Obamacare premiums going way up for many (22% on average)

[highland145]

I doubt he'll get anything done anytime soon. IIRC, sactoking posted a good reason for not selling insurance across state lines but I don't remember why now.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

they're actually hoping that maybe insurance prices will drop now in 2018, if some of trump's many promises (like allowing insurance plans across state lines) to get adopted. but i doubt it.

There was a decent newspaper article recently which did a fair job of explaining some things. While people jump on insurance companies they don't bother to see how much they contribute to overall costs, which is far less than many assume of the total. The real reason? High tech accessible care is inherently expensive. There is no "just pay 4k for something that costs 40K", because it costs more to provide care, much more.

Consequently I believe a wise course of action is an assessment by non partisan political hacks to analyze our poorly organized system to increase the overall quality of care, not saving nickles and causing staffing cutbacks. We could have a national IT service that would provide a complete and continuously online history for any person anywhere at any time. That would vastly curtail misdiagnosis and expensive retests. Access would be granted on the basis of need to know with multiple biometric checks.

Gramps pass out in FL? Well lets look at his history and see he has idiopathic hypotension and we need him to rest a bit rather than breaking out every gadget under the sun.

Pays in the long run, especially since premiums must go up. When we expand coverage that means that mighty sick people use the system and that drives up overall costs. We should provide for them but people really need to get a basic understanding of the real world dynamics, not scapegoating people for what they do not understand.

 

[quikah]

I doubt he'll get anything done anytime soon. IIRC, sactoking posted a good reason for not selling insurance across state lines but I don't remember why now.

Out of state insurance companies will not be able to negotiate rates with providers unless they are able to get a VERY large percentage of the customer base.

All of the tinkering with insurance won't do crap until they address the costs of the provider. I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[theeedude]

There was a decent newspaper article recently which did a fair job of explaining some things. While people jump on insurance companies they don't bother to see how much they contribute to overall costs, which is far less than many assume of the total. The real reason? High tech accessible care is inherently expensive. There is no "just pay 4k for something that costs 40K", because it costs more to provide care, much more.

Consequently I believe a wise course of action is an assessment by non partisan political hacks to analyze our poorly organized system to increase the overall quality of care, not saving nickles and causing staffing cutbacks. We could have a national IT service that would provide a complete and continuously online history for any person anywhere at any time. That would vastly curtail misdiagnosis and expensive retests. Access would be granted on the basis of need to know with multiple biometric checks.

Gramps pass out in FL? Well lets look at his history and see he has idiopathic hypotension and we need him to rest a bit rather than breaking out every gadget under the sun.

Pays in the long run, especially since premiums must go up. When we expand coverage that means that mighty sick people use the system and that drives up overall costs. We should provide for them but people really need to get a basic understanding of the real world dynamics, not scapegoating people for what they do not understand.

Yes, we really need all our health conditions in a national database now that Trump will repeal Obamacare and allow health insurers to discriminate based on pre-existing condition again. Couldn't possibly be abused.

 

[highland145]

..

 

[highland145]

Out of state insurance companies will not be able to negotiate rates with providers unless they are able to get a VERY large percentage of the customer base.

All of the tinkering with insurance won't do crap until they address the costs of the provider. I don't see that happening any time soon.

That might be what he said. BC/BS is the only game in town on the exchange in S.C......I'm screwed.

 

[brianmanahan]

Yes, we really need all our health conditions in a national database now that Trump will repeal Obamacare and allow health insurers to discriminate based on pre-existing condition again. Couldn't possibly be abused.

yeah if it becomes possible to not cover pre-existing conditions anymore it'll make me sad

 

[highland145]

Yes, we really need all our health conditions in a national database now that Trump will repeal Obamacare and allow health insurers to discriminate based on pre-existing condition again. Couldn't possibly be abused.

had a conversation with the IT head at the local hospital. His concern was just that from the cyber security standpoint and future employment discrimination.

 

[IronWing]

I think the bigger point was that, much like the CC business did, if insurance companies are allowed to sell across state lines then they will flock to company friendly states and consumers will lose what little protections they might have through their own state insurance regulators.

 

[highland145]

That sounds familiar too. Hopefully, sactoking will respond.

 

[werepossum]

There was a decent newspaper article recently which did a fair job of explaining some things. While people jump on insurance companies they don't bother to see how much they contribute to overall costs, which is far less than many assume of the total. The real reason? High tech accessible care is inherently expensive. There is no "just pay 4k for something that costs 40K", because it costs more to provide care, much more.

Consequently I believe a wise course of action is an assessment by non partisan political hacks to analyze our poorly organized system to increase the overall quality of care, not saving nickles and causing staffing cutbacks. We could have a national IT service that would provide a complete and continuously online history for any person anywhere at any time. That would vastly curtail misdiagnosis and expensive retests. Access would be granted on the basis of need to know with multiple biometric checks.

Gramps pass out in FL? Well lets look at his history and see he has idiopathic hypotension and we need him to rest a bit rather than breaking out every gadget under the sun.

Pays in the long run, especially since premiums must go up. When we expand coverage that means that mighty sick people use the system and that drives up overall costs. We should provide for them but people really need to get a basic understanding of the real world dynamics, not scapegoating people for what they do not understand.

Well said. I'll make three counterpoints though. First, much modern medicine is simply defensive medicine; doctors are afraid that if they don't order every possible test, they are potentially liable. Second, much of modern medicine is economic. Many insurance policies are approaching the level of cost to provide, and Medicare/Medicaid are below that level. By ordering extra tests, doctors bring up that bottom line to something sustainable.

Third is more arguable, especially given Jonathan Gruber's admissions that they intentionally lied. But I think a lot of people honestly believed that by catching medical problems early, eventually the total cost of health care would come down. People without health insurance are somewhat limited to what they can pay for out of pocket, and emergency, life saving, or other critical care issues. They could fill in the gaps for very serious issues, but usually only at hospitals taking indigent patients and then often (perhaps usually?) resulting in bankruptcy. Obviously it didn't work out that way, but there was a decent theoretical argument that catching cancer for example at stage 1 is so much cheaper than attempting to treat it at stage 4 that it would pay for the normal care required to do so.

they're actually hoping that maybe insurance prices will drop now in 2018, if some of trump's many promises (like allowing insurance plans across state lines) to get adopted. but i doubt it.

as for #226 (things like samaritan or medishare), i've looked into those. but they have clauses which say "we don't necessarily have to pay out". it's not actually insurance. it may work most of the time, but there is no guarantee that costs will be covered beyond a deductible.

of course, if premiums continue to rise it might be worth trying it.

honestly it'd just be nice if it was still possible to pay a low premium for real catastrophic insurance (say a deductible of 25$k) and not get penalized for doing that.

I feel for your parents and other people (like Highland) who are caught in the same intentional trap.

 

[Svnla]

I don't care what we do but if we don't do anything about control the cost of health care, the system will collapse.

We as a nation, are getting fatter, older, less active = perfect ingredients of being less healthy/being more sick = higher demand of care = higher cost.

 

[bshole]

I don't care what we do but if we don't do anything about control the cost of health care, the system will collapse.

We as a nation, are getting fatter, older, less active = perfect ingredients of being less healthy/being more sick = higher demand of care = higher cost.

ummmm....... so you voted for Trump to lower the cost of healthcare? It is a pretty much established fact that the only long term solution to rising health care is socialized health care. There are dozens of systems out there working far better than ours. I believe we may be the only 1st world nation left that doesn't have socialized health care. Socialized medicine is our ultimate destination, that fact is inescapable. It just requires enough working conservatives to be priced out of the market so that they themselves personally suffer.

 

[sxr7171]

Out of state insurance companies will not be able to negotiate rates with providers unless they are able to get a VERY large percentage of the customer base.

All of the tinkering with insurance won't do crap until they address the costs of the provider. I don't see that happening any time soon.

How much of an average hospital bill goes to the provider? Do we know?

 

[theeedude]

Look at big pharma rallying today. I don't think they are pricing in something to be done about the cost of health care, except a continuation of their blank check from Trump and GOP.
Bend over and get ready to pay through the nose for Insulin and Epipens.

