2016 Health Insurance Premiums

[tjfogelberg]

Those of us in the private health insurance market in Minnesota are being socked with 40-50% increases in premiums eff 1-1-16. I may have to put the RV up on blocks and park it in the driveway. I have asked my Senator to work toward renaming the Affordable Care Act. It is an insult to have the word "AFFORDABLE" in it's title. My individual premium and deductible will now exceed $10,000 for 2016.

Todd

[FlatBroke]

My wife, no Medicare, has her policy canceled every year about this time. This year she had Colo co-op and they went belly up because the feds wernt paying there share of the co-op. So she has to go through the whole process again. its BS. No COL for social security this year. You can bet your sweet bippy that my Medicaid and supplement will take a jump. Affordable Health Care, Yep you bet. 😞

[cant_remember_I]

bob_nestor wrote:

cant_remember_ID wrote:
As long as the health care industry is for profit, premiums and deductibles will continue to increase while coverage decreases. Nothing to do with ACA. When a treatment for Hep C runs $84,000, there are a lot of Baby Boomers that are going to cost a lot of money. Your time may be better spent to encourage your congressman to look at single payer.

Not trying to start an argument, but after ACA was enacted there were 23 non-profit healthcare organizations created to provide health insurance under ACA. As of today, 1/3 of them have been shut down by the Government for mismanagement and only of the remaining is above water financially. That would seem to disprove the assertion that the problem of rising premiums and deductibles is all because of the profit motive.

I'm not following your logic. Just because non-profic organizations are shut down, this is proof it was caused by the ACA? Many for-profit health care organizations (hospital groups, HMOs, insurance plans) are publicly traded companies, and were long before the ACA. For the companies to remain viable to their stock owners, they have to show growing profits quarter over quarter. They pay their executives handsomely. To accomplish this, they have to increase margin by lowering what they pay vs what they take in. The care of people's health should not be an open market place. I'm a proponent for a single payer system.

[ugh]

Is your health insurance via ACA website or did you get it directly from a health insurance company? If it is the later one, then you may want to check https://www.healthcare.gov/. You may be eligible for subside depending on your income.

If you don't want to go to that website, then you may want to consider shopping around like you would with car insurance, but you may not get any subside if you go with that route.

[bob_nestor]

12thgenusa wrote:

OH48Lt wrote:
Also, those of you who pay your Medicare premiums yourself and have not yet chosen to take Social Security, your premiums will increase 50% effective January 1. They go from the present $104.90 to $156.00. Those on Medicare and taking Social Security will not see an increase.

Totally untrue. Cost is the same whether through SS or by individual payment.

Not quite, with the budget deal passed 17 million who make individual payments will see costs go up 17%. Seethe news here.

[12thgenusa]

OH48Lt wrote:
Also, those of you who pay your Medicare premiums yourself and have not yet chosen to take Social Security, your premiums will increase 50% effective January 1. They go from the present $104.90 to $156.00. Those on Medicare and taking Social Security will not see an increase.

Totally untrue. Cost is the same whether through SS or by individual payment.

[tjfogelberg]

I'm on the Bronze Plan - 80%. The increase in MN in the individual market has everything to do with ACA. Insurance companies can increase rates based upon the cost of care within different groups of people. (Group vs Individual). Costs for the individual group have gone way up due to the fact that anyone can now get individual coverage (no pre-existing condition limitations). Prior to ACA, those who couldn't get coverage through the private market were either uninsured or in the state pool (Minnesota Comprehensive Plan which no longer exists). Now facing costs of $10,000 per year (health insurance and deductible), I may have to sell the RV and stay home. The overall effect on my household budget is devastating. I don't earn a dime on my savings and can't magically raise my earned income to keep pace with these increases.

[bob_nestor]

cant_remember_ID wrote:
As long as the health care industry is for profit, premiums and deductibles will continue to increase while coverage decreases. Nothing to do with ACA. When a treatment for Hep C runs $84,000, there are a lot of Baby Boomers that are going to cost a lot of money. Your time may be better spent to encourage your congressman to look at single payer.

Not trying to start an argument, but after ACA was enacted there were 23 non-profit healthcare organizations created to provide health insurance under ACA. As of today, 1/3 of them have been shut down by the Government for mismanagement and only of the remaining is above water financially. That would seem to disprove the assertion that the problem of rising premiums and deductibles is all because of the profit motive.

[OH48Lt]

My wife's health care premium, for the exact same plan, will be going up almost 300% on January 1, 2016. Mine will increase just a few dollars a month, as I'm Medicare eligible. She isn't yet.

Also, those of you who pay your Medicare premiums yourself and have not yet chosen to take Social Security, your premiums will increase 50% effective January 1. They go from the present $104.90 to $156.00. Those on Medicare and taking Social Security will not see an increase.

Thank you to all of the politicians who voted for this terrible law.

[Shearwater]

As of 2013 per capita spending on health care exceeded $8000 and I can safely assume that this has increased. We all will have to pay that in one form or another if we cannot rein in costs.

In our area, hospital systems are all building new hospitals and more and more outpatient centers to increase their market share. In other parts of the country, for profit hospital management companies are buying up the local facilities.

Most medical costs are paid through insurance companies - that adds about 30% to total costs.

Drug companies charge much more for drugs in the US than in countries that negotiate drug prices. We are subsidizing cheap drugs for the rest of the world.

I see no likelihood that any of this will change.

[cant_remember_I]

As long as the health care industry is for profit, premiums and deductibles will continue to increase while coverage decreases. Nothing to do with ACA. When a treatment for Hep C runs $84,000, there are a lot of Baby Boomers that are going to cost a lot of money. Your time may be better spent to encourage your congressman to look at single payer.

[camperforlife]

It was just announced that premiums in Indiana are going down an average of 16%. Just like it always has been, some go up some goes down. If yours goes up its because of politics, if it goes down it is by chance.

[downtheroad]

Mine went down $11.00 per month.

[Dick_A]

The fact of the matter is (in average) premiums are rising as are deductibles.

The premiums my son has to pay are very high and there is a very high deductible. He is a commercial painting Forman and makes good money. However who has $12 grand sitting around? (Over six grand in premiums and six grand in deductibles.)

[darsben]

I bet you do not fall under the guidelines for the ACA as you go out of state quite frequently and have a private plan. IS THIS CORRECT?

If you have an ACA plan what level is it?

Platinum: the plan must cover 90% of expected costs for the average individual
Gold: the plan must cover 80% of expected costs for the average individual
Silver: the plan must cover 70% of expected costs for the average individual
Bronze: the plan must cover 60% of expected costs for the average individual

[n7bsn]

YMMV, mine are going down $200/month/