1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Is your Health Insurance Premium going up or out?

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by ASLANSPAL, Sep 15, 2005.

Top Posters
  1. ASLANSPAL

    ASLANSPAL New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2004
    Messages:
    2,318
    Likes Received:
    0
    Do you even have health insurance?
    Has your company supplied Health insurance changed?
    Is your cost to you(premiums)going up?


    $11,000 on average
    snippet:

    Conducted annually by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, the survey highlights a growing concern: Rising health care costs are pricing more consumers and employers out of coverage.


    CNNMoney
    snippet:
    The survey, which focused on employer-sponsored health insurance plans, noted that since 2000 premiums for family coverage have gone up 73 percent. During the same period, wages rose just 15 percent.

    snippet:
    Other costs...For many who do have coverage, the premium is not their only cost. There are deductibles and co-payments. In the most common type of plan – preferred provider organization (PPO) plans -- the average deductible for in-network services was $323 for single coverage and $679 for family coverage.

    Co-payments are also required of a majority of covered workers. Forty-four percent of them have plans requiring co-payments of $20 or $25 for physician visits and prescription drugs. Covered workers in multi-tiered drug plans paid an average of $10 for generic drugs, $22 for preferred drugs and $35 for non-preferred drugs.

    As 2005 approaches its last quarter, the obvious question is what's going to happen to worker healthcare costs next year?

    More than 40 percent of large firms told Kaiser they are "very likely" to ask workers to pay more in premiums, but only 15 percent of smaller firms said they would.

    [​IMG]link
    snppet:

    This is what passes for good news in health care: U.S. spending will increase by only 9% to 10% in 2005, about the same rate as last year, according to UBS Securities (UBS ). That's still three times the rate of inflation, but at least it's less than the gains the nation saw in the first two years of this century, when costs rose by 12% to 13% a year.

    Health Insurance Costs Exceed Annual Minimum-Wage Earnings

    snippet:
    Reflecting yet another sharp jump in the cost of health insurance, coverage for a family of four has surpassed the income of a minimum-wage earner for the first time, according to a survey released today
     
    #1 ASLANSPAL, Sep 15, 2005
  2. Bible Believing Bill

    Bible Believing Bill <img src =/bbb.jpg>

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2001
    Messages:
    3,761
    Likes Received:
    0
    Health insurance has been on my mind alot lately. While my situation is different from simply an increase in premiums, it does illustrate a point about health insurance in our country.

    Jeanne is losing her Long Term Disabliity benefits on 9/28, due to this fact her employeer will terminate her on 9/29 and we will lose our health insruance.

    We have been paying $317 a month for health, dental, and life insrance through Jeanne's employeer. The insurance we currently have has no deductible, and we only pay a small co-payment for each visit to a doctor, clinic, or hospital. We can keep this insurance but COBRA will cost us almost $900 a month just for health insurance.

    Obvisouly that amount is out of the question. So we will take out health insurance from my employer which will cost us $253 amonth not including dental or life for Jeanne. Out of pocket cost will also increase significantly as we will now have a $500 in network & $1000 out of network deductable. Once the deductable is met then we pay a small co-payment and 15% of the charges. It is actually about $10 a month cheaper to have COBRA dental insurance than to take it through my employer, and the coverage is better with what we have not.

    You can't afford not have medical insurance, but it is getting to the point that you can't afford to pay for medical insurance.

    Bill
     
    #2 Bible Believing Bill, Sep 16, 2005
  3. PastorGreg

    PastorGreg Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2000
    Messages:
    809
    Likes Received:
    3
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Health insurance? What's that?
     
    #3 PastorGreg, Sep 16, 2005
  4. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2001
    Messages:
    21,321
    Likes Received:
    0

    Yes.

    A few years ago, we changed insurance providers.

    Premiums go up slightly every year. That's normal. The rate of increase has been roughly the rate of inflation, so I can't complain.

    That's the nature of any insurace. When the cost of claims is high, the cost of premiums will be high. When the cost of claims is low, the cost of premiums will be low. For example, the cost of auto insurance in my area is lower now than it was a few years ago. In the future, that may change. Insurance is not immune to the laws of supply and demand.

    I suspect that one of the major contributing factors is that there is an increase among covered persions using their insurance benefits, such as older workers. Younger works who enter the workforce often sometimes do not sign up for health insurance, often because they don't they need it and want to save a few bucks. Unfortunately, this results in fewer insured, and a greater percentage of insured persons utilizing coverage.
     
    #4 Johnv, Sep 16, 2005
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Loading...