How Much Is That Obamacare Doggie In The Window?
Maybe double the price it was last year, if you live in New Mexico. Peter Suderman writes at reason of premium increases for Obamacare plans:
It looks increasingly like insurance premiums for many of the most popular plans sold through Obamacare's exchanges are on track for significant hikes next year. Earlier this week, I noted reports of requests for double-digit premium hikes--in some cases more than 30 percent--in dominant plans for the states of Maryland, Oregon, and Tennessee, as well as smaller but still significant hikes in a few other states. Today, The Wall Street Journal adds another, reporting that New Mexico's biggest individual market insurer is requesting a 51.6 percent increase in premiums for the coming year.The primary reason for all of these giant hikes is the same, according to the Journal: "high medical costs incurred by people newly enrolled under the Affordable Care Act." As noted in a previous post, Moda Health, which insures about 100,000 people Oregon, says that its costs exceeded its premium revenue by 61 percent.
...In any case, it goes back to what has been one of the chief worries about Obamacare for a long time--whether enough younger and healthier individuals will sign up for coverage to offset the higher costs incurred by older and sicker beneficiaries. So far, it looks like they're not, or at least not in numbers sufficient to support current premiums. And that's why it looks more and more like significant premium hikes are on the way, at least in some states, for some of the more popular plans.
Why is it that voters seem so incapable of doing the most rudimentary math?
How could this be true? One of the main arguments in favor of Obamacare was the rising cost of insurance premiums in the private market.
Double digits increases for Obamacare and they're still going broke. A 51% increase? Wow. No private company would have dared to do that.
Canvasback at May 23, 2015 1:01 AM
"Why is it that voters seem so incapable of doing the most rudimentary math?"
Because many voters hear "free" or "affordable" and they actually believe the politicians who say such stuff.
One of my coworkers, someone who I would have otherwise thought of as intelligent, thinks Obamacare is great because, according to her: "now, everybody has healthcare."
charles at May 23, 2015 4:33 AM
I'm still going with the assumption that it was deliberately built badly so it would fail "requiring" complete gov't takeover. Or as the IRS shows "You didn't vote for O? No meds for you!"
Joe J at May 23, 2015 5:56 AM
"now, everybody has healthcare."
Yeah, right. What you are required to have is health care insurance which does not imply that you will have actual health care.
For the sake of argument, let us accept the number of uninsured prior to OCare was 49 million. Have we increased the number of doctors, nurses, and other health practitioners to adequately serve this increased demand? no, of course not. Takes about 10 years to go from a freshman in college to a practicing on their own doctor. The others take less time - and many people are looking at nursing as good long-term career choice - but there was a nursing shortage prior and this has only made things worse.
Ocare was meant to fail, so that people would demand a solution, such as government run health care. But we already have government run health care, it's called the VA.
How's that working out?
I R A Darth Aggie at May 23, 2015 6:47 AM
That's exactly what's happening -- that everyone has health care INSURANCE.
My formerly affordable care -- pre "Affordable" Care Act -- is now very expensive monthly, plus I have a high deductible. When I go to the doctor, I tell them I basically can't have anything expensive wrong with me, because I can't even afford the tests.
Colonoscopy? Previously included with my then-affordable care? Now $600-some dollars? Thanks, but I'll just hope I don't get colon cancer. Along with hoping that I don't get breast cancer instead of getting the now $900 MRIs a breast surgeon ordered me to get every two years.
Amy Alkon at May 23, 2015 6:56 AM
I'm with IRADarth...
This makes much more sense if you look at it as a stepping stone to single payer...
People assume the whole C.F. was an honest mistake, but I've worked places where things were allowed to implode just so a manager could be seen to manage the emergency aftermath... and get a new shiney system with their name on it.
The individual will often ignore large errors when it looks like somebody TRIED to make something work... without ever examining the idea that the whole thing was designed to fail.
SwissArmyD at May 23, 2015 8:10 AM
I keep saying it, the purpose of Obamacare is to FAIL! Once they have destroyed the healthcare system they can claim they have no choice but to implement the single payer system they always wanted and the American people have refused to stand for.
Warhawke223 at May 23, 2015 11:44 AM
I live in Oregon and if we get a 30% increase we'll be looking at approximately $1600 a month for our family plan. We have Kaiser since we've been established patients there for years from when I worked there. My husband wanted to look at other plans last spring for when my employer coverage ended (I got laid off and got 3 extra months of coverage as part of a severance package). The other plans had very few doctors listed that were accepting new patients. I called the ones listed as available and was told they were also full and not accepting new patients. That meant our options would be emergency rooms and urgent cares if we needed to be seen and we wouldn't be able to get routine care or followup for problems. We'd be forced to pay for something we couldn't use anyway and insurance plans are trying to cut down on expensive ER visits by not paying for the visits or only a portion of your coverage if you are seen for something other than a real emergency. It's nothing but a big money suck with little to no benefit. Ultimately, my husband decided we were better off to stick with Kaiser where we already had doctors and the prescription coverage was much better.
BunnyGirl at May 23, 2015 1:33 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2015/05/23/how_much_is_tha_6.html#comment-6028222">comment from BunnyGirlI can't leave my psychiatrist and I need to have some care. So, if I get catastrophically ill, I'll have medical care. And maybe I'll die sooner -- and more cheaply! -- because I can no longer afford the tests doctors say I need.
Amy Alkon at May 23, 2015 4:41 PM
I rally don't know about this medical stuff Amy.
I just had a baby boy. Normal vaginal birth with no complications. This looks like it will cost me ~$8k with my shiny new o-care insurance in addition to the ~$8k in premiums I am paying.
For comparison my first child (only 1.5 years old, so not that long ago) insurance wouldn't cover the birth (o-care made it illegal that year) so we paid cash. He cost ~$6k.
Now here is the kicker. The insurance company has bills over my deductible for around $40k, all related to this birth. There is no telling how much they will pay since some people triple bill just as a matter of general practice and others they only pay x when charged y.
Of course we could pay for a plan with a lower deductible. Since that would cost almost twice as much no real savings.
Talk about a messed up system. People complain that middle class wages are stagnant and don't realize all of their raises for decades have gone into incompetently managed medical insurance.
Ben at May 25, 2015 3:09 PM
An addendum. With two adults and two children on the policy it looks like my insurance has gone up from ~$8k/year to ~$10k/year. Compare that to ~$6k/year I would have paid preObamacare.
So, to the jerk in the other thread who claimed it was republicans who were responsible, F you. F the democrats. And F Obama.
Ben at May 26, 2015 5:30 PM
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