Some Louisiana insurers moving ahead with higher premiums under Obama.Care

Looks like Louisiana health insurance companies are going to raise rates for next year's Obama.Care exchange policies.

The biggest ones are jacking it up by double digits.

but this seems to only affect specific networks. Very confusing.

Get ready to pay.

Sure some will get "subsidies", but the taxpayers still pay.

Big perception problems now with the elections coming up in a couple of weeks.

For something that was supposed to "equalize" health insurance, this Obama.Care sure has failed in that area hasn't it.

Some Louisiana health insurers are imposing double-digit increases in 2015 for polices sold under the Affordable Care Act's health exchange, according to filings this week with the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, the state's largest provider, filed papers that it is moving forward with its original plan to increases rates between 18.3 percent and 19.7 percent for policyholders in its Blue Saver, Blue Max and its Multi-State individual health plans. The plans cover 52,638 people.

Some Louisiana insurers moving ahead with higher premiums under Affordable Care Act

Breitbart's Take...

For something that was supposed to "equalize" health insurance, this Obama.Care sure has failed in that area hasn't it.

Pre 'affordable' Shaft Act health care was cheaper.

Post 'Affordable' Care Act it's gotten more expensive.

Flawless Victory for the 'progressives'.

Because everyone single one of them see the ACA as 'progress' !

As Reagan once said:

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Reagan quotes

I knew who wrote the thread by the title...

Obamacare is the biggest failure of all time.

And that's saying something.

Is this a surprise for anyone? The individual mandate was a license to steal for the insurance companies.

Louisiana is **notorious* for for sketchy dealings in the insurance industry. Google it. Several state elected Insurance Commissioners have gone to jail. It's an epic history.

As someone who worked ever so briefly in insurance fraud investigations in that state, I can say, categorically, that corruption is rampant without the President even lifting a pen.

a reply to: xuenchen

Yea, they're moving to increase premiums like they've always been doing since well before Obamas healthcare law.



Healthcare corporations will continue to jack up their premiums and they will continue to use excuses to justify it, regardless of whether Obama's healthcare law is enforced or not. There's nothing to stop these corporations from doing what they're doing. Allowing healthcare to be sold across statelines won't make a difference either, it will just allow for corporations to save more money in tax friendly states. They have no reason or motivation to drop down prices so long as there isn't a public funded alternative in place, so long as people have no choice.

originally posted by: whyamIhere
I knew who wrote the thread by the title...

Obamacare is the biggest failure of all time.

And that's saying something.

Not according to the Insurance providers. It's just good business to increase profits.

I would think the right would applaud this capitalistic corporate foray into more and bigger dividend checks for the stock holders.

Insurance providing corps. stocks are traded on the NYSE, it's just business after all. A neo cons wet dream if you know the system.

It's more fun to whine; isn't it?





www.thestreet.com...

originally posted by: olaru12

Not according to the Insurance providers. It's just good business to increase profits.

I would think the right would applaud this corporate foray into more and bigger dividend checks for the stock holders.

This for sure.

Insurers will find a way, regardless. Unchecked Capitalism too.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

But But

One of the several selling points of the ACA was affordability.

We heard promises from Obama himself that rates would decrease in mass.

President Obama’s claim that insurance premiums ‘will go down’



Obama: Your Premiums Will Go Down Under Obamacare
www.youtube.com...



Obama: Premiums Will Decrease 3000% So You Should Get A Raise When H'care Is Passed

www.youtube.com...




Obama Promises To Lower Health Insurance Premiums by $2,500 Per Year
www.youtube.com...

originally posted by: buster2010
Is this a surprise for anyone? The individual mandate was a license to steal for the insurance companies.

I've only ever seen ACA as a means of bailing out the insurance companies.

Those insurance companies pay a lot of money to both republicans and democrats to buy votes.

Did anyone ever ask themselves why Romney passed a similar law while governor? Why would he do that if the law is so obviously bad?

Every industry involved in the financial collapse of 2008 was bailed out either directly or indirectly. Health insurance companies were exposed to a lot of these bad deals as well, and it was only a matter of time before they got their own bailout package. That package was in the form of ACA, AKA Obamacare.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

The inflation in the health insurance industry was caused by government to begin with.

Insurance companies could fleece their customers. The ones that fell off the roles and hit the insurance companies with a "loss" were the most affordable since insurance companies simply billed Uncle Sam for it.

Same thing is happening with student loans.

Same thing was and still is happening with housing.

Obamacare simply made it politically palatable to liberals to continue and ramp up the same policies they've been decrying for decades.

