Posted on 09/29/2010 6:31:14 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
Large employers in the Twin Cities are bracing for health care cost increases of nearly 9 percent next year, according to a new survey.
And many employees soon will learn how much of that increase will come out of their pockets.
The new survey from Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm based in suburban Chicago, finds that projected health cost increases next year in the Twin Cities will match the 8.8 percent rate of increase that's being forecast nationally. That's a departure from 2009 and 2010, when the rate of increase in the Twin Cities was below the national average, according to Hewitt.
The projected rate of increase locally for 2011 also is significantly higher than the 5.6 percent and 4.4 percent increases that Hewitt calculated for the Twin Cities during 2010 and 2009, respectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
unexpectedly.
Most open enrollements will occur before the November elections. People should get fired up when they see what obamacare has done to their premiums.
Republicans should run ads saying exactly that. The GOP should not expect the people to figure this out by themselves. TELL them that their costs just went up dramatically. We have a chance to voice our disapproval.
Nine percent probably won’t cover it.
They have Franken to bail them out.
Email these, print them out, hand them out, not every one, especially seniors are online.
How ObamaCare Guts Medicare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437311393854940.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
Obama: We knew health costs would go up
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/118079-obama-we-knew-health-costs-would-go-up
Health law’s heavy impact by Paul Guppy
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/mar/28/health-laws-heavy-impact/
Health care politics run into economic reality
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39107994/ns/politics-white_house/
Seniors’ coverage options dwindle as Medicare Advantage programs close shop
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-advantage_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3c912a9.html
Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/09/28/harvard_pilgrim_cancels_medicare_advantage_plan/
Monthly premiums to rise for 7 of top 10 Medicare prescription plans in 2011
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/ap/monthly-premiums-to-rise-for-7-of-top-10-medicare-prescription-plans-in-2011
ObamaCare has just made me Sicker!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/bamcare_has_just_made_me_icker_c1dBRZ6M3yuH27rAVnLsvN
In the notice, EmblemHealth told Gowland, who is healthy, “The proposed rate increase includes two components: a basic increase on your type plan and an increase due to the cost of enhanced benefits required by the new federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
Mayo clinic stops taking Medicare patients
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=517004
Survey in New England Journal of Medicine 46% of US Doctors Will Quit Obamacare Passes http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2798380/shocking_survey_in_new_england_journal.html?cat=75
Along with the increase in costs you can be assured that the health care provided will be less and lousy. You will be fortunate if your doctor speaks ENGLISH and graduated in the top “half” of his class.
I can just see the Administration reaction when the premiums increases. The insurance companies obliged to stick it to them so every citizen in American will complain.
There is no problem with our health care. It is the envy of the world, we have the finest Doctors, the best facilities, the most advanced technologies in all related fields, the best access to services.
To say our health care system is broken is a lie.
There is a difference between 50 million peoples not having access to health care services and not having insurance.
The true problem with having the best health care in history is it is expensive.
The reason it is expensive is because the bills are paid by other people’s money, ie: Insurance companies, and public assistance. Thus, there is no incentive for competitive pricing. The average consumer feels they avoided financial destruction by paying thousands of dollars every year in premiums.
In other words, if you don’t want bad things to happen to you, then you better pay up.
It’s called the protection racket and it’s the second oldest way to make a living. It’s also called extortion.
The entire problem with the health care system is not with health care, it’s insurance. To mandate that everyone has insurance only serves to make matters worse. Like trying to put out a fire with buckets of gasoline.
The true solution is to establish a system that ensures lowering costs while encouraging even more advancements over our already lofty standards. The only way to achieve the desired results is by injecting the patient with the only proven formula that reduces costs and increases quality. The name of this time tested, undeniably successful panacea, is “free enterprise”.
The average family of four taking home around fifty thousand dollars a year after taxes, spends twenty percent of their after tax money on extortion payments. If a medical crisis occurs every twenty years, then they have spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on paying for it. If the event costs 170,000 dollars then the insurance company gets to keep 80,000 dollars. If the event costs 330,000 dollars then the insurance company looses 80,000 dollars. Insurance companies like these odds. In fact, that is exactly how they make so much money.
Over your lifetime, your extortion...um, premium payments will exceed half a million dollars. Whatever is not spent on medical bills, the insurance company keeps. Any sane person feels some resentment in those facts and has no interest whatsoever in being proactive about keeping the costs down, in fact, some feel that,” the more those bastards have to spend the better!”.
We have a system where the buyer, who gets mugged every month, pays the seller with money from the thief !
Hardly conducive to having a competitive market. In fact it ensures that prices of both health care and health insurance will never go down, instead, it ensures that prices will always go up.
The medicine for this terminal condition is obvious and will have stunning side effects, rapidly soaring the entire economy to heights never before encountered.
Medical care entities bill the patient directly, all invoices will have the option for installments with terms, or payment in full.
Every person could be required to deposit 20% of any gross income into an interest bearing personal health care savings account. The interest calculated is based on the rate of inflation.
This is their money to keep and spend as they like with the provision that if the money is spent for medicinal purposes then it is tax free. Up ton once every year, you may withdraw up to half of the money, but if not used for healthcare care it would be taxed as income.
The action sets to action a new and powerful dynamic.
At first, prices will settle to what the market can bear.
Then, enterprising people will figure ways to dominate the market by lowering prices, making money thru sheer volume as say a Wal-Mart, Amazon, Sears and so many others. This will force some out of business but will lower the prices across the entire industry.
Mean while, the consumers will be flushed with capital on hand and a feeling of security and confidence. The economy will grow with unbridled stride. Large ticket items will be in high demand, Finding enough workers, not jobs, will be the major problem and the poor will enrich themselves. It would mark the beginning of a new frontier of prosperity.
In Earnest,
RavenLooneyToon
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