My Health Insurance is Going Up to $1500 a month!

[limitme]

My health insurance plus dental (for a family) is going up to $1500 a month!
I'm a teacher and that is almost half my salary.
My wife and I are looking into private health insurance for our family, because there is no way we can afford that.

This is crazy. I'm currently paying about 900 a month for health and dental, which I thought was crazy expensive. An increase of 600 more dollars a month...craziness.

 

[kind2creatures]

I have Kaiser and pay $860 per mo. for me and my husband, health only, no dental or vision. From what I hear, there are supposed to be some less expensive choices for people starting in October. I don't know any details, but we plan to change to another company if possible, before they jack up the price on us anymore. Our rate was $734 not too long ago, and I was very aggravated when it increased so much. :xbone::dollar:

 

[happy2bhere]

I am totally losing mine. Soon to be ex has been unemployed. He is only employed when there is court dates set.

 

[Mad Scientest]

[FONT=&quot]What about looking for something with a high deductible or maybe something that only covers major illness?
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]That worked for me, but then I never had any on going health issues.
[/FONT]

 

[saved1986]

I am getting pissed. very f------ pissed. I buy a 5000 deductible that went up 21 percent this yr, but the welfare / Medicaid group gets 100 percent everything for free with no co-pays

 

[Solstice Goat]

I am getting pissed. very f------ pissed. I buy a 5000 deductible that went up 21 percent this yr, but the welfare / Medicaid group gets 100 percent everything for free with no co-pays

And your presidential candidate of choice was........................

 

[saved1986]

And your presidential candidate of choice was........................

08 , even though I am GOP, I voted for Obama because Bush OVERSPENT. Mistake! in 2012 Romney. Obamacare is actually known as the affordable care act

 

[Solstice Goat]

08 , even though I am GOP, I voted for Obama because Bush OVERSPENT. Mistake! in 2012 Romney. Obamacare is actually known as the affordable care act

So, what would RomneyCare come to be known as.....

 

[Cookie]

I am totally losing mine.

I lost mine almost 2 years ago when my dept got slashed to p/t positions, just under what's considered f/t so we lost benefits.
Lost 2 weeks vacation, sick days, bonus days, medical & life insurance.
If I have to visit the doctor, it's what... $100? Haven't had to go yet.. knock on wood... And the dentist for cleanings 2x a year runs $240.
Med ins would cost close to $700 a month, which I don't have.

I used to stress over it bigtime. Why, ya know? If something catastrophic happens I'll have to swallow my pride & apply for charity care.

 

[happy2bhere]

I used to stress over it bigtime. Why, ya know?

Lately I stress over everything. It is in hyperdrive.

I feel like there is a big old boot in my stomach i just cannot digest and at times it feels like old gallbladder pains - but I don't have my gallbladder! Tired. ODD.

Stress is killah. I gotto getagripquick.

 

[jesichashope]

From what I hear, more employers are going to PT so they don't have to offer benefits. It will be up to us to fend for ourselves. Info out there is saying a lot of insurance companies are will not participate in the exchanges, just too restrictive and costly for them; so our alternatives will be few. This will force us into a one payer system and we all know where that will take us.

I tend to see a higher percentage of people using medical tourism, so long as it will be allowed. A few our our friends have decided on a second home in Central America gaining expat benefits.

 

[jfh]

I've already told my story here a few times. My insurance is going up 16% this month and went up 20% last year. This is what we get when we let corporations, such as insurance and pharmaceuticals, write our laws and run our government. So, which party is in the pockets of the corporations? Both of them. This is why congress has single digit ratings. You can try to blame it on a president, but congress makes the law. The president can chose to try to veto it or not execute it all at once.

It was supposed to happen that I could find insurance in another State that would be competitive. I would have chosen Romneycare. But that was disallowed by the House. Now, I only have a few choices. What happened to laws of monopoly?

I have said that consumers can speak with their purses, but that doesn't work anymore. Not with monopolies and corporations earning huge profits by getting non-American labor, which has no health care, no social security, no unemployment insurance, etc. Don't believe me? Just look at a chart of the major stock indexes. All time highs. Now look at the job market. Minimal improvement. Even though the public is not able to spend as much as before (pad the pockets of corporate America), the corporations are still gaining. Then there is the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. I just returned from Paris where there was indications of that problem centuries ago which caused a revolution where the rich literally lost their heads.

I'm just sayin'

 

[Solstice Goat]

Cousin please!!!!

Company paid health insurance was non-existent until gov wage mandates were made during WWII to help grease the skids of the imperial war machine. The law of economics is like the law of gravity; it cannot be repealed by governments or or other groups of 'feel gooders'. Companies offered 'free' healthcare to woo away workers from other firms.

