they have fewer people signing up because they have had some changes in hiring practices- not ACA related- that end up making more people ineligable. For what it's worth, my parents own their own company and saw their premiums go down. A point I wanted to put out there was that in some states premiums are raising fast, but they have had lower rates for decades. Two years ago our policy was $1700/month. This year it is closer to $1500/month.

FWIW, I also own a small business. IF we were able to keep the plan that we currently offer to our employees, the premiums would increase by 27.8% over the current year's cost.

I live outside of Philly and we have always had to pay 100% of our health insurance costs. Premiums have always been high, which I attribute to the fact that we live in an area with many premier hospitals and medical schools. The increases in costs over the past 5 years have been the sharpest increases we have ever seen in the 28 years that we have owned our business.

 

[nunzia]

Losing your coverage is considered an "event" that allows you to seek coverage 30 days prior to being terminated. That means that you can begin pricing coverage on Nov. 1 instead of waiting for the open enrollment period. We have also received the "thanks for playing Aetna Roulette, now get out before you start costing us money" letter. I've already checked rates on the BC/BS website by entering an earlier termination date online just so that I can see what we're facing.

Nope..this is not considered an 'event' since it is cancelled at the end of the year because of ACA, we have from Nov 15 to Dec 30 to replace it. So we can't shop at all until then. We have checked all the websites and called BCBS and tons are in our same boat and will have to just wait and see, Since nothing cancelled us immediately, and we have a whole 45 days to find other coverage before having none, we must wait until open enrollment. I tried my way around this all by attemting to use the 'event' page on the NM site and it just froze and didn't proceed. I was able to pretend to need short term coverage until open enrollment, but that was just showing almost what we pay now and it stated that it was only good until Dec 30 and I'd need to find a plan during open enrollment. Oh Joy.
What did you see as far as rate increase for you?

 

[3boymthr]

The self insured have always, always had this same issues. This is not new.
Which is why most small businesses did not offer health insurance. It was always insanely expensive if you didn't have some one kicking in.

It's also the main reason why most civil employees and unions will take pay cuts and forgo raises as opposed to taking cuts to their health insurance.

I agree, it will only get worse because the root of the problem has not been addressed.
Health care cost are rising for some reason at insane rates.

The following costs are also out of control and are driving the cost of medical care:
Medical Malpractice Insurance
Medical Malpractice lawsuits
The cost for a doctor to buy in to a practice
the cost of medical school.
the interest rates doctors are paying on the loans they took out to go to medical school
the consolidation of many hospitals and doctors practices - those buyouts cost money $$$$$$
better medical care technology - they have to pay off that spiffy new MRI machine somehow - a former client was spending over $10,000 per month to pay for the one he bought and that was a 30 year loan.
oh, and let's not forget - insurance fraud. the same former client is in federal jail now for that.

 

[Gracie09]

The following costs are also out of control and are driving the cost of medical care:
Medical Malpractice Insurance
Medical Malpractice lawsuits
The cost for a doctor to buy in to a practice
the cost of medical school.
the interest rates doctors are paying on the loans they took out to go to medical school
the consolidation of many hospitals and doctors practices - those buyouts cost money $$$$$$
better medical care technology - they have to pay off that spiffy new MRI machine somehow - a former client was spending over $10,000 per month to pay for the one he bought and that was a 30 year loan.
oh, and let's not forget - insurance fraud. the same former client is in federal jail now for that.

Lets not forget patients insisting on being tested for everything under the sun. Instead of taking the doctor at his (expert) word that its just your cold causing your sore throat and not strep, insisting on the strep test. Or its just a sprained ankle, insisting on x-rays to rule out a break. It all adds up...

 

[disney1990]

Fully aware how it works. Are you aware that we as a family in last 11 years we have made the insurance company a profit every year.

As in last major medical year for us was the birth of our last child.

So conservative est of profit is well over 250k mark.

Yes we are blessed so far with good health.

But our premiums still increase and the benefits decrease. Simply it annoys me.

One MAJOR event and you will be glad you have coverage. Our granddaughter had childhood cancer at age 8 and almost died. In and our of the hospital over the course of a year - radiation & chemo. We now call her our million dollar miracle.

 

[3boymthr]

Our rates stayed the same but they introduced a new "wellness plan" with stuff penalties if you don't welcome the intrusion of a nurse case manager who has never met you or your doctor or seen your medical records. Said case manager will now mandate things you must do or you pay . Apparently this wonderful program is part of obamacare and the penalties can be 50% if your premium

On the other hand DH co still pays us not to use his plan. But we might switch to his because their "wellness" plan is more carrot than stick

The nurse case manager is NOT part of Obamacare but part of your insurance plan. If you fought it you would probably win as it is potentially a violation of your hippa health care privacy rights as well as potentially a violation of your civil rights to privacy. You have the right to not discuss your health care if you so choose. Obama care does mandate that wellness benefits must be provided but it does not mandate that people must participate in wellness care.

 

[Marionnette]

One MAJOR event and you will be glad you have coverage. Our granddaughter had childhood cancer at age 8 and almost died. In and our of the hospital over the course of a year - radiation & chemo. We now call her our million dollar miracle.

I have to agree with this.

My husband is recovering from open heart surgery. Prior to this, we barely used our insurance for anything more than a broken bone here or there and a couple or ER visits. Thank goodness we're covered by a plan with $0 deductible and a $3K individual OOP max. The plan sucks for the normal day-to-day PCP visit copays and pharmacy coverage but I'm very thankful that between the diagnostic testing, the hospital costs and the doctors' fees, we aren't going to be out more than $3K total for his care. I have enough to worry about without adding the financial burden to the list.