Posted on 10/14/2013 12:58:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
… then Barack Obama’s hometown newspaper has news for you. The initial shock of the premium increases and the incompetent use of $94 million [see update] to create the world’s biggest 404 exchange are just the starting shocks of ObamaCare. Wait until people have to actually start using their new insurance, and perhaps the biggest surprise of all will be waiting:
Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner, considers himself better informed than most when it comes to the inner workings of health insurance. But even he wasn’t prepared for the pocketbook hit he’ll face next year under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
If the 33-year-old single father wants the same level of coverage next year as what he has now with the same insurer and the same network of doctors and hospitals, his monthly premium of $233 will more than double. If he wants to keep his monthly payments in check, the Carpentersville resident is looking at an annual deductible for himself and his 7-year-old daughter of $12,700, a more than threefold increase from $3,500 today.
“I believe everybody should be able to have health insurance, but at the same time, I’m being penalized. And for what?” said Weldzius, who is not offered insurance through his employer. “For someone who’s always had insurance, who’s always taken care of myself, now I have to change my plan?”
That’s right — not only have premiums doubled in the individual markets, the coverage has gotten worse in a very concrete way. The new system has now opened a wide chasm between the employer and individual markets on actual cost coverage, too:
To promote the Oct. 1 debut of the exchanges, the online marketplaces where consumers can shop and buy insurance, Obama administration and Illinois officials touted the lower-than-expected monthly premiums that would make insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. But a Tribune analysis shows that 21 of the 22 lowest-priced plans offered on the Illinois health insurance exchange for Cook County have annual deductibles of more than $4,000 for an individual and $8,000 for family coverage.
Those deductibles, which represent the out-of-pocket money consumers must spend on health care before most insurance benefits kick in, are higher than what many consumers expected or may be able to stomach, benefit experts said.
By comparison, people who buy health insurance through their employer have an average individual deductible of just more than $1,100, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Bear in mind that Democrats claimed that the ObamaCare exchanges would make insurers treat individuals better in relation to group insurance plans. Instead, they’ve made the markets for individuals even worse than before, thanks to the deluge of costly mandates imposed on insurers, who must pass the cost of risk pools to the consumers.
The higher deductibles are the result of attempting to tamp down the premium hikes, but this raises a big question about the structure of the reform itself. If consumers end up with $4000 deductibles, how are these costs different than the alternate reform model of hospitalization insurance, health-savings accounts (HSAs), and emphasis on the cash/retail system for routine medical care? What we’ve ended up with is the same deductible costs — no one will use $4000 in routine medical care a year — without the cash-market reforms that would drive costs downward through price-signal clarity and competition, while incentivizing providers to get back into routine medical care by wiping out third-party payer red tape and costs.
Plus, we’ve now made it a crime for consumers to refuse health insurance, although many will make that choice anyway:
Millions of Americans may be wrestling with computer glitches to try to sign up for Obamacare — but many people eligible just won’t bother and will pay a price for it.
Some will flout the mandate to buy coverage on ideological grounds, a health insurance version of civil disobedience.
Some will opt for the penalty because it’s cheaper than paying for insurance, even with subsidies — as long as they don’t get sick and have to pay their own medical bills.
And some are so confused about the president’s health care law that they may not even realize they have to pay a penalty — or a tax, as the Supreme Court called it — until they get slapped with the fine when they file their 2014 tax returns. And sign-up rates may be affected, too, if the technical problems on the exchange websites persist.
If you have to pay the first $4000 out of your own pocket on insurance premiums that have doubled, why bother at all?
Update: The Blaze debunked the $634 million price tag — but at $94 million, it’s still a hugely expensive virtual brick. Thanks to Dustin Siggins for pointing this out.
“Drink the Kool-Aid suckers!”
They have and they will continue to do so.
I just found out in California that many of the exchange plans will not have the same doctors as the non-exchange plans. According to the mercury news. Blue Sheild will only offer 50% of the doctors and I think only 40% of the hospitals as the same non-exchange plans.
I was worried we would have to get our insurance through the exchange cause my huaband and I have pre-exisitng conditions. However, we don’t qualify for any subsidies, so we can get our insurance through private insurance, and we won’t be denied. We’ll pay the same as the exchanges without subsidies, but we’ll have more access to doctors and hospitals.
