Obama Arrives: Health Premiums Jump 20 Percent

Obama Arrives: Health Premiums Jump 20 Percent

www.newsmax.com

WASHINGTON - U.S. health insurers are raising prices by an average of 20 percent for working age adults who buy their own policies, according to a survey released by a nonprofit healthcare group on Monday.

Such premium cost increases affected more than three-quarters of the 14 million U.S. adults who buy their own health plans and caused some to either seek a cheaper option with fewer benefits or switch insurers altogether, the Kaiser Family Foundation study showed.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Who said that Obama was good for health care? I have always maintained that this latest "health care reform" was only helping the insurance and medical industries, as it will force people to patronize them with little to no over-sight. So, not only do I believe that Obama has screwed the pooch when most of this "reform" becomes active in 2014, but he also screwed the pooch for the interim, as health care premiums sore for individual plans.

I believe that good intentions were initially behind this health-care reform... maybe, but I believe that the insurance lobby was just too strong and so shaped this reform to only benefit themselves. What a disaster this will be and already is. Most Americans don't understand this "reform" but as it starts to get implemented and people have to deal with it, they are going to realize just how badly we were screwed. By this time, Obama will be out of office or close to it so he won't have to deal with the fall-out.

--airspoon


www.newsmax.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yeah I always wondered why people called this health care bill socialist, while it is corporatist imo.

When they privatized health care here the prices were raised by about 400%, and now the insurance companies are too big to fail.

It's sickening that the quality of health care goes down every year, but we have to pay more and more of our income.

I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I read your synopsis, and then I read the article. Not once did I come across any evidence linking Obama or his HCR bill to the rate hikes.

However, I did find this in the article:

Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the industry's lobby group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), defended the industry's premium hikes, citing "soaring medical costs" and the number of younger, healthier consumers who are opting out of coverage. AHIP fought the healthcare reform bill.

It seems that the reason why rates are going up is because of the lack of enrollees. When more people are paying in, rates go down. What wil happen when the HCR bill actually becomes implemented? More people will be paying in. Which should mean that rates should go down.

reply to post by suicydking


I never said that the health care "reform" bill was at fault for the current hikes, only that this so-called HCR isn't going to help the American people, only the health care industry.

--airspoon

The HCR bill did wind up being much more useless than if we would have just gone for socialized medicine. I was very much in favor of that option.

Keep in mind however, that the industry lobby group mentioned in the article, the same one who is defending the rate hikes, was against the HCR bill. Why do you think they oppose it? Because they hate making money? Or because the HCR bill is going to put a limit on their profits, force more of the insurance premiums to go to actual care, allow customers to shop for better and more competitive rates, and introduce a larger base of enrollees who will have the opportunity to take back some of the power that the insurance companies have over the market?

reply to post by airspoon


But as suicy points out, if more people are enrolling (which will be the case under NCR) the costs to us plebes will be less. As it is, health insurance costs have risen an average of 8% per year since 2000. As the article states, those rising costs have forced many, especially healthier people out of the system.

Your title attempts to fault Obama for this. I supported Ron Paul all the way but it seems like every flipping thread is an its-all-Obamas-fault circle-yank. A little critical thinking people. There's pleanty of blame to go around. It's not like this problem came up last year.

Originally posted by airspoon
reply to post by suicydking

 

I never said that the health care "reform" bill was at fault for the current hikes, only that this so-called HCR isn't going to help the American people, only the health care industry.

--airspoon

In addition to my previous points, I would also like to say one more thing. No where in the article is there any discussion of how the HCR bill is going to benefit the insurance companies. It's not even vaguely alluded to. It's like you found a random article about health care and decided to use it as an excuse to complain about the bill.

I'm not trying to be a troll here, I just really wonder what your point is. If there's discussion to be had here, I'm all for it. i just don't see the point of posting this article, especially in the context that you are implying.

reply to post by airspoon


The problem is that they had to make so many changes to the original plan, that the end product does not resemble the vision.

Due to negotiations, the core of the problem is alive and well. People put their lives in the hands of a for-profit corporation. We are nothing but statistics on a piece of paper to them. It's all about the graphs, charts and powerpoint persentations.

Had their been a public option, then these for profit businesses would have to change their business models.

