Popular Provision Of Obamacare Is Fueling Sticker Shock For Some Consumers

[Stephanie]

lol, the laSlimes... so in other words she is calling you Grandpa and everyone here a liar

come on people, only Obama and politicians know what best for us...might as well give into it

there's more takers now than producers...it's hopeless fighting it

 

[auditor0007]

Many do pay more, even after the subsidy. Use this: Subsidy Calculator | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

If they are paying more after the subsidy, then their old policy was garbage.

Note the key word "better" in Jake's question. It is common sense that if the government forces you to buy more coverage for shit you didn't want, you are going to have to pay more for it.

Those being affected the most are those who are not receiving a subsidy. The drop off can be staggering. A married couple over the age of 60 will pay about $5500 per year if they earn $62,000. That is with them receiving a subsidy of about $6500. However, if they earn $63,000 then they get no subsidy and their premium will be the full $12,000 or more. So for some people, by earning an extra $1000 per year, they will have to pay out an extra $6500 to $7000 per year for insurance.

A typical married couple has two children. Such a couple that earns $63,000 who have two children between the ages of 21 and 26 will receive a $13,440 subsidy for a $18,831 policy, according to the calculator.

It also stands to reason that a 60 year old couple is going to have more medical bills than a 20 year old couple, and thus will have a more expensive premium.

A 20 year old couple with two children, earning the same income as the 60 year old couple, will receive a $2,899 subsidy for a $8,290 policy.

Despite all the rules about only allowing insurance companies to charge older people three times as much as a younger person, that does not seem to be playing out. Even having that in place makes it very tough on those who are older. Yes, it is true that older people use more healthcare, so in some sense it would reason that they should pay more, but the fact is that if you get your insurance through your employer, in most cases, the rates are the same for everyone in the company because the rate is determined based on the average age of all the employees.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Please show me any such policies that were issued.
It is a lie.

She is a liar. I've been self insured for near two decades and never canceled for illnesses. Once hospitalized for two weeks with meningitis.

Blue Cross praised employees who dropped sick policyholders, lawmaker says - Los Angeles Times

You said YOU were canceled for being sick. I called you on your obvious bullshit and your response is a fucking newspaper link?

I know damn well the paper didn't do an article on YOU being canceled for being sick.

You are a pathetic liar.....NEGGED

 

[auditor0007]

Popular Provision Of Obamacare Is Fueling Sticker Shock For Some Consumers - Kaiser Health News

When setting premiums for next year, insurers baked in bigger-than-usual adjustments, driven in large part by a game-changing rule: They can no longer reject people with medical problems.

Popular in consumer polls, the provision in the health law transforms the market for the estimated 14 million Americans who buy their own policies because they don’t get coverage through their jobs. Barred from denying coverage, insurers also can’t demand higher rates from unhealthy people and those deemed high risks because of conditions including obesity, high blood pressure or a previous cancer diagnosis.


But the provision also adds costs. To a larger degree than other requirements of the law, it is fueling the “sticker shock” now being voiced by some consumers about premiums for new policies, say industry experts.

In setting next year’s rates, insurers must factor in “assumptions about who will sign up, high users or healthy people,” said David Axene, a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. “You can imagine who most of the health plans thought would be predominantly signing up.”

“I’m kind of shocked,” said Leo Lenaghan, who lives in the Chicago suburbs. The $336-a-month BlueCross Blue Shield policy for his wife and daughter, which had a $2,250 per person annual deductible, is being discontinued and the plan his insurer says is most similar to it in benefits will cost an additional $205 a month. It has a $3,000 per person deductible. “I guess we’re just going to have to suck it up.”

The less their policies covered previously, the more consumers’ premiums are likely to rise, experts say. While adding some benefits only costs “pennies on the dollar,” said Georgetown University research professor Sabrina Corlette, others are more expensive. A Maryland Health Care Commission report from last year, for example, said the state’s requirement that insurers include maternity coverage added about 4 percent to the cost of a premium.

The actuarial firm Milliman estimated that changes from the health law – including the take-all-applicants provision - could be expected to result in about a 14 percent increase to the average premium in California. On top of that, general medical inflation from 2013 to 2014 would add another 9 percent. Of all the factors, the biggest cited by Milliman was the guaranteed coverage provision.

While it is true that many people will face increased premiums, many will see their out of pocket spending drop due to the fact that all preventative care is covered 100%.

Preventative care is a checkup, some bloodwork, and maybe a urine test once a year.

