Does health insurance increase when you use it?

[Vern_in_IL]

Originally Posted By: Leo99
No, it's not like home owners or car insurance. Go to the Dr. if you need to. That's why you have insurance.


So why can't car insurance work the same way? excess claims everyone premium goes up, instead it's like you pay for 20 years of premium with no claims(that good driving discount is not much!), and the first fender bender your rates roar higher than inflation in Zimbabwe! B.S.

I hate insurance because of this.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


Just to answer your question without getting polical, the ACA required better coverage, there were 10 essential services that were required that wasn't necessarily required before. Things like mental health, substance abuse, maternity care etc. There's no free lunch so those additional services cost more money and hence premiums rose. So you're paying more, but get more coverage if you need it. If you don't need it, you're just paying more for better coverage. Also technically if you're older, you're being subsidized by the younger crowd as the ACA didn't allow premiums to be more than 3x between youngest and oldest. The previous spread was about 4.8. Middle point is probably somewhere around 40.

Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
So why can't car insurance work the same way? excess claims everyone premium goes up, instead it's like you pay for 20 years of premium with no claims(that good driving discount is not much!), and the first fender bender your rates roar higher than inflation in Zimbabwe! B.S.


Health insurance before the ACA basically worked this way, but most people had coverage through work so all the people in the group had their premiums go up if several people in the group were sick. For individuals who got sick or had pre-existing conditions which were a much smaller percentage of the market, they basically couldn't afford individual coverage because the premiums were sky high and they got kicked into the state high risks pools and those didn't have enough money to allow everyone in and to give good coverage.

 

[AZjeff]

True believers call it ACA, everyone else who saw rates go up and coverage go down call it something else. Nobody where I work benefited from O-care, fact is other aspects of O-care unknown to the general public crippled my company. Great stuff.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


Just to answer your question without getting polical, the ACA required better coverage, there were 10 essential services that were required that wasn't necessarily required before. Things like mental health, substance abuse, maternity care etc. There's no free lunch so those additional services cost more money and hence premiums rose. So you're paying more, but get more coverage if you need it. If you don't need it, you're just paying more for better coverage. Also technically if you're older, you're being subsidized by the younger crowd as the ACA didn't allow premiums to be more than 3x between youngest and oldest. The previous spread was about 4.8. Middle point is probably somewhere around 40.



You apparently missed (or ignored) where I said my coverage is actually worse under Obamacare. Here it is again: Worse coverage, but MUCH more expensive.

Also, I'm in my 40's.

 

[MONKEYMAN]

My Vice President just told us in a meeting health insurance is going up about 2 million per year and asked us to stay healthy. Less claims theoretically will keep rates down, but there are probably other factors.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


Just to answer your question without getting polical, the ACA required better coverage, there were 10 essential services that were required that wasn't necessarily required before. Things like mental health, substance abuse, maternity care etc. There's no free lunch so those additional services cost more money and hence premiums rose. So you're paying more, but get more coverage if you need it. If you don't need it, you're just paying more for better coverage. Also technically if you're older, you're being subsidized by the younger crowd as the ACA didn't allow premiums to be more than 3x between youngest and oldest. The previous spread was about 4.8. Middle point is probably somewhere around 40.



You apparently missed (or ignored) where I said my coverage is actually worse under Obamacare. Here it is again: Worse coverage, but MUCH more expensive.

Also, I'm in my 40's.


ACA was never perfect. They just managed to pass it and then Ted Kennedy died and they lost their majority in the Senate. So any tweaks they wanted to do, couldn't pass. Insurance premiums were still going up by double digits before ACA. It slowed it down, but didn't stop it. Certain markets did get worse. Overall, there were probably more winners than losers as the percentage of people who are uninsured has decreased and the number of hospitals going out of business is down. Sorry, but you ended up as one of the losers. ACA also had a bunch of taxes too to pay for those insurance subsidies, those who paid those were also losers.

 

[Mackelroy]

Publically traded Health insurance is broken and non repairable at this point. Obamacare broke the camels back, and that's probably a good thing.

The government will have to establish health care , $1500 per year , 100 % coverage with little to no deductible.

None of this pay 5 to 10,000 in premiums, and deductables per year , just to say you have insurance, and then they don't cover everything in addition.

 

[bioburner]

Would you sign the payment agreement for a new car without reading it first? Nancy P "You have to sign it to read it".
Should have been the glaring big a$$ sign to run away as fast as you can when that California prune made that statement

 

[Andrew1972]

The short answer is no currently due to Obamacare for individual plans.

Once the repeal gets sorted I am guessing yes price will increase yearly or they drop you. I would recommend if you have health issues to find a quality employer with good group plans or make yourself appealing to them.

