<p>A couple of days ago, I received the medical insurance claim summary for my yearly physical blood work labs. The hospital billed the insurance company $3,250 for my blood work! (and I’m a healthy woman without any major health problems)</p>
<p>Insurance companies were at the table during the ACA negotiations and are expected to benefit from what will be an even larger privatized health care insurance market. They will use any and all excuses to raise premiums. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my premiums have gone up every year, sometimes dramatically.</p>
<p>GTalum, ours too. Every year they’ve gone up. The past few years our rates have increased dramatically. This current increase is insane.</p>
<p>Geeps, you are an early retiree? or?</p>
<p>Premiums go up by large amounts some years. We fixate on this year’s justification and forget that a few years ago they had a different reasons and a different one the year before that.</p>
<p>In looking at MA, the cost of a family plan runs about $900-1500 month with the difference being out of pocket deductibles, not coverage. In other words, they offer generally the same stuff but slice up how you pay for it. You can bet you won’t use $2k of deductible and pay less or bet that you will and pay more.</p>
<p>Bottom line becomes that the ACA will only be a band aid because the cost of insurance has become too high. There is hope that transparent pricing will help: note for example the hospital in Tulsa which posts prices online and draws business from people in other states who would otherwise have to either risk paying more or who know they would pay more. When it’s cheaper to fly to another country and pay for treatment than to get treated here, we can see the problem is cost levels. I can almost recite the numbers off the top of my head, but remember that even if we eliminate all the money doctors make and all the revenues of drug companies - not profits - we’d still pay more per person than other countries with better health outcomes.</p>
<p>TatinG, your post does bug me. I see Kaiser, BC, BS with their limited plans. The plans arent cheap either. UNH only had 10,000 individual policies in the whole state. They arent playing. </p>
<p>We are dealing with an oligopoly which isnt good. Amazing how close the plans tentative pricing is…</p>
<p>And BS is supposed to be nonprofit. Kaiser’s business model is supposed to lower costs. It is all bs.</p>
<p>Because GTalum is right.</p>
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<p>not retired yet, own a business…why?</p>
<p>Obamacare doesn’t affect companies that small and the small business portion has been suspended for a year. This sounds like the insurance company doing, perhaps thinking people would be uninformed and blame the increase on Obamacare. Jerks.</p>
<p>BCBSRI exchange rates are nearly identical to new self pay rates…50% increase for family of 4.</p>
<p>last few years increase less than 5%</p>
<p>salander, of course the ACA affects new pricing…where do you think the money will come from?</p>
<p>“This sounds like the insurance company doing, perhaps thinking people would be uninformed and blame the increase on Obamacare.”</p>
<p>I thought the insurance companies had to run their increases through the state, and they could approve or disapprove them. Is that correct? If it was blatant gouging, wouldn’t the state disapprove?</p>
<p>OP- I would highly recommend exporing the HSA. If you put the money in for your employee this year, it may be that the net costs are less. Often an HSA covers 100% once the deductible is met.</p>
<p>Also, if you look at an 80-20 plan, they usually have an out of pocket limit, once that is met they cover 100%, thus the person is paying 20% of the first $X,000 of medical care, allowing them some skin in the game, but a big surgery, etc. is going to max out the OOP and have you covered.</p>
<p>I think the group who will be screwed are the people just a bit over the income limits for subsidies. It is like the financial aid where some award require Pell eligibility, make $1000 more annually and lose $5,000 grant, etc.</p>
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<p>We already do. Every time an uninsured person goes to the ER for strep throat or a headache because he/she doesn’t have a primary care provider, the costs are passed on to the people in the insurance pool–that’s all of us.</p>
<p>This article is interesting and lays out some of the options for employers and employees. I actually don’t think it’s a bad idea for employers to get out of the business of sponsoring health insurance. The costs will stop rising so dramatically the minute consumers can go on the free market to purchase the insurance they want.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/health_systems_and_services/how_us_health_care_reform_will_affect_employee_benefits[/url]”>http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/health_systems_and_services/how_us_health_care_reform_will_affect_employee_benefits</a></p>
<p>Busdriver yes , in my state rates have to be approved…They usually asked for more than they get…but new filing spelled out all the increases from the ACA.</p>
<p>Consolation, I am on both ends of the insurance spectrum as a physician and a patient. I don’t even want to start complaining about how insurance companies do everything to destroy physician practices (which are small businesses). But as a patient I’ve been denied coverage, denied existing prescriptions, and had my premiums increased 20% just last year. I promise you, the ACA had nothing to do with it. Medicare doesn’t pay well, but they pay quickly and with the least amount of hassles. As a physician I feel ethically committed to provide treatment even to patients who can’t afford it or have no insurance. And what I’ve seen has been tragic. I don’t know if the ACA is the right answer. However, it is much better than what we currently have. The hospitals and insurance companies were at the table and there will be a windfall of money going their way. I believe the insurance companies are using the ACA as an excuse to gouge their customers.</p>
