Healthcare Premiums Skyrocket

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Healthcare Premiums Skyrocket
17
Fri, 02-19-2010 - 8:23am
Surprise, surprise.  Now we'll have even more people having to go without medical insurance. And the increases effect the people who, most often, can afford insurance the least - those who pay for individual plans. But in time, I'm sure our employers will be hit with increases too, if we're lucky enough to have an employer who can offer healthcare insurance.

 

Could this be another Republican plan to oppress the masses?  In time, only the wealthy will be able to have health insurance. They didn't want the government involved in healthcare; so now health insurance will become unaffordable for millions of people.  

 

 

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2010

US Report: Health Premiums Skyrocket
Health and Human Services Report Finds Double-Digit Increases Are being Sought by Insurers in Several States




  • Consumers are facing budget-busting increases in medical insurance premiums, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday, releasing a report the Obama administration hopes will tap public outrage and help revive its stalled health care overhaul.

    People buying their own insurance in at least six states have been facing pressure from insurers to raise rates by as much 56 percent, the report said. Officials said the problem is likely to be more widespread, but data from individual insurers in different states is difficult to obtain.

    "We think it shines a light on the urgency for health reform," Sebelius told reporters.

    The Democratic health care bills would lower costs for many consumers by offering government subsidies to most of those buying their own coverage. Premiums would remain high, but insurers would face greater government scrutiny when they try to raise rates.

    Proposed premium increases of as much as 39 percent by WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross in California set off a wave of criticism and forced the company last week to announce a postponement. President Barack Obama seized on Anthem as Exhibit A to make his case for sweeping change before a bipartisan White House health summit next week. California officials said more than 700,000 households face increases averaging 25 percent overall and as high as 39 percent for some.

    Health Insurer Continues to Take Heat from Liberals
    Administration Blasts Anthem Blue Cross Rate Hikes

    In a briefing for reporters, WellPoint executives blamed their rate increases on rising medical costs and a pool of customers that is gradually becoming older and sicker, as younger, healthier people drop coverage. They insisted that their competitors are raising rates in much the same way.

    "We understand this is a hardship," said Brian Sassi, president and CEO of WellPoint's consumer-business unit. "This is not something that voluntarily we choose to do."

    The HHS report found that the Anthem numbers are in line with increases sought by insurers in other states - at a time of robust profit growth for the companies and a lack of competition in most states.

    For example, Anthem in Maine was denied an 18.5 percent increase last year and is now requesting that state regulators approve a 23 percent rise. Maine is home to Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Republican moderates whose support Obama would like to have for his health care legislation.

    Michigan's Blue Cross Blue Shield plan requested approval for premium increases of 56 percent in 2009. And in the state of Washington, rates for some individual health plans increased by up to 40 percent until regulators cracked down.

    Other states cited in the report were Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island.

    The premium increases affect the most vulnerable part of the health insurance market, policies marketed individually to customers buying their own plans. According to the Census Bureau, only about 9 percent of Americans purchase coverage directly, while nearly 60 percent are covered under employer plans. Family premiums for those with workplace coverage rose 5 percent last year, even as inflation fell 1 percent, but nowhere near the rates seen in the individual market.

    The health care legislation pending in Congress aims mainly to address the insurance problems of individuals and small businesses. While requiring most Americans to carry coverage, it would provide subsidies to make premiums more affordable. It would also create a new kind of insurance supermarket for individuals and small businesses, offering a range of competitive plans comparable to what federal employees have.

    Yet it would not be a free ride. A Congressional Budget Office analysis last year found that the Senate Democrats' bill would raise the average premium per person in the individual market by 10 percent to 13 percent, mainly because insurers would have to sell more comprehensive coverage. The government would pick up much of the tab, however. The majority of the people purchasing their own coverage would be eligible for assistance averaging two-thirds of the cost of their premiums.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 02-19-2010 - 10:17am

Just like the banks increasing interest rates & other charges.

Ain't capitalism great!

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-28-2009
Fri, 02-19-2010 - 10:32am
Remember, we aren't supposed to fault them for wanting to make a buck.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Fri, 02-19-2010 - 11:07am

<<>>


You know, it's not really the capitalism I fault. Everyone should be able to buy, sell and expand their business.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Fri, 02-19-2010 - 11:10am

<<<Remember, we aren't supposed to fault them for wanting to make a buck.>>>


And I don't fault them, but as prices increase and salaries don't working Americans are going to fall farther and farther
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-28-2009
Fri, 02-19-2010 - 11:14am

<< Making a product out of the reach of the majority of consumers seems like cutting your nose off to spite your face.>>

Of course, it is, but some companies' greed knows no bounds.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 02-26-2010 - 10:25am

California subpoenas big health insurers' financial records

Prosecutors are seeking documents from Anthem, Aetna, Cigna, Blue Shield, Kaiser, Health Net and PacifiCare in a probe of whether they raised rates illegally and denied payment of legitimate claims.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/25/business/la-fi-insure-subpoena26-2010feb26

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Fri, 02-26-2010 - 11:45am

People wonder why we can't have "smaller government?"

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Fri, 02-26-2010 - 3:20pm

Yep.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 03-01-2010 - 9:12am

Op-Ed: What do we need health insurers for anyway?

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/28/business/la-fi-hiltzik28-2010feb28

Angela Braly can't kid me.

When the chief executive of gargantuan health insurer WellPoint (parent of Blue Cross of California) went before a congressional subcommittee the other day, she displayed all the smile-through-the-tears pluck of Annie looking to a sunny tomorrow or Scarlett swearing to God she'll never be hungry again.

WellPoint didn't really want to jack up health premiums on its customers by as much as 39%, she said -- it had no choice. "We care deeply about our California customers," she said.

But what she was really telling the committee members was this: "Please put us out of our misery."

Braly explained that her company's premium increases on individual policies were based on several circumstances: One, people are getting older. Two, people are becoming unemployed, and if they're healthy they're dropping out of the insurance pool. Three, the cost of diagnostic testing is soaring.

Implicitly, she begged for the government to help -- put people back to work so they're eligible for cheaper group plans, and clamp down on costs. (Not even the government can stop people for growing older.) Without that help, she intimated, premiums are going to keep rising sharply and WellPoint's already meager profits are going to be hammered worse.

In delivering this appeal, Braly was forced to make an implicit admission that her industry almost never makes explicitly: The nation's health coverage system is so hopelessly broken that even the health insurance industry can't handle it anymore.

Her testimony, and other statements she and other WellPoint executives have made, suggests that insurers can't profitably manage through periods of high unemployment. They can't price policies in a way that keeps healthy young people in the same pool as older people, producing a mockery of the very point of indemnity insurance. Despite a decade of unobstructed consolidation, which was sold to regulators as a way to control healthcare costs by creating mega-insurers like hers, her industry can't control healthcare costs.

Braly's words are a reminder of the most important unasked question in the entire healthcare debate: What do we need insurance companies for, anyway?

The only way insurers can remain profitable at all is by selling healthy people on policies that don't offer much coverage at all, while squeezing older, less healthy people remorselessly so they either pay for most of their care out of pocket or get priced out of the insurance market completely (thus becoming a burden for taxpayers).

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Mon, 03-01-2010 - 9:34am

I would imagine that insurance companies are hurting and are going to keep hurting. As employers lay off more people that's fewer employees who are covered.

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