Health Care question for you…

I want to keep this civil, or I know it will get dusted. But I recently went through a presentation by our company regarding our health care program. Ours is Cigna..but I don’t believe it matters. In a nutshell, our rates and employee contribution and co-pays are being jacked in anticipation of Nationalized Health Care. This was the actual reason given for the rate increases. I thought this was to save us money??? It may be that the big insurance companies are trying to make hay before it kicks in. But they cited the exact verbage from the bill where they and we are affected. My company says they have a gun to their head. If they decide to end health coverage, they would be taxed into oblivion (Payroll taxes up to 8% of payroll if I remember right..) We are not a huge company, but we are National and rather good sized. Our company is going to curb hiring because of the fact that for every employee added, it increases $ they have to pay out. And, there is word that money we pay for healthcare may soon be taxed.

So, before this plan even kicks in, I have to pay an additional $135/month and an additional $10-$20 in co-pays.

All I want to know is are any of you hearing or seeing this? Yes, I have my political views about this…but I don’t want to start a debate about that here. I am just concerned other IDO’ers may be experiencing the same thing.

It looks like the RN’s in Minneapolis will vote soon. 0% pay raise the first year.

I sell the stuff, for them to tell you the increase in costs due to Obama care, is probably a stretch since the requirement to insure the uninsured get phazed in over several years. As I understand it, and as of today, July 1, the states each have either their own pool or a Federal pool in which those with no coverage and in a certain income bracket can obtain coverage. The pools are restrictive to new applicants, and underfunded. (No surprise here). On the group side, employers are highly encouraged to start a group plan, get tax breaks or pay a penalty for not having a plan for employees. Employees can get out of group insurance, get a kickback from their employer, but pay a tax(penalty)for not having insurance. In four years anyone can get insurance no matter how sick they are with out fear of being rated up or have exclusions. Here is when things get real scary for all of us. Four years down the road. The government will require all people to be covered, insurers can not rider or rate up, so an unhealthy person with a 100% chance of large claim can get coverage, guaranteed, at a standard cost and insurers will get chastized for having high premiums…duh! And the government will swoop in with socialized care and we will all line up in a perfect march and parade past the whitehouse and thank the big O. Everybody is getting pinched, not just you.

As a matter of fact I heard something along these lines today from my son’s physician.

I was told that the insurance companies are becoming less flexible because no one really knows what/how the Nationalized Healthcare will work and affect the rest of the insurance companies.

I think you hit it on the head….make hay while they can. They have been doing it for years, it has gone up at a rate way over inflation, for decades. Hopefully everybody “having to have” healthcare, will actually drive our costs down. Let’s face it…the gunshot victim without healthcare, never gets turned away…guess who makes up the difference ??? Our company is submitting for bids right now also, for a new provider….they do this about every 3 years or so, to try to keep the provider honest. Rates go up every year…..I haven’t been to the doctor in years…. If I could(wife let me) , I would buy catastrophic insurance for myself and just be real careful

On another note, kind of ticked me off what I heard on Kare11 last night…gas prices are expected to go up to $2.80 a gallon before the big weekend……he (Pomerantz) then went on to say, “well at least it is not $4.00 a gallon like a few years ago”…….??? Same deal here, they raise it because they can….

big G

I believe My coverage is going up 10 percent,in May of 2011
almost 15G right now.

They are gouging while they can.

If you are young and healthy, you might consider opting out of the health plan and paying the government fine. You may be money ahead believe it or not.

We are experiencing the same thing at work. We switched providers three years ago. The first two years we were able to lock in the increases, so last year and this year I believe it will be a total increase of 34%! They have to make up for the first two years! And we are not shopping around! Makes sense!

I suffer from corhn’s disease and am really nervous about this whole deal!

Chomps couldn’t you get around the tax issue with an HRA. It is still considered group health plan but would allow you to purchase the plan you want on the open market. At least that is how it is here among the mudducks from my understanding.

Chris, what they are telling you is the truth. I work for a health insurance company and I know our rates are going up. We are also no longer offering two of our most affordable plans because they don’t meet the requirements of the new bill.

Timeline for healthcare reform that directly effects premiums (I might be a little off on these dates):
Insurance plans can no longer have annual maximums-Fall 2010
Lifetime maximums on new plans and current plans need to be taken off and become unlimited-Fall 2010
No more exclusionary riders for dependent children-current

As an insurance agent, I talk to people all over the country everyday who are seeing their rates increase with many different insurance companies.

Insurance has been over utilized for some time now. I’ve seen hundreds of people in the ER for stupid things like slivers. This was a long time coming.

Health INS needs to be thought of like home INS or auto INS. If you scratch your car or break a window in your home. You don’t call up your INS agent and have them pay. You pay yourself or just live with it. Same with health INS. If you get a cold, scratch or bump, deal with it and let it heal. No need to go into the ER and rack up the cost. If you use your INS for catastrophic coverage, you’ll be better off.

I’ve got an HSA and I love it. Low premiums (192/month) paid for by work. Plus work will match my monthly HSA contribution up to $150/month. So I put away $300/month (1/2 from my company) into an account that is mine. My deductible is $2200. So after the first year I had more in my account than my deductible. In theory, I’ll never have to worry about INS and paying the deductible because I’ve got more than the yearly deductible in the bank.

I truly think this is the way of the future.

I hear you guys. ours went way up this year for the cheaper program with higher deductible. I actually pay 20.00 more this year for the worse coverage of the 2 and I paid less last year for the best coverage the company had to offer.

here is what chaps my hide ( and I do collections for a medical company) but my wife had surgery and here is the kicker. I get the bill and some items from the surgery are covered 100% and some items from the exact same surgery are covered at 80% because of how the clinics/hospital code things. that is where money gets nuts. as basically they told me it was a “extra” OK it was stuff that was needed for recovery, or even anesthesia in the surgery was covered at a lesser rate then the surgery itself

and I work in the business, I hear from people all over the country also. it is just getting worse in my opinion. And in my defense and before people say they “hate guys like me” I am not the normal collector. I actually give people advice on how to get their insurance to cover more or set up “affordable” payment plans. as some of these places just want the money and no matter the bill size they want it paid off in 3 months. (which there are ways around to a point).

have a good holiday weekend all, enjoy it before we all have to start working 7 days a week to cover just living.

Broncs

HRA’s are for group plans, HSA’s are individual. The “H” stands for health, RA=reinbursement account, SA=savings account. RA, deducted from your wages pretax (for now!) SA, tax deductible when you do your taxes. Both are good plans as long as your carrier has each product priced correctly. This bill is simply insurance reform, nothing to do with healthcare reform. One post up above hit the nail on the head regarding emergency room visits. Parents used to stay home with a kid with the sniffles, now they can’t/don’t so bring the kid to the ER and get him ready for school the next day. If you look at the price of health insurance, look at the price of health care. Hospitals pass the cost of all that fancy equipment on to the patients, and the patient passes it to the insurance company. If any of you think the cost of health insurance will be going down when all these uninsurable people hit the market, think again!