Plus if its, 100% covered, it probably doesnt count towards your deductable, so even that pittance doesnt help you.

try to explain the savings of $200-$300 worth of care when your out of pocket max goes up by $2k-$4k and your monthly payments go up $100-$200 per.

Math sucks, doesnt it?

The policy I am purchasing from the Exchange is the same price as my current policy but the deductible is going up from $2500 to $5000. I chose that because I never have hit my $2500 deductible, so the deductible doesn't become an issue for me unless I get sick. As for what is covered under preventative care, my current policy already covers preventative care 100%. I just had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. In the past, that would have cost me over $1000 toward my deductible. Now it cost me nothing out of pocket because it was covered 100%.

 

[auditor0007]

While it is true that many people will face increased premiums, many will see their out of pocket spending drop due to the fact that all preventative care is covered 100%.

That has not been the experience in Massachusetts under RomneyCare. They now have the highest medical costs in the country.

The states that spend the most on health care for each resident are mostly in the Northeast. They are led by Massachusetts, a fact several Republicans used to criticize GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 primaries because as governor Mr. Romney had signed the state's health-care overhaul into law.

Health-Care Costs: A State-by-State Comparison - WSJ.com

I bet you didn't know that Massachusetts has had the highest medical costs per capita for the past 20 years outside of DC. Check out the chart for yourself.

Health Care Expenditures per Capita by State of Residence | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

They may still be the most expensive, but they always have been. The only difference is that now almost everyone is insured.

 

[Redfish]

While it is true that many people will face increased premiums, many will see their out of pocket spending drop due to the fact that all preventative care is covered 100%.

Preventative care is a checkup, some bloodwork, and maybe a urine test once a year.

Plus if its, 100% covered, it probably doesnt count towards your deductable, so even that pittance doesnt help you.

try to explain the savings of $200-$300 worth of care when your out of pocket max goes up by $2k-$4k and your monthly payments go up $100-$200 per.

Math sucks, doesnt it?

The policy I am purchasing from the Exchange is the same price as my current policy but the deductible is going up from $2500 to $5000. I chose that because I never have hit my $2500 deductible, so the deductible doesn't become an issue for me unless I get sick. As for what is covered under preventative care, my current policy already covers preventative care 100%. I just had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. In the past, that would have cost me over $1000 toward my deductible. Now it cost me nothing out of pocket because it was covered 100%.

good for you. not sure I believe that the premium is the same. but you claim it is so we will go with that.

what about the person who has that same policy but does not have the 5K for the deductible? will the hospital treat him and write off the first 5K? Will the IRS put a tax lein on his return next year?

you say you never hit your deductible, what about the year when you do? Do you have 5K set aside to pay to the hospital when you check into the ER?

 

[auditor0007]

I think I'll get my legal and other advice about the Unaffordable care scam from someone who doesn't call themselves, barbarap

so who is going to hold a gun to people heads and make them go get "preventive" care that will magically bring down cost and save the whole world

Doctors are doing preventive care for FREE? man they are generous...Maybe Obama and Congress should do their jobs for free

The bs they will spin for this new government ENTITLEMENT with the Dear Leaders name attaced with it

simply amazing they see nothing wrong with living off the backs of others

It is a difficult concept to wrap your brain around, but the fact is that many people avoid preventative care because they don't want to pay the out of pocket costs. Unless they get sick, they don't go to the doctor. I did the same thing. I was never sick and for 25 years I didn't go to the doctor once even though I had insurance. I finally went when I started getting really sick. At that point, I was diagnosed with hemochromoatosis and cirrhosis of the liver due to hemochromatosis. It cost about $25,000 to remove all the excess iron in my body that caused the cirrhosis, and now I have to worry that my liver may give out on me at some point in the future, although I was lucky that the cirrhosis was early stage when diagnosed and has not shown any signs of progression even after eight years. The point is that if I had gone in for a yearly physical and had some routine blood work done when I was younger, they would have found that I had high iron and could have treated me for it before it caused the cirrhosis.

That's just my story, but I assure you that many people are diagnosed way too late for all kinds of different illnesses because they don't bother to go in for the well care checkups every year. It's like changing the oil in your car according to the maintenance schedule. If you don't do it, eventually your engine fails, and it fails much sooner than it should have had you kept up with normal maintenance.

The key to making preventative care work is to educate people so that they actually go to their doctors for yearly checkups whether they think they need one or not, and that means younger people too.

