ObamaCare Blamed for up to 47% Hike in Insurance Rates

Discussion in 'Politics' started by madanthonywayne, Oct 16, 2010.

  1. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    12,461
    BC/BS of CT has received permision to increase its insurance rates between 19$ and 47% (this is less than the 39% to 59% increase they requested). The reason for the increase:

    How in the world could over 2,000 pages of new rules and regulations cause costs to increase? What a surprise.
     
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  3. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    An official is blaming someone else for forcing them to do something they did that people don't like?

    Truly, no surprise. Lots of people are blaming Obama for all kinds of bad stuff - they started before he was even elected to the Presidency (blaming financial woes on the threat of his candidacy)

    Health care costs were due and predicted to increase dramatically, about now, long before the first of those 2000 pages had even been drafted. And the Republicans/Blue Dogs removed most of the cost controlling aspects of the bill during the effort to get "bipartisan" support. If you want to blame a particular cost increase on Obama's contribution to that bill, you'll have to provide more than a government official's campaign season assertion.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2010
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  5. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    being blamed for and being responsible for are not always the one and the same
     
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  7. adoucette Caca Occurs Valued Senior Member

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    No one blamed Obama.

    The AG asked the Insurance Commissioner why the increases that he called excessive were approved.

    The IC said, The rates that were filed and approved reflect the current cost to deliver care and the impact of more comprehensive benefit designs required under the federal healthcare reform law

    He didn't give a breakdown, so we don't know how much is attributable to each factor.

    Personally I don't see that much happening this year that one could cause much increases, as I understood it the more expensive changes aren't until after the next Presidential elections.

    Which I'm sure is purely coincidental.

    Arthur
     
  8. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Hmmm. True. Maybe I am assuming too much about madanthony's take here. I was perhaps reading too much into his OP title, there, about "obamacare" - he has a lot of trouble wording his titles in general, very often badly misrepresenting the content of the link, perhaps accidently.

    How about it, madanthony - are you sternly accusing the Republican and Blue Dog Congresscritters of driving up insurance premiums by needlessly compromising and complicating the health care bill?
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2010
  9. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    The thread title is based upon the title of the article I linked to:

    Health Care Reform Blamed for Huge Hike in Premiums


    Furthermore, I might point to this quote from the insurance commissioner:

    If the attorney general wants to complain to someone, he should complain to Congress.​


    It seems to me that that quote indicates the commissioner is laying the blame for the insurance rate increase almost entirely on ObamaCare.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2010
  10. nirakar ( i ^ i ) Registered Senior Member

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    For the last 40 years increases in insurance premiums have been one of the USA's greatest economic problems but now it is the Democrats fault. I would be laughing at the Democratic party for willingly sticking their heads in a political noose if the idea of the Republicans having power did not horrify me so much.

    The insurance industry effectively chooses the state insurance regulators and the state legislators but the fear of voter anger kept the insurance industry and their political pawns from getting more aggressively greedy than they have been; but now that all premium increases can be blamed on the Democrats why should they hold back and not increase premiums like crazy? They won't even have to worry about the healthy lower middle class choosing to be uninsured once the penalties for ignoring the mandate become substantial.

    The Democrats have managed to make the world's worst medical system in terms of efficiency even more inefficient. Amazing!

    But no, coping with the 2,000 pages of insurance regulations are not the main reason for the premium increases.
    The main reason rates will rise faster than normal is because the industry now has political cover. The main reason rates rise in general is because of the ever increasing complexity of medicine. Coping with 2,000 pages of new rules certainly has a cost but this cost is substantially lower than the cost of the sleazy legal and Actuarial games the insurance industry has been playing against their subscribers and against healthcare providers for decades.

    The significant cost increases for insurance customers that will actually be caused by what the Democrats did won't begin until the new rules take effect and some people become forced to subsidize others while the cheaper McInsurance plans get forced to provide greater coverage than they do now. All the people added to Medicaid will have to be paid for by the other Insured people because doctors lose money on Medicaid patients unless they limit the healthcare they provide to bogus McHealthcare.

    Below from http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php?topic=46649.0
    "According to the CBO’s projections, 16 million individuals are expected to enter Medicaid by the end of the decade. In some cases, that means that individuals who were previously on private health insurance will end up being shifted to Medicaid."
     
  11. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Reading from the minds of the insurance companies

    "God dam government is trying to make it so we can't profit off peoples suffering, dam them, all we need to do is get the idiots that do anything we tell them to back in charge, so lets increases the insurance prices so the voters will blame it on government regulations most of which haven't even taken effect yet and could not possibly be the direct cause of prices increases, but the voters are too stupid to figure that out, so that they will re-elect our pawns and we can keep making a killing off their suffering and dieing!"
     
  12. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
    Guess who Sullivan is....the insurance regulator approving the rate hikes in the referenced article? A former insurance industry executive. So is it any wonder he takes the side of the insurance industry. Unfortunately it is not an uncommon practice for industry insiders do dominate and lead the government bodies that are supposed to be representing consumers.

    http://www.ct.gov/cid/cwp/view.asp?q=254392

    "Customer service and consumer relations were hallmarks of the Commissioner’s 20+ year career in the insurance industry. Commissioner Sullivan began his professional career at The Hartford, advancing through various responsibilities in management, leadership, and ultimately executive level positions culminating as Senior Vice President, of Specialty Risk Services, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hartford."