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<p>and now we will by a much larger %.</p>
<p>If I had to guess as to why BC/BS is limiting providers in its exchange plans (no longer called PPO’s but EPO’s) it is because of a predatory provider in CA which is sometimes the only real option within a service area. Frankly, I don’t blame the exchange plans for eliminating Sutter Medical from their provider options.</p>
<p>Maybe transparent pricing will bring providers in line with each other…</p>
<p>I haven’t run the numbers but in our case I wonder if it would be beneficial for each family member to get their own policy and drop our group option. The kids really only need catastrophic at this time, H - who will be 60 in December is the most expensive member and I’m a few years younger but have no pre-existing conditions. I know that ACA has supposedly removed all pre-existing conditions from the equation but I am left to wonder. In a phone survey conducted by the Covered California folks (who run the exchanges) I was specifically questioned on whether or not anyone in our family was under care for a long term issue - medications or treatments. Why ask the question if it is not relevant. </p>
<p>It also seems that on October 1, 2013 the ACA system will not be able to adjust rates upward for smokers …[Obamacare</a> smokers could face lower penalities thanks to computer system glitch | abc7chicago.com](<a href=“http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=9167854]Obamacare”>http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=9167854) A temporary glitch will cost how much?</p>
<p>RI removed pre-existing years ago…There was a pool A(for anyone) and a pool B(underwritten for healthy, IE-preferred rates). Because of new federal law, preferred rares will be gone next year.</p>
<p>Our health plan went up quite a little for 2013 but it added deductibles and much higher co-pays. There was another HMO plan available that basically matched our previous PPO plan so we switched to that - we’re basically paying what we paid last year with perhaps slightly better co-pays. Coverage seems comparable but we don’t use much in the way of medical services. We feel that we subsidize those that do use a lot of medical services. I guess that this will get worse next year.</p>
<p>Our daughter has been looking for work for two months and has found nothing. There are a lot of temp jobs out there but even these want 1-3 years of experience. The new definition of “entry-level” is 1-3 years of experience. Even intern jobs want experience today. I can see that companies want the perfect employee that will stick around after they have been trained. One thing that I’ve seen on some job posts: if you’re leaving an existing job, explain why you are leaving - I guess that companies don’t want job-hoppers.</p>
<p>Two months isn’t very long for a job search but it feels like a pretty discouraging environment out there. There’s a thread on this in the financial aid forum - that may be a better place for discussion.</p>
<p>Our son (working in his field) is on our insurance because our daughter is and the cost to us is the same for one adult covered as it is for two. He would normally pay about $5,500 for insurance from his employer - he wouldn’t pay that whole amount - his employer would give him credits to cover part of that. We ran the numbers last year and I think that he saves about $1,000 a year by going with our insurance - I guess that means that his employer saves about $4,500 a year. I’m not completely sure because he’s healthy and doesn’t have a lot of expenses so I guess things are complicated. From his perspective, he’s saving money because he is on our plan.</p>
<p>If our daughter gets a job with healthcare, then our son will have to go with his own plan - it would cost him $1,000 a year - not a problem for him. I’m sure that there are lots of other parents doing similar things.</p>
<p>BTW, son is working in MA where health insurance is rather expensive. He does have his own dental insurance in addition to coverage under our dental insurance because his costs there are higher.</p>
<p>I’d like to at least be able to plan for next year’s expenses but I have the feeling that I’m going to be surprised in a negative way.</p>
<p>Appreciate the topic. I think about starting a small business from time to time. Problem is that I’m pretty busy with my current job.</p>
<p>“Consolation, I am on both ends of the insurance spectrum as a physician and a patient. I don’t even want to start complaining about how insurance companies do everything to destroy physician practices (which are small businesses). But as a patient I’ve been denied coverage, denied existing prescriptions, and had my premiums increased 20% just last year. I promise you, the ACA had nothing to do with it. Medicare doesn’t pay well, but they pay quickly and with the least amount of hassles. As a physician I feel ethically committed to provide treatment even to patients who can’t afford it or have no insurance. And what I’ve seen has been tragic. I don’t know if the ACA is the right answer. However, it is much better than what we currently have. The hospitals and insurance companies were at the table and there will be a windfall of money going their way. I believe the insurance companies are using the ACA as an excuse to gouge their customers.”</p>
<p>Frugaldoctor, I appreciate your post.</p>