 

[Redfish]

I think I'll get my legal and other advice about the Unaffordable care scam from someone who doesn't call themselves, barbarap

so who is going to hold a gun to people heads and make them go get "preventive" care that will magically bring down cost and save the whole world

Doctors are doing preventive care for FREE? man they are generous...Maybe Obama and Congress should do their jobs for free

The bs they will spin for this new government ENTITLEMENT with the Dear Leaders name attaced with it

simply amazing they see nothing wrong with living off the backs of others

It is a difficult concept to wrap your brain around, but the fact is that many people avoid preventative care because they don't want to pay the out of pocket costs. Unless they get sick, they don't go to the doctor. I did the same thing. I was never sick and for 25 years I didn't go to the doctor once even though I had insurance. I finally went when I started getting really sick. At that point, I was diagnosed with hemochromoatosis and cirrhosis of the liver due to hemochromatosis. It cost about $25,000 to remove all the excess iron in my body that caused the cirrhosis, and now I have to worry that my liver may give out on me at some point in the future, although I was lucky that the cirrhosis was early stage when diagnosed and has not shown any signs of progression even after eight years. The point is that if I had gone in for a yearly physical and had some routine blood work done when I was younger, they would have found that I had high iron and could have treated me for it before it caused the cirrhosis.

That's just my story, but I assure you that many people are diagnosed way too late for all kinds of different illnesses because they don't bother to go in for the well care checkups every year. It's like changing the oil in your car according to the maintenance schedule. If you don't do it, eventually your engine fails, and it fails much sooner than it should have had you kept up with normal maintenance.

The key to making preventative care work is to educate people so that they actually go to their doctors for yearly checkups whether they think they need one or not, and that means younger people too.

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

 

[auditor0007]

Preventative care is a checkup, some bloodwork, and maybe a urine test once a year.

Plus if its, 100% covered, it probably doesnt count towards your deductable, so even that pittance doesnt help you.

try to explain the savings of $200-$300 worth of care when your out of pocket max goes up by $2k-$4k and your monthly payments go up $100-$200 per.

Math sucks, doesnt it?

The policy I am purchasing from the Exchange is the same price as my current policy but the deductible is going up from $2500 to $5000. I chose that because I never have hit my $2500 deductible, so the deductible doesn't become an issue for me unless I get sick. As for what is covered under preventative care, my current policy already covers preventative care 100%. I just had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. In the past, that would have cost me over $1000 toward my deductible. Now it cost me nothing out of pocket because it was covered 100%.

good for you. not sure I believe that the premium is the same. but you claim it is so we will go with that.

what about the person who has that same policy but does not have the 5K for the deductible? will the hospital treat him and write off the first 5K? Will the IRS put a tax lein on his return next year?

you say you never hit your deductible, what about the year when you do? Do you have 5K set aside to pay to the hospital when you check into the ER?

For those who know they will hit or come close to hitting a $5000 deductible, the plan isn't as great. Here is the problem; healthcare is not cheap and someone has to pay for it. The person who is going to hit that deductible every year might be better off with a lower deductible policy, but then the premium may be so high that they end up paying the same in the end. Personally, if I hit the $5000 deductible in a given year, then I will pay it. For those who are on a tight budget, if something goes wrong one year and they hit that high deductible, they can pay it off over time. To hit that deductible would usually require some type of hospital stay so they would probably be quite sick.

The thing I keep seeing with so many of you here is that while you talk about being responsible for paying for your own healthcare, you cry over any deductible in a policy and you cry that the policies are much too expensive. Now keep this in mind; insurance companies must spend 80% of premiums on healthcare, so most of the money is going toward medical bills. What a lot of you are learning is that healthcare is not cheap and if you want to have it, you actually have to pay for it. If you want to discuss real ways to reduce the costs, then that is another topic and is one where you will not like the answers as to how to really reduce costs.

 

[Vox]

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

preventive care was ALWAYS "free" - meaning there was no co-payment if you had an insurance.

that includes colonoscopies, mammograms, pap-smears, prostate screenings and couple of other things.

 

[auditor0007]

I think I'll get my legal and other advice about the Unaffordable care scam from someone who doesn't call themselves, barbarap

so who is going to hold a gun to people heads and make them go get "preventive" care that will magically bring down cost and save the whole world

Doctors are doing preventive care for FREE? man they are generous...Maybe Obama and Congress should do their jobs for free

The bs they will spin for this new government ENTITLEMENT with the Dear Leaders name attaced with it

simply amazing they see nothing wrong with living off the backs of others

It is a difficult concept to wrap your brain around, but the fact is that many people avoid preventative care because they don't want to pay the out of pocket costs. Unless they get sick, they don't go to the doctor. I did the same thing. I was never sick and for 25 years I didn't go to the doctor once even though I had insurance. I finally went when I started getting really sick. At that point, I was diagnosed with hemochromoatosis and cirrhosis of the liver due to hemochromatosis. It cost about $25,000 to remove all the excess iron in my body that caused the cirrhosis, and now I have to worry that my liver may give out on me at some point in the future, although I was lucky that the cirrhosis was early stage when diagnosed and has not shown any signs of progression even after eight years. The point is that if I had gone in for a yearly physical and had some routine blood work done when I was younger, they would have found that I had high iron and could have treated me for it before it caused the cirrhosis.

