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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on October 04, 2010, 09:36:09 AM
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Health costs to $oar
NYC workers' outlay jumping 30% under Obamacare
By GREGORY BRESIGER
Last Updated: 4:43 AM, October 4, 2010
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Despite assurances from the Obama administration that the recently signed healthcare reform law would save Americans money, benefit professionals are seeing huge medical premium hikes and decreased benefits.
Employers and ultimately taxpayers could get sticker shock as plans companies begin to renew their medical benefits packages for 2011.
A Manhattan health benefits consultant says insurance companies are telling employers they will pay have to pay much more in 2011 -- and for reduced coverage.
"It should be noted that premium increases were in excess of 30 percent over the previous year," said Barbara Brody of Barbara A. Brody & Associates. Brody said average rate increases next year for Manhattan-based firms she advises could be as high as "67 percent but will average 30 percent."
Luca Medical/Alamy
That's because insurance companies, faced with higher costs after the passage of a giant health reform measure, plan to pass most of the costs onto consumers, according to several industry observers.
The additional costs for the insurance companies include: covering dependents up to 26-year-olds as well as pre-existing conditions of new enrollees and coverage for the currently uninsured.
And they will see hefty premium hikes and out-of-pocket expenses rise, they add.
These increases would be in addition to big hikes already put in effect this year, Brody says.
Just this week McDonald's said it may drop its health-care plan for 30,000 employees unless it gets a waiver on the annual coverage.
However, a spokesman for the Obama administration says the benefits of the recently signed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, designed in part to provide health insurance to tens of millions of Americans without coverage, will be phased in over the next decade.
The spokesman also said the law would ultimately help consumers to pay medical bills.
A spokesman for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the new law, in covering millions of uninsured Americans, will save $1 billion.
Nevertheless, health insurance premiums in 2011 will dramatically rise, the first year of the Obama healthcare reform, medical professionals say.
The problem is Obamacare will squeeze various health insurance companies, Brody says.
"The healthcare reform law does mandate specific benefits to be phased in over the next few years, but it does not address the many ways an insurance company may cut benefits in order to still make a profit," according to Brody.
Brody, who read the 2,000-page healthcare bill twice, says there are many things in the bill that were never discussed in detail.
For instance, the bill contains a category of pharmaceuticals called biologics, Brody explains.
The bill allows the brand-name use of biologics over generics for some 14 years. That will result in millions of dollars of additional costs, she says.
Maybe, she suggests, these things were missed because numerous elected officials predicted the bill would never become law.
"Every insurance carrier in New York state has filed for rate increases," Brody says. She says carriers are anticipating the cost mandates of the new law.
These increases, she adds, will lead companies to cutbacks. Among them will be:
* Higher deductibles and larger co-payments
* Higher out-of-pocket maximums each year
* Specific tests and drugs dropped from the policies
But the Obama administration says the Affordable Care Act will provide help for consumers by eliminating the "worst insurance company practices," according to Stephanie Cutler, an assistant to the president for special projects.
Quicken your pulse
New Yorkers’ health care premiums will soar 30 percent next year because of new regulations, according to a survey of Manhattan businesses.
Single employee
2011 $1,125
2010 $865
2009 $766
Increase/Month +$260
Employee and spouse
2011 $2,249
2010 $1,730
2009 $1,532
Increase/Month +$519
Employee and child
2011 $2,136
2010 $1,643
2009 $1,455
Increase/Month +$493
Employee and family
2011 $3,486
2010 $2,681
2009 $2,375
Increase/Month +$805
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/health_costs_to_oar_PxrH0QkqmGiS0rP4SIbKWJ#ixzz11POOBUrw
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"ummmmmmmmm,this plan uhhhhhhhhhh,wil cut the ummmmmmmmm costs of mmmmmmmmmm health care.
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You really don't like Obama. We get it.
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You really don't like Obama. We get it.
::) ::)
Please grow up already with the "they all are the same" bs. This disgusting asshole is passing laws that are having a direct negative impact on everyone and you expect everyone to just throw their hands up and say 'oh, that's just the way it is'???
Fuck that.
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Think of a positive way to fix something (let's say healthcare). Now think of a negative way that will actually make things worse. Guess which one Obama is going to pick every single time?
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::) ::)
Please grow up already with the "they all are the same" bs. This disgusting asshole is passing laws that are having a direct negative impact on everyone and you expect everyone to just throw their hands up and say 'oh, that's just the way it is'???
Fuck that.
Sure, why not, we threw away billions/trillions on needless wars under Bush. When a GOP candidate wins in 2012 people will be defending that candidate and other people will criticise him for something (maybe some nice new wars). It just goes back and forth. As they say, no new stories, merely new tongues, with which to tell the old ones. I don't like Obama either, but calling him Stalin is just a tad bit much....and totally inaccurate.
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Sure, why not, we threw away billions/trillions on needless wars under Bush. When a GOP candidate wins in 2012 people will be defending that candidate and other people will criticise him for something (maybe some nice new wars). It just goes back and forth. As they say, no new stories, merely new tongues, with which to tell the old ones. I don't like Obama either, but calling him Stalin is just a tad bit much....and totally inaccurate.
