YOUR NEW HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION AT WORK VERSION 2

[UserRemoved1]

My Way News - FACT CHECK: Obama's tone shifts on health care

Just like many here said.

Hurry up and voter this effin CHUMP out.

There is never going to be any economy recovery with the policies put in place by snorebama

[afterhours]

i STILL can't believe those clowns elected that clown....

[Fly Rod]

I have heard the last few days on the news channels, that insurers are raising premiums now due to Obamas great health plan.

Or are health insurers using healthcare reform as an excuse for more profits?

[striperman36]

My org's plan is going up 23 pct for 2011. yep, all bottom line, thanks to the 2 year waiting period

[UserRemoved1]

Look out, your medicine is watching you | Reuters

"A technology that ensures a patient takes his or her medicine and checks that it is working properly should deliver better outcomes and justify a higher price tag."

These guys aren't stupid. When Snowbamacare kicks in it's going to be carnage.

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Fly Rod

I have heard the last few days on the news channels, that insurers are raising premiums now due to Obamas great health plan.

Or are health insurers using healthcare reform as an excuse for more profits?

depends...if a non-profit asks for an increase is it simply an excuse for more profits?...seems they are all needing an increase to keep up with the legislation....shocker

Industry Browser - Healthcare - Health Care Plans Industry - Company List

[Jim in CT]

Health insurance is a highly regulated product. What that means is, before an insurance company can raise rates, they have to get approval from the insurance department in that state. Believe me, no state insurance department (particularly in liberal New England) is going to let health insurers raise rates just to increase profit margins. Companies are required to provide lots of support that the rate increases are necessary. They cannot simply gouge consumers, that's a lie told by Obama (yet another) to justify the federal intervention into healthcare.

Profit margins for health insurance companies are pretty thin. Health insurance is expensive because the thing being insured, healthcare, is expensive. If the insurance was such a ripoff, large employers would elect to drop insurance and pay for employees' healthcare directly. In other words, there is a reason that most folks use insurance as an intermediary to the healthcare providers...because the insurance companies add value. If an employer could take the insurance premiums and provide healthcare directly for less money, obviously they would.

If insurance companies were forced to operate at break-even levels (no profit), premiums would decrease about 5 percent, no more...

The notion that the federal government can replicate the services performed by the insurance companies for less money is a joke. In what arena, just find ONE, where the government is more efficient than private enterprise...

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Health insurance is a highly regulated product. What that means is, before an insurance company can raise rates, they have to get approval from the insurance department in that state. Believe me, no state insurance department (particularly in liberal New England) is going to let health insurers raise rates just to increase profit margins. Companies are required to provide lots of support that the rate increases are necessary. They cannot simply gouge consumers, that's a lie told by Obama (yet another) to justify the federal intervention into healthcare.

Profit margins for health insurance companies are pretty thin. Health insurance is expensive because the thing being insured, healthcare, is expensive. If the insurance was such a ripoff, large employers would elect to drop insurance and pay for employees' healthcare directly. In other words, there is a reason that most folks use insurance as an intermediary to the healthcare providers...because the insurance companies add value. If an employer could take the insurance premiums and provide healthcare directly for less money, obviously they would.

If insurance companies were forced to operate at break-even levels (no profit), premiums would decrease about 5 percent, no more...

The notion that the federal government can replicate the services performed by the insurance companies for less money is a joke. In what arena, just find ONE, where the government is more efficient than private enterprise...

SEE...there you go again...hey, three of my buddies after college were actuaries...in Maine coincidentally...they all worked at UNUM, one was a midget...they were all remarkably smart and could drink like fish...nothing funnier than a drunk midget actuary

[UserRemoved1]

Many health care companies are not for profit...


or so they say... They make more money than you think. How else do you justify buying buildings worth millions of dollars or paying the charlie bakers of that world all the big money.

[UserRemoved1]

There's something wrong with the system when the state does all the advertising for these health companies....and the high benefits package is $50 cheaper than the medium benefits package with the same company.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

Many health care companies are not for profit...


or so they say... They make more money than you think. How else do you justify buying buildings worth millions of dollars or paying the charlie bakers of that world all the big money.

Some of these insurance companies have thousands of employees. Those folks have to sit somewhere. They could rent space instead of buying, but in the long run, renting MIGHT cost more than buying.

"paying the charlie bakers of that world all the big money"

Executive compensation may not be fair, but it's also not a big chunk of most company's overall balance sheet. Again, if a health insurer paid its executives so much that it made the cost of the product unreasonably high, employers would buy from another health insurance company. If ALL companies paid executives so much that it drove premiums way up, then it would be cheaper for companies to self-insure.

The employers, companies who also pay a chunk of employee health insurance premiums, have every reason to make sure they're not getting ripped off. If health insurance was a ripoff, companies would self-insure. The fact that they don't, tells you that buying health insurance must be a cheaper alternative than bypassing the insurance company and funding it yourself.

Demonizing the insurance company is great political fodder. But it doesn't pass the common sense test, and it doesn't hold up to any knowledgable scrutiny, and you should be offended by any politician who does it. You want to limit executive compensation and eliminate profits, maybe your premiums go down by $30 a month.

