affordable health care

[fenceman]

:

Me and my wife. Non smoking average weight, no health issues. No claims this year except normal doctor visits..... :devil2: :help:

 

[ram]

Affordable health care my azz.

 

[slick4591]

Got one of the same type of letters yesterday. Although there is only an increase of 0.08% in my premium, it falls into a HMO with no out of pocket limit. Coverage has dramatically decreased.

 

[SteppedInIt]

ridiculous! ...where it stops, nobody knows

 

[tom4018]

Wow, guess I should not feel so bad about mine from my off farm job. We got our new rates for next year about a 5% increase in premium, lowered the deductible from $3,000 to $2,600, but it was 100% coverage after the $3,000 going to only 90% next year. They also did give us a $2,000 HSA contribution which is lower to $1,000 next year.

 

[Jogeephus]

Mine did the same but earlier than this. Hope it doesn't do it again.

Without going into to details I'd like to give you some food for thought. Several years ago I was completely self employed and my insurance was running nearly $1000/month with a $5000 deductible and no dental or vision. Things changed and I was able to join a group insurance through a government contractor, this insurance was still through BCBS just like I had but my premiums dropped to $550/month with a $500 deductible plus I got vision and dental and free medicine. After a few years this contractor was underbid by General Dynamics and they kept most of the people. When this happened my insurance dropped to $400/month, $250 deductible, vision and dental. I asked why it was so cheap and was told it was because we were in such a large group.

I don't know how many people this company employees but I'm pretty sure its less people than live in Texas. Or Georgia for that matter. Yet I think the government allows BCBS to have a virtual monopoly in Texas just as they do in Georgia so it seems to me that if they are given this protected territory then they could easily extend this "group" pricing to all who live in the state and call that a group. It just makes no sense to me why an individual has to pay so much when they are not part of a group yet the insurance companies can treat the people in a state as a group .... a protected group... for themselves. Or maybe I'm just missing something here.

 

[John SD]

That's cheap compared to mine My BCBS notice said premium was going to go from roughly $1300/month to almost $1500/month. Total would be just shy of $18K/year :shock:

I called the agent and talked to him. Going in Nov 2 to change plans. New plan will be $900/month. I don't know what the catch is how the premium can be reduced $600/month and appears to be basically the same plan. If I understood correctly, it supposedly still will be a $500 deductible 80/20 plan up to $5K max out of pocket per year. I'm single, age 53.

 

[john250]

Change you can believe in!

 

[TexasBred]

Change you can believe in!

Yep...

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Change you can believe in!

Change I didn't ask for, nor want.

There WAS nothing wrong with my insurance plan or premium. Now......its 3 times what I used to pay, less coverage, waaayyyy high deductable.

At this point, I'm almost better off not having it and paying the $750.00 (or whatever it is) penalty. Now THAT is affordable. :roll:

 

[ga.prime]

It's organized fleecing.

 

[James T]

:

Me and my wife. Non smoking average weight, no health issues. No claims this year except normal doctor visits..... :devil2: :help:

I'm with the very same carrier but the Bronze plan. Just under $500 a month for myself. $6000.00 deductable. A "physical" is 100% covered. Guess what constitutes a physical - a blood workup. That's it.

 

[SmokinM]

Yep if you like it you can keep it. I remember those words. That was when I had a plan that was almost half what it costs me now but to make it affordable they have doubled my deductible tripled my out of pocket. Oh and I lost my $10k specific disease rider for cancer.

Affordable care my fuzzy white azz!

Even the brain surgeon called it one step below slavery.

How much more will/can we take?

 

[dun]

Heard on the news tonight that natin wide it was supposed to go up around 8% except Oklahoma. There is was 35%, don;t know why.

 

[Jogeephus]

I still believe we could have a national health insurance program where everyone pays a premium and the premiums would be affordable due to just the total volume. I'm convinced this would work but it would catch he77 from the democrats because it wouldn't be free and it would never pass with the republicans because they aren't about to pizz off the big insurance companies so here we are stuck in the middle getting the shaft.

 

[ram]

Heard on the news tonight that natin wide it was supposed to go up around 8% except Oklahoma. There is was 35%, don;t know why.

Dun, folks are moving to Oklahoma from California and they willing to pay more for everything.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Change you can believe in!

Yes. I made bad career choices 35 years ago. Should have stayed a contractor. I chose health care and health care coverage at retirement that came with the job. Took a pay cut. Bad decision.

My health insurance has gone way way up. Unbelieveable cost. The coverage has gone way way down. Now at retirement I will be in the same boat as everyone else. Medicaid. This change killed my "goodf" career decisions from decades ago.

Someone has to pay for all the freeloaders. It seems everyone gets a trophy now days but the playing field is not level. Why can't we all just pay the same price. This is like a new truck costing me $200,000 but my neighbor gets a free one. But the law requires me to buy one.

 

[boondocks]

Costs keep going up because we demand every possible advanced high-tech treatment even at the end of life. It's simply not an apples-to-apples comparison to compare current insurance costs to what previous generations paid (or even to what we paid 10 years ago). We all think we and our loved ones are "special" (hey, I do too) and deserve "the best" (often, just the costliest) medical care.

But what do we demand of ourselves? How many people complaining about their premiums have high cholesterol? High blood pressure? Diabetes or pre-diabetes? Overweight/obesity? Smoke? Folks, all that gets baked into the equation. For every bacon cheeseburger and fries you eat, and pack of smokes enjoyed, assume that your neighbor is doing the same. How the heck are costs not going to go up? You better believe the insurance companies will get their cut, always, and they have lobbyists who ensure that.

So when we (1) demand expensive care from (2) well-funded profiteers, despite (2) treating our bodies like garbage dumps, what the heck other outcome could there be?

:2cents: :2cents: :hide:

 

[bball]

op: interesting perspective boondocks. I work healthcare...see the abuses and hypocrisy everyday, from both angles. Personal accountability is something extremely lacking today. So is honesty and integrity from the insurance side of things. Have a hard time feeling 'compassion' for the younger folks on medicare/medicaid who abuse the system to no end, bog down the Emergency rooms with their bs(headaches, fevers, cough, cold, etc) because they dont want to pay for tylenol at the local drug store, or pay any kind of fee to use a clinic. Meanwhile the older generations, who have more than paid their fair share into medicare/medicaid, get lost, overlooked, or just plain frustrated when they have to wait for hours to be treated for legitimate health issues because of the abuses. And EVERYONE wants to blame the hospital staff because it all takes too long! Not to mention, in healthcare nowadays, the focus is not appropriate interventions and outcomes for the treatment of the disease process as it is for pt satisfaction. We have minimized the importance of the actual science of medicine and focused on subjective things like pt satisfaction (translated: did they kiss my azz, fluff my pillow enough, keep my coffee warm enough,,etc). If you try to tell a pt the truth nowadays; most times, it negatively shows on the survey! I say we, but reality is, when the govt decided that's how reimbursement is going to go, it set the precedent for private insurance companies to do the same. And we wonder why our best and brightest rarely choose medicine now as a career. Cant blame them. Might as well get a degree in hospitality or customer service and forget the sciences.

 

[ram]

Being a community organizer isn't a bad job either. The hospitals around here charge $10k per hour, BCBS paid them out $5k per hour. And that's a fact.