Anyone else getting screwed on health insurance?

[jmez]

I'm in a similar situation edge. My premiums jumped almost 40% this year in South Dakota. Since the inception of the ACA we lost our original insurance which was a really good, affordable group policy through a professional organization. Our health insurance premiums with BC/BS are now $1900 per month. Our deductible has went up every year as well as maximum out of pocket expense. We have to be on an individual plan because there are no group options for us.

In South Dakota there are basically 4 carriers available. BC/BS, Dakota Care, Sanford Health Systems and Avera. There are no providers for Avera and Sanford west of the Missouri River in South Dakota. Go with either of those plans and you have no providers within 300 miles. Everything is out of network. That leaves BC/BS and Dakota Care. Dakota Care announced two weeks ago that they would no longer offer individual policies and also not participate in the state exchange because it was no longer affordable. That leaves us with BC/BS. Our premiums are costing us more than our mortgage and car payment combined.

The ACA is going to break the middle class and small business owners. It can't continue. The ACA was quite simply a gift to the insurance industry and the healthcare industry. You hand them 25 million new customers, someone has to pay for that. The people that were actually paying in the first place get stuck with the bill.

This issue should be at the forefront of elections this year. Hopefully as the letters are received over the next month more people will start making some noise about this. It is not sustainable.

 

[AK Troutbum]

This is the heading from an article in our local paper (Anchorage Daily News) this morning.:
Alaska's already high health insurance rates set to get even higher in 2016.
The article goes on to say how Alaska already has the highest health insurance premiums in the nation and in 2016 The premiums will increase at a rate that equals the highest in the nation.

 

[airlocksniffer]

This thread is related to hunting how?

Should have been single payer to begin with. I find it quite amusing how people are pissed about health insurance coverage for those who never had it but okay with bombing brown people thousands of miles away.

 

[-bowfreak-]

I'm in a similar situation edge. My premiums jumped almost 40% this year in South Dakota. Since the inception of the ACA we lost our original insurance which was a really good, affordable group policy through a professional organization. Our health insurance premiums with BC/BS are now $1900 per month. Our deductible has went up every year as well as maximum out of pocket expense. We have to be on an individual plan because there are no group options for us.

In South Dakota there are basically 4 carriers available. BC/BS, Dakota Care, Sanford Health Systems and Avera. There are no providers for Avera and Sanford west of the Missouri River in South Dakota. Go with either of those plans and you have no providers within 300 miles. Everything is out of network. That leaves BC/BS and Dakota Care. Dakota Care announced two weeks ago that they would no longer offer individual policies and also not participate in the state exchange because it was no longer affordable. That leaves us with BC/BS. Our premiums are costing us more than our mortgage and car payment combined.

The ACA is going to break the middle class and small business owners. It can't continue. The ACA was quite simply a gift to the insurance industry and the healthcare industry. You hand them 25 million new customers, someone has to pay for that. The people that were actually paying in the first place get stuck with the bill.

This issue should be at the forefront of elections this year. Hopefully as the letters are received over the next month more people will start making some noise about this. It is not sustainable.

It was designed to be unsustainable as that was the quickest way to get to the real prize and that is single payer.

Liberals always have the cover of the media. They go in and crap on everything and then when it doesn't work they blame the rich and republicans. Wash, rinse and repeat.....The average voter in the US doesn't have a clue and will believe whatever they hear from network media.

 

[Ironman8]

NVM not worth my time...

 

[jmez]

Agree it is going to single payer. It won't matter it is going to break us either way. When it goes to single payer there are 2 things for certain, the insurance companies and providers are not going to lose. The only model that will be considered is the gvmnt is going to be the payer. We will then just see an exponential increase in our taxes.

 

[jmez]

1) It doesn't have to be...it's General Discussion.
2) "People" aren't pissed about those now having healthcare who didn't have it before...just pissed about having to foot the bill for everyone else...on top of already footing the bill for everything else.
3) I don't remember anyone here saying anything about "being okay with bombing brown people thousands of miles away"....?

They call that a strawman.

 

[Ironman8]

They call that a strawman.

Yeah I know...I shouldn't have taken the bait...

 

[airlocksniffer]

Really not trying to troll here. The United States is in the minority as a first world country that does not provide it's citizens with health care. I would rather my taxes to be used to provide health care via a single payer system then used to keep propped up a bloated military industrial complex, bombing civilians in 3rd world countries with my tax dollars. I don't align myself with either party of the current system because we are a plutocracy, not a democracy. Until we ban lobbyists and move to fully public funded elections, neither Republicans or Democrats give a damn about you (unless you are paying them). Obamacare is a handout to insurance companies, no question. Healthcare in this country was screwed up way before Obamacare.