Spare me with the cost of the Iraq war. The Stim Bill alone cost more than the Iraq War, ObamaCare trillions, cap 7 trade, and on and on and on.
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Spare me with the cost of the Iraq war. The Stim Bill alone cost more than the Iraq War, ObamaCare trillions, cap 7 trade, and on and on and on.
What about the thousands of lives lost?
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What about the thousands of lives lost?
Its a shame and if we would have simply steam rolled the place like patton would have and left we would not have lost as many people. we lost a lot of guys due to horrible rules of engagement and dithering around by Bush and others. its a crime how they let that drag on instead of really doing what needed to be done.
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Its a shame and if we would have simply steam rolled the place like patton would have and left we would not have lost as many people. we lost a lot of guys due to horrible rules of engagement and dithering around by Bush and others. its a crime how they let that drag on instead of really doing what needed to be done.
Well, I am just predicting that when a GOP member wins next time, it will be the opposite, with everyone posting stuff about him/her. I just see no evidence that things change much for the better with either party in power and I and many others feel pretty powerless in the face of that.
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Spare me with the cost of the Iraq war. The Stim Bill alone cost more than the Iraq War, ObamaCare trillions, cap 7 trade, and on and on and on.
Not from what I read... They estimate the long term cost of both the Iraq war and the Afghan war together to be around 2.4 trillion dollars.
That's as of RIGHT NOW and doesn't take into fact 2012-Whenever we finally are done there.
Healthcare is supposed to be about 1/2 that over the next 10 years.
They really seem to cost about the same to me.
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Not from what I read... They estimate the long term cost of both the Iraq war and the Afghan war together to be around 2.4 trillion dollars.
That's as of RIGHT NOW and doesn't take into fact 2012-Whenever we finally are done there.
Healthcare is supposed to be about 1/2 that over the next 10 years.
They really seem to cost about the same to me.
Fine - this is why I don't want to hear a word about the cost of the war from anyone on the left who supported the Stim Bill.
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Not from what I read... They estimate the long term cost of both the Iraq war and the Afghan war together to be around 2.4 trillion dollars.
That's as of RIGHT NOW and doesn't take into fact 2012-Whenever we finally are done there.
Healthcare is supposed to be about 1/2 that over the next 10 years.
They really seem to cost about the same to me.
I think we will be dead when we are finally done there.
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I think we will be dead when we are finally done there.
Thank Pakistan for us still being in Afghanistan.
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Fine - this is why I don't want to hear a word about the cost of the war from anyone on the left who supported the Stim Bill.
I do not necessarily believe the stim bill was wrong or right... Difference in economic philosophies... The problem is that 1 of them cost us money.
I'm as equally pissed by TARP.
I also believe that the war was a waste... Both of them.... I could have resolved that shit in a week and 1/2... tops.
I think we will be dead when we are finally done there.
That's my problem... War supporters who are against the Healthcare bill because of costs need to understand that their final Bill isn't done yet either.
My problem with both of them is that they are costing me money... If any of these guys wants something, fine... cut spending elsewhere.
If you and I want to have the best TV channels, and we don't make tons of money, then we have to cut our spending in another location. It's just the way it works.
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During this "overhaul" of the healthcare system we had an opportunity to get rid of the insurance companies. We didn't, and now they are totally out of control. Costs will continue to skyrocket, yet you will be forced to buy from them, amazing stupidity.
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During this "overhaul" of the healthcare system we had an opportunity to get rid of the insurance companies. We didn't, and now they are totally out of control. Costs will continue to skyrocket, yet you will be forced to buy from them, amazing stupidity.
And no tort reform, no easing the way for more doctors from this nation, no interstate commerce, no reform of medicaid, nothing.
ObamCare has nothing to do with helping people, but control and redistribution of wealth from producers to consumers and govt employees.
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Not from what I read... They estimate the long term cost of both the Iraq war and the Afghan war together to be around 2.4 trillion dollars.
That's as of RIGHT NOW and doesn't take into fact 2012-Whenever we finally are done there.
Healthcare is supposed to be about 1/2 that over the next 10 years.
They really seem to cost about the same to me.
The only reason the wars are so expensive, is because its no longer a war its nation building and has been for several years.
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The only reason the wars are so expensive, is because its no longer a war its nation building and has been for several years.
Whatever you want to say... It's still costing me money.
I don't like it.
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Whatever you want to say... It's still costing me money.
I don't like it.
The "war" part of this was over in a couple weeks. The rest well I still fail to see what good it does, might as well give a caveman a computer. I don't see how it can cost 2.4 Trillion to rebuild a bunch of mud huts
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The "war" part of this was over in a couple weeks. The rest well I still fail to see what good it does, might as well give a caveman a computer. I don't see how it can cost 2.4 Trillion to rebuild a bunch of mud huts
That's just what the numbers are man... I'd have dropped one missile at Afghanistan and just wiped it off the face of the map.
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That's just what the numbers are man... I'd have dropped one missile at Afghanistan and just wiped it off the face of the map.
Would have been the best course of action
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Would have been the best course of action
After 9/11 even Gore would have gone to war.