My wife has an incredible health plan thru employer a hospital that costs our family about $320/month. No deductibles, $10-$30 scripts and slight increases yearly.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: Mackelroy
Publically traded Health insurance is broken and non repairable at this point. Obamacare broke the camels back, and that's probably a good thing.

The government will have to establish health care , $1500 per year , 100 % coverage with little to no deductible.

None of this pay 5 to 10,000 in premiums, and deductables per year , just to say you have insurance, and then they don't cover everything in addition.


I don't want to get into a political debate but just point out some facts and some history. Health care costs in the US accounts for about 3 trillion dollars or about 17.5% of GDP. There's just no way to wave any kind of magic wand and make it $1500 per person when that number averages out to be $9500 a person.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
My health insurance premiums were pretty steady for years, before Obamacare was forced upon us. Since then, despite being lied to that "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance" I was forced to go to another plan. My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


The only reason you were forced to go to another plan was because your old plan didn't have the benefits mandated by the ACA. It was 4x cheaper because it had less coverage. You're also subsidizing the premiums of the sick. Before they were kicked off the plans so that everyone's premiums could stay low. Now they can't do that.

 

[DBMaster]

I've felt for decades that health insurance needs to be divorced from the workplace. By nature, the bottom line of corporations will nearly always result in cost shifting to the employee as health care costs rise. How quickly we forget that before ACA we had double digit premium increases just about every year. Those who have coverage through an employer, though, are somewhat insulated from the health insurance market as many corporate groups have a large enough population of insureds to keep plans affordable (mostly). If we all had to buy our own coverage AND employers shifted the money to us as salary instead of paying it toward insurance premiums the health coverage landscape would look quite different.

I do, however, wish that those "catastrophic" plans were still an option. I used them several times during periods of unemployment. They didn't cover much in the way of routine services and they had high deductibles, but the premiums were cheap and they would have prevented me from going bankrupt if I had suffered a serious health issue. I was sorry to see those plans eliminated under ACA.

 

[spasm3]

I think more catastrophic plans would be great. The cost of medication, lab tests etc would be less if more competitive. Let customers pay for their own labs, prescriptions etc. Let me just buy insurance that covers surgery etc.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
I've felt for decades that health insurance needs to be divorced from the workplace.


Employers/ "the man" love having it connected for the slavery it entails. Keeps the good employees from splitting off and building a better mousetrap.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
My health insurance premiums were pretty steady for years, before Obamacare was forced upon us. Since then, despite being lied to that "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance" I was forced to go to another plan. My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


The only reason you were forced to go to another plan was because your old plan didn't have the benefits mandated by the ACA. It was 4x cheaper because it had less coverage. You're also subsidizing the premiums of the sick. Before they were kicked off the plans so that everyone's premiums could stay low. Now they can't do that.


You keep saying that, but you are WRONG. I have LESS coverage now, but at four times the cost of my old, BETTER coverage. So keep trying to spin it, but I'm not the only person by far that has been screwed over by Obamacare. I have numerous friends and colleagues with similar stories to mine.

Our mistake was working hard, and having some success. Clearly, we needed to be brought down a peg by the Socialist Obama regime. A little wealth re-distribution in action.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
How quickly we forget that before ACA we had double digit premium increases just about every year.



I have had more increases since the ACA.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
My health insurance premiums were pretty steady for years, before Obamacare was forced upon us. Since then, despite being lied to that "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance" I was forced to go to another plan. My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


The only reason you were forced to go to another plan was because your old plan didn't have the benefits mandated by the ACA. It was 4x cheaper because it had less coverage. You're also subsidizing the premiums of the sick. Before they were kicked off the plans so that everyone's premiums could stay low. Now they can't do that.


You keep saying that, but you are WRONG. I have LESS coverage now, but at four times the cost of my old, BETTER coverage. So keep trying to spin it, but I'm not the only person by far that has been screwed over by Obamacare. I have numerous friends and colleagues with similar stories to mine.

Our mistake was working hard, and having some success. Clearly, we needed to be brought down a peg by the Socialist Obama regime. A little wealth re-distribution in action.


A lot of people have said that, but if you drill down, there are usually valid reasons for it. For instance exactly what are you paying now and what were you paying before? Did everything stay the same? Just going from a single to a family plan will more than double your premium. Were you buying plans in the individual markets? If you didn't have any pre-existing conditions you may have had better coverage because those who got sick were kicked out, but your coverage wasn't really better because it had exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Also many employers used the cover of the ACA to jack up the employee's share of their premiums. Things did get redistributed. More people ended up with coverage. It cost some people more and some people who couldn't afford it before were able to and vice versa. Premiums in rural areas also went up as there's not much competition, many hospitals who had to treat whoever walked in the door went out of business and there was less competition. Nothing is ever ideal, there's always some winners and losers. Even with single payer in the UK, they're not happy with it, some want the government there to increase spending.

