Private Insurance to raise cost after reform as much as $4,000

reply to post by rogerstigers


I am sorry, but I don't have any information on that, I guess if the bill is passed next week the whole insurance deal is going to become so messy that is going to take months even years to get it straight.

Sorry.

reply to post by St Udio


The Medicare and Medicaid will be cut with the health care reform and also so the government insured military retirees. I know that much.

reply to post by St Udio


That could be the best case scenario, but sadly when the private insurance profits start to go down the hill with many of the pre existing medical problem people that they will not be able to turn down, you will see many companies closing their doors that means the opposite of the good case scenario.

Still increasing premiums to keep up with demand is not that the Obama administration has promised to the people.

Right? more taxes, higher premiums and poor quality of care.

The democrats have come home to roost, or should I say roast their constiuents and the rest of us that tried and failed to warn against the dems' free government programs. Promising free stuff gets dems in office every time. Now dems rule everything. Things will get expensive. Housing, food, education and free healthcare.
And we were led to believe that socialism was friendly to the poor and middle classes.

reply to post by gdeed


*shrug* Can't imagine that anyone else would have done any better or worse. I don't think anyone can stop this train anymore.

reply to post by rogerstigers


The insurance companies were only 'playing nice' until they could suck as much money out of this bill for themselves as possible.

Once the bill had a final dollar amount attached they realized there was no more money to be had.

But since they ultimately stand to go under, since the gov't will undercut every amount they can come up with, they are extremely comfortable anteing up exact costs passed to consumers.

I just don't understand why people are so surprised. It's the ultimate money maker for the government -- a forced buy with no limit on cost. The gov't only has to be marginally lower priced than the insurance companies in order to provide what they taut as "cost effective". The insurance companies will in turn raise rates to cover everybody that bailed for the lower gov't run option. As the insurance companies charge more, the gov't will follow suit.



[edit on 12-10-2009 by lpowell0627]

Some of the crazy people I work with (that have company insurance benefits) think they will be able to just discard their insurance and go with the *ahem* free *ahem* government plan. All I can say is hahahahahahaha

reply to post by idle_rocker


Yes a lot of people think that the government is going to provide with public option free for them, no even my husband that is a retired Marine with benefits have health care free we pay just like anybody else for the government run option.

reply to post by marg6043

The industry group's report identifies four key factors it says will drive up the cost of health insurance premiums, including a weak mandate that could result in many young people opting not to buy insurance.

A weak mandate coupled with measures preventing insurers from barring people with pre-existing conditions will help drive up costs, as will other factors like taxes on high-cost healthcare plans and new taxes on some healthcare sectors, the report said.

A family of four under current law could expect to pay $15,500 by 2013, but that would rise to $17,200 if the new measures were adopted, the report found.

The cost would be $21,900 by 2019 under the current system or $25,900 if the changes are implemented, it said.

You got to be careful with the source that its behind this study, America's Health Insurance Plans is the health insurance industry lobbying arm, they dont care about your or my health, they care about maximizing profits for their members.

This is a well planned strategy to scare the people....to scare the people into what? Well the health insurance industry wants to take the entire cake in this health care reform and they are about to have it.

They have lobbied hard against a public option because they know that they would have to lower their premiums in order to stay competitive, they fought it and so far it look they have won.

What do they want now? They want a strong mandate for EVERYONE to have insurance, with no public option on the table they would take the entire cake for themselves and it would place a burden on struggling families that can barely keep up with the bills.

Bottom line like always THEY WANT IT ALL, they want to win on all angles and they will if people dont pay attention to whats going on.

At this point I see this Administration has comprimise a lot in this issue...it already has lost its meaning...its not going to change nothing...they should leave it the way it is, fix medicare, medicaid and whenever people complain about healthcare just tell them...we told you so!



[edit on 12-10-2009 by Bunch]

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Industries’ clients include 40 of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. and 16 of the 18 best hospitals as ranked by US News & World Report; all 20 of the world’s major pharmaceutical companies; all of the top 20 commercial payers in the U.S.; municipal, state and federal government agencies and many of the world’s preeminent medical foundations and associations.

