It's Free Alright

[Granny]

Several insurers are pulling out of the marketplace coverage option - Humana, United Healthcare, to name a couple. In this week's local paper there was a write-up about the BC/BS-TN losses alone - hundreds of millions in TN alone on the marketplace coverage. Not to worry ... seems there has been a bailout plan afoot ... to be funded by taxpayers.

Critics call Obama funding plan for health insurer losses a 'bailout'

 

[DarkFury]

BILLIONS a year flushed down a toilet. If the costs go any higher Americans will not be able to afford to flush their toilet.

 

[S.J.]

It was designed to fail so the government would have an excuse to take it over.

 

[Arianrhod]

Can one of you explain why keeping premium rate increases low is a bad thing?

 

[Granny]

Can one of you explain why keeping premium rate increases low is a bad thing?

It would be nice if premiums WERE low, but they're not - not even under ACA. I have neighbors who don't have health insurance because they still can't afford it - and the price they paid was a whopping fine when they filed their taxes. Insurance is not free. A huge part of the problem is people who don't know how to use insurance wisely - just because you've got it, doesn't mean you have to USE it for every little hangnail, small scrape or scratch or stubbed toe that comes down the pike. Instead of going to the drug store and buying some topical antiseptic and some bandaids for $10 or to a doc-in-a-box clinic ... they go trucking to the ER at a much higher price. The ER waiting rooms are stuffed full of people waiting hour after hour to be seen. That creates bad claims experience and all those claims drives premiums up. It isn't free!! And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's the costs of running any business that keep spiraling upward.

Despite all the hoopla people are being fed about free this, that and the other ... none of it is free!

 

[Arianrhod]

I'll never understand where some people get the notion that insurance is free. Do they just apply this belief to health insurance or to insurance in general?

As for your neighbors, there are any number of factors that could explain why they couldn't find affordable insurance, many having to do with the state they live in, the avaiable insurers in that state, whether or not their governors allowed for Medicaid expansion, etc. But more often than not, people bought into the fear-mongering that led up to the passage of the PPACA, and never bothered exploring all their options.

 

[Granny]

I'll never understand where some people get the notion that insurance is free. Do they just apply this belief to health insurance or to insurance in general?

As for your neighbors, there are any number of factors that could explain why they couldn't find affordable insurance, many having to do with the state they live in, the avaiable insurers in that state, whether or not their governors allowed for Medicaid expansion, etc. But more often than not, people bought into the fear-mongering that led up to the passage of the PPACA, and never bothered exploring all their options.

Where have you been? "Free everything" is the BS line some in the Democrat Party members - they have a "fix" for everything that's going to be "free" - and those "fixes" keep on failing and raising the cost of all this free stuff on the backs on every person and entity filing taxes. Obamacare is one of those "fixes" - "Free healthcare." "Free college."

 

[Arianrhod]

I'll never understand where some people get the notion that insurance is free. Do they just apply this belief to health insurance or to insurance in general?

As for your neighbors, there are any number of factors that could explain why they couldn't find affordable insurance, many having to do with the state they live in, the avaiable insurers in that state, whether or not their governors allowed for Medicaid expansion, etc. But more often than not, people bought into the fear-mongering that led up to the passage of the PPACA, and never bothered exploring all their options.

Where have you been? "Free everything" is the BS line some in the Democrat Party members - they have a "fix" for everything that's going to be "free" - and those "fixes" keep on failing and raising the cost of all this free stuff on the backs on every person and entity filing taxes. Obamacare is one of those "fixes" - "Free healthcare." "Free college."

Oh, I thought you were talking about the existing PPACA. If you want to do a generic rant about some nonexistent "Democrat Party," there are plenty of forums for that.

 

[Granny]

I'll never understand where some people get the notion that insurance is free. Do they just apply this belief to health insurance or to insurance in general?

As for your neighbors, there are any number of factors that could explain why they couldn't find affordable insurance, many having to do with the state they live in, the avaiable insurers in that state, whether or not their governors allowed for Medicaid expansion, etc. But more often than not, people bought into the fear-mongering that led up to the passage of the PPACA, and never bothered exploring all their options.

Where have you been? "Free everything" is the BS line some in the Democrat Party members - they have a "fix" for everything that's going to be "free" - and those "fixes" keep on failing and raising the cost of all this free stuff on the backs on every person and entity filing taxes. Obamacare is one of those "fixes" - "Free healthcare." "Free college."

Oh, I thought you were talking about the existing PPACA. If you want to do a generic rant about some nonexistent "Democrat Party," there are plenty of forums for that.

I AM talking about the PPACA - aka "Obamacare" - it's NOT FREE as I stated in my OP. It's the "landmark legislative" legacy of one Barack Obama, a member of the Democrat Party and shoved down the throats of everybody with all kinds of promises of free, better, healthcare. It's an economic nightmare.

 

[Arianrhod]

I'll never understand where some people get the notion that insurance is free. Do they just apply this belief to health insurance or to insurance in general?

As for your neighbors, there are any number of factors that could explain why they couldn't find affordable insurance, many having to do with the state they live in, the avaiable insurers in that state, whether or not their governors allowed for Medicaid expansion, etc. But more often than not, people bought into the fear-mongering that led up to the passage of the PPACA, and never bothered exploring all their options.

Where have you been? "Free everything" is the BS line some in the Democrat Party members - they have a "fix" for everything that's going to be "free" - and those "fixes" keep on failing and raising the cost of all this free stuff on the backs on every person and entity filing taxes. Obamacare is one of those "fixes" - "Free healthcare." "Free college."

