Health insurance:

[supersnoop]

I think I heard that somewhere in the bill is a provision if the plan causes the insurance companies money they will get a government bailout. Is this true?

That sounds like a biased talking-point that took one piece of factual information and extended it to an absurd conclusion.

For the first three years, the ACA has its own built-in insurance that protects the companies from gross miscalculations. That's like saying people who buy insurance and get sick are getting a government bailout.

 

[bearzabout]

The cost for new insurance that meets the requirements of Obamacare is so high the the government doesn't want the 80 million or so who may loose their current group plans to know how much their new premiums will be until after the election. Pretty sneaky.

I agree that these new policies will make insurance companies a lot richer. This is a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the insurance companies and stockholders.

Our old individual policies were through the non-profit Blue Cross. Each year, they added the cost of premiums for our plans, subtracted their fees, paid the claims and either had to raise premiums the next year or refund any profit through premium reductions the next year. Our plans had a $1000 deductible and coverage both in and out of network.

The replacement Obamacare compliant plan through Blue Cross has a premium of $12,000 per year for a 61 year old non smoker in Michigan. The old plan? $2,148. The almost $10,000 per year premium increase for similar coverage might end up being pure profit for the insurance companies. Blue Cross actually changed the kind of company it was from a non-profit to a non-profit mutual so they can now keep the profit in case they have to use it against future claims instead of refunding it to their customers.

All I keep thinking is what if they increase rates 450% again next year? Who in their right mind could think that spending $12,000 for a policy that should cost $2148 is more affordable?

 

[mistysue]

We have also had Blue Cross Blue Shield in Michigan for years. So I went on the exchange and looked up plans similar to what we have had. Our premium before was just short of $1700/month and did not include dental for kids. On the exchange the same plans without subsidy are just above $1200/month.
So from what I could tell if you had a plan that essentially didn't cover anything it might start costing more to have a good plan. If you always had a good plan I haven't heard anybody in person have a problem unless they were panicking and giving pretend numbers for future speculation.
To the OP, just compare your options. The best cost options vary wildly by state. If you travel a lot consider the network size. We can pay about $50/month more and are covered as in-network on most of our vacations. Without that we are out of network outside of a 3 county area- which we live near the edge of so we are out of that network area every couple days.

 

[bearzabout]

Mistysue-
What killed us is the fact that we are older. We are 51 and 61. The rates at 61 are twice that of the 51 year old.

Our old policies were fantastic. They included $500 in free preventative care and BCBS PPO network. They were also cheap - $179 and $209/month. I have verified new costs through BCBS, agents and Healthcare.gov. The crappiest Bronze HMO with the smallest network with no out of network care outside of emergencies with a $5950 deductible per year for each of us is 100% more than what we used to pay. The equivalent insurance to what we lost costs $18,000 in premiums for both of us.

I am not making this up. If anyone out there can get us a PPO policy with a $1000 deductible for less than $200/month for a 51 and 61 year old, I'd like to know about it.

Don't believe what the government says about the individual plans being bad. I used my free preventative services every year and loved my policy. Most of the Obamacare plans are worse than our old plans (most are HMOs and not PPOs) and hundreds of times more expensive for us older Americans.

Be glad you are young.

 

[manning]

Mistysue-
What killed us is the fact that we are older. We are 51 and 61. The rates at 61 are twice that of the 51 year old.

Our old policies were fantastic. They included $500 in free preventative care and BCBS PPO network. They were also cheap - $179 and $209/month. I have verified new costs through BCBS, agents and Healthcare.gov. The crappiest Bronze HMO with the smallest network with no out of network care outside of emergencies with a $5950 deductible per year for each of us is 100% more than what we used to pay. The equivalent insurance to what we lost costs $18,000 in premiums for both of us.

I am not making this up. If anyone out there can get us a PPO policy with a $1000 deductible for less than $200/month for a 51 and 61 year old, I'd like to know about it.

Don't believe what the government says about the individual plans being bad. I used my free preventative services every year and loved my policy. Most of the Obamacare plans are worse than our old plans (most are HMOs and not PPOs) and hundreds of times more expensive for us older Americans.

Be glad you are young.

HMOs.

If memories serves me right we had these years ago and they turned out to be a DISASTER.

You had to get permission to ask for permission to see something

 

[kiki02]

HMOs.

If memories serves me right we had these years ago and they turned out to be a DISASTER.

You had to get permission to ask for permission to see something

Not for us ^. They were fine. Not a disaster at all. Barely , rarely an issue. Now? Many of us are just going without - taking the penalty. ESPCIALLY THOSE over AGE 45.

 

[Muushka]

I think I heard that somewhere in the bill is a provision if the plan causes the insurance companies money they will get a government bailout. Is this true?

I believe that there will be a bailout.
But we won't be sure until all of the details of who has signed up and who has not signed up is made available.

 

[manning]

Not for us ^. They were fine. Not a disaster at all. Barely , rarely an issue. Now? Many of us are just going without - taking the penalty. ESPCIALLY THOSE over AGE 45.

You got lucky. Our company got rid of it after a boatload of complaints. If I can remember that far back you had to get permission from the insurance company to see the doctor.

We didn't use it as we never needed to see a doctor. Benefits of young age and luck.

My SIL not so lucky. They had to call someone at the insurance to describe details then wait for a call back.

 

[MolonLabe]

I read the average premium increase is $7000 per person over what people were paying. We had our affordable, great policies canceled because of obamacare. To replace the policies we lost, our premiums would go up 450 percent to $18,000 per year.

I am now uninsured for the first time in my life. I can't wait until next year when they double or triple premiums again since young people can't afford to sign up.

My policy renews in March and I just got the "new" premium this week.

We went from $347 a month to $850.14 a month. Deductibles and copays are up across the board as well and we lose PPO and have to go to HMO. Family OOP on the new plan is now $18,500.

Yes, $18,500 family deductible. It's not a type-o.

$6,036 increase in premiums a year. How are people expected to be able to afford this?

What's going to happen to the economy with all this money being sucked out of the economy?

I think our future is that the only people who will have insurance will be the very rich and people who have taxpayers pay their premiums.

Pretty much. Income taxes will go up so they can shuffle the money around by taking more out of your paycheck but giving back as a insurance subsidy at the end of the year. It's not like, for most people, these subsidies aren't going to coming out of their back pocket before the government "gives" it back to them.

It's a huge shell game and the only people making out are the insurance companies and the congressmen and women they bribed to get this thing passed.

I don't understand why anyone would think that paying $18,000 a year just for premiums is affordable. The worst obamacare select HMO bronze plan is $12,000 per year for us. This is for a plan that has a $5950 deductible for EACH or us before it covers much of anything, including prescriptions.

If you are older, I think you will also experience sticker shock.

Yep. The plan I am talkign about above is also for the crappiest bronze level HMO.

I read that it is possible that over 100 million could see their group plans cancelled this year. I hope everyone out there is very rich or they will be joining me in paying a fine for not being rich enough to afford this new coverage.

Yep. Most of those will see cancellations just after the midterm election.

I believe we'd see a clean sweep of everyone in washington (up for reelection) in November if the other 100 million people were also being cancelled right now.

 

[njcarita]

well our insurance went from 1300/ month to 2000/ month...... totally out of the question for us as self employed....... went on the exchanges and now for my family of 5 we will be covered for about 250/ month..and a better plan that what we had previously............. huge huge huge savings............ so i suggest fill out the application and see what subsidy or rates you qualify for..........

 

[Muushka]

There will be many people (us included) who do not qualify for subsidies. Tough luck for this segment of the population, huh?

Thank the taxpayers for your subsidy.

 

[Muushka]

I did hear a good story the other day about this new health care law.

My friend was bemoaning the fact that her annual bone density exam had a $200 deductible and she stated that it was simply not worth the expense because every year it has been normal. I personally like the fact that people are questioning procedures and whether or not to have them because of the cost. I know people who in the past had something done because it was 'free'.