That is a list which makes you wonder whos side they are fighting for.

I wonder how this will affect people who have insurance through their employer. Will the employer now morally be able to end health coverage for the employees knowing they have to get the insurance anyway? Why would they continue to fund health plans if they didnt have to?

reply to post by lpowell0627


That will work for the government if they have a public option, but as I have told already the bill that is been put for vote doesn't include a public option but subsidies for those that can not afford the private insurance but are still working.

[edit on 13-10-2009 by marg6043]

reply to post by crw2006


Good question, after all the government is going to supplement those that their employer can not offer insurance with checks, so the tax payer will be double dipped into paying for that.

reply to post by JBA2848


Actually they if you understand how adding 40,000 million people into the private insurance companies list with many having pre existing conditions, this should have made the private insurance happy, but, the pre existing conditions will put a dent to their profits.

Even if the study is bias it does bring an issue that can not be denied, that means in order to keep up with demand premiums will have to be raised, this is not saving anything to the tax payer but will put a burden by mandate on everybody that works pockets.

reply to post by crw2006


It depends on the type of insurance plan your employer carries. The government has a clause in the reform bill that charges a "luxury tax" on what they call "premium insurance plans".

It was initially thought to simply include those really rich people -- trying to get more money out of them to cover some of the less fortunate people.

But, some weeks ago, there was a question as to whom those "premium policies" really applied to. In some circumstances the employer's insurance policy, the same one that covered all of the employees as well, was considered "premium" and therefore the employer would have been taxed for basically providing too good of a policy. Those taxes would then be passed from the employer to the employee -- thus increasing their cost for insurance as well.

That's why everybody really needs to pay attention. The government doesn't consider raising an employer's costs to be the same thing as raising an individual's. But, if everybody would stop and think about this, they would realize that the employer just passes it along.....

reply to post by lpowell0627


You know many people out there where blinded by the promise of Free health care, the ones that doesn't have the means to pay for health care will still be under Medicare and Medicaid and those that work will be forced into getting something that they don't want because is mandatory.

Still many doesn't realized that the whole health care reform was never about public option or government run health care, it never was, because the government already runs two programs and they want to cut cost and that is in the health care reform also.

They are going to shove more people to qualify for Medicare with less money to manage it while the rest will have to accept what the private industry will offer them.

Here is more information on what exactly I was referring to:

The tax, a provision of the bill to be voted on Tuesday by the Senate Finance Committee, is one of the few remaining proposals under consideration by Congress that budget experts say could lead directly to a reduction in health care spending over the long term, by prompting employers and employees to buy cheaper insurance. Whether it remains in the bill is emerging as a test of the commitment by President Obama and his party to slowing the steep rise of medical expenses.

Link:www.nytimes.com...

I personally always get a little aprehensive when the government is going to start PROMPTING people to do anything. Consider this a warning and precursor to NUDGING in the "cheaper" direction....

Why should those of us that already have coverage pay a lot more or worse, why should we now be pushed to accept less coverage than we currently have?

reply to post by marg6043


Further, people don't realize that even more people will now qualify for government assistance programs since the government is toying with the idea that one's income level will be determined on an after healthcare cost net figure.

While this sounds good, all this is going to do is further elevate the cost since now even more people will qualify for food stamps, housing, etc.

Coupled with the fact that we are still thigh-high in a recession, the middle class can not afford the added expense. This whole process is going to squeeze the middle class, raise the lower class, and once again leave the wealthy still wealthy.

I predict that within a couple of years, maybe even less if unemployment continues to rise, the middle class is not going to be able to keep up with the rising costs and will slowly fall behind in their mortgages once again. Thus, the foreclosure rate will again rise. It seems to be a never ending cycle at this point.

Nobody seems to be taking into account that a vast majority of middle class families are only one paycheck away from potential foreclosure now.

reply to post by lpowell0627


Exactly it wasn't until I figure out what you mean that I remember what is at stake here, in other words private insurance companies will be offering cheaper version of packages to insurance groups for employers, meaning people will lose their choices and will have to accept the cheaper versions or pay additional insurance, while having increasing the cost.

You are right, mandatory expenses will add more to the declining of our economy right not.