(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

(10-30-2015 10:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

Will your company be subject to the upcoming "Cadillac" tax?

So my pregnant wife has an autoimmune disease that requires heart imagine and lung function testing... and Duke billed our insurance $5,967 last time for it. We had a $20 co-pay.

Next year, we'll have to pay all or 50% of it, and my premiums are STILL going up 25%.

Actually, scratch that... I apparently can't do math.

I'm going from $310 per month (premium) to $484 per month. So... over 50%, actually.

(10-30-2015 10:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

That's quite a substantial employee pool to spread costs over. That's why your rates seems to be increasing less than others and why your employer will probably be offering insurance longer than smaller business that employee significantly less people.

(10-30-2015 10:18 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(10-30-2015 10:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

Will your company be subject to the upcoming "Cadillac" tax?

I don't believe so. We should be below the threshold.

(10-30-2015 10:19 AM)200yrs2late Wrote:  

(10-30-2015 10:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

That's quite a substantial employee pool to spread costs over. That's why your rates seems to be increasing less than others and why your employer will probably be offering insurance longer than smaller business that employee significantly less people.

I should have been a little more specific. That's the number of employees world wide. That's not those participating in health insurance or those having insurance through our US provider. It looks like our total employees in the states is around 20,000...but again, not all of those would be buying insurance.

It should be self-evident that the larger a company is, the more 'average' their experience is.

The ACA is essentially a non-issue for these people, but they were precisely the people promised $2500 in savings. We're just going to IGNORE that.

It is the people who were NOT in this large, BUT NOT EVEN MAJORITY cohort who are impacted. Some positively, and some negatively

SOME of the wealthy are impacted, but the truly wealthy likely self-insure anyway, or they supplement and pay the nominal penalty. Someone making millions doesn't care about a $1500 penalty.. or even a $10,000 one. However in the business they run, they care about what would effectively be a million dollar penalty... and that is what drives the changes for many smaller companies. You like to blame the business owners, but it was obviously the government that changed the rules, and the companies obviously react to it. EVERYONE reacts to changes in the rules. If they change the speed limit, you change your speed... so it's really only what I call the 'working wealthy' and the upper middle class who is risk averse and over-insures who are negatively impacted... not the investor class... who pass their 'corporate' expenses on to the consumers if they can or the employees if they can't. This isn't what we were promised either... and companies told you this would happen when it was proposed, and it was ignored.

The poor are also impacted... though obviously only 'some' of them. We were supposed to be providing insurance for something like 50mm people, and instead it seems the number is less than half of that. Another 'promise'.

The young and healthy who don't work for very large companies are among the most impacted. For some, it's a marginal change... and for others it's a MASSIVE one.

As has been repeatedly said... there are winners and losers in the ACA.... but despite spending a trillion dollars a year more, there really isn't a measurable improvement in the overall quality or availability of healthcare. Some who were promised wins to get their votes were given them. Some were not. Many of those we were promised 'would pay' have found ways around it. Surprise, surprise. The cost of this poor planning, lies, backroom deals and failing to 'think it through' has been passed forward to the next President (or five) and some of it down to the states.

Welcome to modern politics.

(10-30-2015 11:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-30-2015 10:18 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(10-30-2015 10:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

Will your company be subject to the upcoming "Cadillac" tax?

I don't believe so. We should be below the threshold.

That's good, I guess. Mine will be and I'm sure that tax will be passed on to the employees. That's what Obamacare failed to take into consideration. The "Cadillac" tax is not a punishment for corporations, it's a punishment for the employees.

I changed jobs this year after 20 years in newspapers. Went from working for national newspaper chains to a small magazine company with only a handful of full-time employees that can't offer insurance. Insurance thru newspaper chains had been steady going up, up and up since about 1999-2000, and it seemed like we changed providers every other year. Under ACA, insurance for my wife and I is actually less this year. Deductibles are about the same, co-pays are the same, but the monthly bill is about $60 a month less. Seems to work for me so far. I've got to go through the marketplace to see what's available for 2016 pretty soon. Hoping rates go down a little more, since my income for a full year will be a little less.

(10-30-2015 10:04 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 08:08 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  All I know is next year I'm going to ask for the policy they sell leftists because the only people I have seen who haven't had huge increases since ACA went in effect is them

Who is they? The insurance company chosen by my employer sells me my plan. And they sell it to all 50,000+ employees in my corporation...and no...they're not all leftists and liberals.

Your company was exempted, wasnt it? Before you answer, check to see, or name your company and I'll find out for you.