That's just my story, but I assure you that many people are diagnosed way too late for all kinds of different illnesses because they don't bother to go in for the well care checkups every year. It's like changing the oil in your car according to the maintenance schedule. If you don't do it, eventually your engine fails, and it fails much sooner than it should have had you kept up with normal maintenance.

The key to making preventative care work is to educate people so that they actually go to their doctors for yearly checkups whether they think they need one or not, and that means younger people too.

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

I'll try to keep this simple. If everyone is paying into the system, then you are not paying for my preventative care. Beside that though, why should it be free? Well, it's not free; it's part of the premium you pay, but I know what you meant; there is no out of pocket cost for it. The reason is that when there is an out of pocket cost, many people choose not to go. Something as simple as a yearly physical and some blood work can tell your doctor a great deal. If we can catch serious illnesses before they get out of control, that will reduce long term spending. To prove my point all you need do is look at countries with universal healthcare. Their costs are much lower and their life expectancy is higher. One big reason is that they are big on preventative care. So by making preventative care covered 100%, it should be much easier to get people to go for their yearly physical.

 

[The Rabbi]

It is a difficult concept to wrap your brain around, but the fact is that many people avoid preventative care because they don't want to pay the out of pocket costs. Unless they get sick, they don't go to the doctor. I did the same thing. I was never sick and for 25 years I didn't go to the doctor once even though I had insurance. I finally went when I started getting really sick. At that point, I was diagnosed with hemochromoatosis and cirrhosis of the liver due to hemochromatosis. It cost about $25,000 to remove all the excess iron in my body that caused the cirrhosis, and now I have to worry that my liver may give out on me at some point in the future, although I was lucky that the cirrhosis was early stage when diagnosed and has not shown any signs of progression even after eight years. The point is that if I had gone in for a yearly physical and had some routine blood work done when I was younger, they would have found that I had high iron and could have treated me for it before it caused the cirrhosis.

That's just my story, but I assure you that many people are diagnosed way too late for all kinds of different illnesses because they don't bother to go in for the well care checkups every year. It's like changing the oil in your car according to the maintenance schedule. If you don't do it, eventually your engine fails, and it fails much sooner than it should have had you kept up with normal maintenance.

The key to making preventative care work is to educate people so that they actually go to their doctors for yearly checkups whether they think they need one or not, and that means younger people too.

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

I'll try to keep this simple. If everyone is paying into the system, then you are not paying for my preventative care. Beside that though, why should it be free? Well, it's not free; it's part of the premium you pay, but I know what you meant; there is no out of pocket cost for it. The reason is that when there is an out of pocket cost, many people choose not to go. Something as simple as a yearly physical and some blood work can tell your doctor a great deal. If we can catch serious illnesses before they get out of control, that will reduce long term spending. To prove my point all you need do is look at countries with universal healthcare. Their costs are much lower and their life expectancy is higher. One big reason is that they are big on preventative care. So by making preventative care covered 100%, it should be much easier to get people to go for their yearly physical.

Preventative care does not lower health care costs. This is a myth. Countries with universal health care are not comparable to ours in many ways. For starters, many fewer people own cars and many more people bike or walk to work.

 

[Redfish]

It is a difficult concept to wrap your brain around, but the fact is that many people avoid preventative care because they don't want to pay the out of pocket costs. Unless they get sick, they don't go to the doctor. I did the same thing. I was never sick and for 25 years I didn't go to the doctor once even though I had insurance. I finally went when I started getting really sick. At that point, I was diagnosed with hemochromoatosis and cirrhosis of the liver due to hemochromatosis. It cost about $25,000 to remove all the excess iron in my body that caused the cirrhosis, and now I have to worry that my liver may give out on me at some point in the future, although I was lucky that the cirrhosis was early stage when diagnosed and has not shown any signs of progression even after eight years. The point is that if I had gone in for a yearly physical and had some routine blood work done when I was younger, they would have found that I had high iron and could have treated me for it before it caused the cirrhosis.

