Doesn't Anthem/Blue-Cross' 39% rate increase just show that a mandate is a terrible idea? n/t

[brentspeak]

[autorank]

1. The face of health reform k*r

It's all a bad idea. The more complicated reform is, the more opportunities there are to screw us,
royally.

I buy health insurance direct as a self employed person. It's unbelievable what they're doing to
us as a group, all 15 million. You add another member to those 15 million self employed households
and that's 30 million people impacted by this.

That group alone could have carried any reasonable reform program because we're so close to the
market and getting screwed all the time.

But nooooooooooo... Nobody gave a shit about us.

Well, sorry to say, but this health reform package sucks big time.

Single payer is and was and will be the only rational way to go...with minimal regulation behind it
because they'll jsut use that to screw us again.

Pay reasonable rates, monitor it like medicare, and charge a reasonable tax to pay for it.

Do it now or there will be a full scale revolt politically. I'm so disappointed that the Democrats
blew this opportunity. It's really unforgivable. After your business, there is little more important
than the cost of health insurance to the self employed.

See, Screwing the Self Employed out of Health Insurance

[Raineyb]

2. It does point out a rather obvious flaw in the bill that's currently being discussed.

Oddly enough when people said they don't want the bill passed as it is mention things like the insurance companies being able to do whatever they want rate wise while having a captive audience thanks to the law it falls on deaf ears.

This refusal to see reason is also a likely reason why this OP may sink like a stone. But maybe I'll be wrong.

I can only hope.

[tridim]

3. Not with the regulations that will be LAW when the bill passes.

HCR will prevent Anthem from doing what they just did with the status quo.

So no, you're exactly 180 degrees wrong.

[brentspeak]

8. Cite the stipulations in the Senate bill which would prevent dramatic and unfair rate hikes.

[rgbecker]

10. See #4 below and know that you would be subsidized to keep the premiums in line with income.

And if you don't want it, just pay the tax to cover you and your hospital when you show up without insurance. Either way its a better deal than status quo, 39% increase in rates and insurance companies dropping people like crazy and people without work dropping their coverage, leaving the rest of the risk pool to pay the increase in rates. This is the future with the status quo, more and more dropping from the roles, and costs spiraling up wards. 17% of GDP now, almost 1 in every 6 dollars spent.

Single payer health care Check list:

1. Pre-existing conditions?
2. Universal coverage?
3. Costs controllable?
4. Helps small businesses?
5. Helps large businesses?
6. Helps individuals and self-employed?
7. Controls runaway malpractice insurance premiums?
8. Addresses Medicare and Medicaid funding problems?
9. Reins in pharmaceutical costs?
10. Takes some of the uncertainty out of doing business and living life?

[frazzled]

4. No: the regulations on insurers will help to prevent such unmotivated hikes.

Insurers on the Exchange will especially be subject to scrutiny.
All insurers will be required to spend 85% of premiums on actual care, so profit motives for hikes are more limited.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. But mandates will magically make those rate increases go away, or so I'm told. eom

[gcomeau]

6. No it damn well does not.

It shows improperly regulating insurance provision is a bad idea.

Mandates on the other hand ore NECESSARY for economically viable universal coverage.

[OHdem10]

7. They appear to be trying to price the American People out of the Market.

[marlakay]

9. I am scared because that is my Health Insurer

from our union pension plan so we have no choice. If I lived in CA I could switch to Kaiser but we retired out of state not knowing the economy would go bust.

They already this year forced us to lower our plan from Pers Care to Pers Choice and I can only imagine with this new increase we will pay a bunch of it that we can't afford.

We lost our part time jobs here, houses are worth almost nothing and even with that nothing is selling here so we couldn't go back to CA if we wanted to.