I don't care what you call it, ObamaCare, RomnenyCare, HillaryCare, McCainCare, any gov run medical care will be a failure to the end consumer. Sounds kind of hollow to rally against corprotism, while running back to it.

Until we get rid of the notion that stealing from any group of people and giving it to another group is somehow noble, we will continue to elect thieving representatives and the cycle will continue.

You cannot have an honest contract with a dishonest person.

More government is not the cure.

 

[Mad Scientest]

From Forbes
OK I get it we are only supposed to listen to what or government officials tell us and not look at the actual data they present.

Avik Roy, Contributor
Angela Braly, then-CEO of WellPoint, testified before Congress about allegations that its California unit, Anthem Blue Cross, was raising premiums on some customers by more than 30 percent. Last week, California announced that the Affordable Care Act would increase non-group insurance premiums by as much as 146 percent. (Image courtesy U.S. House of Representatives)

Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums. “These rates are way below the worst-case gloom-and-doom scenarios we have heard,” boasted Peter Lee, executive director of the California exchange. But the data that Lee released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent.
One of the most serious flaws with Obamacare is that its blizzard of regulations and mandates drives up the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own.
This problem will be especially acute when the law’s main provisions kick in on January 1, 2014, leading many to worry about health insurance “rate shock.”

 

[Mad Scientest]

And then there is this doctor he just might the beginning of a new trend.

Local doctor's solution to healthcare crisis SOUTH PORTLAND (WGME) -- One of the big hot button issues across the nation is the state of health care and its affordability.

Dr. Michael Ciampi, a family practitioner in South Portland, believes he has found the answer to our healthcare crisis.

Ciampi has chosen to stop accepting health insurance at his practice.

“Instead of working for the government or working for insurance companies, we’re gonna work for the patient,” says Ciampi, who has been working at his Lincoln Street practice for 10 years.

“The amount of regulations that are coming out, pages and pages of regulations are coming out pages and pages every week are coming out, and we wouldn’t be able to hire enough people in order to comply with all of them,” says Ciampi.

At his practice, patients are paying out of pocket for services, all of which are listed on his website.

“Normally under the old system we would have to charge 150 dollars for a visit, under this system we've cut that in half, we're literally changing 75 dollars for a visit ,” says Ciampi.

With this system, it brings with it lower overhead costs. Dr. Ciampi says he’s passing his savings to his patients.

Mike Leary has been a patient of his for ten years. “I get such great healthcare here, like second to none,” says Leary.

The change is helping hundreds of people like Leary, who has a high deductible. It also helps those who are self-employed or don’t have insurance.

“You know I’m a working class guy I don’t earn a huge amount of money and I don’t feel any reservation paying his prices at all,” says Leary.

Dr. Ciampi says he is spending more time with his patients and less in front of a computer.

“You see all your patients? If someone comes in for a visit, they’re stuck with me. We don’t have a nurse practitioner we don’t have a PA. I can write my own rules to some extent,” says Ciampi.

The Maine Board of Medicine says right now there is no law that requires a private practice to accept health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. And that it is something that is happening nationwide.

 

[Solstice Goat]

And then there is this doctor he just might the beginning of a new trend.

That's shocking!

Next thing you know, certain hours or certain days will have different rates depending on customer load! :shock:

Apparently the medical/insurance establishment foresaw this coming and solicited HARD for insurance mandates and fines for those who don't/didn't carry it. I'd be far better off carrying catastrophic insurance because my premiums are still higher than the amount I spend a year. :roll:

 

[kind2creatures]

Site that may help....http://healthreform.kaiserpermanente.org/en/glossary#term-health-insurance-marketpl

 

[d0ug]

How would you like to be made to pay insurance and then can not use it. I am a Canadian who pays for medical insurance though out taxes and no way to get around it. If you leave Canada for more than 6 months you are not eligible for it. I moved out of Canada but my pension is from Canada so I pay taxes on it. So much for insurance you can not use.

 

[Solstice Goat]

How would you like to be made to pay insurance and then can not use it. I am a Canadian who pays for medical insurance though out taxes and no way to get around it. If you leave Canada for more than 6 months you are not eligible for it. I moved out of Canada but my pension is from Canada so I pay taxes on it. So much for insurance you can not use.

Boy, no kidding!

If a neighbor moved into the house next to you, and promised if you gave him 20% of your paycheck, he'd give it back to you when you were 62yo; no wait, when your 65; sorry, I meant 67, BUT he will only live there for maybe four years, possibly eight years, and then disappear except for a rare, high paying book tour, would you trust your retirement savings to him?

Amazing how many people do.