Anthem Blue Cross raising individual rates again

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

A year after Anthem Blue Cross created a public uproar by proposing rate hikes as high as 39 percent, the health insurer is at it again.

Many Anthem policyholders who buy their coverage as individuals say the company has notified them to prepare for another rate increase effective May 1. This would create a cumulative rise in rates in excess of 40 percent for some consumers in less than a year.

San Francisco resident Alison Heath and her husband will have to pay 26 percent more beginning in May, along with higher co-payments and deductibles. That's on top of a 16 percent increase last year. Heath figures she and her husband will be paying about $17,700 a year for health insurance.

... More recently, Blue Shield of California has taken center stage by proposing cumulative increases for some of its 200,000 individual policyholders that topped out at 59 percent.

The two insurers are not the only health insurers imposing rate hikes. Aetna customer Dean Donovan said he just received a notice that his rates would go up 11 percent in May, following a 28.5 percent jump in September.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/03/MNFH1I2CU5.DTL&tsp=1

[Autumn]

1. I dropped my health insurance March1

I decided I could no longer afford to pay for something I couldn't afford to use anyway. It sucks.

[Ino]

12. same here

I decided last year that the premiums were too much of a burden, and if I got very sick I couldn't afford the deductibles and 20% anyway... not to mention worrying that they'd find some reason to not cover the illness at all. The stress I was under making those premiums was over the top.

I added personal accident insurance on my car for $72/year, so if I have a car accident I'm covered to $100,000 (no deductible). That eases my mind some.

Other than that, I'm prepared to die.

My income (self-employed) tanked in Oct. 2008. I'd been holding on to the insurance waiting to see what the great HCR would do for me, and it does nothing until 2014... maybe. So add another post-HCR uninsured person to the list!

[IcyPeas]

13. car insurance

that's a really good tip! thanks,

[sarcasmo]

2. USA, USA, USA. Give me Canadian helath care, please.

[dotymed]

3. Universal Health Care

The MAJORITY of Americans want and need it. Health Care IS a RIGHT not a privilege.
Capitalism has perverted our country so badly.
Anyone who claims to be a Christian and argues against Universal Health Care is not a Christian.

[OnyxCollie]

4. Thank Gawd it passed!

:grr: :mad: :grr:

[FailureToCommunicate]

5. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, A golden parachute is gilded...

Obscene: ( But then, maybe I'm just jealous...)

"Premium Pay: Ex-Blue Cross CEO Compensation Is Closer To $11.3M"

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/tag/cleve-killingsworth/

[Paper Roses]

10. I think the current head is leaving with $8.7 million plus his pay,

The last head left with $16.?? million in bonus money. Neither served very long. This year, MA BC BS, a supposed non-profit claims they lost money and are proposing more rate hikes.

How can they dare to say, with a straight face, that they are losing money when they pay out huge salaries and all the bonus money to exec's. You can be assured that the other major execs also have a nice extra chunk in there paychecks too.

The industry is supposed to be regulated by the state. Whatever regulation is imposed does not seen to trickle down much, at least the way I see it.

[glinda]

6. MN. BCBS just raised my rates again roughly $80/mo. This after going to a poorer plan only a

few months ago. They have raised my rates several times a year. Now I am almost back at where I started from but with less coverage, higher costs.

[Bette Noir]

7. Insurance companies are not the good guys.

Health care should be available to all, free, as a right of citizenship.

[bluedeminredstate]

8. had to drop Anthem

My family had to drop Anthem last year when the renewal was going to be $2400/month for our family of 3. Now we have a policy with a company that rejects every single claim for the times we have felt desperate enough to seek care ie: my son's dislocated toe. They said that was a preexisting condition! How is that possible since he jammed it playing basketball?

[former9thward]

9. He was playing basketball before you got the policy.

That is how these companies think. Next just living will be a preexisting condition.

[Arugula Latte]

11. We had to drop Blue Cross -- now we have a super high deductible.