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
My health insurance premiums were pretty steady for years, before Obamacare was forced upon us. Since then, despite being lied to that "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance" I was forced to go to another plan. My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


The only reason you were forced to go to another plan was because your old plan didn't have the benefits mandated by the ACA. It was 4x cheaper because it had less coverage. You're also subsidizing the premiums of the sick. Before they were kicked off the plans so that everyone's premiums could stay low. Now they can't do that.


You keep saying that, but you are WRONG. I have LESS coverage now, but at four times the cost of my old, BETTER coverage. So keep trying to spin it, but I'm not the only person by far that has been screwed over by Obamacare. I have numerous friends and colleagues with similar stories to mine.

Our mistake was working hard, and having some success. Clearly, we needed to be brought down a peg by the Socialist Obama regime. A little wealth re-distribution in action.


A lot of people have said that, but if you drill down, there are usually valid reasons for it. For instance exactly what are you paying now and what were you paying before? Did everything stay the same? Just going from a single to a family plan will more than double your premium. Were you buying plans in the individual markets? If you didn't have any pre-existing conditions you may have had better coverage because those who got sick were kicked out, but your coverage wasn't really better because it had exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Also many employers used the cover of the ACA to jack up the employee's share of their premiums. Things did get redistributed. More people ended up with coverage. It cost some people more and some people who couldn't afford it before were able to and vice versa. Premiums in rural areas also went up as there's not much competition, many hospitals who had to treat whoever walked in the door went out of business and there was less competition. Nothing is ever ideal, there's always some winners and losers. Even with single payer in the UK, they're not happy with it, some want the government there to increase spending.


Keep spinning it..

The ONLY thing that changed is worse coverage, for much more money.

I get the fact that you have some goal of defending the indefensible.

I simply posted my experience, and a few others here have posted a similar experience, too.

"We need to to pass this bill, to find out what's in it.." That gem was said with a straight face too.

So keep making excuses. There are people that know Obamacare is a failure.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: 02SE
My premiums have increased dramatically, (about fourfold) my coverage has gotten worse, my Doctor retired early because he was being compensated at a much lower rate than before. To make matters worse, I was told essentially that I was now basically subsidizing the lower premiums of others..


Just to answer your question without getting polical, the ACA required better coverage, there were 10 essential services that were required that wasn't necessarily required before. Things like mental health, substance abuse, maternity care etc. There's no free lunch so those additional services cost more money and hence premiums rose. So you're paying more, but get more coverage if you need it. If you don't need it, you're just paying more for better coverage. Also technically if you're older, you're being subsidized by the younger crowd as the ACA didn't allow premiums to be more than 3x between youngest and oldest. The previous spread was about 4.8. Middle point is probably somewhere around 40.



You apparently missed (or ignored) where I said my coverage is actually worse under Obamacare. Here it is again: Worse coverage, but MUCH more expensive.

Also, I'm in my 40's.


As I mentioned before, details please. What are you paying now? If the average cost per person is about $9500 a year, if your total costs were about 40k a year, I'd say you have a good point. But if you're closer to the 10k range after factoring in premiums and deductibles and co-pays, then you're just back on target. You just had yours artificially low and that went away. Those catastrophic plans were pretty cheap and one way they stayed that way was that they excluded maternity care and were only 6 months and pregnancy was a pre-existing condition so no coverage. They were eliminated under the ACA. Not saying it's a good or bad thing, but just why premiums went up. There's no free lunch. If they make you get more, you have to pay more even if you don't really need it.

Here's a list of mandated additional services that all health plans had to have as a minimum:

Ambulatory patient services (outpatient care you get without being admitted to a hospital)
Emergency services
Hospitalization (like surgery and overnight stays)
Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care (both before and after birth)
Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment (this includes counseling and psychotherapy)
Prescription drugs
Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices (services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions gain or recover mental and physical skills)
Laboratory services
Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
Pediatric services, including oral and vision care (but adult dental and vision coverage aren’t essential health benefits)
Birth control coverage
Breastfeeding coverage

 

[Mackelroy]

That's because you are buying Health insurance and not Health care. But yeah, the whole system has to continue to break down, and its happening at the current pace.

Do you think that military people are paying $10,000 per year for their healthcare insurance, ? Nope they just have healthcare provided by the government.

The government owns it all, and controls it all. Similar to all other governments who provide Healthcare to their citizens.