Health insurers seek rate hikes, citing new reform law

Joe wrote:

Dummy Up wrote: Never would have happened with a public option, just another corporate give away.

You mean the public "option" like-

Medicaid - pays 60% "Sorry we don't take medicaid patients" - sign on the door.
Medicare- Forecast to go broke. "Sorry we are not accepting new medicare patients"

Option is not an option. The gov't sets low rates and costs are transferred to the private sector. (thats you and me, who don't have the "option") Hello McFly.

Right now we pay more than anybody else on earth, and we get less...We are being fleeced. Wake up

archer wrote:

Joe wrote: www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16120503

"Health-insurance companies are raising rates in Colorado, ending sales of child-only policies and blaming their actions in part on the federal health reform law"

"This new law mandates that all policies include coverages that just weren't being purchased by small businesses and families before, and additional benefits do incur additional costs,"

UnitedHealthcare asked for 20.5 percent increases for 241 individuals.
Aetna ask for 26.4 percent hikes covering 6,600 people.
The Golden Rule Insurance Co. asked for a flurry of increases of up to 26.8 percent for nearly 2,000 people.

Yippie!

Surprise surprise. Get ready to pay >20% more. Many thanks!

So what was their excuse last year when my health insurance went up 34%......and the year before that when it went up 26%????

Perhaps, your insurance premiums went up as a result of what underwriters term "utilization."

That occurs when people make an appearance at an emergency room, doctor or specialist, there is a cost for:

1.) The professional service rendered and support staff,
2.) The overhead of the service (w/o listing it all out),
3.) The cost of the facility in the case of a doctor that is contracted with the hospital,
4.) Administrative cost (reader's digest short story version),
5.) other (including pharmaceutical and supplies)

These costs have to be paid by someone. If the receiver of services is not prepared to pay for the services, the cost are passed on to the folks that have insurance or some other ability to pay. The "pass through" occurs via INCREASED COSTS OF SERVICES.


Excluding the genuine folks that can not get insurance for the inablility to afford coverage (everyone can get insurance - it comes down to how much you are willing to pay), what group of folks make up the large population of "uninsured?"

I will leave that up to you to decide. This was merely a very BASIC lesson in economics.


BTW, "FLEECING" is the result of un/under-insureds utilizing a system without contributing to the pool.

Right now we pay more than anybody else on earth, and we get less...We are being fleeced. Wake up

Well then, another 26% more on top of "more than anybody on earth" sounds good to me, glad the problem has been fixed.

Joe wrote:

Right now we pay more than anybody else on earth, and we get less...We are being fleeced. Wake up

Well then, another 26% more on top of "more than anybody on earth" sounds good to me, glad the problem has been fixed.

Doesn't Obamas sell out plan go into effect around 2016 or something? It's like everything else little buddy...NOTHINGS CHANGED

If you knew what you stood for and support................. you'd be lovin Obama..

AV8OR wrote:

archer wrote:

Joe wrote: www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16120503

"Health-insurance companies are raising rates in Colorado, ending sales of child-only policies and blaming their actions in part on the federal health reform law"

"This new law mandates that all policies include coverages that just weren't being purchased by small businesses and families before, and additional benefits do incur additional costs,"

UnitedHealthcare asked for 20.5 percent increases for 241 individuals.
Aetna ask for 26.4 percent hikes covering 6,600 people.
The Golden Rule Insurance Co. asked for a flurry of increases of up to 26.8 percent for nearly 2,000 people.

Yippie!

Surprise surprise. Get ready to pay >20% more. Many thanks!

So what was their excuse last year when my health insurance went up 34%......and the year before that when it went up 26%????

Perhaps, your insurance premiums went up as a result of what underwriters term "utilization."

.

Nice assumption but untrue. Everyone with an individual policy had their premiums raised by that percentage.....didn't you read all the flack BC/BS took in CA for raising everyone's rates by >30%....well they did it in CO too.....those of us who have to buy our own policies have been getting fleeced (such a good word for it) by insurance companies for years. Why should things change now? They just have a new excuse for business as usual.

Why should things change now?

"This new law mandates that all policies include coverages that just weren't being purchased..."
Like "not really free" preventative care, lower deductables, co-pays, higher lifetime limits, etc.=higher premiums.

1. Federally Mandated benefits whether you want to buy them or not.
2. No change in public "option" program re-imbursement levels that are below cost/ below private plans
3. No tax deductions for individual insurance like group plans receive now
4. No penalties/accountability for deadbeats that abuse emergency rooms for free care and have no desire to pitch in a nickel for the costs they put on all the rest of us.
5. No change in malpractice lawsuits
6. No long term fix for Medicare funding
7. Increased burden on states for increased medicaid enrollment leading to even lower re-imbursement rates/cost shifting.
8. etc. etc.

I strongly disagree

I think the big health insurance companies are going to shoot themselves in the foot with the rate increases. Their customers are going to start demanding the public option. Or maybe the health care insurers realize the public option is the future and they are just going to try and grab as much cash as they can before they get shut down by goverment decree.

I forget. Which president was it that signed the law giving federal aid to HMOs to stimulate them and who proposed a Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan for all Americans?

Anyone remember?

Wait a minute... It's coming to me...