Health Insurance Premium Update: Rates have risen 9% in past year

[brentspeak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/business/health-insurance-costs-rise-sharply-this-year-study-shows.html

Health Insurance Costs Rising Sharply This Year, Study Shows

Published: September 27, 2011

The cost of health insurance for many Americans this year climbed more sharply than in previous years, outstripping any growth in workers’ wages and adding more uncertainty about the pace of rising medical costs.

A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group that tracks employer-sponsored health insurance on a yearly basis, shows that the average annual premium for family coverage through an employer reached $15,073 in 2011, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year.

snip

How much the http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/health_care_reform/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">new federal health care law pushed by President Obama is affecting insurance rates http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/27/health-insurance-premium-update">remains a point of debate, with some analysts suggesting that insurers have raised prices in anticipation of new rules that would, in 2012, require them to justify any increase of more than 10 percent.

In addition to increases caused by insurers getting ahead of potential costs, some of the law’s provisions that are already in effect -- like coverage for adult children up to 26 years of age and prevention services like mammogram screening -- have contributed to higher expenses for some employers.

[Mz Pip]

1. THis really bothers me.

Affordable Health Care Act doesn't seem to have any provision to keep companies from jacking up rates to the point where insurance is unaffordable.

We really do need Medicare for all and take these blood sucking insurance companies out of the mix entirely.

[Exilednight]

2. I read this in the paper today. I had to chuckle when I read it because someone posted

earlier in the week that they believed Obama's HCR bill was driving down costs. No matter how many facts were presented, there was a consistent state of denial.

This has been my complaint about the bill. Nothing in the bill is designed to drive down costs. It's a lot of flower and fluff that fails to address the real problem of cost of health insurance and access to health care.

[ProSense]

3. Why Health Premiums Increased By 9 Percent In 2011

Think Progress: Health Premiums Increased By 9 Percent In 2011


WH: Health Insurance Premium Update

[SteveM]

4. Mine haven't. I don't have any. nt

[ellisonz]

5. They're getting ahead of the rest of the provisions. Compare 9% to the last decade.

You might just say health care reform is holding down rate increases...

[slipslidingaway]

6. Healthcare Costs for American Families Doubles in Less Than 9 Years - $19,393

http://publications.milliman.com/periodicals/mmi/pdfs/milliman-medical-index-2011.pdf

Uwe Reinhardt explains the Milliman Medical Index
http://pnhp.org/blog/2011/05/13/uwe-reinhardt-explains-the-milliman-medical-index/

"The annual Milliman Medical Index, released earlier this week by Milliman Inc., the Seattle-based employee-benefit consulting and actuarial company, is illuminating, and I highly recommend it. The index is particularly timely as the nation considers proposals to reduce sharply the role of the federal government in financing health care, along the lines proposed by Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The index measures the total cost of health care for a typical American family of four covered by a preferred provider plan, widely known as a P.P.O. The index’s great virtue is that it includes not only the employer’s and employee’s contributions to the premium for P.P.O. coverage but also the out-of-pocket expenses the family has under the plan.

Employers can control the growth of health insurance premiums by shifting more and more of the cost from the insurance policy to the family’s budget, through higher deductibles and coinsurance or by excluding benefits from coverage that had previously been covered.

Thus, the index provides a more accurate picture of the actual burden of health spending for a typical American family than does just the premium for P.P.O. coverage..."

[Skittles]

7. what's to stop them from charging whatever they want?

certainly not that ridiculous "healthcare reform" bullshit