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My understanding is the Federal Government forced BCBS many years ago to compete price wise with the for-profits. Those for-profits felt threatened by the non-profits. Many BCBS are still non-profit but they have to collude with other insurance companies in order to fix their costs. Health insurance companies are allowed to violate ant-trust legislation in order to so.
Federal government?
More like states that regulate insurers. I believe California was one state that did so while subsidizing other insurers. All this went down long before the ACA.
The waiting period attributed to preexisting conditions were applicable to only grandfathered Individual Plans.
There are 13 healthcare insurance regions in Illinois and not all insurers participate in all regions. Premiums vary insurer to insurer, region to region.
While I am covered by my husband's employer's large group plan, I have tracked the cost of premiums for years because he could retire. I live about 1/4 mile from the border of a region. If I lived 1/4 Mike north I would pay more for the plan than I would in my own region. If I lived downstate instead of the highly competitive Chicago metro area, premiums would be substantially higher for the same plan.
Since I do not qualify for subsidy/ credit, I am not tied to the exchange and therefore have found more competition independent of the exchange.
It all depends.
You're missing the point. I'm not saying all costs are the same in IL, I'm saying in IL, at least, for any given area, they are not competitive. Once you plug your gender, age, county and other information into the marketplace website, the options come up, and comparable plans charge the same thing. There is no competition. I've helped two relatives by going into the system at two different times and caught this right away, because it's one more lie people were told about what the ACA would do.
When that proved not affordable for them, I was told by the carriers who continued carrying private insurance that the waiving of pre-existing conditions only applied if you were covered through group insurance or got one of the ACA plans. All individual or family insurance gotten directly from the carrier would include waiting periods before pre-existing conditions would be covered.
Reduced competition in any market typically leads to higher costs, regardless of product.
I am sorry to hear about your plight.
As I understand it, 84% of those who buy their insurance from an exchange will not feel the pinch of increases because subsidies/ credits are tied to rates. Sounds like you might not qualify for a subsidy/ credit. Only reason to buy insurance off an exchange is to get a subsidy/ credit. If you don't qualify, you may have more opportunities, off the exchange.
Before the ACA, some states found themselves in similar positions, a lack of competition amongst healthcare insurers. In some instances, states subsidized insurance companies to remain. Other states made insurers' ability to write more lucrative large group plans and auto insurance contingent upon remaining in the Individual Plan Market. Some states did nothing and premiums reflected the lack of competition.
If you end up deciding to be uninsured, make sure your auto insurance covers medical claims even if you and / or your wife are responsible for the accident.
Just looked at the ObamaCare website and for next year we've gone from 10 +/- companies to ONE choice of insurers.
The absolute bottom of the barrel policy went from $225 mo to $743 mo. THIS IS MORE THAN OUR MORTGAGE payment. The policy that she had this year, a silver policy went from $323 to $875 with a $6000 deductible.
Sorry, I'll go bankrupt if I have to before I'll pay it.
Not directly. Mine in fact went down significantly this year. It seems weird of course, but the losses from young people not signing up in Obamacare leaving too many high risks apparently are not being passed to a company's entire subscriber base but just to the Obamacare ones.
In any case, this is the death spiral. Higher premiums will mean even more pull out and that means higher premiums for the rest. So far anyway. It needs fixing. The fix is easy in concept - young, healthy people need to sign up in numbers originally envisioned. That will be hard to achieve though.
The fix is simple, elect Trump and dump obamacare.. The simple way, and the only correct option..
Republicans dont represent you, they represent the donor class. Are you a member of the big money donor class? The billionaire class laugh at people who vote for their puppets. If you want representation, vote for people who are not beholden to anyone but the people. Dont vote for puppets who laugh in your face. You might as well give your money straight to the billionaires instead of voting for their puppets. Dont complain when your representative serve the interests of his and hers financial overlords.
I can already hear Hillary Clinton's infamous nasty laugh and see her nasty face.
We used to be in the same boat as Bernie Sanders and I always applauded your posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by PCALMike
Nope, some politicians are not beholden to the donor class. They are funded by the people. Do you deny that?
