"My healthcare has skyrocketed" --help debunking healthcare cost

[renie408]

I have a friend who is FINALLY coming around to at least discuss actual issues. I have taken care of welfare fraud, housing costs, the stock market and several other issues she brought up.

But I am having a hard time finding any information on PERSONAL healthcare expenses under the Affordable Healthcare Act. She says her paycheck is taking a hit because of healthcare costs and that her co-pay is only $20 less than the cost of the visit.

I can find info on budgetary spending, blah blah blah, but actual information on how the changes are effecting individuals is harder to find. Anybody got anything??

[Panasonic]

1. Ask her if she received a refund from her health insurance company

thanks to Obamacare...

[ehrnst]

2. Employers still make those decisions on what healthcare to provide

She should absolutely ask her employer why they are going up.

The employer should ask the insurance company.

[frazzled]

3. What the heck kind of insurance does she have?

On a PERSONAL level, our health care costs have remained stable (premiums did not rise) and been reduced (we experienced free, no copay preventive services this year, including physicals and expensive lab tests, e.g., a 2,300 colonoscopy). We even got $40 back from the insurer through my husband's employer--not a big amount, but proof that the cost-cutting is starting to come into play.

We, of course, have good group insurance through an employer. We chose the HMO plan, which has no deductibles and low copays ($20 for PCP, $40 for specialists, $0 if it involves preventive care services.)

So you can tell her that while she may have crappy insurance, she needs to see her employer, or if self-insured, needs to find a better plan. Other people are already benefitting (you can cite my PERSONAL experience.) Secondly, you can tell her that the main provisions of the ACA have not yet gone into effect, and that she should be seeing improvements in the future.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Well, the cost of health care in this country has increased 10-fold since 1980.

http://www.kaiseredu.org/Issue-Modules/US-Health-Care-Costs/Background-Brief.aspx

Health expenditures in the United States neared $2.6 trillion in 2010, over ten times the $256 billion spent in 1980. [1] The rate of growth in recent years has slowed relative to the late 1990s and early 2000s, but is still expected to grow faster than national income over the foreseeable future.[2] Addressing this growing burden continues to be a major policy priority. Furthermore, the United States has been in a recession for much of the past decade, resulting in higher unemployment and lower incomes for many Americans. These conditions have put even more attention on health spending and affordability. [1]

And therefore, premimums continue to rise:



http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/story/health-care-premiums-rise-5-year-increase-131-decade

[progressivebydesign]

8. And yet, 50% of Americans actually vote for the people that the Insurance Industry supports.

unreal.

[enlightenment]

5. Why do you automatically assume she is wrong?

Take a look at this website - the statistics they are reporting are cited. This doesn't mean that the ACA is bad, but it does suggest that the insurance companies are doing their damnedest to position themselves before the majority of the legislation kicks in.

http://medaccessforamerica.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/health-insurance-companies-raise-premiums-by-181-4-since-health-care-reform-passage/

Much of the legislation that will affect the average individual won't go into effect until 2014, which may be why you are having difficulty finding the information you want.

[renie408]

7. I don't. I automatically assume that whatever is going on, it isn't Obama's fault.

Since she automatically assumes it is, I need some kind of countervailing argument.

[enlightenment]

12. Ah, your post was unclear on that.

Hopefully, some of the links in the article will help you develop an argument - unfortunately, there really isn't enough control over the insurance companies at present and they are taking advantage of the lag between the passage and the implementation of the law.

[renie408]

9. Do we think there is some relief in the future? Cause if not, the average person isn't going

to give a shit WHY their costs have gone up, just that they have. And they WILL be blaming Obamacare and I am not sure I can blame THEM for that.

[ehrnst]

10. And you can blame FEMA for skyrocketing gas prices when they order an evacuation.

but you don't, you blame the people gouging you while you still don't have any other option.

[mike_c]

6. always count on insurance companies to screw their policy holders...

...by any means open to them. Period. No amount of "reform" is ever going to make for-profit health insurance a good deal.

[cbdo2007]

11. The point of the ACA wasn't to lower people's individual healthcare costs....

though there was the provision that they must spend 85% of the cost of the insurance on actual medical costs.

At least not initially. The main goal was to have more coverage for all the people that need it, with the hope that with more people in the health insurance pool it would lower costs in the long run. Just tell her it isn't going to happen over night but if she isn't happy with the plan provided by her employer, she should blame them rather than President Obama. They are the ones who are probably hoarding millions of dollars in cash while offering their employers the plan that is cheapest for THEM not for you.