(10-30-2015 03:50 PM)gsu95 Wrote:  I changed jobs this year after 20 years in newspapers. Went from working for national newspaper chains to a small magazine company with only a handful of full-time employees that can't offer insurance. Insurance thru newspaper chains had been steady going up, up and up since about 1999-2000, and it seemed like we changed providers every other year. Under ACA, insurance for my wife and I is actually less this year. Deductibles are about the same, co-pays are the same, but the monthly bill is about $60 a month less. Seems to work for me so far. I've got to go through the marketplace to see what's available for 2016 pretty soon. Hoping rates go down a little more, since my income for a full year will be a little less.

There is no way a corporate plan, in which the company paid for at least part of your rate, was more expensive than any ACA plan in the known universe where deductibles and copays are identical. Now, if you are getting your rate reduced due to subsidies under ACA, that may be the case. But thats not apples to apples comparison. Your rates are higher, you are simply being subsidized. The moment you make more money is the moment that Obamacare plan will bite you in the ass.

If this is your first year on the exchange though, be prepared to bend over twice. First, the algorithm that calculates what your monthly payment is is almost always wrong to the low side. This was almost certainly a planned software feature to entice people to sign up. The rate you actually should have paid for the year will be calculated at tax time. Many people got nailed and had to pay more when they filed their taxes this year because the system set their rates too low. Second, the rates for almost all ACA policies are going up this year. Way up.

And you do want to get on the exchange and check out the plans soon. Each year the states shuffle which plans are the preferred plans in which the subsidies apply. If the plan you had this year is no longer the preferred plans, you will pay a lot more.

(10-29-2015 03:35 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Again, the ACA has next to no direct impact on employer provided plans.

Cow manure. Thanks to the ACA, my employer's broker can't even negotiate with the carrier anymore. Since the carrier is capped at 20% non-claims expenses, that effectively fixes the price.

(10-30-2015 10:10 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 03:35 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Again, the ACA has next to no direct impact on employer provided plans.

Cow manure. Thanks to the ACA, my employer's broker can't even negotiate with the carrier anymore. Since the carrier is capped at 20% non-claims expenses, that effectively fixes the price.

And the requirements to be ACA compliant forced employers to cancel plans they had offered and switch to plans that covered everything the ACA required.

Employers also downgraded plans in an effort to avoid the cadillac tax issue.

(10-30-2015 10:10 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 03:35 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Again, the ACA has next to no direct impact on employer provided plans.

Cow manure. Thanks to the ACA, my employer's broker can't even negotiate with the carrier anymore. Since the carrier is capped at 20% non-claims expenses, that effectively fixes the price.

Note that he said no "direct" impact. That doesn't deny the very real and pernicious indirect impacts.

Leftists are good at this. They word things very carefully to convey one impression while actually saying something slightly different. See Susan Rice, one of the best crafted cases of lying ever. They're good it it, probably because they gets lots of practice.

Fox News is reporting higher rates.

Link

NCBCBS is projecting 32.5% increase. Would push my policy over 800 per month. Im looking to just buy the bare minimum and take my chances now. It is not worth 9600 per year.

(10-31-2015 04:05 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  NCBCBS is projecting 32.5% increase. Would push my policy over 800 per month. Im looking to just buy the bare minimum and take my chances now. It is not worth 9600 per year.

That's pretty crazy. I'm sorry to hear that.

Between my premiums and deductible we will pay over $8000 for health insurance/care this year for two people. Nothing was covered by insurance other than a pap smear and two vision checks. Whoooppeee! No way we got anywhere near that amount of services we paid for.

In the end we are underwriting the cost of other's care either by having our taxes go to their subsidies and/or paying more for health care/insurance than we use thus offsetting the cost for the care of others.

It used to be that hospitals passed the cost of the indigent to all of us in higher rates for our hospital stays. Now those costs are still passed off to us via paying for tax subsidized insurance and higher premiums and higher deductibles.

(10-31-2015 01:15 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-30-2015 10:10 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(10-29-2015 03:35 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Again, the ACA has next to no direct impact on employer provided plans.

Cow manure. Thanks to the ACA, my employer's broker can't even negotiate with the carrier anymore. Since the carrier is capped at 20% non-claims expenses, that effectively fixes the price.

Note that he said no "direct" impact. That doesn't deny the very real and pernicious indirect impacts.

Leftists are good at this. They word things very carefully to convey one impression while actually saying something slightly different. See Susan Rice, one of the best crafted cases of lying ever. They're good it it, probably because they gets lots of practice.

hence, the problem of a widening class division....

The problem is the loopholes. No bill is perfect. The problem is that when the insurers and medical providers find and exploit loopholes, the Republicans want to help them do that as to harm people's health. Let them die.

I think that ACA will be seen as a middle step. Its obvious that the HMO/Insurance middleman option doesn't work.

Getting rid of Obamacare will make things much worse for the American healthcare consumer. Its time to just say 'sorry - capitalism doesn't work in healthcare. That's why no other country uses capitalism in its healthcare system'.

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Lets just expand Medicare and allow for ONE plan for everyone. Let people pay the premiums along with their taxes.