Posted on 05/12/2016 5:57:44 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
After raising its premiums for coverage on the Obamacare exchange by 36.3 percent for 2016, the state's dominant health insurer is heralding another increase of the "same order of magnitude" for 2017.
BlueCross BlueShield claims it lost more than $150 million in 2015 when its rates were among the lowest in the land. But the 36.3 percent increase for 2016, the largest of any state, brings Tennessee rates to just about the national average.
So how on Earth can costs be going up so exponentially to justify such a rate increase on the part of a nonprofit insurance company whose rates are regulated by the state?
When I posed this question to BlueCross spokesperson Mary Danielson, she responded as follows:
"Marketplace members are sicker than expected and our current rates aren't covering the cost of their medical claims. When we priced for 2016 we anticipated healthier individuals would enroll. Instead, new entrants coming on board had higher claims than expected…. And we continue to see similar losses this year to what we've experienced in the past two years."
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxmercury.com ...
But the cost curve! The cost curve! It’s going to bend down!
Healthcare in Tenn. is horrible at best. It’s no wonder people are sicker there than expected. My husband lived there and had a hell of a time getting decent healthcare, and he eventually died there.
If you like your health, go somewhere else!
Vanderbilt has saved my wife’s life over three times. Yes, she had stage IV anal cancer the same time Farrah Fawcett had it. My wife beat it thanks to Vanderbilt. Next she had a perforated intestine and Vanderbilt saved her life. She was operated on and was in ICU for two weeks in 2009. Last they cut out a third of her right lung and got all the cancer. She escaped needing radiation or chemo due to a great surgeon. Those near Memphis do not like the care there.
“”Marketplace members are sicker than expected “”
Well, that’s certainly a hoot! What about “preexisting” conditions? “Preexisting” meant the people were going to be healthy, didn’t it? Somewhere in the middle of the whole mish-mash, they got sick?
“They believed me?”
“..to justify such a rate increase on the part of a nonprofit insurance company whose rates are regulated by the state?”
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Since when is BC & BS a non profit organization?
That's not hard at all.
You simply force the Insurance companies to only offer coverage that includes very, very high risk ailments for people with previously diagnosed and expensive to treat ailments. Those people sign up raising costs. Costs go up due to the poor mix of healthy vs unhealthy customers, profits go down, plan prices increase and healthy people bail out of the system. Costs then escalate even further as the mix gets even less favorable.
Repeat until the Insurance Companies give up and quit.
Economics 101.
The Obama plan for healthcare has been a disaster.
A recurring thought of mine is when was the last time you read about a medical development that resulted in a lower cost to the patient?
Here’s another sort of thing that sticks in my mind. My wife got a bone scan which she said was next to nothing. The “sticker price” was around $300. The “negotiated price” was around $40. Do people actually pay $300 for this?
“You simply force the Insurance companies to only offer coverage that includes very, very high risk ailments ...”
But if you don’t do that, how do you insure everyone?
But if you don’t do that, how do you insure everyone
++++
You don’t. You can’t.
And that’s why Trump’s promise of Affordable Universal Healthcare rings very hollow for me. You cannot replace Obamacare with anything that will be less costly that covers everyone including those with preconditions. The healthy will only enroll at the point of a gun, just like with Obamacare.
OK, possibly ‘Less Costly’ but still, IMHO, unaffordable.
That $140,000 in surgical costs was picked up by an Obamacare Blue Cross Blue Shield policy.
I'll take medical care in TN any day!
Rush was right. Obamacare was meant to fail.
“I’ll take medical care in TN any day!”
You are planning on staying in Tennessee?
Nope, having recovered I’m moving back to Tampa in a few weeks. I’ll probably return to TN in 2-3 years.
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