Oh, I thought you were talking about the existing PPACA. If you want to do a generic rant about some nonexistent "Democrat Party," there are plenty of forums for that.

I AM talking about the PPACA - aka "Obamacare" - it's NOT FREE as I stated in my OP.

No one but you said it was.

"Affordable" =/= "free."

There's your problem right there.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

Can one of you explain why keeping premium rate increases low is a bad thing?

It would be nice if premiums WERE low, but they're not - not even under ACA. I have neighbors who don't have health insurance because they still can't afford it - and the price they paid was a whopping fine when they filed their taxes. Insurance is not free. A huge part of the problem is people who don't know how to use insurance wisely - just because you've got it, doesn't mean you have to USE it for every little hangnail, small scrape or scratch or stubbed toe that comes down the pike. Instead of going to the drug store and buying some topical antiseptic and some bandaids for $10 or to a doc-in-a-box clinic ... they go trucking to the ER at a much higher price. The ER waiting rooms are stuffed full of people waiting hour after hour to be seen. That creates bad claims experience and all those claims drives premiums up. It isn't free!! And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's the costs of running any business that keep spiraling upward.

Despite all the hoopla people are being fed about free this, that and the other ... none of it is free!

It really is a question of just what it is that you think people should have access to.

We are spending $8,500 per person per year.

How do you do that keep premiums down ?

 

[Sun Devil 92]

It was designed to fail so the government would have an excuse to take it over.

You'd think that they'd not want to be known as the people who passed the worst piece of legislation in history.

 

[dblack]

Can one of you explain why keeping premium rate increases low is a bad thing?

Yep.

 

[Arianrhod]

Can one of you explain why keeping premium rate increases low is a bad thing?

Yep.

Thank you. Very informative.

 

[dblack]

Can one of you explain why keeping premium rate increases low is a bad thing?

Yep.

Thank you. Very informative.

Most of us can. Just google my posts in the health care forums over the last few years. Most of them are on exactly that topic.

 

[MaryL]

Several insurers are pulling out of the marketplace coverage option - Humana, United Healthcare, to name a couple. In this week's local paper there was a write-up about the BC/BS-TN losses alone - hundreds of millions in TN alone on the marketplace coverage. Not to worry ... seems there has been a bailout plan afoot ... to be funded by taxpayers.

Critics call Obama funding plan for health insurer losses a 'bailout'

That's disconcerting, if true. I have Humana Coverage and I haven't heard anything about this. The idea behind Obama's brainchild was problematic, to begin with. It didn't actually address the multitude of problems in the health care system. The Affordable health care plan was a misnomer.

 

[Arianrhod]

Several insurers are pulling out of the marketplace coverage option - Humana, United Healthcare, to name a couple. In this week's local paper there was a write-up about the BC/BS-TN losses alone - hundreds of millions in TN alone on the marketplace coverage. Not to worry ... seems there has been a bailout plan afoot ... to be funded by taxpayers.

Critics call Obama funding plan for health insurer losses a 'bailout'

That's disconcerting, if true. I have Humana Coverage and I haven't heard anything about this. The idea behind Obama's brainchild was problematic, to begin with. It didn't actually address the multitude of problems in the health care system. The Affordable health care plan was a misnomer.

I'm betting if you call Humana and ask, you'll be given some convoluted explanation or none at all.

 

[Granny]

Several insurers are pulling out of the marketplace coverage option - Humana, United Healthcare, to name a couple. In this week's local paper there was a write-up about the BC/BS-TN losses alone - hundreds of millions in TN alone on the marketplace coverage. Not to worry ...http://www.bizjournals.com/louisvil...d-humana-leave-the-individual-commercial.html seems there has been a bailout plan afoot ... to be funded by taxpayers.

Critics call Obama funding plan for health insurer losses a 'bailout'

That's disconcerting, if true. I have Humana Coverage and I haven't heard anything about this. The idea behind Obama's brainchild was problematic, to begin with. It didn't actually address the multitude of problems in the health care system. The Affordable health care plan was a misnomer.

Here's one report for Humana losses/2015. I've seen several different sites with some of the insurers which are pulling out of ACA marketplace for losses.
http://www.bizjournals.com/louisvil...d-humana-leave-the-individual-commercial.html

 

[MaryL]

Several insurers are pulling out of the marketplace coverage option - Humana, United Healthcare, to name a couple. In this week's local paper there was a write-up about the BC/BS-TN losses alone - hundreds of millions in TN alone on the marketplace coverage. Not to worry ...http://www.bizjournals.com/louisvil...d-humana-leave-the-individual-commercial.html seems there has been a bailout plan afoot ... to be funded by taxpayers.

Critics call Obama funding plan for health insurer losses a 'bailout'

That's disconcerting, if true. I have Humana Coverage and I haven't heard anything about this. The idea behind Obama's brainchild was problematic, to begin with. It didn't actually address the multitude of problems in the health care system. The Affordable health care plan was a misnomer.

Here's one report for Humana losses/2015. I've seen several different sites with some of the insurers which are pulling out of ACA marketplace for losses.
http://www.bizjournals.com/louisvil...d-humana-leave-the-individual-commercial.html

I will look in to it. OK, maybe off topic, but are some of us grandfathered into these plans, or are some of us going to get a sudden surprise in the near future?

 

[Granny]

Don't know about grandfathering. I left Humana for BC/BS-TN. I was so pissed off with harassment from Humana that I switched to BC/BS about two hours before the last open enrollment period closed.