ACA ObamaCare 2018 - Rules, Premiums, Info, Etc.

[junkman]

@traceye: Insurance companies compete on price. Throw out or limit mental to 20 days and all of the people on pain meds don't get treated. Eliminate maternity especially if you can limit coverage for premees and you save a bunch of money. Once the 1st carrier goes all others follow suit. Witness how many are paying commission on individual business.

Throw plan design back to the states and it will mostly fall to the carriers because no one else has the data and knowledge. As far as old males or fat old ladies paying for maternity, they really don't because at some level, ALL premiums are a reflection of expected claims. We had this discussion and someone pointed out that old rates were a multiple of younger rates. Maternity multiplied is the same as paying for maternity. In that case, illnesses of being an old male gets pushed back through the system. It don't matter in the end. Allocation of a cost is by definition arbitrary.

 

[kgmom219]

The budget passed in 2014.
Rates for 2015 filed in May of 14.
Didn't know 2014 risk pool results till late 2015, rates for 2016 already filed by then in may 15'. The corridor was only for 3 years, combined saw 2017 rates skyrocket.

To me, it was sparing taxpayers from a retroactive bailout.

Oh BULL.

And TX didn't file until after the bill passed. (We are last. We are special. Just ask Tater).

Every hospital, doc and even the damn drug manufacturers ramped up for the transplants. We sat in those damn meetings with the carriers and it was very blunt: "2014 is going to be ugly. We know it and we are ready for it"

Then the total debacle of OEP 2014 started.

 

[Yagents]

Why would assurant enter in year two on market? Along with UHC's late entry? Smart cookies who didn't know the oven temp? Or Rubio's poison pill? Doubt it.

 

[somarco]

Obamacare taxes are now amounting to almost one trillion dollars a year.

Well yeah, but that is to assure Obamacare doesn't "add one dime to the deficit" . . .



Wonder why the MSM forgets this talking point?

 

[Yagents]

Aetna is completely out in 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/aetna-to-pull-out-of-remaining-affordable-care-act-exchanges-1494451900

 

[traceyemoon]

@traceye: Insurance companies compete on price. Throw out or limit mental to 20 days and all of the people on pain meds don't get treated. Eliminate maternity especially if you can limit coverage for premees and you save a bunch of money. Once the 1st carrier goes all others follow suit. Witness how many are paying commission on individual business.

Throw plan design back to the states and it will mostly fall to the carriers because no one else has the data and knowledge. As far as old males or fat old ladies paying for maternity, they really don't because at some level, ALL premiums are a reflection of expected claims. We had this discussion and someone pointed out that old rates were a multiple of younger rates. Maternity multiplied is the same as paying for maternity. In that case, illnesses of being an old male gets pushed back through the system. It don't matter in the end. Allocation of a cost is by definition arbitrary.

I see what you're saying & I appreciate the response. I am not asking that certain coverages be done away with. Was just musing if limited, by choice, plans would be more attractive to "healthy" people. However, the lower premiums for just a partial plan wouldn't offset the people who need more services on a "regular" ACA plan.

I still have to admit that it is frustrating to watch people pay more each year for a plan and not use it. Lucky them for their good health. I have a few couples who one went to Medicare and the remaining spouse paid only $20 less for a plan just for them.

Payment of commission on individual business is a joke. I only do ACA as a springboard to keep them for Medicare, Disability and Life, which works pretty well.

 

[Yagents]

We were already in 2016 OEP when we found out about 2014 risk corridor shortfall. Carriers hit prices hard in 2017.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20161205/NEWS/161129937

In October 2015, the CMS said it would pay just 12.6% of the risk-corridor requests for 2014. The rest of the payments would be paid from 2015 and 2016 collections.

 

[dgoldenz]

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170510/NEWS/170519999

CareFirst, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield company, asked for a 52% increase on average in its Maryland individual plans, both on and off exchange. It is also requesting hikes of 35% in northern Virginia and 29% in Washington, D.C. CareFirst covers about 215,000 individual members in those three areas.

National for-profit insurer Anthem, which covers 1.6 million individual members across several states on and off the ACA's exchanges, requested 2018 rate hikes of 33.8% in Connecticut and 37.7% in Virginia on average. For 2017, the Indianapolis-based insurer asked for a 26.7% average increase on individual plans in Connecticut, and the state eventually approved a 22.4% increase. In Virginia, Anthem's rates rose 15.6% on average in 2017.

 

[traceyemoon]

In PA, Highmark Inc raised 45%, Highmark Choice company $51.79, and Highmark Health Insurance Company HHIC raised 55.07%. We have a few other choices, but in West PA, two major players. The other is UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) and they took 16.50%.

Fun times!

http://www.insurance.pa.gov/Consumers/HealthInsuranceFilings/Pages/default.aspx

 

[junkman]

@traceye: I too am tired of paying for health insurance that I don't use. The alternative is to really get my value back by going to the hospital with a stroke, cancer or something else. HSA compliant HDHPs are the best thing going for any insured paying the premium. They are essentially a self-funded plan with a $5,000 spec. I've ever seen anyone who had a lower total cost with a copay plan.

Rates go up because claims go up. Claims go up because of price increases and utilization increases. The genie is out of the bottle and we aren't going back to everyone paying for their own healthcare. Drug companies usurious pricing doesn't help. I recently talked to one person that had a transplant. The drug company pays his annual out-of-pocket so they can sell him stuff the rest of the year.

We have a problem.