 

[Svnla]

ummmm....... so you voted for Trump to lower the cost of healthcare? It is a pretty much established fact that the only long term solution to rising health care is socialized health care. There are dozens of systems out there working far better than ours. I believe we may be the only 1st world nation left that doesn't have socialized health care. Socialized medicine is our ultimate destination, that fact is inescapable. It just requires enough working conservatives to be priced out of the market so that they themselves personally suffer.

I think you missed the multiple posts that I said about Trump, such as a loud mouth rich guy. Not one post from me you can find that I support him.

I don't care what the next health care reform will be or in what form as long as the cost stays steady. I am single and every freaking year, my premium goes up and up, no claim, nothing, not a thing except getting one year older. From some of the posters here, their health care premiums are in ten of thousands per year. Unsustainable.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Yes, we really need all our health conditions in a national database now that Trump will repeal Obamacare and allow health insurers to discriminate based on pre-existing condition again. Couldn't possibly be abused.

Hey you can take anything and make it sound bad with that attitude. Trump doesn't make law. If Obamacare goes something better needs to take its place and if you want to play obstructionist because you lost be my guest. I'm proposing possible solutions. You are crying in your beer.

 

[Phynaz]

Yes, we really need all our health conditions in a national database now that Trump will repeal Obamacare and allow health insurers to discriminate based on pre-existing condition again. Couldn't possibly be abused.

Trump is on the record about not excluding pre-existing conditions from coverage.

Don't worry, your health conditions are already in big national databases.

 

[agent00f]

Hey, angry little man,

https://www.youtube.com/v/gbvCO6j03fM?start=44&end=46

Bri, tell'em that you have it on good internet authority that it's a good deal and they should just take one for the country.

It's little wonder you identify with trump.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Trump is on the record about not excluding pre-existing conditions from coverage.

Don't worry, your health conditions are already in big national databases.

Trump is a red herring. My suggestion allows information of medical information to be shared between professionals. The insurance companies already have this information and have for decades. How would they know that a claim exists otherwise? A comprehensive system could be combed like we do with vaccines to improve medicine by providing data which allows us to identify what works for what condition and for what population and eliminate treatments which do more harm than good. Streamlining medical the medical process, substantially reducing the need for redundant tests and treatment, a unified billing system- not some nightmare chimera, what regulations and practices are beneficial and which are an impediment or cause outright harm.

Dismissed because Trump is President. Doesn't make much sense.

 

[theeedude]

Hey you can take anything and make it sound bad with that attitude. Trump doesn't make law. If Obamacare goes something better needs to take its place and if you want to play obstructionist because you lost be my guest. I'm proposing possible solutions. You are crying in your beer.

We don't need to reinvent the bicycle. Other countries have solved health care costs and covered everyone without big health databases. It's not a question of finding the solution, there are dozens of working solutions to choose from. It's a question of having the political will to implement it. High health care costs are also someone's high profits, and part of those profits are in turn some politician's political donations.

 

[highland145]

It's little wonder you identify with trump.

Bwahahahaha.

Gonna talk about my Mom next?

 

[theeedude]

Trump is a red herring. My suggestion allows information of medical information to be shared between professionals. The insurance companies already have this information and have for decades. How would they know that a claim exists otherwise? A comprehensive system could be combed like we do with vaccines to improve medicine by providing data which allows us to identify what works for what condition and for what population and eliminate treatments which do more harm than good. Streamlining medical the medical process, substantially reducing the need for redundant tests and treatment, a unified billing system- not some nightmare chimera, what regulations and practices are beneficial and which are an impediment or cause outright harm.
Dismissed because Trump is President. Doesn't make much sense.

Dismissed because Trump wants to repeal Obamacare, meaning medical information can then be used against you in insurance underwriting and employment.
Once we have universal single payer, then we can take a look at what you are proposing to further reduce costs.

 

[agent00f]

Bwahahahaha.

Gonna talk about my Mom next?

Just encouraging you to put on the proud moron act.

 

[highland145]

You beat me to it and looked good doing it.