Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumBlue Cross Blue Shield seeks 60% rate hikes in 2017 in Texas
Once again the limits of Obamacare are exposed. Health insurance - even forced health insurance - won't ever work for universal health care.
"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest insurer, has asked for rate hikes of nearly 60 percent for next year in three popular HMO plans, filings with federal regulators show."
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Blue-Cross-Blue-Shield-seeks-60-rate-hikes-in-7958152.php
This - like United Health's pullout - will probably leave areas with one option - and the price gouging that that implies.
"The entire states of Alaska and Alabama are expected to have only one insurer on the health laws signature online marketplaces next year, according to state regulators. The same is expected to be true in parts of several other states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma, state regulators said.
So far, more than 650 counties appear on track to have just one insurer on the exchanges in 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is tracking withdrawals as they become public. That would be up from 225 in 2016, when the state of Wyoming, among other areas, already had just one ACA marketplace competitor. Of the counties in jeopardy of having only a single exchange insurer next year, 70% have populations that are mostly rural, said Cynthia Cox, a researcher at the foundation."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/insurance-options-dwindle-in-some-rural-regions-1463356031
If only some candidate had a good alternative... [cough]
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)Hillary has some "tweaks" to "fix" the ACA. Her tweaks will insure the health of the health insurance industry, so there's no need for panic.
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)She had tweaks to fix Libya
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)like that.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)as more low income people choose to opt out and pay the fine.
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)And it's a major handout to corporations!
TexasBushwhacker
(20,256 posts)It's only 3 plans out of the many that they offer.
I was responsible for getting health insurance prices at the company I last worked for. We had BCBS and ended up sticking with it. Our premiums went up about 15% and the deductibles and copays were the same. Having priced health insurance plans before the ACA, I can tell you that premiums were going up that much then too.
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)Is that providers are simply pulling out of the ACA if they don't get their money.
There's no doubt it used to be awful as well... But wasnt the goal to make things not awful?
TexasBushwhacker
(20,256 posts)moving towards universal health care. If they can't make a profit with millions of newly covered people they deserve to go out of business.
Kip Humphrey
(4,753 posts)We had an ACA silver plan from BCBSofTx: $863 premium per month for the 2 of us with an annual deductible of $11,700 (circa 2015). Is ACA a Romnecare/Heritage foundation insurance scam?
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)To put that in perspective I now live in Ireland. Doctors visits are 50 each, unless you're a child, then it's free. Insurance for two people, which most people have and which is great incase of a catastrophic illness, is 80 month for a family of 4. I spend an extra 10 a month on cancer insurance - which guarantees that no matter what happens, if I get cancer, the entire cost of treatment will be covered. 100%. I've used the insurance twice - once for an MRI and another time for a foot consultant. As a result both cost me nothing, aside from the existing monthly insurance cost.
Pre- and ante- natal care for mother and baby is free.
Now. People feel like they're being ripped off and in the next few years Ireland will go to complete single payer.
When I lived in Boston 12 years ago my wife and I got Healthcare through our job. The deductible was a couple grand and the monthly cost was between 5-600 a month. In Taxachussettes.
How the heck are you paying that much - after the ACA - in TX?
I'm shocked.