Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
NaturalNews) Writing on the blog of the Department of Health and Human Services on the third anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had this to say about the impact of the law on insurance rates:
As a former state insurance commissioner, I know that for too long, too many hard-working Americans paid the price for policies that handed free rein to health insurance companies. For more than a decade before the Affordable Care Act, premiums rose rapidly, straining the budgets of American families and businesses. And insurers often raised premiums without any explanation. ... The Affordable Care Act is working to bring affordability and fairness to the marketplace by barring insurers from dropping your coverage when you get sick or placing a lifetime dollar limit on coverage.
Sebelius goes on to imply that provisions within the law (requiring more "transparency" from insurance companies, for instance) will eventually help lower rates (though she never says so directly). In other words, she's dodging the issue of rising premiums, and with good reason: Premiums under Obamacare are likely to double for most Americans, according to health insurers who are being forced to comply with Obamacare's stringent coverage requirements.
Wait - weren't premiums supposed to go down?
"Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation's biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans," The Wall Street Journal reported March 22.
Insurers made those projections in sessions with agents and brokers; they provide some of the most damning evidence so far of just how much Obamacare will force companies to raise rates when major provisions of the law kick in next year - just as scores of industry experts and economists warned would happen.
Such predictions don't jibe with the rosy - and misleading - rhetoric from Sebelius and her boss, President Obama, the latter of whom said in 2010:
"You'll be able to buy in, or a small business will be able to buy into (government insurance pools). And that will lower rates, it's estimated, by up to 14 to 20 percent over what you're currently getting. That's money out of pocket. ... Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent, which means they could give you a raise."
Both the president and his team don't understand free-market economics, or they do and they have been intentionally misleading. Either way, the figures the insurance companies are projecting are the polar opposite of what Americans were promised by Obamacare advocates regarding the future cost of policies (and really, prices for such services have never really gone down).
"There's no question premiums are still going to keep going up," Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research clearinghouse on the health care system, told CBS News shortly before Obamacare became law. "There are pieces of reform that will hopefully keep them from going up as fast. But it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today."
Yet another Obamacare lie
The one ace in the hold the government retains; however, is regulatory power over the insurance companies in terms of price increases. Under Obamacare, insurers have to request rate hikes and they must be approved by government bureaucrats, the vast majority of whom have a) never run a business; b) never had to meet a payroll; and c) have never had to cover employees' health insurance and other benefits.
So in this sense, the government very well could keep rates artificially lower than they normally would be, but while requiring insurers to cover more people for less, they won't be in business long.
And that could well be the administration's goal.
"Carriers will be filing proposed price increases with regulators over the next few months," WSJ reported. Time will tell how that goes, but the word is out: What Americans were told about lower premiums under Obamacare, like most of what they were told about the law, was a lie.
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Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to this country
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
**** obama , **** obama care, my wife has m.s and ou co-pay went 6k last year to 36k this year, how does that happen! !!! The reason we got was , sorry sir thats the way the numbers work, I can assure you I didnt make a extra 30k this year
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
I work for a small company. 20 or less employees. We have a older work force. We used to be self ensured. It was killing us a slow death. The annual $$ were staggering. So, we switch to a high deductible plan. $5000 single and $10,000 family. Yes, those numbers are staggering no question. With this plan we have a wellness package. Annual check ups and annual blood work. Plus you stay with in the correct network of doc there are discounts on their services.
Out of our 20 employees we have about 12 that choose the health coverage. Total cost to the company about $40,000 grand a year. Self insured was over $100,000 a year.
We are only in business today because we stopped the bleeding. That is 100% the truth. If we had gone out 20 families would have been with out income.
Health care is a BIG problem. I'm thankful the Obama plan will not have an effect on our company. The last 3 years our annual premium has not gone up and I think it will be lower next year. Not many can say that.
We do not live in the same world our parents did. Low deductibles are gone if you want to keep coverage.
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
My companies policy is renewed every March. This year, our premiums went up 30%. It's a tough thing to explain to employees but, then again, i know a bunch who voted for Obama
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
Quote:
Originally Posted by
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**** obama , **** obama care, my wife has m.s and ou co-pay went 6k last year to 36k this year, how does that happen! !!! The reason we got was , sorry sir thats the way the numbers work, I can assure you I didnt make a extra 30k this year
That's crazy!! That's a big increase over night!!
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GotClen
I work for a small company. 20 or less employees. We have a older work force. We used to be self ensured. It was killing us a slow death. The annual $$ were staggering. So, we switch to a high deductible plan. $5000 single and $10,000 family. Yes, those numbers are staggering no question. With this plan we have a wellness package. Annual check ups and annual blood work. Plus you stay with in the correct network of doc there are discounts on their services.
Out of our 20 employees we have about 12 that choose the health coverage. Total cost to the company about $40,000 grand a year. Self insured was over $100,000 a year.
We are only in business today because we stopped the bleeding. That is 100% the truth. If we had gone out 20 families would have been with out income.
Health care is a BIG problem. I'm thankful the Obama plan will not have an effect on our company. The last 3 years our annual premium has not gone up and I think it will be lower next year. Not many can say that.
We do not live in the same world our parents did. Low deductibles are gone if you want to keep coverage.
My premiums went up 300% as a partner over ten years before Obama was elected. These insurance companies are just punting the blame. The SOBs were raping us employers long before Obama care. (I've been senior partner 11 yrs).
With that said I support single payer, I don't like obama care all that much but since I actually read the bill and gave a talk at Emory you need to tell your boss he can get a tax credit for already providing health insurance for a company with less than 25 employees. That already went into effect.
He can jump on the SHOP Health Insurance exchange ( Small Business Health Options Program) which now allows a small business like his ( and mine which is 45employees) to no longer buy insurance as a weak, isolated position as a single entity but become part of a much larger risk pool. Right now it is open to businesses with less than 100 employees.
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
My premiums will also be going down as well since the Obamacare got rid of “gender rating,” where insurers currently charge women higher premiums than men for identical health benefits. As of 2014, however, under the Affordable Care Act, gender rating will become illegal in all new individual and small group plans. My small group plan is 50% higher than another small company with 45 employees because over 50% of my employees are female. ( the 3 men are all male doctors and no males apply for being nurses in office or like to do insurance billing and coding etc). 90% of them are post- menopausal or like me, had their tubes tied, but the insurance company treats all my female employees as if they are going to all have a baby....
Re: Health insurance rates to double as Obamacare fully kicks in
