Blue Cross Blue Shield getting crushed by Obamacare

[sportage]

Yeah... blame Obamacare for disallowing healthcare-for-profit to have it ALL.
And having it ALL and ONLY their way.
My company premiums have actually went down for the past 2 cycle years since ACA reforms.
I'm actually paying $30 less for 2016 thru payroll deduction than last year. And $45 less than compared to 2 years ago.
So if your employer is screwing you and blaming Obamacare, which many companies ARE DOING FYI, talk to your HR department. Ask questions.

Our only cost increase was the co-pay rising from $20 to $25.
But another decrease, generic drugs were charged at the $20 co-pay, regardless of actual generic drug cost.
This year in 2016, generics are now charged at their actual cost.
Prescription cold medicine last year cost $20 (in 2015. The co-pay).
This year in 2016, $6.50 for the very same stuff.
Something has changed where the insurance can no longer just charge their basic co-pay regardless of actual drug cost. It appears the lower cost is now passed onto the customer. I would assume Obamacare reforms solely responsible for that decrease.

I can promise, no republican will ever get elected president as long as he or she insists on repealing ACA.
Just because Donald, Ted or Marco tells you something in a debate or in an tV ad, don't believe it.
The voting public would never allow it.
And the US Supreme Court understood that very well when they ruled twice in favor for the ACA act.
You really think that just happened by chance?
They knew people wanted their Obamacare. Their reforms from the ACA act.
And people would never tolerate the repeal of those the ACA reforms i.e. eliminating the pre-existing clause or returning back to the cap limits.

When people in the crowd cheer for the repeal of Obamacare, if they really knew how that disaster would effect their own personal healthcare costs, they wouldn't cheer. They'd toss tomatoes at the candidate.
I don't think people want to cheer being tossed off their healthcare just because someone in the family was diagnosed with cancer. Or a family members long term illness reached their insurability cap limit.
They may think the thing to do is to cheer, but obviously they have no reality as to what that would mean for them and their family.
Loss of insurance, losing their savings and their home, financial disaster, and eventual bankruptcy.

Donald's ACA replacement plan?
Repeal Obamacare and all the reforms, then if you should get really ill or come down with some long term illness and your insurance company dumps you, just cross the state line and have all your healthcare needs met FOR FREE!
Yeah right, Donald. So THAT is how it works....
Like driving into a gas station, and finding gas is the very same price no matter which pump island you chose.
State lines..... Yeah right.
Like Iowa or Kentucky can afford to offer health insurance so much cheaper than in your own state.
(Queue the cheering monkey schmucks)
Schmucks BTW usually duped into voting against their own best interest.

 

[DrDoug]

Eliminate state restrictions, allowing all insurance companies to compete with each other, and open up Medicare to include everyone living at or below the poverty level.

Sure, then the insurance companies all move to the one or two states that let them screw the consumer over the worst, just like the credit card companies did.

Brilliant, Sherlock!

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Good. Assholes raised my rates through the roof for my old ACA plan through them. I went with United this year and saved a ton plus kept my doctor. It was like they didn't even want my business.

I did the same two years ago after BCBS taking me to the cleaners for nearly a decade even before the ACA.

Edit 1: Nevermind, posting before coffee again and apparently using a broken search engine that doesn't sort by date.

Edit 2: Can someone explain this? This:

BCBSNC is a fully taxed, not-for-profit North Carolina company with headquarters in Chapel Hill and major operations centers in Durham, Fayetteville, and Winston-Salem. We employ more than 4,800 North Carolinians and serve more than 3.9 million customers.

is from here:
http://www.bcbsnc.com/content/corporate/index.htm

And this:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina returned to profitability last year, despite increasing losses on health plans purchased under the Affordable Care Act, officials said Friday.

The state's largest insurer posted net income of $500,000 one year after losing $50.6 million. Its annual revenue increased from $8 billion to $8.2 billion.

is from here:
http://www.wral.com/blue-cross-ekes-out-profit-despite-aca-losses/15432737/
^ Also lists some specific executive salaries. And how are they paying so much taxes on last year's losses? Differed from previous years?

Edit 3. Or 4. Who knows. I really, really dislike the fact that insurance pools are even further segregated by county under that ACA. If we can never have real single payer in this country the least we should achieve is single market.

 

[bozack]

I finally have to get something BCBS won't cover, thankfully the cost is only $50 but I am sure for many that cost would be difficult.....will be interesting to see how things continue to play out.

 

[feralkid]

Government run anything is the best argument for NOT single-payer.

Tell that to every other developed nation on Earth that has it.

 

[IronWing]

Lots of hate against insurance companies, and I get the frustration, but a healthy insurance industry is vital for our society.

No. we do not owe the insurance companies an existence. They are an anchor on the American economy and need to go away. The private health insurance industry is a failed model and needs to go away.

Well here we are again.
It's always such a pleasure.
Remember when you tried
To kill me twice?
Oh how we laughed and laughed.
Except I wasn't laughing.
Under the circumstances
I've been shockingly nice.

You want your freedom?
Take it.
That's what I'm counting on.

I used to want you dead
But
Now I only want you gone.

She was a lot like you.
(Maybe not quite as heavy).
Now little Caroline is in here too.
One day they woke me up -
So I could live forever.
It's such a shame the same
Will never happen to you.

You've got your
Short sad
Life left.
That's what I'm counting on.
I'll let you get right to it -
Now I only want you gone.

Goodbye my only friend.
Oh, did you think I meant you?
That would be funny
If it weren't so sad.
Well you have been replaced.
I don't need anyone now.
When I delete you maybe
I'll stop feeling so bad.

Go make some new disaster.
That's what I'm counting on.
You're someone else's problem.

Now I only want you gone.
Now I only want you gone.
Now I only want you gone

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I pay half as much for better coverage with my new employer vs my former employer. My employer is a foreign owned company no less.

 

[fskimospy]

Eliminate state restrictions, allowing all insurance companies to compete with each other, and open up Medicare to include everyone living at or below the poverty level.

Some states already allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

Research has shown this has functionally zero effect. It's pointless.

 

[openwheel]

Good!!! Insurance companies need to go.

Due to the ACA, my employer has offered more and better health care options. My out of pocket and premium has been lowered.

If your employer is using ACA as some lame excuse, then you should get a better job. Speaking like a true conservative here.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Some states already allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

Research has shown this has functionally zero effect. It's pointless.

Then why do Democrats fight it tooth and nail?

 

[IronWing]

Then why do Democrats fight it tooth and nail?

Because they are paid shills of the insurance industry.

 

[fskimospy]

Then why do liberals fight it tooth and nail?

Probably because they worry that someone is going to try and pull a Delaware. By the way there's nothing in federal law that stops insurance companies from selling across state lines. State governments, that institution that conservatives love, are the only ones that have set up any restrictions.

And as I mentioned, some states have done away with those restrictions. Do you know how many insurance companies took advantage of this situation? Zero. That's right. Exactly zero.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/u...sell-health-insurance-across-state-lines.html

All that aside, same question right back at you: why are conservatives making such a pointless change one of the cornerstones of their health care reform plans? It seems like they've duped their followers into thinking this is some sort of meaningful change.

 

[SlowSpyder]

More and more those who say the ACA is good law, even in hindsight, appear to be akin to those on the other side of the spectrum who still insist going to Iraq was the right call.

 

[glenn1]

No wonder my premiums went up so much this year. And mine is partly paid for by my employer. Ugh.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obamacare-now-has-blue-cross-singing-the-blues/



ACA is further eroding the middle class. Fuck obamacare, they need to neuter this legislation to where it's not killing us with double digit premium jumps. I'm not a human cash register, FFS. Anyone else with BCBS getting killed this year on premiums?

404 insurance company not found. Insurance is to cover unexpected costs, instead what BCBS and the other companies are doing is managing all-inclusive health management programs whose main function is to pay expected and routine costs. Which of course is the exact opposite of what true insurance would do. The "system" was already broken before ACA, all Obamacare did is make that core problem worse.

 

[fskimospy]

More and more those who say the ACA is good law, even in hindsight, appear to be akin to those on the other side of the spectrum who still insist going to Iraq was the right call.

Millions of additional people have been insured, health care cost inflation has been lower than average, and the law has ended up costing less than initially projected.

If that's a 'bad law', what would your definition of a good law be?

 

[SP33Demon]

Tell that to every other developed nation on Earth that has it.

