The Hayride:
As the Affordable Care Act sets in, otherwise known as Obamacare, the higher and higher health care premiums are getting.
New filings by the Louisiana Department of Insurance this week shows that some health care providers will see theirpremiums increase by double-digits in 2015. Here is a summarized list of those increases:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Louisiana Will Increase Premiums Between 18.3 Percent And 19.7 Percent For 52,638 Louisianans. “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, the state’s largest provider, filed papers that it is moving forward with its original plan to increases rates between 18.3 percent and 19.7 percent for policyholders in its Blue Saver, Blue Max and its Multi-State individual health plans. The plans cover 52,638 people.” (Bruce Alpert, “Some Louisiana Insurers Moving Ahead With Higher Premiums Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 10/8/14)
- “Vantage Health Plan Inc. Said It Was Moving Forward With Its Plan For A 15.89 Percent Increase.” (Bruce Alpert, “Some Louisiana Insurers Moving Ahead With Higher Premiums Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 10/8/14)
- Humana Health Benefits Plan Rates Under ObamaCare Will “Increase By 9.9 Percent.” “Humana Health Benefits Plan rates under the Affordable Care Act will increase by 9.9 percent, less than the company’s original projected increase of 15.5 percent.” (Bruce Alpert, “Some Louisiana Insurers Moving Ahead With Higher Premiums Under Affordable Care Act,” The Times-Picayune, 10/8/14)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who is facing a tough re-election, previously said Obamacare would lowers costs, especially for small businesses. Watch Landrieu, on two occasions in the Senate, claim otherwise:
Obama tried to prevail on states and the insurers to not announce these rate hikes – until after the election.
But the law was followed despite his pleas.
Announcements about the Jan 1 hikes must be made public now.
Oh, and in Iowa, too:
Notice how the Overton Window is being maneuvered with these rate changes? You know damn good and well that if these obamacare-caused rate increases were lower than the pre-obamacare rates, the leftists would be shrieking those numbers out to praise their collectivist scam.
When they start pushing for the total government takeover of medicine as the “only” solution to the debacle of obamacare, it will be time for armed insurrection.
Looks to me like they are getting off easy. My Medicare Advantage PPO plan went from $99 per month in 2013 – to $137 this year – and to $167 in 2015 a 70% increase in 2 years with essentially NO change in coverages!
@Budvarakbar:
My UHC costs thru AT&T per month:
2012 – $0.00
2013 – $10.00
2014 – $109.00
2015 – UHC cancelled and I am now thrown into the “open market” system with a similar plan that is now going to cost me $348.00 with the requirement to purchase a supplemental Rx plan that has always been included.
Thanks Obama; thanks Communication Workers of America for supporting Obamacare.
@retire05:
You might as well have said: “Communist Wankers of America!”
@Budvarakbar:
No difference.
So what are the current monthly premium amounts that these percentage increases apply to? That would seem to be something a person would have to know in order to draw any sort of meaningful conclusion about how good or how bad the result is. Would you rather have a high percentage increase to a small monthly premium, or a very small percentage increase to a monthly premium that was totally unreasonable to begin with?
Oddly, no mention of actual dollar amounts is made. But go ahead and draw the conclusions the author of this bit of propaganda wants. It’s certainly easier than thinking.
@Greg:
Perhaps not in the article but in my case:
One can only assume that your premiums are not increasing because you are on the dole.
Actually my out-of-pocket Blue Cross premiums have always been much higher than the amounts you’re complaining about, and in 2015 will continue to be a bit higher than what you’ve stated. I never had premiums anywhere near as low as $10. Some people don’t know when they’re well off.
@Greg: you will go to your grave defending a man who hates the United States and whose only agenda is to drive it into a 3rd world country, won’t you?
Our insurer sent us a newsletter with a lead article about getting your doctor to allow you to bring your own meds to any hospital stay…..or risk a several hundred percent markup on your same meds.
Now hospitals have always marked up meds, but, apparently it is getting ridiculous as of this year.
@enchanted, #10:
I reject the notion that either of those assertions has anything whatsoever to do with reality. I’m actually far more worried about the dangers of the departure from reality than I am about defending the public figure. In a bit over 2 years the public figure will be relegated to the sidelines. I’m afraid the unwillingness to deal with reality is likely to remain.
@Greg:
Yet you defend a plan that was crammed down our throats based on verifiable lies:
You cannot keep.your doctor nor your plan PERIOD.
Obamacare was not a tax, until the Obama administration argued in court it was constitutional.as a tax.
The states that chose not to set up exchanges would prohibit taxpayer subsidies for obamacare plans, though the Obama admin is now arguing the opposite in court.
Obamacare has not bent the cost curve down by 2500 dollars a year for the average family of four, but has INCREASED insurance premium costs.
Illegal aliens would NOT be allowed to obtain obamacare coverage, yet they are.
Former Dem Rep Stupak voted in favor of obamacare claiming it would not cover abortion, yet the obamacare insurance plans make it difficult if not impossible to not cover abortion.
Honestly, it is laughable to claim your opponents have no grasp on reality when you defend a policy steeped in nothing but lies and deception.
@Greg:
Actually, the premiums I quoted are for my secondary insurance, not my primary.
The $0.00 cost I quoted in 2012 was a benefit that had been negotiated over 20 years of union contracts. The dishonest CWA supported Obamacare, sending out many, many flyers saying that CWA members would NOT see a change in their benefits.
Well, CWA members have seen a change in their benefits, and the especially hard hit have been retirees who depend on that insurance, that was negotiated for over so many years, that is now increasing while their retirement income is not.
You are a blind, indoctrinated fool, Greggie.
@Pete:
But — the only realities that liberals can know or recognize are:
Health insurance premiums have increased no more from one year to the next during the Obama administration than they did during the Bush administration.
Average Annual Premiums for Single and Family Coverage, 1999 through 2014
@Greg:
What happened to 2500 dollars savings as promised? Hard to have any savings when the price goes up.
No one read the bill, including you, and yet you blindly support it. How many other things to you buy blindly?
How are things at the lemming convention?
@Mully:
Probably whatever the demo-COMMUNISTS and the MSM spew out!
Pass da doobie bro!
Well, let’s look at how well the preceding administration addressed the the rapidly rising premiums that continued through their entire eight years.
They didn’t do squat, did they? Except, of course, for Medicare Part D—prescription drug coverage—which included absolutely no mechanism to raise the revenue needed to pay for the rapidly escalating costs involved, and which specifically forbade Medicare administrators from bargaining with the drug industry to reduce those costs.
How dumb was that? Compared with that, Obamacare is a work of genius.
The main thing that’s driving rising insurance premiums at this point isn’t Obamacare. It’s the rising cost of medical goods and services. Consider just one striking example, the new cancer drug, ibrutinib. It works remarkably well against a couple of types of leukemia when earlier chemotherapy fails. The cost is almost $11,000 per month, just for the bottle of life saving pills. It doesn’t cure anything. You have to keep taking your pills to keep the disease from killing you.
We’re talking about a $132,000 per year prescription. It’s an atypical example, but it is indicative of the extraordinary costs medical care often involves. Medical costs are rising much faster than most other expenses. The projected increase for 2015 is 6.8 percent. Obamacare has had little or nothing to do with rising medical costs, but rising medical costs have everything to do with insurance premium hikes.
@Greg: That is what happens when you reduce competition. Obama Care did just that.