Health Care Costs

[Aargh]

I was wondering where all the money was coming from to fund the national health program. I didn't really dig into it, but I recall no new taxes and a $900 billion health package that would cover everybody. It was described as a win-win for America, but no one seemed to go into the details of where that money was coming from.

Then Boeing had a press release that said they were raising insurance rates for employees and said the reason for the increase was to comply with new laws associated with national health care.

Today I got my new package and it was pretty obvious where the money was coming from.

I was paying about $300 a month for no deductible, no co-pay, and $20 office calls. Yeah, I had a pretty generous plan.

Now I pay $400 a month - that's $1,200 a year.
I have a $500 deductible - that's another $500 per year.

The only thing with no co-pay is a hospital room. Everything else (including a semi-private hospital room) is a 10% co-pay. No change in office calls. I have a maximum out-of pocket of $3,000 per year. That makes my contribution (primarily attributable to national health care) be $1,700 to $4,200 a year.

If they were going to raise individual taxes by $1,700+ a year, the entire nation would have screamed bloody murder. However, instead of raising taxes, new regulations were passed that forced insurance companies to pass along the costs to all currently insured (employed) people.

WHAT A SCAM!

That's $1,700 - $4,200 a year that I will not be spending on appliances, cars, vacations, you know - all those things that ACTUALLY CREATE jobs.

Another way of looking at it is - that's $1,700 - $4,200 PER YEAR that I will not have available to cover supplemental Medicare when I retire, making me much more likely to need government assistance in that area.

I'm using "me" as sort of a hypothetical. The nation is made up of a couple hundred millions of "me" who are in the same situation.

I'm being charged thousands of dollars a year to have a job, so that those who either refuse to develop skills or refuse to work can have a more comfortable life.

[1979Shocker]

Do you have a link?

I know people who work at Boeing and their rates didn't change at all. Maybe it depends on who it is.

[WuDrWu]

It's not a scam Aargh, it's liberalism.

I am trying to teach a young lady that works for me the ills of her thinking. She believes all Republicans are evil and mean and that everyone should have health insurance (for example) because "it's a good thing". She doesn't believe Republicans give to charity (in any meaningful amount, certainly nowhere near the amount Liberals do) and they have no compassion at all.

She hasn't a clue how to make it happen nor does she have the first idea of who is going to pay for it except to tax the wealthy because they can afford it. It's just the right thing to do. We can't give tax cuts to the rich, we have to give them to people that really need it. I tried to inform her that 30+% don't pay an income tax, therefore cannot get a tax cut. This, of course, went right over her head. This thought was so foreign to her way of thinking that she couldn't even respond with "well Bush tax cuts suck".

People like that have no clue. It's all pie in the sky, smoke dope and sing kumbayah. I may fire her just to show her that all Republicans are indeed mean.

We started to correct course last Tuesday, but that's just the start. It's full speed ahead and it's got to be done fast before it's irreversable. My friend, I hope you are 100% cured, becuase in the new world order, you are disposable goods otherwise. No way in Obamacare you are moving to the front of any line.

[Maggie]

It appears your employee is primarily concerned with what she perceives as the inherent immoral implications of a free market system. I am sure she would agree if I said "mainstream conservatives" are uptight, blue blazered, two-dimensional men motivated by greed. They are Godless materialists, unthinking dupes of Madison Avenue, with no connection to spirituality or religion unless, that is, you think being an idolatrous votary of the free market counts as being religious. With the benefit of multiple unearned advantages in life, their boot is on firmly on the throat of the masses and they aim to keep it there.

An unsolicited suggestion: When you question her – steer her toward the morality of capitalism.

The history of capitalism is very closely tied to the development of institutions supporting human practical intelligence, wit, and enterprise. Its main resource is human capital: knowledge, know-how, skill, the knack of insight into new possibilities for making life easier and better for as many others as possible. Its primary dynamic force is human wit. The moral genius of capitalism, then, lies in its institutional support for the inalienable capacity of human beings to use their own wits creatively. In this respect, capitalism has taken man's measure more exactly than any other social system. It has found a better way than any other system to link self-interest to the advancement of the common good. It is not the paradise of humankind, but it is a highly moral system, nourishing the best that is in us and checking the worst.

The economic system we hold dear, or at least some of us do, has raised millions out of abject poverty around the world. There is no system, that I know of, that can come close to laying claim to that kind of history.