Doctor's may or may not see you.
Labs may or may not do you tests.
Specialists - good luck.
This is going to be Hospital Insurance.
They will be the only place you can be seen - oh, and by the way, back to money, there are high out of pocket deductibles if you seek treatment in a hospital which isn't an emergency. Like normal insurance, these days, they want you to go to primary doctors or clinics.
But, like Medicare, Doctors are going to see people with normal insurance or cash. They will pass on Obamacare people. What a disaster.
The silver lining to all of this is that market forces are about to be re-introduced into the healthCARE industry.
Intentional disaster, the quicker to get to a NHS-style single payer system is my guess.
Do you know HOW MUCH you’ll be paying per month and your annual deductibles yet?
The rise of concierge services in states like WA show you may be right.
Obamacare can only go from bad to worse. Americans are well advised to exercise civil disobedience, and resist it.
Nancy Pelosi said we have to pass it to see what’s in it.
She should have said Bend over and we will drive it home.
My experience with deductibles is, that’s really whatever the procedure you had was actually worth. I had a hernia repair in a hospital. My deductible and out of pocket was about $2,800. The bill was $16,000, for 20 minutes in surgery and 4 hours in the hospital. Because I had “insurance” there was a “courtesy” reduction of $4,000 that I would not have qualified for as a self-pay. That made the bill $12,000. The insurance paid $8,500. By Florida law that ends it and they can’t collect any more from me. But the whole thing, in my opinion, was only worth about $2,800, the amount of my deductible.
Another Obeyme voter who thought "the other guy" would be footing the bill. Welcome to the party, pal!
Cost of Medical Treatments in the Philippines The following are cost comparisons between medical procedures in the Philippines and equivalent procedures in the United States: Coronary Artery Bypass $70,000 - $133,000 Phil = $11,500 - $17,500 83% - 86% Heart-valve Replacement $75,000 - $140,000 Phil = $14,000 - $21,000 81% - 85% Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass $35,000 - $52,000 Phil = $2,000 - $3,500 92% - 94% Hip Replacement $33,000 - $57,000 Phil = $5,000 - $7,600 84% - 86% Knee Replacement $30,000 - $53,000 Phil = $5,200 - $7,700 82% - 85% Prostate surgery (TURP procedure) $10,000 - $16,000 Phil = $1,500 - $2,700 83% - 85% Liver Transplant $290,000 - $310,000 Phil = $120,000 - $150,000 51% - 58% Kidney Transplant $200,000 - $250,000 Phil = $23,000 - $25,000 88% - 90% Complete Liposuction (lipoplasty) $13,000 - $14,000 Phil = $3,000 - $4,000 71% - 76% Nose Surgery (Rhinoplasty) $5,500 - $6,500 Phil = $2,000 - $2,500 61% - 63% Eye / Ophthalmology Cataract surgery $1,500 - $2,500 Phil = $800 - $900 46% - 64% General and Cosmetic Dentistry Dental Implant $3,500 - $5,500 Phil = $500 - $600 85% - 89%
Your experience shows how bastardized the whole medical insurance/care system has become with government involved...sheesh.
Those are lovely prices, but my Philippino friends tell me horror stories about the nature of hospitals and the quality of care in their country. And some of those prices are for procedures that, if needed, can’t be done after one has had a chance to book a cruise or a plane ride. If you have a heart attack and need a bypass, you need it ASAP and you are probably going to get it tomorrow. If you need a liver transplant, you are not going to fly to the Philippines or anywhere else to get it because you are too sick to be jetting to a hospital 15000 miles away.
Being able to get follow-up care is important after a surgical procedure, too. Some of these procedures require a lifetime of close medical supervision.
No, the solution is not for everyone to start flying abroad to get treatment. Most of us can’t afford that. The solution is to throw out this load of garbage and repair our health-care delivery system.
I think Mencken’s quote has a corollary: Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they DON’T want, and deserve not to have it imposed.
The sooner we return to the rule of a Constitutional Republic, the sooner we can be rid of mob rule deciding what we can have and not have.
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