Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50% because of ObamaCare

[davjohns 1]

I read the article. If I understand it correctly, this headline / thread topic is way off.

If you are currently purchasing health insurance, your premiums may go down. If you are not, you will be forced to purchase health insurance so that other people's rates can go down.

So, SOME people will see their rates go down. SOME people will see their rates jump from zero to some number they don't want. There's no real way to put a percentage INCREASE on that, is there?

I know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[Croc 0]

Healthcare is unique for this reason: no hospital that accepts federal money (and that is nearly all of them) can turn away anyone who needs critical care, by law. Yes, I think everyone should be forced to buy health insurance. The government has the authority to force (ultimately at the business end of a gun) us to pay taxes. This is another form of taxation, and a just one. Or would you prefer that we just hand our money to the feds and let them run the show?

"Here's a good specimen of my own wisdom. Something is so, except when it isn't so."

Charles Fort, commenting on the many contradictions of astronomy

[DaVinci 0]

Croc

This is another form of taxation, and a just one. Or would you prefer that we just hand our money to the feds and let them run the show?

That is exactly what the ACA is doing. You do not have a choice.

On a personal note, my 2014 HC from my work has just been changed to something pretty damn crappy. Why? They claim the ACA. Now I think they might just be using it as an excuse a bit... But my HC costs have gone UP, not down.

[skydiver30960 0]

davjohns

I read the article. If I understand it correctly, this headline / thread topic is way off.

If you are currently purchasing health insurance, your premiums may go down. If you are not, you will be forced to purchase health insurance so that other people's rates can go down.

So, SOME people will see their rates go down. SOME people will see their rates jump from zero to some number they don't want. There's no real way to put a percentage INCREASE on that, is there?

A married couple (self-employed, an economist and a writer, bought and payed for health insurance on their own, owned a decent plan) I know just got written notification from their insurance provider that their premiums would go up 116% due to the ACA.

I know this is just one data point in an entire country full of them, but it hits close to home for me since I know they're good folks, who will have to see a drastic change in lifestyle and/or coverage.

Elvisio "not all good news" Rodriguez

[airdvr 210]

Croc

Healthcare is unique for this reason: no hospital that accepts federal money (and that is nearly all of them) can turn away anyone who needs critical care, by law. Yes, I think everyone should be forced to buy health insurance. The government has the authority to force (ultimately at the business end of a gun) us to pay taxes. This is another form of taxation, and a just one. Or would you prefer that we just hand our money to the feds and let them run the show?

Please remember these simple truths...
ACA was created to insure the 41 million people who had no coverage

All of those 41 million have access to insurance but either chose to not purchase it, couldn't afford it, or had some condition that made it impossible.

The most poor of this group already had access to healthcare through medicaid.

The government proposes a penalty via the IRS if you don't purchase health care. Unfortunately many of this group don't pay income taxes so a threat from the IRS is moot.

End result, all of the folks who have insurance will pay more to subsidize those who don't. The very thing ACA promised to reduce. I'm from the gov't and I'm here to help.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[rushmc 23]

I had a feeling there was more to this story

Quote

President Barack Obama touted last week how much insurance rates on the Obamacare exchange in New York "will be at least 50% lower next year than they are today.”

But the reality is that New York “ruined its individual insurance market two decades ago by imposing the same regulations that Obamacare is about to impose on every other state,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “If the Empire State's premiums do now fall, it will be because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act partially deregulates New York insurance.”

New York has a regulation known as "community rating" that hides in higher premiums the income transfers from one group to another. “Insurance works best when people pay rates that are tied to their expected health risks over time,” the Journal reports. “But a few states limit how much premiums can vary from person to person.

“Obamacare takes this community rating national. The law says that no individual can pay more than three times what the least expensive person pays, regardless of risk,” the Journal reports. “Today, 42 states have rating bands that are five to one or more.