Repeat this ten times...healthcare insurance is expenesive because healthcare is expensive.

If you want to actually lower the underlying costs of healthcare, you could enact serious tort reform (which would reduce wasteful defensive medicine, and would lower malpractice insurance, savings that could be passed on to us). Democrats won't even discuss that, because they get too much $$ from the Trial Lawyers Association, and trial lawyers like lawsuits.

[Jim in CT]

I want to make sure I'm making this point. For my family plan, my employer and I pay a combined total of about $650 a month. If health insurance was such a ripoff, then instead of giving that $650 a month to the insurance company, I could save money by putting that $650 each month into an account, and paying for healthcare out of that account. That's called self-insuring. It's what is done when the insurance policy is a ripoff.

Very few individuals and companies choose to self-insure, and there is only one possible reason for that...it's cheaper to buy the insurance policy. That NECESSARILY means that the high costs are NOT driven by the insurance companies, but rather are driven by the underlying cost of what's being insured...in this case, the cost of healthcare. It's just impossible to reach any other conclusion.

Try doing without insurance for awhile, and you might see what a bargain insurance really is.

[UserRemoved1]

I understand what your saying but also have sat here and watched many things be rammed down our throats by politicians such as #^&#^&#^&#^& Moore who lives in my hometown.

3 years ago we got mandated to have prescription drug coverage in Ma. problem is it added $126 a month to the hmo. We don't use it. The mass politicians deemed it proper we pay it though.

Then at the same time the following year they made it mandatory to have health insurance. Problem here is they added (and was said at the time) 300k more people to health insurance roles...this should have made the resulting cost of coverage drop significantly.... but it went up 25% that year too...I don't get sick. I don't go to the doctor because I don't need to. Kids get sick a few times a season. Few trips to the Dr and that's it. If this whole thing was done right we should be rewarded for paying and not using it.

The state gave these guys a HUGE bone but forcing this, and every single health company was instantly spending THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS in tv and radio ads to draw people to their service...why? Because they got a captive audience now to sell to and they're raking in the dough now as a result.

This is one of the underlying problems that sent this country into the recession it's in right now. Right now I'm looking at a 25% increase in 2 weeks. It's now more than my home mortgage and I don't have a choice in it.

[UserRemoved1]

If you got health ins for $650 a month you got it made.

It's minimum $850/month here for a real low plan with a high deductible.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

If you got health ins for $650 a month you got it made.

It's minimum $850/month here for a real low plan with a high deductible.

It's a pretty lousy plan...high co-pays, and I have to go through an out-of-pocket deductible even before the insurance kicks in.

You also made some good points, and I don't have a clue how it works in Mass, which has some state-specific features.

I'm also not an expert on this, healthcare insurance is not my field, never has been. But I know a lot about personal auto insurance, which also gets a bad rep, and for many of the same reasons...

Salty, it's a complex issue, and I don't pretend to have the answers. What I do know is that in most cases, it ain't the insurance companies that are gouging the public. And I know that any politician who says otherwise (and Obama went out of his way to demonize insurers in the debates) is either ignorant or deliberately lying...

[UserRemoved1]

10-4 Jim. The stuff we got here in Mass is what I believe obamacare is modeled after. So give it a year or so and I guarantee you'll be wishing you were still paying $650

I spent the afternoon looking over plans and I'm stuck with what I have. At $1026 a month it's our realistic only option.

$50 plugs here we come

Either that or I hear Obama is going to give free room and board if you don't have health insurance...maybe I'll wait for that Prison food can't be that bad

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

In what arena, just find ONE, where the government is more efficient than private enterprise...

Ya, I'd like to hear that one.

[UserRemoved1]

TAX COLLECTIONS

[justplugit]

Can't argue with that.

[UserRemoved1]

Well I got rates across the board for everyone. What a scam. This health bs in ma has served one thing...to raise the cost of each of these plans to comparable levels. It's almost like they have all colluded together. No more plans with large disparities in pricing. These guys have just gone for what they can get which means 90 percent of the plans are within $200 of each other. Most even less.

FWIW I ended up at $980/month with 3000 ind/6000 family deduction per year. They call it a hsa but it's not a hsa makes alot of sense.

WTH is everyone else doing with this bs?

[scottw]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

WTH is everyone else doing with this bs?

just heard a commercial on the radio for BC/BS Mass. asking Federal employees and postal workers to go to their website and check out all of the great features that they can enjoy from their healthcare plans like healthclub memberships and free perscription glasses...also coincidentally read that Federal Employees are liable for like 3.3 billion dollars in uncollected/delinquent federal taxes

[striperman36]

40 pct increase and I work for a self-insured company.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

WTH is everyone else doing with this bs?

Sticking with my Tufts HMO. The state just declined a price increase... for now. I'm not sure what the rate is per month. I'll tell ya though, the $10 co-pay, $50 for ER and pennies for medications is definitely appreciated.

[UserRemoved1]

For Massachusetts Doctors, Two Sides to Reform | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS