Anthem Approved For Health Insurance Rate Hikes As High As 47 Percent

http://blogs.courant.com/connecticut_insurance/2010/10/anthem-approved-for-health-ins.html

Thanks! Enjoying the reform!

It also helps the mob say "You see? Obamacare has caused my
rates to skyrocket!"

I heard exactly this message yesterday while canvassing a
well-off neighborhood for my Congressional candidate.

Tesha

We have always been a 'for profit' health care system.
We haven't always had a train wreck health care system.

But it wasn't the health care bill that did us in, oh no.

We've been in a state of out of control health care inflation for 2 decades.
(The moment insurance companies found out they could get away charging 100 bucks for a cup and toothbrush for an overnight hospital stay - it was over. The cup and toothbrush is the CHEAP part of the bill!)

insurance corps didn't dominate, and most medical costs were paid out-of-pocket.

fairer to say we always had a mixed system.

So is the model of a doctor running his or her practice as a small business.

Obviously hospitals and practices have always had to figure out a way to make revenue meet or exceed expenses, but they weren't seen as profit centers. This development is in my opinion a bigger part of our health care problems than insurance companies.

Like the insurance companies many of these so-called "public charities" have CEOs with 7-figure salaries that must be preserved at all cost. And they too will do anything the can, and I mean anything, to grab every dollar that can be grabbed and more.

That's all I am going to say... right now.

Look, 6- and 7-figure executive compensation packages piss me off too. But they don't really matter.

If an insurance company reimburses tens of billions of dollars, or a hospital does tens of billions of dollars in care, a twenty-million dollar bonus to an executive doesn't even make a dent in the cost. Force CareFirst's CEO to work for free and the actuarial reality doesn't change: they still need to take in enough money to pay the extremely high fees providers charge. Or in the hospital's case, they still need to pay the extremely high rates their component services demand.

And it gets worse from there, at some of these "nonprofit" facilities.

Where does the money for those expensive new MRI machines and the techs that service them come from? A whole bunch of $1 aspirin pills.

Being uninsured, I was told that the cost for one image on the MRI would be between $2000 and $3000. This was at a nearby "nonprofit" facility. Considering that I had a hard time scrounging up the $125 to visit the doctor who prescribed the MRI, I had to go without the test and got no further treatment.

If I had insurance, I would have gotten the test and my insurance company would have paid a much lower 'negotiated' rate for my MRI, perhaps only a few hundred dollars or even less.

It is wrong -- and dishonest -- for these so-called "public charities" that enjoy many tax breaks and other perks funded by the public to collude with insurance companies and then attempt to buy their MRI machines and balance their books on the backs of the uninsured.

In case you care, which you probably don't, having never been tested or treated I STILL have the lump in my leg. Apparently it's not a blood clot or cancer, or I would likely be dead by now.


PS -- One year's worth of those seven-figure salaries paid out by these "nonprofit" hospitals would pay for a large chunk of any MRI machine or other equipment. But as I said upthread the "charitable" bloodsuckers feel as entitled as anyone to grab all they can.

Charging an uninsured patient a dollar for a tablet that is worth perhaps a penny in order to make up costs for the insured is improper, dishonest, and downright immoral.

Insurance companies were opposed to it, of course, but the hospital industry was the one who agreed to a pittance of $155 billion in savings over 10 years in exchange for no public option. Prior to 'for profit' hospitals, patient care was the purpose of hospitals. Now? Maybe 4 or 5 on their list of priorities with profit, obviously, number 1.

Ummm.......no. It's the hospital that would be making that charge. It's the insurance company that's expected to pay for it.

(CT Insurance Commissioner, from the article.)

Actuarial tables are actuarial tables; they affect for-profit, not-for-profit, and single-payer plans equally.

:puke:

The Insurance Industry Profit Protection Act, as we can now plainly see.

Of course, there were those of us here on DU who said so at the time, and we were told to STFU and support it. I was unable to comply.

Insurance companies got the gold mine, citizens got the shaft.

Many of whom are about to have a pretty shitty Novmber.

THEN they would fight for single payer-or a public option at the very least. Of course, that was complete bullshit, so why would we trust them now? (and don't answer with the usual President Palin fearmongering BS).

What's to trust?

We've known all along that rates for single men would go up at least 20% to cover removing gender as a rating criteria, for instance.

Since I can't afford it in the first place I already know I'm a goner if I get sick. For those borrowing money to pay premiums it comes as a surprise. A woman called into Thom Hartmann's show and said her insurance company demanded she pay her deductible up front in cash for a surgical procedure she needed. I haven't found additional info on this, but if it's true it will allow insurance companies to stop covering medical care for people without the means to pay their deductible on the spot.

:sarcasm:

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Health Insurance Premium Grants: Detailed State by State Summary of Proposed Activities

On August 16, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the award of $46 million to enhance States’ current processes for reviewing health insurance premium increases. Forty-five States and the District of Columbia applied for grants, and each will receive $1 million in grant funds to help improve the review of proposed health insurance premium increases, take action against insurers seeking unreasonable rate hikes, and ensure consumers receive value for their premium dollars. A list of States’ current health insurance rate review practices and a summary of their intended use of these new resources is below.

<snip> The chart below provides a detailed summary of how each State intends to overhaul its health insurance premium review process.

http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/rateschart.html

___________________

<snip> Already, my Department has provided 46 states with resources to strengthen the review and transparency of proposed premiums. Later this fall, we will issue a regulation that will require state or federal review of all potentially unreasonable rate increases filed by health insurers, with the justification for increases posted publicly for consumers and employers. We will also keep track of insurers with a record of unjustified rate increases: those plans may be excluded from health insurance Exchanges in 2014. Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections.

Americans want affordable and reliable health insurance, and it is our job to make it happen. We worked hard to change the system to help consumers. It is my hope we can work together to stop misinformation and misleading marketing from the start.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Sebelius

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/09/20100909a.html

the profits while Ms Sebelius is busy handing out grants (a process that will take how long?).

This is not an answer to people that are hurting - this is just more red tape.

Rate increases were cut way back from what the ins co's wanted.

We were told that actual costs would decrease and that the core problem of affordability would be addressed.

Now Anthem is raising costs by 40 percent, the TYPICAL raise in costs is 9 percent for people in group plans and 20 percent for the self-insured.

Keep telling us to be grateful.

Again, they were stopped in CA.

Affordability has been addressed...subsidies will start in 2014. This is a process, not an instant fix.

:wow:

then I guess complaining wins them nothing. If the state won't listen, turn them in to Sebelius, she will go after them.

Do you think costs are affordable NOW?

What are you expecting?

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If you can't see beyond the end of your nose and allow the process to take place, that's your problem. This instant gratification crap is ridiculous.

You can apologize any time now for calling me a liar. Nobody ever said everything was fixed, you are projecting.

You want to see lies? See post #8. I will even help by linking it for you. We heard those lies throughout the campaign. We tried to tell you that they were lies, that there was a problem here, that this legislation would not lower costs or fix the problem of spiraling costs. You didn't want to listen.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9334917&mesg_id=9335005

Yes, they were LIES.

Tell ya what. You say affordability has been addressed? Then you get back to me and explain the delusions of my relatives and neighbors and friends who say they can't afford to go to the doctor. Get back to me when the constant flood of posts on DU by people who can't afford healthcare, or whose premiums are escalating out of reach, stops. Get back to me when the government and the media announce that healthcare costs for citizens are actually decreasing, instead of telling us to be grateful that they are only rising by 9 to 40 percent per year.

THEN you will have grounds to complain about my use of the word "lie."

You choose to read into it what you want it to be. Good luck.

Calling people liars is an odd thing to do.......

I thought so.

What a shame.

except that I am somehow hard-headed or delusional. It's amazing, isn't it, that so many people are delusional all at once about their own experience?

Here is a nugget of wisdom for you: It's never good politics to deny people's actual experience and tell them that the problems they are living each day do not exist. That argument rarely works, and it just makes them madder.

But don't feel bad. That's a lesson the administration apparently hasn't grasped yet either.

And you wonder why we are behind in the polls...