Managed care policies have been around since Lyndon Johnson, and since then we have seen massive inflation in the health care industry as a result.

originally posted by: projectvxn
Obamacare simply made it politically palatable to liberals

And greedy Wall Streeters

a reply to: kosmicjack

Wall St. people don't much care who's in charge. Their political religion, I've found, is almost non-existent. They only care that who they bought off creates returns on their investment.

Wall St. didn't need convincing. They helped engineer the disaster and the "solution".

The only people that really needed to continue to blindly support Wall St. bought government "regulation" like the bailouts and Obamacare were the people who follow their political religions. In the case of Obamacare, that was the liberal and democrat base.

The key word in the title is 'SOME'. Furthermore, those that are increasing it by 'double digits' are doing so only for those customers that live OUTSIDE the major cities (where Health Care Networks are less likely).

Louisiana has rejected the Medicare expansion and made it difficult for people to find out how to obtain insurance under the ACA. A major consequence of that is that fewer patients are insured and Hospitals have to fund that shortfall by increasing their charges for those who are. One of the underlying principles for premium reduction under the ACA is to increase the size of the insurance pool and thus reducing this shortfall.

Any good captalist should understand that spreading the risk across a larger investor pool reduces the cost of risk management; that is precisely the purpose for the existence of insurance - ANY kind of insurance. For the life of me I cannot understand why is this a problem for you.

There are very few insurance companies operating in Louisiana. Another underlying principle for premium reduction under the ACA is to encourage competition among insurance companies. Any good capitalist should understand that competition works to hold down, even reduce costs. Again, I just cannot understand why is this a problem for you.

Finally, for the last three years BEFORE the ACA went into effect, Health Insurance Premiums AVERAGED double-digit increases. The Louisiana government is purposely, with malice aforethought, going out of its way to make it difficult for its citizens to obtain insurance and to allow conditions in their state to foster competition between insurance companies. Their purpose is specifically spite, nothing but spite. Why does it surprise anyone that the State can, by refusing any cooperation with the ACA, and pro-actively ensuring that 'accidental' benefits are difficult to achieve, maintain the lousy standard of rate increases that they have maintained year after year after year.

Louisiana has made the act of ensuring its people are mired in poverty and 'know their place' an art form. Their rejection of the ACA is out of spite, and only spite. For example, other states that rejected the Medicare expansion at least allowed their so-called 'regulators' to reject the premium rises if they are out of line. Louisiana expressly forbids this - the regulators are required by law to publish the premium rates and blame them on the ACA.

I realize interest in this thread has rightly faded, but just to ensure that the dead horse is well and truly beaten I offer you:

Source

The attacks could easily give the impression that the health care law is causing premiums to go through the roof around the country. They’re not. In reality, in most states, premiums for coverage in the Obamacare health insurance exchanges for 2015 are rising at about the normal rate for health insurance throughout the country. In some places, they’re even going down.

But there are a few states that are facing more extreme premium increases from some insurers — and Louisiana and Iowa are two of them. Alaska, where Democratic Sen. Mark Begich is struggling to win a second term, is another one.

Even there, it’s not all insurers that are raising rates that much. Louisiana, for example, is only announcing rates for the insurers that are raising rates by 10 percent or more, so the picture that’s being made public is incomplete.

Can you understand what is going on here? Louisiana is purposely lying about the situation in Louisiana.

PURPOSELY lying. For political spite.

And the majority of the people who are harmed by this cynical ploy are the disadvantaged rural Louisiana citizens who are most in need of health care, are mostly of a darker shade of skin, and easiest to disenfranchise during an election gerrymander.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Looks like Louisiana health insurance companies are going to raise rates for next year's Obama.Care exchange policies.

The biggest ones are jacking it up by double digits.

October 13, 2014

Health Insurance Premiums have double-digit increased in every state, for many years. The biggest jump by far was when all the new mandated benefits were added to insurance plans on 1/1/2014. Now, it appears that for 2015, premiums have settled back to their "normal" 7% to 15% annual increases. They will continue to increase as long as medical and prescription providers continue to raise their prices, and the American public begs physicians to help them be pain and illness-free "at any cost".

In a nutshell, what "ObamaCare" did was mandate a slew of new benefits and consumer protections on 1/1/2014. ACA law requires that the majority of every premium dollar (at least 80 cents per 1 dollar) must pay the medical providers and Prescription supplier chain. Companies that don't adhere to this 80/20 rule, must rebate the excess earnings back to policyholders. The Federal Government (HHS) bragged this past August that over $330 million dollars being rebated this year.

When President Obama said that premiums would be decreasing by $2,500 annually per family, he couldn't have been talking about the short-term. Maybe he was thinking 10 years out, adjusted for inflation, as compared to the pre-ObamaCare premium increases? IMHO, that's the only way to make a $2,500 premium savings per family realizable with this law.

-CareWeMust
Illinois Insurance Broker since 1988