 

[jmez]

Really not trying to troll here. The United States is in the minority as a first world country that does not provide it's citizens with health care. I would rather my taxes to be used to provide health care via a single payer system then used to keep propped up a bloated military industrial complex, bombing civilians in 3rd world countries with my tax dollars. I don't align myself with either party of the current system because we are a plutocracy, not a democracy. Until we ban lobbyists and move to fully public funded elections, neither Republicans or Democrats give a damn about you (unless you are paying them). Obamacare is a handout to insurance companies, no question. Healthcare in this country was screwed up way before Obamacare.

Agree with pretty much everything you said other than the US should provide its citizens with Health Care.

 

[Ray]

This is the heading from an article in our local paper (Anchorage Daily News) this morning.:
Alaska's already high health insurance rates set to get even higher in 2016.
The article goes on to say how Alaska already has the highest health insurance premiums in the nation and in 2016 The premiums will increase at a rate that equals the highest in the nation.

Yup, up here health care premiums have been ridiculous for a long time. My dentist with two super cubs and a hole in the wall office. My kids pediatrician with four vacation homes outside. When people in Fairbanks find it cheaper to drive to Whitehorse and spend a week there once a year to have all their dental work done and pay cash, there is a problem with what the providers are charging. Teeth cleaning in Fairbanks in 1989 was $165. Same process in Idaho in 1991 was $65, and the office was not a hole in the wall.

That ADN article was interesting. Less than 1% of the exchange customers drive over 25% of the cost. The only way to keep the cost down is to have more people paying in to spread out that load. The article said that the state is considering legislation to do that by making everyone in or out of an exchange pay into the pool. Considering that there are a lot of feds up here that may not work out too well.

 

[bourbon]

When you have a very large percentage of the population already not paying for healthcare, the difference has to be made up somehow...unfortunately it's hard-working people like you, me, and the rest of the members here that are left footing the bill. Hospitals, Dr.s, and Insurance Cos. are going to get theirs one way or another...at our expense. And those who say that the plan all along was to have everyone on .gov healthcare, are absolutely right, it's definitely heading that way.

Does this mean that you consider Drs and those working at hospitals as not being "hard-working people like you, me and the rest" ?

 

[jmez]

IMO the actual health care providers, Dr's, nurses etc are mostly just benefiting from a rigged system. The insurance companies number one and the conglomerates that own the hosptitals and clinics are the ones driving this.

 

[Justin Rhoads]

Just my .02 but rising health care costs were a problem before the ACA. My insurance doubled over a 3 year period before the ACA. Anticipation of the ACA may have helped raise cost, I dont know. A health care system that values profit over all else is a big part of the problem.

This was because all the insurance companies were getting their ducks in a row before ACA introduced. They knew what was coming.

 

[Ironman8]

Does this mean that you consider Drs and those working at hospitals as not being "hard-working people like you, me and the rest" ?

Not sure if you're trying to put words in my mouth, but you might need to re-read what I wrote. "Our" was referring to those who have and are paying into the system, and not those who are making a living off of it.

 

[5MilesBack]

Personally, I think the Government should stay the heck out of my business when it comes to healthcare. Well, and everything else for that matter. Whether or not I have insurance is none of their business. Insurance should be a choice, if one decides to go that route. It should be every man (or woman) for themselves.

Should be like anything else.......check the price of care and if I agree to it, I pay it. If I don't, I forego treatment. But that would be way too simple. What's next........mandated life insurance, and long term care insurance?

 

[airlocksniffer]

Personally, I think the Government should stay the heck out of my business when it comes to healthcare. Well, and everything else for that matter. Whether or not I have insurance is none of their business. Insurance should be a choice, if one decides to go that route. It should be every man (or woman) for themselves.

Should be like anything else.......check the price of care and if I agree to it, I pay it. If I don't, I forego treatment. But that would be way too simple. What's next........mandated life insurance, and long term care insurance?

What about people who are sick and can't afford it? Just let them die?

 

[AK Troutbum]

IMO the actual health care providers, Dr's, nurses etc are mostly just benefiting from a rigged system. The insurance companies number one and the conglomerates that own the hosptitals and clinics are the ones driving this.

Speaking from a nursing standpoint (I'm a nurse) I can most definitely say that I'm not "benefiting" one bit from this current restructuring of the health care system.

 

[Nick Muche]

What about people who are sick and can't afford it? Just let them die?

What about the people that are NOT sick having to pay for the people who ARE sick but can't afford it?

 

[jmez]

Not necessarily benefiting from this new law but benefiting from the overall structure of insurance companies paying everyone's medical expenses.

Insulating providers and consumers from any sort of cost structure whatsoever. Salaries in the health care provider sector are extremely high. They have went up exponentially over the past 20 years.