This downward spiral of the healthcare system really got it's start by Nixon while he was president with the start of HMOs and the like. He was actually recorded having a conversation with someone (can't remember who) talking about how the new set up would help the insurance agencies make money hand over fist while fleecing American citizens. He was obviously tickled pink by this in the recording. Eveything since then has been a joke!

As for the new plan, it is as a poster said above, a corprate wet dream. It has nothing to do with helping Americans and everything to do with insurance industry again. Now people are forced under the penalty of law to have insurance! It's no surprise that as soon as Obama's bill passed the top publicly traded insurance companies stock went through the roof! That should be all the proof anyone would need about whom this bill is good for.

Obama is another well spoken puppet for the corporate interests that run this country. Everything they say and do is based on a dog and pony show and lies to further consolidate power into their hands and enslave you and I.

Time is running out folks and the answer to save ourselves and our home is fundamentally simple. As Gandhi showed us, it requires no violence. As my signature implies simply start refusing to acknowledge their supposed power. Do everything you can to peacefully follow your own path, ignoring their "power". We have the numbers on our side. We are just and righteous. By ignoring their decries and following what we know to be true in our hearts, we can easily defeat their evil ways.

Peace

reply to post by suicydking


Thank you.

I doubt you meant to, but your posts have helped put an exclamation point on what I posted about obamacare (so-called HCR) many times, which is that a bad HCR bill was not better than no HCR bill at all, it will be worse.

reply to post by Styki


This is a trend I've seen developing on this site here. Someone posts an article that is either a blatant hoax (Census workers are allowed to enter your apartment when you're not home, Obama is taking our guns away, etc.) or an article that has no bearing on what the original poster says afterward.

Then, people rant on about popular opinion, heedless of the fact that no new information was presented, or that everything they just read was false.

Regardless, it becomes an opportunity for people to rant & rave, which is what's about to happen here.

reply to post by suicydking


Okay, I just typed out a very long and thoughtful response when windows just crashed, so I'll try again.

This article is about premiums going up since Obama took office. I can't tell you how many times that I hear people talk about Obama being the savior of health care in America and I believe that this couldn't be further from the truth, along with most others who are familiar with the HCR bill. I believe that Obama was the savior of the US health care industry, not US health care.

Furthermore, I was using this article to punctuate my point that when the HCR bill goes into effect, it will hardly lower premiums or at least to a point that supporters suggest. You see, when healthy folks are forced to purchase insurance, so are unhealthy folks and it is arguable that many more unhealthy folks are out of insurance now. In fact, most healthy people have jobs and so get insurance through their employer. So, when people are forced to purchase insurance, it won't only be healthy people buying that insurance.

The type of health care reform that Obama was going after was kind of an "all or nothing" deal. What happened was, the changes made were all of the changes necessary to help the insurance industry without any of the teeth necessary to help the people and this was because of the health insurance lobby having a hold on congress. People will be forced to purchase insurance without anyway to ensure that the health insurance industry will play nice. It is my belief (and many others), that this HCR bill will only benefit the health insurance industry by forcing everyone to purchase insurance.

--airspoon

p.s. - I had a much more thoughtful reply before "Windows" did what it does best... and crashed.


p.s.s. - are you calling this article a hoax? I think the article is pretty straight forward and if you think you can prove it wrong, please try and do so. This article was used to point out a logical argument on the health care debate. If you think that the HCR bill won't won't benefit the health insurance industry, then why was all of the teeth taken out of it and ultimately supported by the Congressmen and women tied closest to the insurance industry?

[edit on 22-6-2010 by airspoon]

Originally posted by suicydking
reply to post by Styki

 

This is a trend I've seen developing on this site here. Someone posts an article that is either a blatant hoax (Census workers are allowed to enter your apartment when you're not home, Obama is taking our guns away, etc.) or an article that has no bearing on what the original poster says afterward.

Then, people rant on about popular opinion, heedless of the fact that no new information was presented, or that everything they just read was false.

Regardless, it becomes an opportunity for people to rant & rave, which is what's about to happen here.

Yes quite accurate. This is why the Fascist have taken over. Most people run around ranting with little facts behind the statements made and do not even remember who started the problem in the first place. Survival of the fittest. Natural selection rules!

I like how people are trying to claim that this article is wrong, yet provide absolutely no evidence to support such a claim, rather they go off-topic as a measure to distract since they can't add any intellectual debate. What part of this article is false and why do you think so? What evidence do you have to support such a claim, other than your irrelevant and off-topic opinion?