You can't cough up meaningless bullshit, and when people refuse to swallow it accuse THEM of being thick-headed and dishonest.

Well, I guess you can, since you did, but you aren't going to convince anyone that way. Exactly what are you trying to accomplish with your posts?

Of course we were promised lower costs. We were told repeatedly during the campaign that actual costs for consumers of health care would decrease. Any claim to the contrary is revisionist history, or a flat-out lie. Here are just a few examples, but the internet is full of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUd-slJc-GY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxl9eExU5VA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_yt9GT-Mas&p=7948374513EA6FF2&playnext=1&index=12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdj5bEXZ_0E

Many of us realized at the time that there was nothing in this horrible legislation that would actually control costs and increase affordability. We raised the alarm over and over, but we were told to sit down and shut up.

Well, we were right. And we were lied to.

Not everything in the reform bill kicks in right away thanks to the DINOs....listen, the reform bill is not perfect but it's better than nothing...no more preexisting conditions, children covererd under their parents plan on 27, preventative care needs to be included in plans, etc..

Sure, you can get coverage with pre-existing conditions. You won't be able to keep your house, but you will be able to get coverage with a 10-12k deductible and a 20% co-pay. Whoopie.

Insurance companies were raising their rates way before the health care reform bill was passed.....it started to go up during Reagan and Bush I, came down during Clinton and skyrocketted during Bush II.

Instead, it mandated participation in these bloodsucking plans.

How are we going to expand coverage to 20 million people (most of whom need more medical care than average) and somehow be paying less than that?

would be government savings, & that the cost -- and more -- would be transferred to the tab of individuals.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/91527-orszag-cbo-underestimates-savings-from-obamas-healthcare-bill

Doesn't mean it had anything to do with patriotism.

This was very explicitly the choice between the D and R health care plans in the '08 election: Obama wanted to first expand coverage and McCain wanted to first control costs, both claiming their way would (eventually) solve the other problem.

Sometimes I think he must have been consulted on what to call the Insurance Profit Protection Act because the name sure sounds like something he would have come up with.

And so far I've seen nothing to shake that prediction. You keep parasitical companies poised in the heart of the system and they WILL drain your lifeblood. Other countries already cover everyone and cost less per capita. But none of them went with something as stupid and corrupt as Obamacare.

We're usually notified in December.
:(

This is for the new plans Anthem is required to created under HCR, ie, plans for the people who previously couldn't get insurance at all.

...a 'public option' would have put these guys out of business in 18 months.

their stock just wouldn't be as high and their CEOs would have to take less than 300 million home this year.

that we are rushing even more rapidly into a third world nation status but strangely enough all of the third world nations I have looked at as a retirement home have national health care that I can buy into for very little money. We are worse than the third world, with the oligarchy ruling in their own favor. What I don't get is why we have so many serfs rushing to help them. A lot of Republican candidates want to repeal the minimum wage and lots of poor people still support them. A large portion of the clients who come into the social service agency where I work have Republican bumper stickers on their cars. How can they support Republican candidates when the Republicans want to kill the very programs they go to for help? Are Americans really that ignorant?

Ask ANY re-teabagger that utilizes the social safety net and they will tell you that THEY deserve it.
They've paid into for years and they need it so it is theirs for the taking.
The disconnect comes when they don't think anyone ELSE deserves it.
The US is closer to a third-world country than it is to a first-world country.
If these idiots would take a historical look at this, they would understand that there is but a hairs breadth of difference between the US and Mexico at this point in time.
But, the SAME people who would shoot an illegal immigrant on sight in this country...would be the first one justifying why THEY and THEY ALONE should have the right to enter Canada illegally if the circumstances were the same in this country that would necessitate leaving it.
It is a leftover byproduct of the me-me-me syndrome that Reagan ushered in.

...in their current premiums" -- CT Insurance Commissioner Thomas Sullivan, from the article.

That still wouldn't be true, though as current premiums are already too high.

From the article;


This shouldn't be a surprise. Gender is no longer a rating criteria, so the higher cost of women's healthcare is now being split between men and women. Healthcare reform was always expected to raise costs for men by 20% or so.

Stop WHINING!

THANK GOD IT PASSED!