Election is over...

..so it is safe to send out the new HI premium notices. Mine only went up 22% this year. I just got the notice today(11/19) and have until mid December to decline it or find new HI. Again. Before the arrival of Obama's ACA, I used to hear about the new premiums in July from my insurer. But that was before the primary focus was Democratic Politics and ameliorating elections that were already going to be a drubbing. So I'd be interested to hear from other folks here both 'when they found out' and 'how much (+%, -%) their new HI premiums changed.

Nov 19, +22%

My 2015 Medicare supplement insurance premium is about 8% more than 2014's.

Merlin:

See?   Compared to 22%, that 8% is a 14% savings. Should make you feel instantly better about saving 14%.   Although, it would be hard to take that to the bank.  Plus, they always ask for dollars, those pesky bankers.

Depending on the mix, I've heard some insurers might actually be lowering rates...but have not seen or heard of an actual example yet from anybody, and my b-i-l is in the HI broker business.

I'm 59; of course it's going up 22%.

I spent $0 on health care last yr, except for two dentist visits, which I paid out of pocket.

Thank God.

My wife, OTOH, is treated for migraines(not my fault in spite of all appearances), and more than makes up for that, but... all of that is out of pocket, too.   We basically have catastrophic high deductible coverage.   We used to call this 'hospitalization' insurance when not referring to it as 'In Case Shit Happens' insurance, before it became The Shit Already Happened Redistributive Shell Game.

regards,

Fred

Merlin:

Yes, they've been growing nearly unbounded.  (Part of this is, they've been going up, and part of this is, I'm getting close to that cliff, where insurers get the most nerrvous about issuing insurance.)

It was just a few years ago that my premiums had climbed to about $2700/mo before I converted to high deduct/catastrophic coverage (and then they dropped to about 770/mo..or 24G less per year.)  And that $2700/mo plan, as I remember, also had a fairly high deductible towards the end.

But, think back 40 yrs.   I for sure don't remember my parents going through anything like this.   Not even close.   Yet....they lived into their 90s.  They didn't suffer for inferior health care.  

God forbid, at this rate.  

So... what changed, do you think?

The market just seems ... broken.   So who or what broke it?

The other explanation is, as a nation, we are far more sickly, ill, forever at the doctors office, going to the hospital, etc., than earlier generations.

Do you think that is really the case?   We are forever on expensive ICU life support to eke out an extra 5 yrs of bedsores?

Or..as I suspect, has third party payer/ring around the rosy so damaged the marketplace that it is totally out of all (commercial) control, and now, a confluence of interests, including, as a yet another tool of redistributuon?

regards,

Fred

(Edited by Fred Bartlett on 11/20, 1:58pm)

Jules,

I know nothing about Canada or this situation, but my guess would be that some environmentalists might remain quiet, but that there will be some who will have no problem rationalizing the loss of transfer payments if it serves their religous jihad on fossel fuels.  In modern day politics it never pays to underestimate irrationality, dishonesty, or the motive power of hatred.