That's just my story, but I assure you that many people are diagnosed way too late for all kinds of different illnesses because they don't bother to go in for the well care checkups every year. It's like changing the oil in your car according to the maintenance schedule. If you don't do it, eventually your engine fails, and it fails much sooner than it should have had you kept up with normal maintenance.

The key to making preventative care work is to educate people so that they actually go to their doctors for yearly checkups whether they think they need one or not, and that means younger people too.

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

I'll try to keep this simple. If everyone is paying into the system, then you are not paying for my preventative care. Beside that though, why should it be free? Well, it's not free; it's part of the premium you pay, but I know what you meant; there is no out of pocket cost for it. The reason is that when there is an out of pocket cost, many people choose not to go. Something as simple as a yearly physical and some blood work can tell your doctor a great deal. If we can catch serious illnesses before they get out of control, that will reduce long term spending. To prove my point all you need do is look at countries with universal healthcare. Their costs are much lower and their life expectancy is higher. One big reason is that they are big on preventative care. So by making preventative care covered 100%, it should be much easier to get people to go for their yearly physical.

I get it, you want socialized medicine. I understand your position. it will never work, but I understand what you believe.

 

[Redfish]

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

preventive care was ALWAYS "free" - meaning there was no co-payment if you had an insurance.

that includes colonoscopies, mammograms, pap-smears, prostate screenings and couple of other things.

No it wasn't. and its not free today and it won't be free under obamacare. WTF do you think those high premiums are paying for? answer: the "free" stuff.

damn but you libs are fiscally ignorant.

 

[auditor0007]

basic question----------why should preventive care be free?

2nd question------------why should the govt mandate that every citizen get preventive care?

3rd question------------why should I pay for your preventive care?

4th question------------who determines what is in the "common good" ?

I'll try to keep this simple. If everyone is paying into the system, then you are not paying for my preventative care. Beside that though, why should it be free? Well, it's not free; it's part of the premium you pay, but I know what you meant; there is no out of pocket cost for it. The reason is that when there is an out of pocket cost, many people choose not to go. Something as simple as a yearly physical and some blood work can tell your doctor a great deal. If we can catch serious illnesses before they get out of control, that will reduce long term spending. To prove my point all you need do is look at countries with universal healthcare. Their costs are much lower and their life expectancy is higher. One big reason is that they are big on preventative care. So by making preventative care covered 100%, it should be much easier to get people to go for their yearly physical.

I get it, you want socialized medicine. I understand your position. it will never work, but I understand what you believe.

I would actually prefer a hybrid system something like they have in the UK with a government run national system that allows for supplemental insurance and some private healthcare providers. I would really like to see employers not have to carry the burden of providing health insurance to their employees.

 

[Geaux4it]

WTF is preventive care? Yearly physicals? What's makes the left loonies think that just because someone has preventive care they will use it? Studies show only 50% of men get a colonoscopy. I will need to research how many of these folks had no insurance. Same for physicals.

So what's the hoopla about preventive care?

Its a red herring

-Geaux

 

[Barbarap]

lol, the laSlimes... so in other words she is calling you Grandpa and everyone here a liar

come on people, only Obama and politicians know what best for us...might as well give into it

there's more takers now than producers...it's hopeless fighting it

That's the kind of response a person posts when they have nothing to rebut the facts and have been proved to be wrong.

 

[Barbarap]

She is a liar. I've been self insured for near two decades and never canceled for illnesses. Once hospitalized for two weeks with meningitis.

Blue Cross praised employees who dropped sick policyholders, lawmaker says - Los Angeles Times

You said YOU were canceled for being sick. I called you on your obvious bullshit and your response is a fucking newspaper link?

I know damn well the paper didn't do an article on YOU being canceled for being sick.

You are a pathetic liar.....NEGGED

Put your glasses on, Gramps, and re read what I wrote.

I said 'IF I had...

 

[Barbarap]

Blue Cross praised employees who dropped sick policyholders, lawmaker says - Los Angeles Times

You said YOU were canceled for being sick. I called you on your obvious bullshit and your response is a fucking newspaper link?

I know damn well the paper didn't do an article on YOU being canceled for being sick.

You are a pathetic liar.....NEGGED

Put your glasses on, Gramps, and re read what I wrote.

I said 'IF I had...

Ok.... I scrolled back to look at the post and saw that when typing on my iPhone, I missed a letter and, I can see where it would confuse the reader.

As much as I know you won't believe me... That's what happened.

(Ok, you can begin your toxic attack now)