What possible excuse is there to raise one's Insurance by 43% in one year?

[Winterblues]

A businessman in Sen Ben Nelson's home town aired an ad claiming this was done to him. Isn't there some sort of law against gouging people. I would think an investigation should be in order and Sen Nelson should be pushing for such immediately..Why isn't he?

[hobbit709]

1. Because they want an even more obscene profit margin

[alsame]

2. Have you seen the thread with

the CEO salaries and bonuses? That explains it.

[Winterblues]

3. One decade ago America spent 800 billion on Health Care, today that figure is $2.5 Trillion

Extrapolate that for the next Decade if nothing is done..

[Mojambo]

4. CEO needs a new boat. n/t

[gratuitous]

6. No, silly

Not just a boat, a yacht. You know how embarrassing it is for these guys to pull into the marina and hear all the other CEOs laughing at his last year's model yacht, last decade's model wife, and last century's model paunch? Something Must Be Done! Never Again! Higher premiums for all. Stop the madness.

[sailor65]

5. There are cases where it's deserved.....

Reckless driving, DUI, etc..

ON EDIT: Unless maybe he's not talking about car insurance, in which case pretend I'm not here :-)

[Winterblues]

7. The issue is Health Care

:-)

[lefthandedlefty]

8. I don`t have health insurance,but my garage liability

tripled in Bush`s third year in office and no I didn`t have a loss and have not had a ticket in 31 years.

[Moondog]

9. In Sen Nelson's defense, insurance is regulated at the state, not the federal, level.

Now whether that ought to be the case, or not, is an entirely different question. Which is part of the reason why the insurance companies are fighting President Obama's medical insurance initiative tooth and nail.

[Winterblues]

10. That is true but States do feel the influence of their Representatives.

A US Senator can create quite a stir on issues such as this if they had a mind to do so..Do you think Sen Nelson is of such a mind?

[JPZenger]

11. Our Blue Cross Group Plan Went Up 31% in One Year in PA

[Iggo]

12. Did he turn 50? 55? 60?

Other than something like that, I don't know.

[Maru Kitteh]

13. "Isn't there some sort of law?" - That is what we are trying to DO HERE.

They can do whatever they want to us now. And they do.

[WeCanWorkItOut]

14. The hospitals and doctors groups are also a big problem

I'm not making any excuses for the insurance companies, none at all. But we also have a serious problem with monopoly power of many big hospitals and doctors groups. There's evidence that they've been raising prices in a big way in the last year or so. For all the grief that the insurance companies cause us, it's disturbing that the unions and various public interest groups are so little aware of the other causes of price increases: hospitals, doctors groups, imaging centers, drug manufacturers. Plenty of blame to go around.

[krispos42]

15. Those gold-plated Gulfstream V's don't pay for themselves, yanno. n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. I think they see reform coming and are trying to maximize their take before then

:grr:

Mine went up 13%, even though I've never used up my deductible. It went up 10% the year before that.

[krispos42]

17. Just like last-years gas-price spike. n/t

[Native]

18. It's not just health care. State Farm asked for a 40+% increase & our legislature

stopped them. Their response - to pull out of Florida within one year. Flash forward to the present - guess who is now asking for another 40+% increase during their final year here? What's their reason? They need the extra money to facilitate pulling out of the state.

[TexasObserver]

19. My health insurance just went up 35% in one hike, not experience based, either.

I suspect they're jacking them up in anticipation of some controls coming in the future.

Health care is such a disaster partly because no one is controlling the insurance company rates OR the costs hospitals are charging.