The reason for your post

Quote

“Liberals claim community rating is a fair trade for subsidizing the needy and to counter the lotteries of disease and accidents,” the Journal reports. “But this forces young, generally low-income people starting their careers to pay hundreds of dollars more every month for insurance, rather than simply subsidizing the needy directly.”

Individual per person premiums now average about $500 a month, far more in New York City and slightly less farther upstate. By contrast, in less-regulated Connecticut, the comparable figure is $306, and in far-less-regulated Pennsylvania, it is $225.
!

time to go after the messenger

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/wsj-nyc-insurance-market/2013/07/23/id/516651

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[jclalor 12]

champu

For reference, I have an Anthem Blue Cross group plan through my employer... I've made no changes to it since the end of 2010, the only difference in the plan has been the mandated removal of the lifetime cap (which was $2M for my plan iirc.)

From 2011 to 2012 my contribution went up 3.56% (*4.86%)
From 2012 to 2013 my contribution went up 10.39% (*7.06%)
From 2013 to 2014 my contribution went up 15.64% (*24.39%)

(*parenthetical numbers are if I include the sum total of medical, dental, and vision coverage in the calculations)

I only have one data point so far for the "DD" code in box 12 of my W-2 so I'm unable to make a similar comparison of the total plan cost.

Do you know if your employer contribution has stayed the same? I wonder if some less than scrupulous employers have used the ACA as an excuse to increase the employee portion and lower their own.

[Rick 67]

skydiver30960

***I read the article. If I understand it correctly, this headline / thread topic is way off.

If you are currently purchasing health insurance, your premiums may go down. If you are not, you will be forced to purchase health insurance so that other people's rates can go down.

So, SOME people will see their rates go down. SOME people will see their rates jump from zero to some number they don't want. There's no real way to put a percentage INCREASE on that, is there?

A married couple (self-employed, an economist and a writer, bought and payed for health insurance on their own, owned a decent plan) I know just got written notification from their insurance provider that their premiums would go up 116% due to the ACA.

I know this is just one data point in an entire country full of them, but it hits close to home for me since I know they're good folks, who will have to see a drastic change in lifestyle and/or coverage.

Elvisio "not all good news" Rodriguez


personally my insurance costs increased 71% and the coverage is not even as good as what I had previously

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[turtlespeed 226]

Rick

******I read the article. If I understand it correctly, this headline / thread topic is way off.

If you are currently purchasing health insurance, your premiums may go down. If you are not, you will be forced to purchase health insurance so that other people's rates can go down.

So, SOME people will see their rates go down. SOME people will see their rates jump from zero to some number they don't want. There's no real way to put a percentage INCREASE on that, is there?

A married couple (self-employed, an economist and a writer, bought and payed for health insurance on their own, owned a decent plan) I know just got written notification from their insurance provider that their premiums would go up 116% due to the ACA.

I know this is just one data point in an entire country full of them, but it hits close to home for me since I know they're good folks, who will have to see a drastic change in lifestyle and/or coverage.

Elvisio "not all good news" Rodriguez


personally my insurance costs increased 71% and the coverage is not even as good as what I had previously

I'm still waiting for Dr Kallend to respond to the question, "how many of the touted 30-some million uninsured, are now insured under obamacare."

I then asked how many were adversely affected by obamacare.

I don't think he wants to respond because then he would have to admit that it failed in almost everything it was sold on.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[champu 1]

jclalor

Do you know if your employer contribution has stayed the same? I wonder if some less than scrupulous employers have used the ACA as an excuse to increase the employee portion and lower their own.

My employer contribution has not stayed the same. As I mentioned in this newer thread linking back to this post you quoted: www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4735304#4735304 My percentage of the total cost of the plan has stayed roughly the same.

It's not a perfect comparison because I know how much I pay each plan year, and that runs from July 1st through June 30th, and that's when the cost increases happen and how I calculated those percent changes. I only know how much my company pays each calender year, so it kinda smears the cost increases over two years.