Nebraska health-insurance premiums increase 21%-143% with ObamaCare

Nebraska health-insurance premiums increase 21%-143% with ObamaCare

It looks like the population of Nebraska will be paying some real outrageous insurance rates pretty soon.

And guess what else ?

Won't be able to keep your coveted existing plan so fast either.

Nebraska has opted out of a State based exchange, so the Feds will take over.

The Lincoln Journal Star added to the annals of ‘If you like your plan you can keep your plan (Midwestern edition)” yesterday with a new report on the impact of ObamaCare on health insurance premiums in Nebraska. Thanks to the mandates in ObamaCare, most of the individual insurance plans offered in the past will no longer be available, whether consumers liked their plan or not. The replacements will be much more expensive, with cost hikes ranging from 21% increases to as much as 143%:

Nebraska Insurance Commissioner Bruce Ramge pointed out that a comparison of rates between Coventry and Blue Cross Blue Shield, the only companies of the four that offered rates in past years, showed that health insurance costs are going up for most Nebraskans.

Tom Gilsdorf, director of product development at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska countered: “An apples-to-apples comparison of 2013 health insurance costs to 2014 costs is virtually impossible,” he said. “Health insurance that will be sold to individuals, families and small businesses for 2014 is new and must cover a range of Essential Health Benefits that were not covered in the past.”

Lower-cost options are available to Nebraskans that are not shown in a one page 2013-to-2014 comparison sample posted by the department.

In the example, the cost of a Blue Cross Blue Shield “silver” plan covering 70 percent of health costs was $245 a month for a 30-year-old single man living in Lincoln, up 82 percent from a year ago, and for Coventry, $271.65, up 143 percent.

Family coverage in Hastings on a silver plan for a 50-year-old single mother with three children was almost $1,000, up 21 percent for Blue Cross Blue Shield and down 5 percent for Coventry, at $975.

This is what’s known as “cost control” by the Obama administration. In this case, they can’t blame Nebraska for tweaking the exchange to the disadvantage of consumers, because Nebraska is one of the states that refused to comply with ObamaCare and construct their own exchange. The prices in this case come from the federal exchange that HHS is creating in Nebraska in order to deal with the gap.

Nebraska health-insurance premiums increase 21%-143% with ObamaCare


And don't count on those 'rebates' from the insurance companies will give you back if they don't spend 80-85% of premium money on 'care' expenses.

Those rebates will only be worth snot-dripping chicken feed compared to the rates YOU will be paying ahead of time.

Insurance companies screwing the public over so what else is new? The government didn't tell these companies to jack up their rates they did that because they think they are going to lose business to Obamacare.

reply to post by buster2010


Wrong!

Rates have been hiked to pay for the added expense of the ACA.

Let's see here...

The proposed rates posted at www.doi.nebraska.gov are considered to be in draft form and are presented only as a preliminary tool for comparison. Some of the plans will be offered on the marketplace and others will be offered outside of it, according to the Insurance Department.

So the premiums might go up...or they might go down. We don't know yet. Might as well report the draft as what's actually going to happen though.

I live in Nebraska, I also have Blue Cross-Blue Shield. I'll let you know if my premium increases by 143% in October.

Here in my neck of the woods the increases will come due to the fact that competition is what keeps rates competitive, because we have one hospital monopoly we have been warned already by the city that the insurance exchange will not work so that means higher premiums.

But rest assure that the ones to be targeted is as usual the productive working class part of the population because the so call welfare care and working poor will get the same Medicaid benefits that they has been receiving before Obamacrap.

a reply to: links234

I forgot to update you. My premium went up 8%.

a reply to: xuenchen

Hmmm a state without its own exchange sees a increase, not surprising is it?

a reply to: LDragonFire

Aye.

Bankruptcy is imminent.

a reply to: LDragonFire

I really do apologize for resurrecting this from a year ago. It just didn't come to fruition though.

However, Iowa has it better, they expanded Medicaid and have their own exchange:
A Tale of Two States - Insurance Premiums in Iowa and Nebraska Border Counties

Today, the Center for Rural Affairs released a new report examining how Nebraska’s decision not to participate in the Medicaid expansion program as provided by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has contributed to higher health insurance premiums compared to Iowa.

a reply to: links234

I think Medicaid expansion in some states will cause increases in regular insurance rates.

Because doctors and hospitals will charge more if you have insurance.

They have to cover the price controls of Medicaid.

originally posted by: Metallicus
reply to post by buster2010

 

Wrong!

Rates have been hiked to pay for the added expense of the ACA.

There are no added expenses. The ACA-Obamacare is a fascist piece of crap that tries to force Americans to purchase a product from the corporate insurance companies knowing full well that the insurance companies would jack up the price to make a profit.

We have been shammed! If Obama and the Democrats wanted to "better the healthcare system", they would have went to a universal or single-payer system that minimizes the healthcare-for-profit aspect.

But no.....the Democrats needed campaign funds and bowed-down to the lobbyists.