BCBS health insurance renewals

Could you explain a little more? Is this through your employer? Most that I have read about are either decreasing or have a small increase. I know in some states the percentage went way up but their is a reason for that in each state. I am very curious about your 115% increase.

Sherry

 

Read about it yourself. Don't let others tell you what it is about or going to do until you have researched it yourself.

Sherry

http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/index.html

About the Law:

The Affordable Care Act puts consumers back in charge of their health care. Under the law, a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights” gives the American people the stability and flexibility they need to make informed choices about their health.

View Key Features of the Affordable Care Act or read a year-by-year overview of features.

Coverage:

•Ends Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions for Children: Health plans can no longer limit or deny benefits to children under 19 due to a pre-existing condition.

•Keeps Young Adults Covered: If you are under 26, you may be eligible to be covered under your parent’s health plan.

•Ends Arbitrary Withdrawals of Insurance Coverage: Insurers can no longer cancel your coverage just because you made an honest mistake.

•Guarantees Your Right to Appeal: You now have the right to ask that your plan reconsider its denial of payment.

Costs:

•Ends Lifetime Limits on Coverage: Lifetime limits on most benefits are banned for all new health insurance plans.

•Reviews Premium Increases: Insurance companies must now publicly justify any unreasonable rate hikes.
•Helps You Get the Most from Your Premium Dollars: Your premium dollars must be spent primarily on health care – not administrative costs.

Care:

•Covers Preventive Care at No Cost to You: You may be eligible for recommended preventive health services. No copayment.

•Protects Your Choice of Doctors: Choose the primary care doctor you want from your plan’s network.

•Removes Insurance Company Barriers to Emergency Services: You can seek emergency care at a hospital outside of your health plan’s network.

 

None of that speaks about costs

 

Look at my second post with a link. I am also getting ready to post some costs.

Sherry

 

Your costs are going to be estimates as they are only starting to trickle out from BCBS.

Nobody knows what the exchange rates are going to be yet (Oct 1st). My BCBS plan just went up by $300/mo. Thanks Obama.

 

Do the research, give it a try and then complain if it doesn't work. It looks as though many will have health insurance that have never had it before and that is a good thing.

Sherry

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-25/obama-pulls-back-curtain-on-health-law-to-reveal-rates.html

Health insurance under Obamacare will cost individuals at least $2,988 a year on average, a price that Republican opponents may target as out-of-reach for many Americans who don’t qualify for U.S. subsidies.

While the $249 monthly payment is intended to be discounted through tax credits, less than half of people now buying insurance on their own may get that help. The release of the data by the Obama administration comes just six days before the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges open for enrollment, and a day after Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, took the floor of the U.S. Senate to oppose the law.

Under the Affordable Health Care Act, hundreds of hospitals and doctors groups, including Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, have started getting financial incentives from the government to keep patients healthy and face penalties for those readmitted to the hospital too soon. Mount Sinai patient Ester Redd made it on a list of high-risk patients that she said saved her life and likely wouldn’t have existed without the new health law. Bloomberg's Shannon Pettypiece reports.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, talks about efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, congressional budget negotiations and prospects for a government shutdown. Johnson speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop."

Health insurance under Obamacare will cost individuals at least $2,988 a year on average, a price that Republican opponents may target as out-of-reach for many Americans who don’t qualify for U.S. subsidies. .The affordability of the overhaul has polarized debate since the act passed in 2010. While the law’s cheapest plans offer more care than minimal policies available today, including guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, their cost may persist as an issue even though it affects only a relatively small percentage of people.

The law’s long-term success “will depend on the changes that are made over the next couple of years to address the affordability issue,” said Brian Wright, an insurance analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co. in New York. “If you have modifications that can help address those issues, then it will ultimately be successful. If not, then it’s an open question.”

Premiums nationally are about 16 percent less than the Congressional Budget Office projected in 2012, the government said today in its report, a factor that may reduce the total cost for the law, now estimated at $1.4 trillion over a decade.

Individual Mandate:

The act was created to benefit low-income people, including 48 million now uninsured -- about 15 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau. To help offset the cost of older, sicker individuals in this group, the law mandates that every American buy insurance, including young, healthy adults who pay for health plans but rarely use them.

