Second wave of health plan cancellations looms (how much, cost, dollars)
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Democrats don't actually work. They just steal for a living so none of them can conceive how their hairbrained ideas affect real Americans working for a living.
Nor do they care.
The only answer to all the problems created by the Dems is cut ALL of their money off.
I have been reading up on the narrow network development recently as it is something that I would have to contend with if I want to save a lot of money on my plan this year. It sounds like narrow networks are something that all of us are going to have to get used to, and that includes providers who don't like the lower reimbursements insurers are offering, as well as employees. If you were around back in the 1980s you will recall that employer plans were forcing us into things like Cigna where you had to go to one of their facilities for all your care. Other insurers put together very, very small groups of providers and employees were stuck with them. Employees did not like that and the restrictive HMOs gradually disappeared. But, it looks like they will be coming back as employers push to hold down health care costs.
My state exchange offerings have both the narrow network and the much broader PPOs. The narrow network policies cost about 25% less than the PPO w/out of network benefits do. For me, who is paying the full cost, that savings amounts to thousands of dollars in a year. I am deciding if it is worth it. The rest of you, and your employers, may be joining me in that sooner than you think.
Our sons each had to fill out a 64 page application for an exchange policy.
How is that better, exactly?
Ger real. I enrolled on the exchange. Maybe you are talking about small business apps, but the individual process is quick. It takes all of about 15 minutes if that. If you know you make too much for a subsidy it might take 1/3 of that since you don't have to answer qualification questions.
No. If anything, Obamacare delayed the inevitable by holding down the rate of increase in health care costs. I read that the average employee health benefit now costs $15000 at large companies. Even with small increases, that level is unsustainable in a competitive market where every one of your competitors has taxpayer funded health care. You just can't get productivity gains large enough to offset it anymore.
I am all for the idea of de-coupling insurance from employment. If employers move more employees to exchanges to get insurance, it is a good thing in the long run. We would be better off if people made their own choices about health insurance just like they do homeowners or automobile. However, the exchanges in many states and counties need a whole lot more choice and competition than we see this year. The potential of 100 million customers versus the couple million this year might lead to some of the big companies which stayed away in 2014 jumping in. The problem though is that the ACA presently will not allow employers to reimburse for exchange policies. That could be changed but the Republicans are not interested in improvement, just going back to the good old days of yesteryear with respect to health care. A possible solution might be private exchanges. A few of these popped up in 2013.
"I am all for the idea of de-coupling insurance from employment"
IMO, you are contradicting yourself.
People HAVE the choice to take employee offered health care plans.
If they don't want it they do NOT have to take it.
I thought you wanted people to be able to " if people made their own choices about health insurance."?
What do you find objectionable about an employer offering health care plans?
"As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals."
Sounds great.....
Oh, come on... You know darn well that kid with a brain tumor didn't really need a pediatric oncologist.
Just like moving employees to 401k's. Now that many are close to retirement they have no savings.
Move them to the insurance market and many will not purchase at all.
"Now that many are close to retirement they have no savings." B.S
My plan lost 1/3 of its value after the housing bubble crash and I retired the same year. As of last year I have regained what my value lost and have even gained more.
Ger real. I enrolled on the exchange. Maybe you are talking about small business apps, but the individual process is quick. It takes all of about 15 minutes if that. If you know you make too much for a subsidy it might take 1/3 of that since you don't have to answer qualification questions.
No, it wasn't a small business app. If that were the case, *I* would have been filling it out, not them.
And no, it wasn't quick - it was a 64 page application, and neither of them "make too much for a subsidy."
You don't have to believe me, but you can't ignore the facts.
"I am all for the idea of de-coupling insurance from employment"
IMO, you are contradicting yourself.
People HAVE the choice to take employee offered health care plans.
If they don't want it they do NOT have to take it.
I thought you wanted people to be able to " if people made their own choices about health insurance."?
What do you find objectionable about an employer offering health care plans?
Well, it ought to be obvious, but I will give you two things to cruch on:
1. Employees are tethered to their employer. Loss of a job, voluntarily or otherwise can spell financial disaster. I can't begin to tell you all the people I know who would walk away if not for their "benefits".
2. It is increasingly becoming a competitive disadvantage for US employers. One reason that so many move jobs offshore is because in every other civilized country, employers pay a much smaller, often zero, amount for employee health care. That also leaves more on the table for other benefits like more liberal leave plans. And let's not forget retiree health care costs, which are driving companies into bankruptcy.
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