Posted on 05/26/2016 2:27:12 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Big health plans stung by losses in the first few years of the U.S. health law’s implementation are seeking hefty premium increases for individual plans sold through insurance exchanges in more than a dozen states.
The insurers’ proposed rates for individual coverage in states that have made their 2017 requests public largely bear out health plans’ grim predictions about their challenges under the health-care overhaul.
According to the insurers’ filings with regulators, large plans in states including New York, Pennsylvania and Georgia are seeking to raise rates by 20% or more.
In states such as Florida and Maryland, insurers are seeking to raise premiums by percentage averages that are markedly above 10%. Among those that have published so far, only in Vermont do big insurers’ requests fall below 10%.
Proposals still have to be approved by state regulators, and a full picture of final approved rates across the entire country likely won’t be known until shortly before HealthCare.gov and state equivalents reopen for the law’s fourth main enrollment window on Nov. 1.
Nonetheless, the proposed average increases that are available are a vivid indicator this year of how insurers are adapting to the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s transformation of the way health coverage is priced and sold in the U.S.
Making coverage available to everyone regardless of medical history, at the same price and with limited variation based on age is one of the most popular provisions of the law. But it also has increased the cost of insurance for many healthy people, causing a quandary for insurers who are trying to encourage people with cleaner bills of health to buy coverage and offset the costs of sicker enrollees.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Can you imagine the total despair across the country at this premium increase news if Trump wasn’t in the race?
At least there’s ‘Hope for Change’.
NO! Who could of predicted this? Did anyone see it coming? /s
We are looking at raising the deductible to 10,000 till Donald straightens this mess out.
My employer is deeply involved in the health insurance industry. This week, I heard the health ins staff people going nuts about the projected increases they are expecting for this fall, or premiums to increase in the range of 35% for most insurers. I have no idea what that means for the co-pays and deductibles.
What happens when the insurance regulators say “No”, like they did in Mass. under RomneyCare??? Hmmm???
Continues the Obama lie that insurance costs will decrease $2,500.
Let’s hope this new is released before the election.
Groober saw it coming. After all, his plan was to crash the current system so that a single payer system would be trotted out as the rescue.
Mine has been at 10,000 for last two years yet I pay about $125 more per month then I did 2 years ago.
I’m trying to hang in, hoping for sanity with Trump coming in :)
“causing a quandary “
Yep, it sure does suck how reality keeps getting in the way of the utopian dream.
Very pleased that, thus far, the Feds have left Medicare alone.
I also blame, though, the healthcare providers (hospitals, ERs, etc.). They keep jacking up what they charge to obscene multiples of their actual costs, primarily in an attempt to get those who can pay to cover non-payment by those who can't (or won't). My contention is that this is idiotic and a losing proposition. Every time they increase charges to cover those who can't afford to pay, they inevitably cause even more to drop out of the paying group, which causes them to increase charges even further on those remaining, which causes more to stop paying, ad infinitum. Logically, that approach must eventually result in either one VERY rich person paying for everyone else, or total collapse of the system. A smarter approach would be to drastically REDUCE what they charge, resulting in more people being able to pay and thus not avoiding payment, and actually recovering more revenue in return.
It seems to me that the principles of the Laffer Curve apply to healthcare costs as well. Healthcare provider fees don't seem that they should work much differently from tax rates versus total revenues.
Today, the registration clerk at the hospital where I had a procedure volunteered that she hopes we elect “someone” who will repeal 0bamacare and replace it with something else that works. The real problem, she continued, is that 0bamacare is really for the people who are here illegally. The numbers are so great that local citizens have to wait for services for lengthy periods of time. I had a biopsy today: results in three weeks. The clerk said she didn’t know who to vote for. I said there’s only one candidate talking about it, and I’m going with him.
Very pleased that, thus far, the Feds have left Medicare alone.
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Just wait until everyone is on it. Large premium increases and deductibles sky rocket, not to mention 60/40 co pay at first and then 50/50.
I am on Medicare too.
Not necessarily because Medicare has lots of sick people now.
We should go back to coverage limits. The insurance I had until 2013 had a lifetime benefit limit of $100,000. 20% copay and $500 deductible. My premium was $34. I’ve never wanted expensive life-prolonging procedures or drugs anyway.
Won’t work. A 7 day stay in the hospital runs about $100K now depending on how intensive it is. Throw in ICU and ventilators and you can easily hit $250K a week.
Will work. I don’t want that stuff. My choice, my life. If hospital puts me on a ventilator against my consent they eat the cost.
The only way sanity can return to health insurance and health care is for the free market be allowed to work. Just letting companies sell policies across state lines won’t do it. We have to get idiot legislators to stop forcing mandates on insurance companies, and let people buy whatever kind of coverage they want. Then let doctors and patients settle what kind of charges there will be for office visits and basic procedures. As long as government is involved, the problems will persist and worsen.
Unfortunately, government will be the 800-gorilla in health care because of Medicaid and Medicare. The beginning of these programs was the end of competition and true cost control in health insurance and health care.
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