People who have insurance through their jobs, about 55 percent of Americans, aren’t directly affected by the law and are automatically considered in compliance with the mandate.

About 60 percent of the uninsured will find coverage for no more than $100 a month when taking into account subsidies and the effect of Medicaid programs for the poor, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“The prices are affordable,” Gary Cohen, director of the agency’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said on a conference call with reporters.

Four Levels:

There are four levels of coverage on the exchanges -- bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Bronze plans, the cheapest and least generous, are designed to cover about 60 percent of medical costs and carry higher deductibles. Platinum plans, the most expensive, cover about 90 percent of costs. They charge higher monthly premiums.

The report today outlined rates for exchanges in 47 states and illustrates the effect of subsidies available for people earning less than four times the poverty level -- about $94,000 for a family of four. None of the companies selling plans in the states were identified.

The rates vary widely by state. The highest prices noted in the data are in Wyoming, where the cheapest bronze plan averages $425 a month for an individual and the cheapest silver plan $489. In Minnesota, prices average $192 a month for the cheapest silver plan and $144 for the lowest bronze plan.

Republicans, who have said the individual mandate curtails personal liberty, have argued that many Americans will pay more for insurance as a result of the law and that added benefits it brings may not be worth the cost.

GAO Report:

The release of exchange premiums comes after the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in July on the cost of insurance individuals buy today. Those data show that Americans who are young and healthy are able to buy inexpensive policies. A 30-year-old nonsmoker can pay as little as $373 a year in Georgia or $1,027 in Alaska, the GAO reported.

The release of prices by HHS was the last major public step for the government as it anticipates that at least 7 million people will buy plans in the health law’s insurance exchanges during the open enrollment period that starts Oct. 1 and runs through March 2014.

 

Tell us what the real costs are after you get your tax break. Give it a chance. I think car insurance is higher than this will be. You can thank your employer for the raise of $300/mo. That's who is passing costs along to you.

Sherry

 

I could say that about the one you posted. Nobody will know until we have fully researched it for each of our families. I do know that companies and states should have prepared for this and if they haven't then those costs will go to us. I doubt NC has prepared but I'll give our state the benefit of the doubt right now.

We all need to do our research and hopefully through the HHS's site/other government sites and non-partisan sites we can figure it out.

Sherry

 

I will tell you that right now multiple news sources state Wyoming will have the highest in the nation, not NC.

Sherry

 

No...our current plan is not grandfathered.

 

No. I'm not eligible for insurance through my employer. We buy our own coverage.

 

You're not even close about car insurance. We'll be paying (unless we decide to just pay the penalty) 50% for health insurance in two months than we pay for car insurance for a year.

 

My daughter's car insurance is extremely high in the state of NC. She has had two speeding tickets and one head-on collision (another person crossed over and hit her). Due to those items her car insurance is sky high. Her health insurance is much, much lower than her car insurance. Go figure.

Sherry

 

I'm sure through research you will find the right health insurance, paying on your own. Remember when doing your research to figure in the tax deduction you will receive in your cost projections.

Good luck,
Sherry

 

That should not have impacted her insurance rates. At least it didnt in the old days. If it's the other guys fault, his rates go up, not yours.

Now, the two tickets are probably causing some pain to the wallet.

 

Thanks Sherry, but we won't qualify for a tax credit in 2014, either. I'm hoping to retire around the end of next year or early 2015, so after that we will probably qualify.

I'll be checking the exchange on Tuesday (if it's working) and looking for cheaper alternatives.

 

Sherry, thanks for taking the time to post information. I believe you will always encounter people who will trash our president no matter what he does. If only he could do his job without all the minds closing shut to any of his ideas. Just my opinion based on all the bad-mouthing going on in this country. :neutral:

 

LOL.

 

Good luck to you on checking the exchange and your impending retirement.

Sherry

 

Thank you. Sometimes I get caught up in all the stuff you are talking about too but on this issue I think we all have a lot to learn. I am trying to learn about this myself and hope others will too. My insurance agent and HR department are doing the same. It takes time and I hope more people will follow the links and make informed decisions.

Sherry