Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs

[Spoonman]

Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs

WASHINGTON – AARP's endorsement helped secure passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Now the seniors' lobby is telling its employees their insurance costs will rise partly as a result of the law.

In an e-mail to employees, AARP says health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of rapidly rising medical costs.

And AARP adds that it's changing copayments and deductibles to avoid a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Aerospace giant Boeing also has cited the tax in asking its workers to pay more. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health care plan and acts like an escape hatch from the tax.

"Most plan co-pays and deductibles have been modified," Jennifer Hodges, AARP's director of compensation and benefits, wrote employees in an Oct. 25 e-mail. "Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost management standpoint but also to ensure that AARP's plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform."


Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs - Yahoo! News


Too bad this didn't come out before the elections. I doubt there would be a democrat left in Congress. Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.

 

[Revere]

Could not happen to a more deserving group of bastards. They threw in with Obamacare.

 

[Oddball]

Oh, the delicious irony of the wagers of supporting a stupid bureaucratic Gordian Knot, that comes back to bite your ass.

 

[Sallow]

Curses..hiked again..

 

[Revere]

:gurgle: Free lifetime caps. Free dependent coverage up to age 26. Free screenings. Free pre-existing coverage. :gurgle:

 

[Spoonman]

:gurgle: Free lifetime caps. Free dependent coverage up to age 26. Free screenings. Free pre-existing coverage. :gurgle:

Funny, I already had all of that, and more I didn't need Obama to fuck it up.

 

[Trajan]

Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs

WASHINGTON – AARP's endorsement helped secure passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Now the seniors' lobby is telling its employees their insurance costs will rise partly as a result of the law.

In an e-mail to employees, AARP says health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of rapidly rising medical costs.

And AARP adds that it's changing copayments and deductibles to avoid a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Aerospace giant Boeing also has cited the tax in asking its workers to pay more. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health care plan and acts like an escape hatch from the tax.

"Most plan co-pays and deductibles have been modified," Jennifer Hodges, AARP's director of compensation and benefits, wrote employees in an Oct. 25 e-mail. "Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost management standpoint but also to ensure that AARP's plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform."


Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs - Yahoo! News


Too bad this didn't come out before the elections. I doubt there would be a democrat left in Congress. Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.

did andy griffith get his walking papers?

 

[Spoonman]

Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs

WASHINGTON – AARP's endorsement helped secure passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Now the seniors' lobby is telling its employees their insurance costs will rise partly as a result of the law.

In an e-mail to employees, AARP says health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of rapidly rising medical costs.

And AARP adds that it's changing copayments and deductibles to avoid a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Aerospace giant Boeing also has cited the tax in asking its workers to pay more. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health care plan and acts like an escape hatch from the tax.

"Most plan co-pays and deductibles have been modified," Jennifer Hodges, AARP's director of compensation and benefits, wrote employees in an Oct. 25 e-mail. "Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost management standpoint but also to ensure that AARP's plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform."


Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs - Yahoo! News


Too bad this didn't come out before the elections. I doubt there would be a democrat left in Congress. Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.

did andy griffith get his walking papers?

No, Opie was directing the film.

 

[Greenbeard]

Too bad this didn't come out before the elections. I doubt there would be a democrat left in Congress. Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.

...it did. This was debated pretty intensely a year ago. The excise tax is one of the primary cost controls in the law for exactly this reason: it removes the limitless tax exemption employer-sponsored plans currently enjoy and encourages them to stay below the threshold (which starts out at $27,500 for multi-person plans). In this case, the employer is doing it by increasing cost-sharing, i.e. out-of-pocket spending. The principle is the same as that underlying one of the conservative health care holy grails, HDHPs: make people pay more of their own money, transition them away from third party payment to some degree, and spending will go down.

Don't you guys even know what you want anymore? Or is it just a matter of not wading into the policy details of your own ideology enough to recognize it in action?

 

[Revere]

It's not the same principle as HDHPs, which were voluntary. The government is forcing you into a de facto HDHP, and taking away your ability to pay for the same health care with pre-tax dollars.

 

[Revere]

In short, if you like you current insurance, you can't keep it.

Another Obamacare lie.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I like my current insurance, I get to keep it, and, in part, revere, you get to help pay for it. Thanks!

 

[code1211]

Too bad this didn't come out before the elections. I doubt there would be a democrat left in Congress. Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.

...it did. This was debated pretty intensely a year ago. The excise tax is one of the primary cost controls in the law for exactly this reason: it removes the limitless tax exemption employer-sponsored plans currently enjoy and encourages them to stay below the threshold (which starts out at $27,500 for multi-person plans). In this case, the employer is doing it by increasing cost-sharing, i.e. out-of-pocket spending. The principle is the same as that underlying one of the conservative health care holy grails, HDHPs: make people pay more of their own money, transition them away from third party payment to some degree, and spending will go down.

Don't you guys even know what you want anymore? Or is it just a matter of not wading into the policy details of your own ideology enough to recognize it in action?

Do you not see that the government interfering in the compensation relationship between an employee and employer is just not right?

Why should it matter to a person outside this relationship what an employer pays or does not pay to one of his employees?

You seem to think that if I get less money from my employer it will make you better off.

Why do you think that?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

We got our 3 page letter today.
I created a thread about other coverage drops.

Our portion is going up by a whopping 5% starting January 1...fuck.
The letter stipulates the reason why is due to increased costs with the HRC act.

THis is what you call...income redistribution. We pay mor for less because insurance companies are having to cover more people.

There is nothing on earth that you can get more and not pay more.

 

[Revere]

Too bad this didn't come out before the elections. I doubt there would be a democrat left in Congress. Welcome to the reality of Obamacare.

...it did. This was debated pretty intensely a year ago. The excise tax is one of the primary cost controls in the law for exactly this reason: it removes the limitless tax exemption employer-sponsored plans currently enjoy and encourages them to stay below the threshold (which starts out at $27,500 for multi-person plans). In this case, the employer is doing it by increasing cost-sharing, i.e. out-of-pocket spending. The principle is the same as that underlying one of the conservative health care holy grails, HDHPs: make people pay more of their own money, transition them away from third party payment to some degree, and spending will go down.

Don't you guys even know what you want anymore? Or is it just a matter of not wading into the policy details of your own ideology enough to recognize it in action?

Do you not see that the government interfering in the compensation relationship between an employee and employer is just not right?

Why should it matter to a person outside this relationship what an employer pays or does not pay to one of his employees?

You seem to think that if I get less money from my employer it will make you better off.

Why do you think that?

Greendick doesn't care about health care. He works for government and wants to manage people's lives.

 

[JakeStarkey]

...it did. This was debated pretty intensely a year ago. The excise tax is one of the primary cost controls in the law for exactly this reason: it removes the limitless tax exemption employer-sponsored plans currently enjoy and encourages them to stay below the threshold (which starts out at $27,500 for multi-person plans). In this case, the employer is doing it by increasing cost-sharing, i.e. out-of-pocket spending. The principle is the same as that underlying one of the conservative health care holy grails, HDHPs: make people pay more of their own money, transition them away from third party payment to some degree, and spending will go down.

Don't you guys even know what you want anymore? Or is it just a matter of not wading into the policy details of your own ideology enough to recognize it in action?

Do you not see that the government interfering in the compensation relationship between an employee and employer is just not right?

Why should it matter to a person outside this relationship what an employer pays or does not pay to one of his employees?

You seem to think that if I get less money from my employer it will make you better off.

Why do you think that?

Greendick doesn't care about health care. He works for government and wants to manage people's lives.

Actually you desire to be Dear Leader of more than your room in the basement.

 

[Greenbeard]

Do you not see that the government interfering in the compensation relationship between an employee and employer is just not right?

Do you somehow not see that singling out certain portions of a compensation package for federal tax exemption already is interfering with the compensation relationship between an employee and employer?

Singling out any good and allowing it to be purchased with pre-tax dollars confers that good a privileged status relative to other goods. It's a market distortion engineered by government any way you slice it.

 

[uscitizen]

From the OP:
"In an e-mail to employees, AARP says health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of rapidly rising medical costs."


My copays have been going up each year for the past several years anyway.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I used to be a member of AARP but I called them on the phone and cancelled my membership. I didn't like the idea of them giving Obama $6,000.00 towards his Presidential campaign and I especially didn't like their support of ObamaCare. Fuck AARP.

 

[Revere]

Do you not see that the government interfering in the compensation relationship between an employee and employer is just not right?

Do you somehow not see that singling out certain portions of a compensation package for federal tax exemption already is interfering with the compensation relationship between an employee and employer?

Singling out any good and allowing it to be purchased with pre-tax dollars confers that good a privileged status relative to other goods. It's a market distortion engineered by government any way you slice it.

Nobody was singling out anything. Most benefits are paid for with pre-tax or non-taxed dollars or deferred tax dollars....pension contributions, 401ks.

You're a lying ass.

The tax environmment for employee sponsored plans has been in place since World War II. The distortion is Obamacare.