Forget Medicare, I just got my health Ins. Renewal & holy Crap!

[fencesitter]

I'm self employed and have to pay for my own Health Insurance. Just me, single, no wife no kids on the plan. I buy through a big business association for group rates here in southeast Pennsylvania. It's the cheapest HMO available, basic coverage. Currently I pay 250./month. Jan 1st it rises to 375./month. For a family on this policy (husband, wife, one kid) the current rate is 723. It will rise to 1,082. That is a 48.96% increase! Who can afford this? Where is the outrage? I'm sending a copy of my rate increase to my Republican Senator and Repub Congressman for what good it will do and wondering that with the expected new profits from the changes in medicare, will the company pass on the savings to me?

[rucky]

1. I'm self-employed as well...

and work an additional 20-25 hours a week at a (union) grocery store...nights & weekends - just for the benefits.

I'm married & it's tough sometimes, but if you're single, it's something to consider.

[classics]

2. Outrage?

Rich people can easily afford $1000 a month, why should they care?

[lapislzi]

12. That is my mortgage!

I don't know many people who can comfortably absorb a 48% increase for ANYTHING. Currently my health insurance (for me alone; significant other is covered under his employer and my daughter has coverage from my erstwhile spouse)is half the cost of my mortgage, and it goes up every year. My co-pays are not small, either, and not all medications are covered.

I hate fucking health insurance companies. I hate them, hate them, hate them.

So there.

[fencesitter]

40. If your employer gets this kind of increase...

I predict a lot of profanity from behind his or her office door. Then an increase in your co pay too.

[mmonk]

3. Welcome to America

[tom_paine]

26. no, welcome to Imperial Amerika

It's about to get very ugly.

[Lefta Dissenter]

4. We just had to get a policy for our daughter

who is 19, but is only a part-time student, so she isn't covered by our policy anymore. That isn't so bad - about $130/mo for what I consider pretty good coverage.

HOWEVER, I soon have to start shopping for insurance for our son, who is 22, graduating from college this spring - but he had cancer 4 years ago. I am not looking forward to hearing what the insurance companies have to say about covering him!

And, HAHA, good little joke you made there about passing the profits on to you... :(

[ramapo]

11. Nobody is happy about it but....

This problem has gotten worse and worse for the past dozen years.

Our group plan costs >$14K a/year for family coverage. We cover about 85% of the cost for the employee but we can't afford to much longer and will have to at least double employee contribution.

It's a pretty flexible plan with a traditional 80/20 fallback if you go out of network. The network is good although it really sucks when your doctor drops out because the plan screwed him.

A coworker came in today ranting because two of their doctors dropped the plan.

I've checked into buying comparable coverage for when the day comes where we can't stay in business any longer because of the declining technology business. Cost of a similar policy for an individual insuring their family is >$20K!!!!!

At least here in NJ you cannot be declined for pre-existing conditions.

Anyway, it seems that nobody is happy with the situation but there's no organized movement to force our "representatives" to fix it.

[theboss]

25. Get a copy of HIPAA

Certain carriers are barred from looking at pre-existing conditions beyond six months. There are also protections if you have maintained coverage during the entire period.

[xray s]

5. What are your deductables, co-pays and other out of pocket costs?

A bunch I bet.

oh...and wait until your taxes go up to pay for all those goodies Bush and the 'Yea' gang in Congress voted for the drug and insurance companies.

Yep...big corporations and $100,000 Pioneers get a donut, seniors get a hole, and we get the bill.

Plutocracy in action.

[cthrumatrix]

6. how old are you..? any health issues for such an increase..?

this can't be so....what in the world are people to do?

[madfloridian]

7. All are going up...no reason....they just go up.

Ours has doubled this year, and it is group.

[Think Globally]

8. Move to Canada!

Where they spend money on people instead of guns! If this weren't an election year there's no way Republicans would've passed that bill. It's nothing but a cynical attempt to steal our issue and buy votes while providing nothing!

[FlaGranny]

17. These increases don't have much to do with age or health.

I work for a good sized corporation and, as I said in another thread, our share of the insurance has doubled in the past three years. Everyone pays the same, regardless of age or health. Also doubled, doctor copays. Hospital admissions went from $100 deductible per hospital stay to $250 a day for the first five days).

[creativelcro]

22. I work at a university....

co-payments and premiums went up as well... I estimate 25% or so... We all pay the same, but there are 3 income bands. Lowest income (under 55K) pay substantially less than people who make over 55K or more. It's MA, you know, so 55K is barely enough to get by...

