First, it sounds like you have private insurance that isn't on the healthcare.gov exchange...why do you presume that any slowdown in rate hikes is due to the ACA?

Second, there are other market conditions that have driven that slowdown. Yours may have been going up 15-20% year over year but that slower rate of health insurance growth was almost certainly not due to Obamacare and instead due to the recession, slow growth and people not spending as much on health care. A number of analyses have come to that conclusion.

Finally, there is NOTHING in the ACA that reduces or controls cost. There are, however, new requirements for a plan to qualify for minimum benefits, and insurance companies have to jump through a fwe more hoops on the compliance front. Nothing about the ACA reduces cost of services, or cost of insurance.

One other thing: my company had been offering a Cadillac plan, full HMO with coverage for everything. In 2011 they shifted to an HSA to better control costs. While under the HMO I saw about 10% growth YOY, and I know the company ate bigger losses to protect employees. While under the HSA I've been seeing ~3-5% YOY. Maybe your plan has similarly shifted from a full-suite of coverage to a more consumer-based, high premium model?

The 2008 Super Bowl was won by the NY Giants which sent terrorists into a rage of killing which just happened to be during the Obama presidency.

It's a plausible narrative.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Again everyone is different but mine has gone up over 280% since the ACA was passed and before it was only going up 4-8%. If you are healthy man under the age of 40 you are getting screwed by this law. //

Everyone has their own perspective on this. I feel I was getting screwed before, paying for all the uninsured. Now that all the young healthy folks are coming into the system, my rates are leveling off. You may think you are being screwed, but what is your premium? If it was low to begin with and it went up almost triple, it may still be relatively low, as compared to mine for example. Once everyone gets into the system, it has to find its equilibrium on rates, so for now they are all over the place trying to find their place.

It would have been so much easier with single payer in the beginning, probably will evolve to that before it is all said and done.

So you are fine with the young and healthy paying for your healthcare? Because that is what is happening now. IIRC you are in your late 50s or early 60s, so your rates should be rising because statistically you are more likely to use healthcare than someone in their 20s and 30s.

I used to pay ~$80 a month for what was closest to a silver level PPO plan with a $20 Dr copay and $10 for drugs and a $3k deductible, this included dental. This plan was canceled Now I ~$300 a month for a silver level HSA plan with a $5,500 deductible without dental. So I am paying ~$220 more a month and have worse insurance. Plus I have to pay $200 a year for dentist appointments. I could go with a cheaper silver policy but my Dr doesn't take that insurance so I can't use it. I could go to a bronze level plan but that is $230 a month but has a $6,300 deductible. However you look at this I am paying more for worse insurance. Yes I get some new benefits but to me those aren't worth $220 a month. $300 a month is my third highest budget item behind rent and my IRA. What have now is worse than what we had before and it was passed because Obama lied to the American people. If you like your plan you can keep it, well I liked mine but it was canceled. Lie #1. If you like you doctor you can keep them. But he failed to mention that you might have to select a more expensive plan because your doctor doesn't take the cheapest. Lie #2. We will lower premiums by up to $2,500 a year for the average family. Premiums have continued to rise so not sure how the ACA lowered premiums. Lie #3. I could go on and on. Obama's legacy is going to be one lies and deceit just like every other politician.

So you want to let the government have control over your healthcare when they have proven over and over that they are horrible at running anything. The closest thing we have to single payer is the VA and that is the biggest mess in the federal government. So why do you want to give the government more power over the people?

The closest thing we have to single payer is the VA and that is the biggest mess in the federal government. So why do you want to give the government more power over the people? //

What I want to do is get the insurance companies out of the health care system. Somewhere around 35% savings right there. I would rather have some other uninvested entity making decisions for me, rather than people that actually make a profit from denying health care to me.


So you were paying $80 while I was paying $900( just for me). I now pay over $2k for my family. So you are not or have ever paid for my health care, probably quite the opposite.

So you want a VA style system for everyone. Do some reading and talk to people that use the VA system and the doctors involved and they will all say it is horrible.

Just because you pay more than younger healthier people doesn't mean they aren't subsidizing your premium. Why do you think the individual mandate was so important for this law? It is important because without the young and healthy the premiums for the older and sick would be much higher.

So you are fine with the young and healthy paying for your healthcare?

Some day, the young and healthy will be old and will rely on the new young and healthy to assist them. What goes around, comes around and your perspective on things could change depending on your age and health.

So you want to let the government have control over your healthcare when they have proven over and over that they are horrible at running anything.

Why do you think the military is so horrible?

As a youngish person, 37, I don't think we should be subsidizing healthcare for people in their late 50s and early 60s. Young people already pay for enough stuff for older people we don't need to start adding more stuff to that pile. My parents are just getting on Medicare so I know how much it costs to have insurance at that age.

We spend way too much money on the military. IIRC we spend more than the next 9 countries combined. Spending for any government program basically grows every year no matter if it is needed or not. If we go to a single payer system it would be a complete disaster like the VA system.

I am going to answer your question, why would you want the government handling health care:

Because health is a public issue. Everyone is effected if someone gets sick. We don't turn people away at the hospital or leave people on the side of the road after an accident. We don't let people with contagious diseases walk the streets. So we all agree (I am sure there is someone who doesn't agree) that some government involvement is needed.

Now some people think the solution is provide a safety net but allow the free market to run its course. That might work if economic outcomes and health outcomes coincide. They don't. What leads to lowers health care costs is preventative care and statistical modeling to determine the most cost effective treatments ( it as Sarah Palin called it, death panels). What is most profitable for medicine? Surgical procedures often at exponential costs for marginal gains.

Ask yourself these questions: how should the transplant list work? Age of the recipient, likelihood of positive outcome, these are the basis for determining who gets the next heart. What about vaccines? If they are in short supply who should get them first? Do you think the free market should determine these issues?

The government has proven that they can't handle delivering healthcare to veterans so why should we let them deliver it to the rest of us? Does the government have a role in healthcare? Yes they do but it should be very limited in scope to things like transplant lists and stopping outbreaks. Leave the rest to someone else that has an incentive to make things better. I work for a large national health insurance company and I can guarantee you that we deploy modeling to figure out the most cost effective procedures.

Gangs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkpnOTr8k9I