[Maggie]

Oh and Aargh – If your premium increased, sorry about that (and for posting something that has little to do with the topic of your thread); but what exactly did you expect?

[NCAABound]

Neither mine nor my wife's plans have increased much. This could also prove as a time for companies to use the new national health care program as an excuse to increase the employee contribution amount.

[SB Shock]

my healthcare increased by 15%. My wifes tripled (her increase was because it was to good of a plan). Reasoning for both were partly due to obama health care plan (in just telling u what the companies said)

I'm suprised that anybody suprused that healthcare is going up. What did u expect? Bringing more government involvement never drives cost down. It is only going to get worse.

[WuDrWu]

ANYONE that thought healthcare costs were going down is horribly naive or just plain stupid.

There is no way on God's green earth that you are going to add 30 million people to the list, most of whom aren't going to pay a single penny, and lower the cost for those that are paying.

[ShockBand]

We would stand a better chance of getting health care costs and insurance down if we could retool the system into one that gives incentive to all parties to be more cost conscious. We now have one that thrives on more tests and procedures and using newer meds vs. older ones to drive revenue and/or try to mitigate potential malpractice litigation, and a consumer side that is shielded from a large part of the actual cost of services and medications. The only one in the system with incentive to control cost is the insurance company, with whom we (myself included at times) gets POed at when things are denied.

There is a family doc in Wichita who was starting a practice where you would pay essentially an annual "subscription" for his services that would include office visits, basic lab work, and perhaps even (gasp!) house calls. I forget the annual subscription price, but part of his rationale was to keep the cost fairly reasonable ($~2500/yr maybe) but also keep his patient load low enough to be able to provide higher quality care instead of being a service providing factory.

I don't think we need, nor do I want, government to have its mitts in the system other than to ensure that the consumer is protected via reasonable legislation. The system, does, though, need reworking, and right soon before the costs completely strangle us.

[Aargh]

The company I work for is unusually generous with insurance and other employe morale items. This is the first time in several years there has been a significant increase.

I find it just too much of a coincidence that a national insurance plan is sold to the public and by waving some magic wand - NO ONE HAS TO PAY FOR IT! And then costs for those of us who are insured go through the roof.

I just think we got sold a bill o goods, the actual costs and who would pay were hidden in an effort to implement a flawed policy, and now we're starting to see who is going to fund this program - and what it's going to cost.

We're from the government and we're here to **** you.

[SubGod22]

I know a Dr. who recently retired because of this bill. He's also said that if he were younger and just breaking in he'd run a cash based practice which would be easier on him and cheaper for everyone.

Gov't mandates are NOT going to bring costs down at all.

[Maggie]

I just think we got sold a bill o goods....

As far as I can tell most of the American people were never “sold” on anything – they are too dense, too frightened, too easily excited. This bill was squeezed through the legislative process, like no other of comparable size and potential impact because our betters do know better.

But don’t you worry your little head; you can expect a lot more explaining in the coming months kiddo. President Obama will sit this infantile nation on his knee and initiate yet another talk about what is good for us (and it won’t be eat your vegetables – that is first Lady’s job). I’m sure he will clear everything up. Oh – and because you used a naughty word – go to your room.

[Smooth007]

Our company increase was 15%. However, this is consistent with the past 4 years.

[engrshock]

Health care/insurance costs are rising faster and have been rising faster than the economy has been growing for years. It is easy to blame the National Healthcare plan but the only time that health care did not raise was in the early 90's when Bill Clinton was trying to get a health care plan in place. Part of the problem with the new law is that you can no longer be denied for preexisting conditions and there are no caps on what is paid out. The healthcare plan that I am included on must now reinstate a person who has a child with some rare form of leukemia that has cost $5,000,000 to date and will require continuous treatment resulting in huge costs each and every year. Because this is a relatively small group policy that the group must pay for the costs for everyone in the group each year and therefore the price for insurance is going higher every year.

Having said that I think that a health care plan that would place individuals such as these in a special group where the costs are spread out among all would be a better system and should lower health care costs overall. The other solution is to allow plans to just say too bad so sad and deny coverage. You're gonna die. I am not for that plan.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2010/ted_20101101_data.htm

[rjl]

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how costs rising now have anything to do with a government health plan that doesn't take effect until 2014.

I think costs are going up because they HAVE been going up since the early 80's, and will have continued to go up unless some regulations were put into place.