Furthermore, what is you point, that the HCR bill will in fact help Americans and Obama is the savior of American health care? You are trying to get at this point by trolling off-subject and attacking any intellectual debate as not having facts, yet you fail to put anything forward to even resemble fact.

--airspoon

Originally posted by airspoon
I like how people are trying to claim that this article is wrong, yet provide absolutely no evidence to support such a claim, rather they go off-topic as a measure to distract since they can't add any intellectual debate. What part of this article is false and why do you think so? What evidence do you have to support such a claim, other than your irrelevant and off-topic opinion?

Furthermore, what is you point, that the HCR bill will in fact help Americans and Obama is the savior of American health care? You are trying to get at this point by trolling off-subject and attacking any intellectual debate as not having facts, yet you fail to put anything forward to even resemble fact.

--airspoon

Here's my contention.

The article states that health care premiums are going up. It states that the reason for this is due to two factors. Factor one is that the cost of medical care is increasing. Factor two is that less people are enrolled which means that insurers need to raise premiums to cover their end.

That's the main point in the article.

Then, you post the article, adding that Obama is not good for health care premiums, but is instead bad for health care premiums.

I fail to see a connection between Obama and health care premiums. Especially since the only thing he's done so far involving the health care industry won't be fully realized for another four years.

Regardless of the fact that no connection has been made between Obama and health care premiums, people show up to talk about how bad his HCR bill is.

I'm fine with debating the HCR bill on it's own merit. However, there is no information presented in the article that links the situation that is currently occurring with the Obama administration. Furthermore, you present no evidence either, aside from the fact that they have gone up since he has been in office.

Have the rates increased at a higher pace than before he was elected? Is this a continuation of a trend? If not, what are the causes? There has to be something besides Obama's magic aura, although no hint of those causes has been offered aside from the two factors in the article. One of which is something that the HCR bill will eliminate.

Nonetheless, everyone will show up here & talk about how bad the HCR bill is, and how it's going to cost us all a ton of money as premiums skyrocket.

I don't mean to say that you posted a hoax article, or that anything in the article was factually inaccurate.

My point is that there is no connection between the information in the article and the popular bashing of the HCR bill that is going to occur in this thread.

I'm not baselessly defending the HCR bill here. All I'm saying is that if you're going to criticize it, you should do so by showing how it is affecting premiums (keeping in mind that NOTHING HAS HAPPENED YET), instead of posting an article that states that the insurance companies lobbied against it.

If was many people in this board that dissected the true intentions of the HCR and posted over and over about what the whole scam was about.

Still those that were hook on hopes were blind to the truth.

Just wait when the big wave of higher taxes and higher premiums and crappy Medicaid comes around.

Hopefully the whole scam will die before is even born.

Obama HCR, a bailout to private insurance for life and his public option to add 44 million Americans to the burdened tax payer with Medicaid

Great reform.

reply to post by marg6043


This is exactly my point.

What does what you just said have to do with the source article?

reply to post by suicydking


Lets just say that the insurance lobby is telling the truth and the higher premiums are up because not enough healthy people are buying individual plans. Then how on earth will the HCR bill do anything to curb those higher premiums when the gap between healthy and unhealthy gets even larger once the so-called "reform" comes into effect?

Also, it's quite foolish to think that premiums are so high due solely to medical costs and a lack of healthy people to even out the 'benefit to cost' ratio. It would be even more foolish to assume that a lobbying group would be truthful about their respective operating procedures. The health insurance industry is there to profit, not to be a public service. Their premiums are going to rise to whatever they feel they can get away with, as to benefit themselves and their investors, not the public at large. This article relates to the HCR bill in that this is only a microcosm of what's to come, since the motive of the insurance industry will remain the same, with the only difference being that people will be forced to patronize them, i.e. a larger customer base to profit from.

--airspoon

[edit on 22-6-2010 by airspoon]

The corrupted insurance companies are expected to raise premiums before the HCR takes place so they can make a killing when the so call cheaper premiums are "offered" to the unsuspecting consumer that will be forced into buying whatever is been presented or face fines

Just like deceiving practices of retailers that in order to offer sales prices they hike the prices prior to the sale, only those that are blind to see that is not sell at all think they are saving something.