We Got Our Obamacare Lump of Coal Today

what a negative biased bit of bullcr*p

"what a negative biased bit of bullcr*p"

lol

garylouisville said...
Probably most employers will keep insurance but there are going to be thousands of employees around the country that will lose it as these employers have calculated that paying the penalty will be cheaper than offering the insurance.

It will be millions, not thousands. I wonder how many other people will be getting bad news like I just got over the next few days as their health care out-of-pockets get finalized for 2013. Of course 2014 will be the big shocker year when most of the rest of Obamacare kicks in.

Couple the thousands more in medical costs with thousands more in taxes if we go over the cliff and many in the middle class will just plain drown financially.

Americans need to hold their politicians to a higher standard regardless of party affiliation. What's going on is a joke. If it was a Republican playing golf in Hawaii while we go over the cliff, I would be just as critical.

Post Edited (C_G_K) : 12/27/2012 4:49:00 PM (GMT-7)

"In their defense though, medical costs were going up at a rate higher than inflation and without Obamacare employers were already heading down the path of decreasing benefits in order to control costs so it's kind of hard to pin these things on Obamacare."

Bingo.

Colorado High risk pool was great, this junk I have at my company is shocking, sounds like your still getting a steal for ER visits.

Both daughter and myself had to visit ER this year and insurance paid NONE of it. Now its subject to the deductible.

Nobody admitted to hospital this year but all told premiums,co-pays, plus dedutable = $10,000

and they do not even pay for VSL#3DS

Meanwhile half the people in the hospital do not pay, so we pay a ton IOW we are already paying for the 'po people'. My ex had an anxiety atttack and ran up 10,000 at ER, thought she had stroke just because I had one. Who paid that now that her high alimony ended ? You did - she is on MEDICAID.

Pick your poison. We needed to change health care in this country, so now we need to fix what is wrong with Obamacare - ever forward.

I believe that them saying obamacare will reduce costs in the long run is another huge smelly pile of you know what.

My employer and healthcare insurer are non profit and are simply responding to the increased costs due to Obamacare.

Not saying we didn't need reform, I'm saying the reform was sold with lies and will do nothing to bend the cost curve down. How can it? It just pushes more people into the same dysfunctional system.

C_G_K said...

My employer and healthcare insurer are non profit and are simply responding to the increased costs due to Obamacare.

How do you know the two are related ?

As kazbern said "I don't think the Affordable Care Act goes into effect until 2014. "

How is it OK that anyone can go on a political rant and I, in my ignorance post a research study about -gasp, ***** and it gets locked down lickety split?
*** -this forum needs some reality and balance or else it's a joke -you're choice...

BTW, orangey John Boehner is off "working on his golf game" somewheres as well I'm sure.
In my mind -they all suck!

[you know why it was edited! ]

Post Edited (beatUC) : 12/28/2012 9:31:26 AM (GMT-7)

Obamacare doesn't hit the streets until 2014.

Sue

What I was originally thinking when I read your post was about my current medical benefits and how terrible they are. I get them through my employer and technically, they don't cover anything that relates to a diagnosis until after you've hit your deductible. Even after the deductible, you have to pay a percentage of the costs until you hit the out of pocket max. Is this normal? I've never heard of a plan that doesn't cover expenses relating to a "diagnosis". I mean, if you're diagnosed with strep throat and then you have to return to the doctor, you would have to pay out of pocket if you haven't reached your deductible and if you have reached it, you have to pay a percent. Doesn't seem like very good benefits.

DW works for a small mom and pop Physical therapy clinic where the employer insures only 3 employees. I ranted a ton about it couple of months ago. Now, the things are becoming more clear. The insurance agent that the employer uses told her that the premiums are going up as a result of Obamacare. The employer doesn't dig deeper into this BS so she bought the excuse but was smart enough to get HSA insurance instead of EPO. Now we have $4K deductible for a family (which just annoys me) and the medications are charged at 25% extra margin.

Last week, she has a meeting with her lawyer and it turns out, reading between the lines. The insurance companies are just prepping folks for it. Again, the employer could not decipher jargon much, so a ton was lost in translation but she expects that in 2014 the insurance premiums will go down. The reason that she offers is, majority of insurance holders are sick folks, healthy don't bother with it (unless employer offers it) so the cost is rising for insurance companies and they want to keep their profits high (so some insurance companies have started opening up their own clinics, in addition to their pharmacy for our 'convenience', my a**). Since Obamacare brings a new tax for not buying health insurance, it could go down (now that again if-if statement, somebody could just pay the tax and not buy insurance). Agree, this is total mess.

On revamp of healthcare, yes its needed but more focus needs in the food supply and honest education. I won't go into the details but we discuss this thing quite often here. I refer to Swedish and Australian FDA more often than the US FDA. I believe, their info is more honest than the US one.

notsosicklygirl, I haven't posted much about medical pot -nothing that you had to remove that I can remember. But that recent post was a very interesting group of studies that really intrigued me. I totally understand the rules etc, but political rants are also against forum rules and are posted here constantly.
Anyway, I know your job here is not easy, but any new UC information whether it is controversial or not is important for us to know.
You moderators do a great job -wishing you a happy, HEALTHY & prosperous new year!

Levi, thanks for clarifying the implementation schedule for Obamacare. You've inspired me to do some reading. I don't understand how the tax structure of the Act changes the picture for insurers so that they feel they can blame the Act for increased rates in 2013.

The changes that are happening in 2013 relate to an increase in Medicare taxes for people who earn more than ~200K, a new tax called a Net Investment Income Tax that applies to people who have more than a certain amount of investment income, a new small business health care tax credit that is supposed to help small businesses provide health care coverage to their employees, and changes to Flexible Spending Accounts which reduce the amount of reimbursement a person can get from these tax-favored savings accounts.

There are other changes, probably less important to the average person; you can read about all of it at http://www.irs.gov/uac/Affordable-Care-Act-Tax-Provisions.

None of these changes seem to me to justify an insurer raising prices on coverage in 2013.