Your Junk Insuruance is About to Get Worse, Courtesy of Max Baucus & Rahm Emanuel

If you think your insurance is expensive and doesn't cover much now, wait until the Senate Finance Committee bill gets jammed through the Senate:

In May, the Senate Finance Committee discussed requiring that insurers reimburse at least 76% of policyholders' medical costs under their most affordable plans. Now the committee is considering setting that rate as low as 65%, meaning insurers would be required to cover just about two-thirds of patients' healthcare bills. According to a committee aide, the change was being considered so that companies could hold down premiums for the policies.

Most group health plans cover 80% to 90% or more of a policyholder's medical bills, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. Industry officials urged that the government set the floor lower so insurers could provide flexible, more affordable plans.

Why is it necessary to cut benefits in order to "hold down premiums?" Well, because you have to factor in a big fat profit for the private insurers. Who are already making out like bandits with a huge new pool of potential customers who are forced to buy their product. Take a look at the way health insurance stocks have shot up over the past week compared to the S&P. Wall Street is licking its chops.

Sorry, folks. No public plan, no mandate.

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/08/24/your-junk-insuruance-is-about-to-get-worse-courtesy-of-max-baucus-rahm-emanuel/

Percentage change since 2002 in average premiums paid to large US health-insurance companies: +87%

Percentage change in the profits of the top ten insurance companies: +428%

Chances that an American bankrupted by medical bills has health insurance: 7 in 10

—Harper’s Index, September 2009

It's disgraceful. These figures should be thrown in the faces of everyone involved in health care reform. It's an outrage!

H.R. 3200 has deductibles of $5,000 per person and $10,000 per family per year. Try paying that plus the premiums on an income of $45,000 per year. No summer camp for your kids. No family vacations. No internet. No cable. Lots of peanut butter sandwiches. Better get religion. Cause you're going to need to pray that your family stays healthy.

I asked my congressman to explain this, but haven't gotten a response yet.

the income limits before you get no subsidy are $43,000 for a single and $82,000 (or 80 something) for a family of four. But, to be clear, as income increase the amount you pay out of pocket (not cutely called "cost sharing") increases until you react the income cap and are responsible for the entire $5K or 10K plus premium and anything else not covered (you will be responsible for any uncovered expenses before you reach the cap as well).

Currently, the income caps are 4x the poverty level, but Pelosi has said those could be lowered. The real trick will be not to get sick toward the end of the benefit year. If you have an illness that bridges two years you could find yourself on the hook for the out of pocket maximums twice in a just a few months (and the bill allows for the out of pocket costs to rise each year).

And that's with the public option which we've been told won't be running before 2013 and will only cover 10 million people by 2019 (per the CBO).

Don't get me wrong, JDPriestly, I think this bill sucks too - I just wanted to make sure we have what's in it straight (which is bad enough). HR3200 will mandate coverage and for most us that means we'll be forced to contribute to the for profit companies for several years at least. It is nothing but a gift to the insurance companies and will only guarantee access to insurance, not access to care. It also won't do anything to stop medical bankruptcies for those who qualify for little or no subsidy.

it will insure that the insurance companies have lots of lobbying cash between now and 2013. That's the point. We are in a recession without an end in sight (lies aside). More and more people are without insurance. This bill is a forward-looking bail out for the insurance companies.

We don't get jobs. We get help paying the insurance companies. Thank you, Obama. Thank you, Democrats in Congress.

I heard about this several days ago. The gaul of these bastards against a background of "health care reform" to spit in our faces and do this so that things are even worse for the American people. I don't like the smell of this administration anymore and the order of a whole bunch of these Dems in D.C. is just another rotting body. This move tells me loud and clear that we are going to get absolutely screwed over in this healthcare reform abortion that is about to land on this country.

they would be the cheerleaders of this crap and the paid cheerleaders!

It should be all of us at the town hall meetings screaming our heads off and throwing shit storms!!!

these pigs need to be barbequed.

Can you imagine how far over the barrel we would have them if we all canceled our policies and told them to suck on it?

There are people at DU who don't want YOU to have this INFORMATION.

Glad I could cancel out one of them.

& R!!!

:kick:

:mad:

What should be cut to save money to reduce health care costs?

Insurance company profit or health care benefits to the consumers?

Let's see how many people vote for the first choice.

This belongs on page 1.

Those Beltway pols are utterly disconnected from what life is like down here among the serfs.

:grr: