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My healthcare costs have been rising steadily since the 1990's. I don't see where the increases have grown any more severe since Obamacare.
Yes, they've been increasing steadily since the late 90's when HIPAA (and all the mandates that came with it) went into effect. ObamaCare is just more mandates...wait until a year after it's been fully implemented, then you're really going to see all the ways it's people more money.
I've been in health insurance since 95 but, I've been saying this before that...it's simple, you've got a bunch of people that don't like how much they're paying for insurance. Then you have a bunch that don't have it and can't afford it and we've all decided they should be covered just like everyone else. The way that's going to happen is if the people that don't like what they're paying even more so that the who don't have it can get it. You can use all the smoke and mirrors you want to BS the public but, the bottom line is, that's the only way of can happen.
Translation: The poor get Medicaid, as they should, and anyone, even you, can walk into an emergency room and get treated, as it should be.
That doesn't make the ER treatment "free." They will bill you and will eventually write it off if you can't pay. But that right-off will cost you your credit score and they'll still hound you for the money.
You're not going to get chemo or care for chronic conditions in an ER.
Group plans are the norm, covering most Americans. Self employed often rely on spouses covered under group plans.
No they're not, I'm a broker and all I do is health insurance. Group is a major part of private insurance but, individual is a big portion as well. When people are self-employed, the spouse often either doesn't work or is part of the same business. Also very often now, are paying very little or none of the premium for an employee to add family members to their coverage. Depending upon the state you're in, the health status of the family members, whether or not maternity coverage is still needed, the number of family members and their ages are all factors in determining whether or not it's cheaper (without sacrificing coverage) add them to am employers coverage or get a separate individual plan for them.
Again, depending upon the situation, the group coverage can be much more expensive than an individual plan (because that are already in place on group) but, that's going to change drastically with ObamaCare.....premium increases for individual will outpace group as more mandates kick in (if it doesn't completely destroy the market as insurers just stop offering it).
Last edited by Danno3314; 01-20-2013 at 09:32 AM..
(Sigh) you might actually learn something if you studied the issues.
I'll do my utmost to try and walk you through it so that maybe you can understand it.
Obamacare limits an employee's annual premium payments to 9.5% of disposable household income.
That is a problem ---- freaking obviously -- since employers do not know the disposable household income of their employees.
So, then, the $64,000 Question is how will employers know the disposable household income of their employees?
Well, the Big Brain you-Harvards at H&HS and the IRS haven't quite figured that out yet, but rest assured whatever they figure out will be an hassle and very time consuming and add to the cost of health care in the US.
In the interim.......the IRS has ruled that an employer may use the W-2 Wages from the previous year as a substitute for disposable household income until the Big Brain you-Harvards come up with something.
Get it?
Okay, for those who still....just...don't....get...it....if you were paying 5% of wages for your monthly/annual health care premiums, you will most likely now by paying 9.5% of your wages.
Why? Because an employer would be stupid not to pass as much of the costs onto the employees as the law allows, and the law allows 9.5% of disposable household income.
Now, who would like to ask a really silly question like, "How is Obama responsible?"
Anyone as smart as Mircea will now correctly conclude that those people who were paying more than 9.5% of their W-2 Wages will see their monthly health plan premiums decrease, while those people who were paying less than 9.5% of W-2 Wages will very likely see their monthly premiums increase.
When the Big Brain you-Harvards figure out how to collect information on disposable household income and then report that information to employers, you will once again have a situation where some people will see their premiums decrease, while others see their premiums increase.
And, yes, I'm hoping I don't have to explain the difference between W-2 Wages and disposable household income.
Schooling...
Mircea
The only thing that you taught us is that you are rude and unswervingly condescending. I don't know how much of what you purported to be facts are actually true, since you cited nothing.
Which is the kind the OP claims to have and is whining about increases to personal contribution that his employer requires, as opposed to actually discussing cost of health insurance premium itself (which averaged $15.7K in 2012 for a employer sponsored health insurance premium, not $1716 that the OP claims assuming though that he has a family plan and even it were an individual plan, $1.7K/year would be a darn cheap insurance plan).
It may have been a combination of both. The plans rate increase at renewal (which will vary from insurer to insurer and state to state) and a change in the employers contribution percentage (often for what they're willing to contribute for an employees family members and not so much the employee themselves). Most contribute more but, they only have to pay at least 50% of the employees premium and they none of family members if they don't want to.
What's been happening is a lot of employers that do contribute something towards covering family members, are sometimes lowering that by maybe 10% in an effort to control cost.
Last edited by Danno3314; 01-20-2013 at 09:31 AM..
No they're not, I'm a broker and all I do is health insurance. Group is a major part of private insurance but, individual is a big portion as well. When people are self-employed, the spouse either doesn't work or is part of the same business. Also very often now, are paying very little or none of the premium for an employee to add family members to their coverage.
Most medium sized employers in this region pay the vast majority of the family portion of coverage, as telling folks your bi-weekly portion is $400 does not get you many applicants. Since a good family plan will cost one north of 15k, not paying the majority would make any non upper level mgmt position impossible to fill. We cannot afford that; we can afford to pay the majority of your family coverage. Nationally, our corp comprised of several dozen subsidiaries, pays about 80% of non employee portions.
It may have been a combination of both. The plans rate increase at renewal (which will vary from insurer to insurer and state to state) and a change in the employers contribution percentage (often for what they're willing to contribute for an employees family members and not so much the employee themselves).
It also likely had to do with a lazy corp. My previous one improperly calculated the employee portion for 5 YEARS, awoke one day to find the employer portion went up far too much (self insured,using an insurance corp to administer), and pushed through the equivalent of 4 years of rate increases in ONE year.
The HR VP told me his staff was warned they would be fired immediately if they fell one year behind again. Cost corp megabucks planning how to spread the pain around, as even the employees in mgmt at subsidiaries were clueless understanding the annual 2% rate increases they got 5 years straight meant the credit card balance was rising, and now they just had to come up with the past due.
One big question remains: why in the world are employers in the business of bestowing health insurance to employees. This needless hassle and indirection is a conundrum which only exists in America. Its just another way health insurance snakes leech more money off the American public.
Which is the kind the OP claims to have and is whining about increases to personal contribution that his employer requires, as opposed to actually discussing cost of health insurance premium itself (which averaged $15.7K in 2012 for a employer sponsored health insurance premium, not $1716 that the OP claims assuming though that he has a family plan and even it were an individual plan, $1.7K/year would be a darn cheap insurance plan).
You sure spew a lot of garbage on a topic you know little about. You don't know my employer, my coverage or those that are covered by my plan. But ignorance doesn't stop you from posting.
I'm glad we can't smell your posts..... that would be really offensive.
Even after selecting the cheapest plan with the highest deductibles, my premiums are up 82% over last year. That's to pay for all of the ObamaCare mandates, taxes and fees.
But he doesn't care... we pay for HIS health care too.
I know I hate it too. Medicare for all would have been much better and far cheaper
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