Posted on 09/17/2013 9:25:31 PM PDT by grundle
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walgreen Co is moving 120,000 employees to a private health insurance exchange from coverage provided directly from carriers, the company will announce Friday.
The pharmacy chain will join 17 other large employers on the Aon Hewitt Corporate Health Exchange as part of a growing movement to offer employees cash to purchase their own plans on such exchanges.
The end-cost to employees depends on the plan chosen, but they typically get more options than under traditional arrangements. Private exchanges mimic the coverage mandated as part of the Affordable Care Act. Enrollment in the public exchanges starts October 1.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Private sector gets government gang banged once again.
Somehow this must be George Bush’s fault.
It’s US against Obama. Who is going to win.
As long as Obama has a pad of executive order blanks on his desk and his appointed lackey as head of the DOJ, he will win.
“I have my insurance renewal coming up real soon at work. I can’t wait to see how F’ed it’s going to be. And the only reason I look forward to it, is that it’s heavily populated with Obama supporters and I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces....”
Ditto. I’m in the same situation, although retired. Waiting to see how the axe is going to fall. Also chock full of Obama supporters who are in for a very rude surprise.
It’s going to be interesting. He is acting as a king. We can disobey which we will. But he is fighting God. He is fighting the universe. I think he will be brought down. He did not create this universe. And he doesn’t know that yet. Look for the liberals to get really freaky over the next year.
My regular doctor saved my life. He perceived a potential problem, tested for it and detected very early. He said if I had different insurance he could not have gotten the test approved. I could not have afforded the test myself. I can’t imagine not being able to go to him because of a new plan.
Your coworkers will not blame Barry. The meme will be that the mean old republicans aren’t funding it...and that is why rates are going up.
It’s a sad day in America.
“Private Exchanges”??
Is that the new term for the government ObamaCare exchange?
but....but...dear leader said we could keep our plan, doctor and our cost reduced by $2500??? He lied? Oh dear....
yes, but we all know the Reps don’t have the balls to defund it.
If the company is going to give the employees money for the insurance why don’t they just keep giving the insurance. I know because they will not be giving the employee the full amount to cover the insurance because it will be twice as expensive. Obama is a F****** liar I hate him.
Rub it in their faces. These bastards voting are the reason why we’re in this mess in the first place.
I have my insurance renewal coming up real soon at work.”
A lot of my doctor client patients have had a change in their benefits already in August or September. Never seen so many changes during the year as we have had this year, generally happens just beginning January 1 of the new year. Without exception all their co-pays have greatly increased, some as much as 60 per cent. Haven’t a clue about what has happened to their monthly premium costs. All thus far are covered under various relatively large employers across the state of Texas.
New benefits are on-line but they are very difficult to understand. Seems like most are based on the group size, from 1 to 50 employees and then over 50 employees.
Other thing I have noticed is that most everything has to be done on the internet or electronically now. Calls to customer service to resolve problems result in very long hold times so they are trimming their customer service staff.
This is a really interesting approach. Walgreens’ employees are relatively young and healthy. The fact that they’re able to work means that as a group they’ll have few pre-existing conditions, and they’ll also be infrequent users of the mandatory mental health coverage. Essentially, as a group they’ll be much cheaper to ensure even with all the federal requirements because they’ll have very few of the really expensive claims the patients in the fed exchange will have.
So, the feds are trying to subsidize the high cost patients they’ll be insuring by soaking the young and healthy ones, and the young and healthy ones are moving out of the scheme. The net effect will be to make the OCare exchange policies more expensive.
It’s a classic example of why managed economies ultimately end up creating unfree societies. In order to make them work you have to deny their members the freedom to go elsewhere. If this type of plan becomes a growing phenomenon, look for the feds to pass a law making it illegal for the lambs to move away from the wolf.
And you know what's going to happen.
Many will use the money for a new car payment or similar, forego the insurance and cross the illness bridge when they come to it. You and I picking up the bill.
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