A survey of health insurance brokers suggests that health insurance rates are increasing at the fastest rate ever seen since these surveys began.
Finding out what’s in it: A survey of health insurance brokers suggests that health insurance rates are increasing at the fastest rate ever seen since these surveys began.
The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare: Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs. [emphasis mine]
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Finding out what’s in it: A survey of health insurance brokers suggests that health insurance rates are increasing at the fastest rate ever seen since these surveys began.
The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare: Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs. [emphasis mine]
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Then there is this, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/08/latest-obamacare-surprise-most-wont-be-able-to-buy-health-insurance-until-end/
I didn’t realize they made it illegal to change plans except for approved reasons even if you are on the individual market. This is so stupid.
Thanks for the tip. I have posted this story.
I was listening to a discussion about this very thing the other day and while it appears that you can not buy an ACA approved policy until next year, is it possible to by an un approved policy?
“It’s all closed down. You cannot buy a policy that is a qualified policy for the purpose of the ACA (the Affordable Care Act) until next year on January 1,”
I think it has been established that if you claim some kind of hardship at this point, out of work, disability, just stating some excuse, in time you will not have to pay the penalty, the fee or 1% of your gross income due to the manipulations that the administration is applying. The interesting and / or confusing part of the statement above is “a qualified policy for the purpose of the ACA”. What exactly does that mean? Its unclear to me.
And then there is this:
” The reason sales of health insurance were crammed into short enrollment periods was so insurance companies would have some certainty about who would be in the risk pool, allowing them to set their rates accordingly.”
IMO this whole system is no longer insurance it is being manipulated into a perversion of a business model and welfare. Is there such a thing? Insurance is a business model based in risk spread among a group of individuals where by a price for services or coverage is established. Welfare is a social program designed to help those who are unable, for what ever reason to support their own needs.
I believe that the two can not be successfully combined and what will come out the other end as a solution in the real world is a business model that reflects real world costs divided over demographics and a subsidy paid for by taxation. If the perversion remains (Obamacare, thank you John Roberts for rewriting a bill written, represented and passed as a penalty and calling it a tax) there will have to be something akin to creative destruction that will occur at which point the solution will emerge but in the destruction people will truly suffer. Not to mention that the government has mandated the purchase of a product by the people in order to be a person with legal status in America today.
This all assumes that what appears to be political collusion between the government, the Judicial and the healthcare industry can be unwound and rectified post Obama.
My understanding was that you could not get a subsidy outside of the enrollment period and that insurers could only sell ACA compliant plans regardless of time of year. I could certainly be wrong but I wouldn’t take everything from the link as truth until more people have written on it. They could be confused because in order not to pay the tax, you have to have a plan during the enrollment period, iirc.
If this article is right, look for people to get even more upset once it is known. It runs contrary to a lot of Obama’s rhetoric surprise surprise.