Covered California came out with the rate increases…
I don’t see the rates for 60 year olds…that’s a little annoying.
http://www.coveredca.com/PDFs/7-27-CoveredCA-2016PlanRates-prelim.pdf
CA negotiates rates actively rather. NYT and other sources have articles discussing why this appears to be a better approach: as [url=<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/average-rise-on-insurance-seen-at-4-in-california.html?ref=health%5Dhere%5B/url”>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/average-rise-on-insurance-seen-at-4-in-california.html?ref=health]here[/url]. What’s funny is the officials don’t want to say “we negotiated and got a better deal” because that makes the insurance industry look like, well, what they are and instead say that CA has a bunch of healthy people. Yeah, right, there are almost 39 million people in CA and I’d guarantee the pool looks pretty general, not skewed significantly toward “healthy”.
Lergnom,
Yes.
Re: California being “healthy”
Maybe not so much in an absolute sense, but California is 46th in obesity and 49th in smoking compared to other states. So most other states are worse in those indicators.
I don’t know what my rates are going to be yet. Although the rate increase being talked about in my community averages about 6.6 percent…that is if you stay the same age. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t age. Being a year older is going to add about 3 percent to my premiums. So I am looking at maybe a 9 to 10 percent increase. Compared to years prior to ACA that is a low increase for me. Still…it would be nice to have an increase closer to 7 percent like a large part of the state.
There was talk of a lack of competition in Nor Cal compared to Southern California causing higher rate increases in Northern California. I don’t see that changing where I live.
Be prepared: In CT, for my 64-year-old DH, we’re currently paying $1,046 a month for a Gold plan. Not happy at all about this, but thankfully he’ll start with Medicare in January.
@VeryHappy, yeah. I think I wrote about this in another post in another thread to @mcat2.
I pencilled in $1900 in 5 years for a bronze plan for my wife and myself. I will be 64.
How much would a bronze plan be for your husband? Any idea?
Maybe I was too low.
I am in north Texas, but have a bronze plan purchased through the marketplace with BCBS. For a 57-year-old non-tobacco user, it is $578 a month for a $6000 deductible PPO plan. No coverage for anything until you reach that deductible. That is up 28% from 2014 for the same plan. Can’t wait to see how much it will go up for 2016.
These rates give me heart failure.
For comparison, Medicare spending per person was $11,167 in 2014. Of course, the benefits for Medicare versus Bronze/Silver/Gold ACA plans can be different.
@dstark: A Bronze plan for my DH would be $565 a month, with a $6000 deductible. DH has several health issues and hospitalizations are not uncommon, so we went with Gold. “Only” has a $1000 deductible.
@VeryHappy, thanks for the info. Good luck to you DH.
Thanks, @dstark. Hanging on until January, when he turns 65 and we don’t have to pay this anymore!!
Just found out that my PPO plan will not be offered in 2016. BCBS of Texas will only offer HMOs to people who do not have group plans. The HMO provider list does not include our local hospital and I would have to drive directly past the local hospital in order to get to the nearest one about 25 miles away. The HMO plan was cheaper than the PPO, but I also discovered that BCBS has requested a 20% increase in premiums for their HMO plan.
@musicmom1215 Are there other choices besides bcbs?
I have noticed in some of these bronze plans and silver plans that Blue Shield’s premiums are not competitive in areas of Calif. Maybe all areas. I haven’t checked everywhere.
Blue Shield of Ca has raised their rates quite a bit.
I live in a small town about 30 miles from a large city. There are few plans offered here. I will have to check to see what is available for next year. Last year, there were very few doctors on the HMO plan, but I see they have added providers and the family medicine clinic I use now accepts the HMO. Just no hospital. But maybe that will change. Luckily, I have no health issues and almost never go to the doctor.
@musicmom1215, good luck.
Calif is also ~46th in median age (~35 years). In contrast, 7 states are over 40…
My MIL has been covered by a Medicare advantage/gap policy provided through an ex employer of her now deceased H. She was ‘guaranteed’ this coverage for the rest of her life
She was paying $45/month in addition to here Medicare D policy. She just received a letter stating the following"
" In order to provide Medicare-eligible retirees with better coverage options at the lowest possible price, XXXXX is transitioning from group health coverage to individual insurance plans offered on the open market. Today, more than 60% of employers have replaced, or plan to replace, a traditional group health plan with an ‘exchange’ of individual insurance options’.
Seems her existing plan wasn’t ACA compliant and therefore cancellation is at the discretion of the company. Guess they didn’t want to ‘grandmother’ her anymore. The company statement also gives clear indication of the direction. 60% of employees are dumping their employees into the open market.
As the designated idiot savant when it comes to health insurance I’ve been tasked with figuring out her options. Well, she can now pay a minimum of $110/ month up to $340/month for her gap plan. In order to keep her OOC to her current level she will wind up somewhere in the middle tier options.
So, MIL’s premium costs have gone up 388%. I think we might have a winner!!!
But…good news is all of her birth control costs are now covered :)!