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Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits
New York Times ^ | January 5, 2013 | By REED ABELSON

Posted on 01/06/2013 1:33:22 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.

Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.

In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers’ filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: healthcare; obamacare
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1 posted on 01/06/2013 1:33:30 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Shocking...but expected. Since there’s no pay raise in store to cover the rise....it all comes out of your pocket. So you have less money to spend on other things. It starts to train you to question each purchase (you probably don’t buy magazines at the grocery anymore...you probably go an extra 4k miles on tires that ought to be replaced...you probably put off a new car purchase for an extra year). So it hurts the economy and we simply shake our heads.


2 posted on 01/06/2013 1:39:31 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Bump


3 posted on 01/06/2013 1:39:31 AM PST by lowbridge (Joe Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy.")
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To: Brad from Tennessee

All going as planned.


4 posted on 01/06/2013 1:41:19 AM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Forward!


5 posted on 01/06/2013 1:42:56 AM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: lowbridge

This is what Obama planned! He wants rates so high people won’t/can’t buy it so they’ll have to use the insurance exchange in each state.

Since so many states refuse to set them up and won’t have to because the Democrat law makers screwed up and didn’t make it mandatory for the states, I expect that in 2014 he’ll go for broke and go full NHS. If they get back the House in 2014, it’s a done deal. That, and confiscation of guns.


6 posted on 01/06/2013 1:45:56 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Brad from Tennessee; Jim Robinson; lowbridge; pepsionice

HIP was trying for 41% in NY. WTF?


7 posted on 01/06/2013 1:47:08 AM PST by Gene Eric (Demoralization is a weapon of the enemy. Don't get it, don't spread it!)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Simple solution is to get rid of medical insurance companies. Fat chance of that happening.


8 posted on 01/06/2013 2:05:59 AM PST by sakic
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Obamacare — mugged by reality.


9 posted on 01/06/2013 2:14:29 AM PST by Rockingham
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“Health insurance companies”

Are they? Or are they “investment” companies.


10 posted on 01/06/2013 2:14:59 AM PST by Varsity Flight (Extortion-Care is the Government Work-Camp: Arbeitsziehungslager)
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To: sakic
Simple solution is to get rid of medical insurance companies.

You and Obama think alike.

11 posted on 01/06/2013 2:20:59 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: sakic; Fresh Wind

You’d do better by removing the lawyers from the situation.


12 posted on 01/06/2013 2:30:30 AM PST by Vanders9
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To: Vanders9

Exactly.


13 posted on 01/06/2013 2:50:28 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: Fresh Wind

Now would be a good time for Republicans to up tort reform in. Say it will save hundreds of billions of dollars. Have a big press conference, put out ads and force the Senate to say no.

Then defund Obamacare because it costs too much. Pillory the lawyers on the left. They went after business’s we should go after the lawyers.


14 posted on 01/06/2013 4:49:25 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Want freedom? Think WWRRD? Then do it.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Tried to explain to people that this was going to happen.

They would say “Healthcare is a good thing”. or I’m for healthcare. Simplistic fools.

When I pointed out that the day after that damn bill was approved, Healthcare insurer stocks went up an average of 4-5% and continue to rise, I asked them again..”Who do you think made out on this deal?” Simplistic fools.

I’m so flippin disgusted with people that fail to do even the most modest of reading or research into what the government is doing. Like talking to the wall.


15 posted on 01/06/2013 4:50:55 AM PST by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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To: Jim Robinson
Yep - going as planned. Should also be noted that the Affordable Care Act Obamacare gave some States the right to regulate (OK/deny rate hikes) while not giving the same power to other States. This deal is put together like a 10-year-old's tree-house - scraps of different types of boards and a combination of bent/rusted nails.
16 posted on 01/06/2013 4:51:19 AM PST by trebb (Allies no longer trust us. Enemies no longer fear us.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
Now would be a good time for Republicans to up tort reform in. Say it will save hundreds of billions of dollars. Have a big press conference, put out ads and force the Senate to say no.

I agree with your strategy however with doofuses like Brian Williams as the gate keeper in the lame streams media, it will get no airplay plain and simple. The 4th estate has become one of Oboingo's columns and they are complicit in all of his transformation efforts. How do we defund them, I have no other thoughts as to making them change to survive their failed model.

17 posted on 01/06/2013 5:21:30 AM PST by taildragger (( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
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To: Fresh Wind; sakic

Actually, sakic is correct.

Willing buyer, willing seller is the only real solution at this point.

Insurance companies are able to be directed to cover anything government directs them to cover - and then let “the rich” pay - that is, anyone who can afford the new cost of their policies.

They are an anachronism and a mere extension of government at this point.

Under the willing buyer/seller scenario you’d be asked “it costs this much, do you want to buy it?”

Under the scenario you mock you’ll be told “Wait in line and maybe you’ll get it”

Wake up.


18 posted on 01/06/2013 5:35:58 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: pepsionice
It's all part of the class warfare.

As more and more people can only buy what they need and not what they want, they will begin viewing the people that can buy what they want and not just what they need as the evil rich.

19 posted on 01/06/2013 5:40:38 AM PST by IMR 4350
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To: Brad from Tennessee
"Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums."

WINNING rate increases??? Sorry NYT, in a free market, a seller doesn't WIN a rate increase. He may CHARGE a rate increase, but in a free market, a buyer can simply find another supplier who doesn't charge as much.

.......Oh, wait!!! We now have Obamacare. I guess free market rules may no longer apply. The NYT may be right after all. One does WIN a rate increase when a government panel allows the WIN.

20 posted on 01/06/2013 5:54:27 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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