Individual health insurance premiums jump: 13% on average

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Survey-Individual-health-apf-84737520.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=

Survey: Individual health insurance premiums jump
Kaiser foundation survey finds steep jump in individual health insurance premiums

Tom Murphy, AP Business Writer, On Monday June 21, 2010, 4:48 pm EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- People who buy their own health insurance have been hit lately with premium hikes that far exceed increases in premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The nonprofit foundation, which is separate from health insurer Kaiser Permanente, said recent premium hikes requested by insurers for individual coverage averaged 20 percent. Some customers were able to switch plans and pay less, so people paying on their own actually wound up paying 13 percent more on average.

That tops last year's average 5 percent annual increase for employer-sponsored family coverage and almost unchanged premiums for employer-sponsored single coverage, though foundation Vice President Gary Claxton said the comparisons come with qualifications.

<edit>

Guy Gooding of Sobieski, Wis., who is 59, said premiums for his and his wife's health coverage have risen 73 percent from 2007. They now pay about $646 per month, compared with $374 in 2007.

more...

I believe it will go even higher

More people paying into the system will not in itself cause premiums to go up. What WILL cause them to go up is the skyrocketing costs of health care due to our aging population (i.e.--baby-boomers are turning 60) and the generally unhealthy lifestyles of our modern society.

medical charges in general are simply outrageous because it is a for-profit system

Of course it will.

Our government is taking away one of the single most effective cost controls on the market today - the ability to opt out.

How will more people entering the system cause the price to go up? There will be more money in the insurance company's coffers to pay medical claims which will lessen the burden on everyone in the insurance pool. In addition, the competition for clientele among the infinite number of insurance companies will put downward pressure on premium costs. For example, if Ins. Co. A decides to "fleece" its customers by charging $1,500/mo for a plan which should really only cost about $800/mo, you can be sure that Ins. Co. B will offer the exact same plan at a far lower monthly premium, and Ins. Co. A's customers will LEAVE IN DROVES and Co. A will have to lower their prices or it will be out of business.

"you can be sure that Ins. Co. B will offer the exact same plan at a far lower monthly premium, and Ins. Co. A's customers will LEAVE IN DROVES and Co. A will have to lower their prices or it will be out of business."


This is precisely the market incentive that is being removed by the mandates.

In a captive market, prices only go in one direction. Customers might switch between insurers, but the market will only expand overall, which means the single biggest price restraint is now gone. When everyone is forced to buy insurance by law, insurers have no real incentive to keep their prices low. See what happened in Massachusetts after a mandate was implemented, if you want a real world example.

It turns out that having a big pool of people paying for medical care out of pocket or seeking alternatives to the US system actually kept rates and costs down. Insurers had an motive to keep premiums competitive and medical providers had an incentive to offer discount services. Of course, I'm reading now that some doctors are moving to a cash only system because they just can't afford to deal with the insurance companies anymore. I think this will be the future of health care in America. One tier of care for those who can pay cash (and perhaps file for insurance reimbursement on their own), and a lower tier for the rest of us who have to use hideous insurance (which is essentially a means of medical debt enslavement, now enforced by our government).

I see what you're saying to an extent, however the competition between insurance companies jockeying for clientele will push premiums lower, not higher. If there was only one insurance company (or a single-payer government system), then the sole provider would be able to push premiums through the roof. That is not the situation here. This is why I'm glad that the president and the Democratic Congress opted for market-based insurance reform instead of a single-payer system.

I wish my rates were as low as the couple's cited in the OP. My partner and I pay over $850 a month for $10,000 each annual deductible, 70/30 in network BC/BS policies! We can barely afford the premiums and frequently get behind. And the 70/30 with co-pays makes us hesitant to go to doctors or specialists. I'm afaraid we're going to have to drop insurance all the time.

I'd rather have a roof over my head than health insurance.

We see that in many services and products.

It is the baby boomers, it is the high costs blah blah, it is unhealthy lifestyles. Sure it is.

It would be more humane to just kill us all off and skip all of the drama and double talk.

Have you ever had serious hospital care? Here is the perfect example of "skyrocketing medical costs":

My wife had to go into the hospital, I'll leave out the long story. We have no insurance so I went through the bill item by item. Now I'll skip the $5 charge for an aspirin and move right to my favorite charge. It looked like this:

MRS- $80

I was thinking Mrs who? But alas, after some digging and a helpful person at the hospital I found out what MRS is. Mucous Removal System. Can you see where this is going? When I asked what the mucous removal system was, she told me it's EXACTLY what I think it is. Yes, I just paid 80 fucking dollars for a... wait for it... A BOX OF FUCKING TISSUES!!!! There's your skyrocketing health care costs.

Or theft. Or something.

get sick you are on your own.

very nice - what a fucked up system - buy over-priced, crappy insurance with no guarantee of RECEIVING HEALTH CARE or pay a fine and take your chances - great choices

I don't know about you Skittles, but I'd much rather HAVE health insurance coverage when and if I get sick.

If you're concerned about your prospective insurance plan not covering certain things, then why not compare and contrast different plans before you sign up with one? You would do the same if you were buying a house, a car, or a flat-screen TV. Go to eHealthInsurance.com, and you can compare dozens of different plans to find the one that's right for you.

Is this a rhetorical question?

If not, it's because every time an uninsured person gets injured or ill goes to the emergency room, who do you think ends up paying for their medical care? THE REST OF US DO. When hospitals don't get paid, they raise their costs to offset the difference, which results in higher insurance premiums (and taxes, for when the government bails out a hospital to keep it operating).

Second of all, if everyone isn't required to buy insurance, those who are sick will be overrepresented in the pool and premiums will skyrocket to cost-prohibitive heights.

Everyone knew the increases were coming. Anyone who thought we could stop that... you might want to answer the door, it's REALITY knocking.

Keeping the increase down to 13% is EXCELLENT!

OMG :rofl:

OMG

have gone up if the HCR bill wasn't passed?

Their own health insurance is smaller than employer provided insurance. It includes small business owners and other self employed. When the economy sinks like a rock, people lose jobs, companies go under or lay off employees, the pool shrinks even more. You end up with more healthy people dropping insurance and people with preexisting conditions sticking with it because they can't afford not to buy insurance if they still have an income stream. If they did away with the pools and treated all customers as one giant pool, costs would be absorbed across the board and the small business and self employed wouldn't get continually screwed. Unfortunately, the government, which has the power to regulate how the industry operates, chose not to do so.

My partner and i have always been self-employed. And now, over 50, it's impossible to find jobs. So we keep trying to hang on to our $850+ a month, $10,000 deductible 70/30 BC/BS health insurance (which has co-pays and high deductibles for Rxs). Some months it seems we'll need to drop it. We have no money left for savings or vacations or anything else.

More money for worse coverage and higher coinsurance requirements....

My Medicare supplement premium went up 36% in January. :mad:

I'm a few years younger and ours is a lot more.

when there were no restrictions or requirements in the health care non-reform bill. They gave the insurance companies several years to get themselves into the cat seat before they had any changes to contend with. Hello, is anyone listening? This "compromise" bill was so flawed that I wonder if it can be fixed. I know many were saying just get it passed and we can work on getting it "better" at a future time. Is it already too late?

It'll get fixed down the line. :sarcasm: