Health Insurance Companies Seek Big Rate Increases for 2016

[Darwin333]

Bull crap, as the CFO of the local medical group, I know exactly what we get from insurance, its around 10K for a regular delivery from a Blue Cross or around 4K from Medi-cal (the hospital charge is over 30K, we'll take 8k in cash if someone asks). The actual cost of a 3 day stay without complications and using a minimum amount of meds, Id estimate is around 6-7k.

Ok, lets use $8,000 for a procedure, adjusted for inflation, cost under $1,000 in the 60's and said procedure hasn't changed much since the 60's.

Please explain the 800% increase in cost.

BTW, I didn't pull the numbers out of my ass. I got them from a few national surveys (government data from 2011 is way higher than yours) of what was actually paid out but frankly it's irrelevant as even your very low numbers show an absurd increase.

 

[Victorian Gray]

I completely agree and include that in the cost of healthcare. The .gov is not at all innocent in the necessity for their part in the above costs though. You see more providers refusing medicare/medicaid due to that (and other factors) then you see them refusing private insurance.

My point is still rather simple. Try going to the hospital and paying cash. They don't require a huge billing department for you, they don't have to waste time negotiating very complex contracts, they don't have to wait months to get paid, etc... and you will see the true problem with healthcare in our country. If it's such a pain in the ass and expensive to bill insurance companies it should obviously be cheaper to walk in with cash in hand.

The cost of healthcare (not insurance) has been rising well above inflation and salaries for quite a long time, the law of exponents is a cruel bitch and we are just starting to get bit by it.

So, you simply wave away the actual cost of administration.

Re the bolded, that is not what you did and I quote: "It's not the management costs that makes it so damn expensive it's the insane costs of health care (the product they are insuring) that drives the cost"

and what I posted:
"Results of administrative costs are presented in Table 2. Calculations for non-clinical staff were discussed earlier. There were 44% fewer non-clinical workers per 1,000 population in Canada than in the United States. Therefore, the United States would realize $306 per capita (44% * $696) in savings—or 19% of the total difference in spending—if it were to reduce the volume of non-clinical staff to the level of Canada."

...

"Together, hospital and medical office administration accounted for $616 per capita, or 39% of the total spending difference."

 

[OverVolt]

So, you simply wave away the actual cost of administration.

Re the bolded, that is not what you did and I quote: "It's not the management costs that makes it so damn expensive it's the insane costs of health care (the product they are insuring) that drives the cost"

and what I posted:
"Results of administrative costs are presented in Table 2. Calculations for non-clinical staff were discussed earlier. There were 44% fewer non-clinical workers per 1,000 population in Canada than in the United States. Therefore, the United States would realize $306 per capita (44% * $696) in savings—or 19% of the total difference in spending—if it were to reduce the volume of non-clinical staff to the level of Canada."

...

"Together, hospital and medical office administration accounted for $616 per capita, or 39% of the total spending difference."

Aren't you like... not from the US? Our healthcare system has been hobbled together sort of haphazardly for decades. Its a complicated enough system that most people living here don't even know how it really works.

You are simply pro social medicine (which is fine) but causing upheaval in the current system causes alot of harm too. At least I know how to work the current system.

Non-clinical staff are important, plus the US has more regulations so regulatory busy-work is what alot of the non-clinical workers are doing. Canada's healthcare reform was 8 pages or something like that and ours was 8,000 and we still don't even understand what we're supposed to be doing. Alot of the non-clinical work is also research, you know like all those drugs that US companies brought to market that the world uses... yeah those. Guess who collects data for clinical trials so we know which drugs work and which ones don't? Oh yea like 10 clinical workers and 40 non-clinical underlings. Pretty easy to leech on all the US's research eh?

 

[OverVolt]

..

 

[Victorian Gray]

Aren't you like... not from the US? Our healthcare system has been hobbled together sort of haphazardly for decades. Its a complicated enough system that most people living here don't even know how it really works.

You are simply pro social medicine (which is fine) but causing upheaval in the current system causes alot of harm too. At least I know how to work the current system.

Non-clinical staff are important, plus the US has more regulations so regulatory busy-work is what alot of the non-clinical workers are doing. Canada's healthcare reform was 8 pages or something like that and ours was 8,000 and we still don't even understand what we're supposed to be doing. Alot of the non-clinical work is also research, you know like all those drugs that US companies brought to market that the world uses... yeah those. Guess who collects data for clinical trials so we know which drugs work and which ones don't? Oh yea like 10 clinical workers and 40 non-clinical underlings. Pretty easy to leech on all the US's research eh?

Did you bother to read the linked study?

 

[OverVolt]

Oh you got me you're right.

 

[sm625]

Yike, it will be a huge sticker shock.

It wont be a shock to anyone but the dumbest of the dumbed. It was predicted many years ago.

 

[sm625]

Please explain the 800% increase in cost.

Medicaid.

Govt intervention caused the housing bubble, the student loan bubble, the healthcare bubble. Hell, if govt started giving grants and subsidies for veterinary services, it would cost $681 to take your pet to the vet every year. Everything govt money touches blows up into a massive bubble laced with graft and fraud. The solution is obvious.

 

[Homerboy]

Meanwhile insurance company profits up 25-35%!

 

[fskimospy]

By the way, according to a KFF preliminary analysis the average premium is going up about 4.4%, which is below average for the last 15 years or so. For example, average individual premiums in the years just before the ACA was passed averaged about 10% a year.

http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-...able-care-acts-health-insurance-marketplaces/

 

[Slew Foot]

Ok, lets use $8,000 for a procedure, adjusted for inflation, cost under $1,000 in the 60's and said procedure hasn't changed much since the 60's.

Please explain the 800% increase in cost.

BTW, I didn't pull the numbers out of my ass. I got them from a few national surveys (government data from 2011 is way higher than yours) of what was actually paid out but frankly it's irrelevant as even your very low numbers show an absurd increase.

Buildings are fancier and up to higher code, drugs cost more, random equitpment costs more, nurses and techs are unionized and are very expensive, piles of admin to try and figure out insurances and billing, piles of admins to manage staff, piles of admin for "regulatory compliance"