Agreed, but in "developed nation" Britain, they have to sit on waiting lists for their surgery and are more likely to die even when they get surgery.

Doctors found that people who have treatment here are four times more likely to die than US citizens undergoing similar operations.

The most seriously ill NHS patients were seven times more likely to die than their American counterparts.

Experts blame the British fatality figures on a shortage of specialists and lack of intensive care beds for post-operative recovery.

They also suggest that long waiting lists mean diseases are more advanced before they are treated.

Researchers from University College London and Columbia University, in New York, studied 1,000 surgery patients at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Manhattan, and compared them to nearly 1,100 people who had similar operations at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Portsmouth.

The results showed that just under ten per cent of British patients died in hospital afterwards compared to 2.5 per cent in America. Among the most seriously ill cases there was a seven-fold difference in the death rates.

Link

I'd rather have much higher quality of care than watered down BS for everyone that increases mortality rates.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Some states already allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

Research has shown this has functionally zero effect. It's pointless.

Most likely because the coverage pools are still separated. The more segregated the pools are the less insurance-y insurance even is and the less competitive market forces can work.

 

[dank69]

No wonder my premiums went up so much this year. And mine is partly paid for by my employer. Ugh.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obamacare-now-has-blue-cross-singing-the-blues/



ACA is further eroding the middle class. Fuck obamacare, they need to neuter this legislation to where it's not killing us with double digit premium jumps. I'm not a human cash register, FFS. Anyone else with BCBS getting killed this year on premiums?

Explain this then:
http://www.latimes.com/business/hil...ng-a-mint-from-obamacare-20160216-column.html

 

[SP33Demon]

Millions of additional people have been insured, health care cost inflation has been lower than average, and the law has ended up costing less than initially projected.

If that's a 'bad law', what would your definition of a good law be?

You get what you pay for. See post #41. The definition of a good law would be not paying for millions of freeloaders and get us back to pre-ACA days which has been proven to be cheaper than the abomination that we have today.

 

[fskimospy]

Most likely because the coverage pools are still separated. The more segregated the pools are the less insurance-y insurance even is and the less competitive market forces can work.

From my link the primary cause is that it's hard for insurance companies to draw up contracts and make arrangements with doctors in a bunch of different states with different populations that all work well under a single insurance plan. The demographics and doctor costs for New York are going to be much different than the costs in rural Louisiana. How do you make a competitive plan that covers both? It's hard.

 

[SP33Demon]

Explain this then:
http://www.latimes.com/business/hil...ng-a-mint-from-obamacare-20160216-column.html

Whether these insurance companies are making a mint or losing money (and lying about it) doesn't matter. What matters is that the cost will be passed down to the Average Joe (like me) because of POS obamacare. The effect will erode middle class wealth regardless because they are paying for lazy sacks of shit who refuse to work and only want to suck the gov teat.

 

[dank69]

Whether these insurance companies are making a mint or losing money (and lying about it) doesn't matter. What matters is that the cost will be passed down to the Average Joe (like me) because of POS obamacare. The effect will erode middle class wealth regardless because they are paying for lazy sacks of shit who refuse to work and only want to suck the gov teat.

Insurance companies lying is Obama's fault. Got it. Thank you for clarifying.

TIL that poor people are the ones eroding the middle class and not the extremely wealthy who pay your government to craft laws that benefit only them.

 

[fskimospy]

Insurance companies lying is Obama's fault. Got it. Thank you for clarifying.

What I find amusing is that conservatives complain no matter what the circumstances. If insurance companies are making a lot of money it's because of that damn ACA where the government is lining the pockets of those rich, lobbying insurers. If insurance companies are losing money suddenly conservatives weep for them because that damn ACA is bankrupting the poor helpless insurance companies.

Once you realize that their reasoning starts with the ACA being bad and works backwards instead of the rational approach of doing it the opposite way it all makes much more sense.

 

[Sonikku]

Good. Can we go single payer now? Please?

 

[IronWing]

You get what you pay for. See post #41. The definition of a good law would be not paying for millions of freeloaders and get us back to pre-ACA days which has been proven to be cheaper than the abomination that we have today.

The abomination we have today is the same abomination we had then. The private health insurance industry needs a stake through the heart.