    As Nirakar pointed out, for the next three years we are going to hear a lot of this kind on nonsense. The insurance industry is going to try to get away with all they can until the new law takes effect as starts running them like a regulated electric utiltiy.

    The bottom line is we have a grossly inefficient healthcare system in The United States due to the huge influence the industry has over our government. That industry is going to be squealing like a stuck pig because there has been some minor reforms that benefit the consumer and tax payer for once instead of the industry.
     
  13. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    Up to a 47% rate hike, some benefit. I just hope this monstrosity is repealed after the democrats take a drubbing this November.
     
  14. Mr MacGillivray Banned Banned

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    527
    Those insurance companies must be very pleased with a 47% increase in turnover. Of course they complain, but they even push around more money now, increasing their power.
     
  15. Startraveler Registered Senior Member

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    I have to say, I find this story somewhat puzzling. That article says:

    Similarly, in the Hartford Courant article on this the Anthem spokesperson quoted blames "expanded benefits such as elimination of lifetime dollar maximums, no cost share for preventive coverage, and extension of dependent coverage to age 26." And the article itself says:

    So we had a slate of new consumer protections going into effect for plans renewed after September 23 of this year (the "New Patient's Bill of Rights"). Anthem says these are expensive for them. But the insurance regulators in the state are saying "the increased rates will be applied to new customers" and at least one news article is saying grandfathered plan rates "would increase next year based on rising costs but not because the plan will have added benefits mandated by federal law."

    But grandfathered plans do have added benefits mandated by law. The interim final regulations on grandfathered plans even had a handy table:

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    The only additional benefit going into effect for plan years after September 23 that doesn't apply to grandfathered individual plans is the incremental increase in the annual limit minimum.

    But taken at face value it sounds like the entirety of the costs of these new protections (which apply to all plans, grandfathered or not, with the one exception I just noted) is being placed on a single, small segment of (future) policyholders: "new customers." Whereas everyone else will see their rates "increase next year based on rising costs but not because the plan will have added benefits mandated by federal law," despite the fact that they are enjoying added benefits under ACA.

    I can't tell if this is simply poor journalism or there's something very fishy going on in Connecticut. Relatively modest cost increases for widely distributed benefits would indeed look much larger if they were dumped in their entirety on a relatively small segment of the insured population enjoying those benefits. I'd like significantly more information because what's written in these two articles really doesn't seem to make much sense.

    That said, it's worth noting that Anthem BCBS of Connecticut requested rate hikes of 32% last year, so large premium hikes from them aren't exactly novel. From August 10, 2009 we have "Insurance Commissioner calls rate request "excessive":

     
  16. Gypsi Registered Senior Member

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    98
    Also back in April, we have this:
    While over in Colorado, Anthem have made a "confidential" deal to repay $20 million to policyholders, in return for which the Colorado Dept of Insurance is a calling off its "conduct examination and rate inquiry" into 2009 filings.
    Anthem Blues Must Pay $20 Million in Premium Credits to Policyholders in Colorado
     
  17. adoucette Caca Occurs Valued Senior Member

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    This venting against the Insurance Companies, as if they are responsible for this large increases is kind of silly. Sure they may make their share of profits in the coming years, but they did in the previous years as well. If prices are going up by these kind of percents I see no evidence that the slice of the pie that insurance companies take out of our medical dollar is increasing by that much.

    Indeed they take a huge amount now. Some say that of the Medical care paid for by insurance company's (not sure what percent that is of our total Medical cost, but it's high) they pay about 80c on the dollar for medical care and 20% is consumed by the over 420,000 people that are employed by them, their offices, their computers, their billing systems and their profits.

    But all of that was there last year and will be next year, so yes, while this is one of the things that makes our system so expensive, it's not what is making the medical costs go up so much.

    It does appear to be one of the areas that the new heatlh care system wants to cut to reduce costs. Some of the measures should do that, like doing away with exclusions for pre-existing conditions, but it will take a while for the changes in the regs to reduce the overhead of insurance companies to the point that we see this reflected in our premiums.

    Arthur
     
  18. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    so the people who are actually raising the rates aren't responsible for raising them????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
     
  19. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    Funny it is what is because of the dems cater to people like you. if you'd just wise up and support a national single payer health care system which is far less expensive than the private option you wet dream over we'd all benefit
     
  20. adoucette Caca Occurs Valued Senior Member

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    Right.
    Might it be the cost of all the Doctors, Nurses, Staff, Hospitals, Doctor Offices, Clinics, Medical Labs, Pathologists, Medical Equipment, Medicines, Hospices, Ambulances, Medivac helos, Emergency Rooms that we use?

    Not saying Insurance doesn't add a hefty hunk to our medical costs, but the reason our rates are going up year to year isn't primarily because the overhead of the insurance companies is going up large amounts each year.

    Arthur
     
  21. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    16,479
    your right its not over head its greed
     
  22. adoucette Caca Occurs Valued Senior Member

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    Don't matter what you call it, it isn't going up by large amounts each year.

    And only if the profits are excessive, is it greed.

    Since it's a controlled industry, that's not really the case.

    I'm all for doing away with the insurance aspect of our medical care, but I'm realistic that it won't suddenly make our medical care CHEAP.
    Cheaper, yes.
    Cheap, no.

    Arthur
     
  23. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    Most estimates put the extra (above the necessary of a health care system) overhead of US insurance companies at around 40% of the total bill, when its total effects are calculated.

    That percentage has not been dropping, as the insurance premiums rise.
     

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