[FlaGranny]

34. Yes, our deductible and co-pays went up, but I got great

news in an e-mail a few minutes ago. My company has had so many complaints about the coverage, they are going to a new company. It will cost more, but they are making up the difference. I hope they make up the difference for me too, because I'm on COBRA because I'm part time.

It IS good that those making less pay less. Everyone pays the same here, no matter if your bank account says $1B, or $1.

[FlaGranny]

18. Duplicate post, ignore please.

[fencesitter]

41. I'm 51, but

my 34 year old employee pays the same. It's a flat rate for everyone. The premium depends on who's covered. Blue Cross Keystone HMO Select II.

[proud patriot]

9. My husband and I cannot afford healthcare for ourselves

My husband is self employed . We make too much
to qualify for medi - cal . Luckily we make
little enough to get our son covered through
California Healthy Families . However because
of the budget problems Parents cannot recieve
benifits from Healthy Families yet .

I hope Whoever becomes the next president
fixes this problem , because it sucks to
be a second class citizen .

It sucks to have this worry on top
of everthing else .

Healthcare is the Right of everone poor, middleclass
and the wealthy.

[democratreformed]

14. I have never joined in

the health care discussions much because I have completely lost faith in the health care system as a whole. And I'm not just talking about paying for it either although that is a BIG thing. My husband and I just went two years without health coverage. Finally, I had to quit helping him in our new business and go get a job to be able to get health insurance. For the record, that's not the ONLY reason I went back to work elsewhere but it is one of the reasons.

Now, I tell everyone, I work here for pay and I still work for my husband for free. Ah, isn't life just grand?

[Bandit]

10. It sounds like you are getting the trickle down treatment.

Do you feel these expenses are trickling down to you. I guess that is exactly what theymeant by trickle down.

[rucky]

13. It's warm and wet and smells like asparagus

n/t

[asjr]

15. insurance

I think the insurance companies feel as long as GW is our pResident they can charge what they want. The Repbs have enabled them to gouge the entire country. My daughter and her husband are without insuance now because he makes just a tad too much to get the children on TennCare, let alone themselves. It is all out of control and we seniors just got shafted. I wonder if a class action suit is doable.

[izzie]

16. This is what it cost me and I am over 65

The 45 fron SS and gap ins. 89 a month but no drugs or dentist on to that. I will be under the low cost in income but my assets will be way to high. So if I have to go into this new deal I will have to pay $35 more a month, and still things will be the same. I Pay out of pocket now and then. Can I still drive to Canada and get pills? Right now I am lucky I need no pills.

[Andromeda]

46. The new Medicare bill won't go into effect...

until 2006 and there is a clause in it prohibiting Americans from purchasing drugs in Canada. Until then, I don't see why you can't drive to Canada and get your medications.

[Cleita]

19. This is why the for profit health care industry doesn't

provide health care. All it does is provide healthy profits for Wall Street. You will see very little health care for your money. If you are reasonably healthy you are better off putting your money in the bank for an emergency. Maybe you should get disaster insurance with accident coverage in case you are injured on the job or at home. I don't know if it is cheaper, but I think everyone is going to have to try to find other ways of getting insured by exploring loopholes and stop feeding this corporate health care hydra.

[FlaGranny]

20. All of us could probably afford our health care better

without insurance, EXCEPT for the fact that in a crisis or an emergency you might need to go to the hospital. I don't know what the average cost of a hospitalization is, but I'd guess it is around $50,000 for 4 or 5 days.

[Cleita]

21. Not only that an end state disease or cancer

can make a family destitute from the bills. It's a hard choice to make, but we have to do something. Our political representatives are selling us out.

[Mairead]

27. Perhaps working to see Kucinich elected would help?

Doing anything else seems too much like picking out a shop to trade at because you like the decor...and then complaining bitterly that the shopkeeper at 'your' store fails to stock the goods you want and regularly shortchanges you besides.

Seems like lunacy to me. :(

[Cleita]

28. Dean has also promised universal health care.

He understands what he is up against. I'm not knocking Dennis. I know he will also fight for this. Either way we need a candidate who will bring this to the table and fight for it.

[Mairead]

33. There's an extremely significant difference between Kucinich's and Dean's

It's about $265G per year, currently: the difference between non-profit and for-profit. A quarter-trillion dollars. That's quite a lot.

Dean wants to take an additional 88G per year out of our pockets to cover about 30M of the 41M without coverage. But his plan still leaves 10M or so out in the cold. He characterises that as people opting out. But he doesn't explain who would do this opting out, or why. My sense is that, if 'opt out' is the appropriate term at all, then the only people who could do that are the wealthy, because only they have the kind of money it would take. And as we know from other common social services such as education, once the wealthy can opt out, they'll try to starve out the services the proles have to use.

[Cleita]

35. Dean has other things on the plate that Kucinich doesn't.

Healthcare isn't the only problem we face. Not only that the healthcare plan that will eventually get into place, if we are so lucky, will be the one Congress approves, not what the candidates want.

[Mairead]

45. Sure.

[davekriss]

32. Our family is an example of "destitute" from the bills

I have an adopted daughter who, it turns out, has bipolar disorder. She was hospitalized 19 of the last 22 months at a total cost of $800,000. Our commercial insurance, a better than average plan, covers 30 inpatient days for psychiatric care. You do the math. Yes, we are thinking of moving to Canada.

PS/ Her adopted sibling is autustic. No I did not know they were ill when I adopted them. :(

(On the bright side the autistic daughter is doing very well.)

[SharonAnn]

31. Maybe, if you don't have any surgery or other treatments

My husband had a bill in August of more than $50,000 for placing a stent in an artery and an overnight stay in the hospital.

[Lars39]

23. It's called catastrophic health insurance; my family has it.

Right now it's about $300/month(4 healthy family members). The out of pocket is $4000, the individual deductible is $1200. I had to have 2 surgeries this summer and fall. My total bill was $4000 for the first surgery and zip for the second. The insurance worked great for this *catastrophe*, but I think an ongoing illness, like cancer would quickly eat up any savings you had put aside. Unless you had a good cancer policy.

[fencesitter]

43. I was getting a hair cut today..

and asked my hairdresser what they do for health insurance. SHe said "health insurance?, what health insurance? cash check or credit card, that's our health plan."

[lapislzi]

24. I still maintain that it's the commodification of health care

Someone realized that a buck could be made on health care. The whole idea of "for profit" companies being in charge of people's most private matters is anathema to me. There's the problem right there. It's not a business; it's my HEALTH, goddamn it.

[Yupster]

29. Just got mine two days ago

Up 35 %. I have it on my list of things to do to yell at them

We pay close to $ 1,000 per month now, my wife, myself and our 6 year old. Also self employed.

[OKNancy]

37. I'm self employed

and my husband's employer doesn't cover him. We carried health insurance, but had to drop it. It not only goes up because of price increases, but try getting it when you are 55. Our insurance was 35% of our income. We had to say...that's it. We are praying to make it to Medicare ( hahaha well what used to be medicare)

[fencesitter]

44. Does the NFIB come to you

and tell you they're working for health insurance affordability for small biz owners? and then luv evertything GW does?

[Lorien]

30. Try NASE

(national association for the self employed) they offer insurance through PFL life. I pay $189/mo (single also) with a $500 deductable. This year I needed vasular surgery, which would have cost me $7,500 out of pocket, but with my insurance only cost $250. got to pick my own doctor, too!

[MadHound]

36. This is due to the insurance companies. . .

Losing their ass in the stock market over the past three years. Most insurance companies make the majority of their money not from the business that they do, but from the investments that they make. This wasn't always the case, but with the erosion of financial laws over the past twenty years it has become the law of the land. This is why we are now all faced with rising insurance rates across the board, stricter policies, harsher acceptance terms, tort reform legislation and a whole raft of legislation bailing out the insurance companies.

[Cleita]

38. This is why the insurance companies need to get out

of the health care business. We need single payer universal coverage like Canada.

[onecitizen]

39. My retirement benefits were just canceled and.........

I have a friend who flies for Delta and she says they now have to pay full price for their health insurance. We are 2 people who worked hard all our lives for companies we stuck with. We never thought this would happen to us. Just hang on folks cause this is gonna bring bush down. It's happening all over the country to people like us. I don't think it's gonna be Iraq that turns the numbers for bush. It's gonna be Corporate welfare and favoritism. The working man is going to be living in poverty very soon. It's part of their plan. But it's gonna backfire on them.

[ringmastery]

42. How much does disaster insurance cost?

Insurance with very high deductibles? 1,000 or 2,000.

I'm reasonably healthy and in the long-run think it will be cheaper for me to pay for routine health care out of pocket.

What I'm worried about is cancer, accidents. 20, 30, 40+k health care costs that would wipe me out.

[n0_data]

47. Yup. It's incredible.

My dad is self-employed and has diabetes. He pays a grand a month for basic coverage. He's also been hit hard by the economy and it's questionable whether or not he'll be able to keep up the payments.

I'm young and healthy with no insurance, but recently experienced spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung) out of the blue. No idea where that came from. Guess that's why they call it spontaneous..