I suppose that applies to Republicans, as well as the third parties, too. Whether one calls Hillary Clinton a Democrat or Republican, she would be the last politician on earth to belong to such.
The Clintons are worth hundreds of millions, why don't they use their own money for her campaign, but take donations from billionaires and Wall Street?
Quote:
Originally Posted by InformedConsent
What I've seen is that Dems have more financial overlords than Republicans: Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, George Soros, etc., etc., etc.
Obamacare's premise was that young, healthy Americans like me would overpay for insurance to subsidize the care of the sick, now the cheapest plan I can get is over $200 a month with a $6,500 deductible and I'd rather roll the dice and not pay for health insurance nor the tax penalty.
Democrats, liberals, left wingers, communists, socialists or whatever you want to call them deserve every second and every inch of this. The democratic voting blocks of millennials, single mothers on a budget and minorities need to get NAILED by this. I don't know how anyone can play dumb to this. Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail against this for YEARS. Why they receive NO credit for predicting this is unbelievable. They've said this 10 MILLION times for the last 7 years, this will NOT work it's unsustainable, we can't do it.
Damn near EVERY single GOP congressman, governor and/or presidential contender stood on the highest mountain and tried everything in their power to block this since 2009.
There is no "adjustment" or "tweaking" that can fix it. The only way this can work for a few more people is if we INCREASE subsidies. In reality it just needs to be scrapped completely. Democrats just need to own up to it already. It's a failed plan, the GOP WAS RIGHT. The market is already correcting it, and this is the outcome sky high unaffordable monthly payments, out of touch deductibles costing in the thousands and basement dweller plans that aren't good for anyone. HOW MANY TIMES DID WE HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS over the last 7 years????
The GOP told you that it could NOT be sustained and that in NO way was this "affordable." They tried to block it from every angle to the highest court and The Democratic sheep stood right behind this train wreck of a deal just because they thought it was "racist" for the GOP to fight it when in reality the math just didn't add up.
Democratic voters should be forced fed every single drop of this
Democrats, liberals, left wingers, communists, socialists or whatever you want to call them deserve every second and every inch of this. The democratic voting blocks of millennials, single mothers on a budget and minorities need to get NAILED by this. I don't know how anyone can play dumb to this. Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail against this for YEARS. Why they receive NO credit for predicting this is unbelievable. They've said this 10 MILLION times for the last 7 years, this will NOT work it's unsustainable, we can't do it.
Damn near EVERY single GOP congressman, governor and/or presidential contender stood on the highest mountain and tried everything in their power to block this since 2009.
There is no "adjustment" or "tweaking" that can fix it. The only way this can work is if we INCREASE subsidies. In reality it just needs to be scrapped completely. Democrats just need to own up to it already. It's a failed plan, the GOP WAS RIGHT. The market is already correcting it, and this is the outcome sky high unaffordable monthly payments, out of touch deductibles costing in the thousands and basement dweller plans that aren't good for anyone. HOW MANY TIMES DID WE HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS over the last 7 years????
The GOP told you that it could NOT be sustained and that in NO way was this "affordable." They tried to block it from every angle to the highest court and The Democratic sheep stood right behind this train wreck of a deal just because they thought it was "racist" for the GOP to fight it when in reality the math just didn't add up.
Democratic voters should be forced fed every single drop of this
Just looked at the ObamaCare website and for next year we've gone from 10 +/- companies to ONE choice of insurers.
The absolute bottom of the barrel policy went from $225 mo to $743 mo. THIS IS MORE THAN OUR MORTGAGE payment. The policy that she had this year, a silver policy went from $323 to $875 with a $6000 deductible.
Sorry, I'll go bankrupt if I have to before I'll pay it.
Make SURE you do not have an income tax refund coming. Then cancel your insurance and find a "major medical" (traditional) provider. They are still out there and are much more affordable than OC compliant plans. Don't pay the OC penalty on your taxes...they can only take it out of your refund (from what I have been told).
Another disaster brought to us courtesy the Democrat party.
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The policy that she had this year, a silver policy went from $323 to $875 with a $6000 deductible.
