Posted on 06/24/2003 6:43:48 AM PDT by bedolido
Health insurance premiums in the United States are heading up again next year -- and sharply, according to a major insurer and new data from large employers.
Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, said yesterday that its members in the Washington area -- numbering more than 500,000 -- can expect an average percentage increase in rates in the "mid teens" next year.
"The increases will range from 4 percent for some plans to 35 percent for others," said Susan Whyte Simon, a Kaiser spokeswoman.
Like other insurers, California-based Kaiser says it is responding to increased medical and prescription-drug costs.
Across the country, HMO premiums could rise 18 percent next year, according to preliminary data released yesterday by benefits consultant Hewitt Associates.
Rate hikes by HMOs in the Washington area could average 20 percent, though increases may be reduced after employers complete negotiations with health insurers later this summer, said Michael Murphy, a Hewitt executive.
The Hewitt data cover only HMOs. But employers are bracing for double-digit rate increases in all of their health insurance plans, including higher-priced PPOs, said Kate Sullivan, health policy director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"For large employers, 2004 would be the fourth straight year of double-digit rate increases," she said. "And this could be the first year that we're looking at going over 20 percent for premium increases, on average" for employers of all sizes.
Officials of other large insurers that serve the Washington area, including Aetna Inc., UnitedHealthcare, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc., said yesterday that they did not have information on 2004 rates.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This is good news in disguise: it means that HMO's will become extinct and that public pressure to legalize private buying clubs, nurse-practiioners and offshore drug purchases will become unassailable. For the first time since 9/11, we might even see people start voting Libertarian again.
The GOP won't address this issue, because doctors and hospital administrators are Republicans. Neither will the Democrats, since tort lawyers own the party. The solution is going to have to come from outside what we normally understand as the political process.
I have no complaint about my employer-provided plan. We make no monthly contributions and very low co-pays. I don't expect that to last very long, though. My husband is a management employee (same company I work for) and they got their bad news this year. I expect the non-management to get hit next. I'm resigned to it and will not complain. It's been great while it lasted.
We pay only 50% of our employee's health insurance. Then they have a $2500 hospital deductible, a $25 office visit co-pay, and a $30 drug card. We have only about 7 people in the group, and our premiums are $5000 per month. It is simply outrageous.
And it isn't just medical insurance. All of our insurances are skyrocketing. Business insurance just went from $12,000/yr. to $15,000/yr. We are shopping the policy. We've just canceled our Group Life and Disability. For just a couple of people, it jumped more than $133/mo. This is for minimal coverage, so we decided that it really wasn't worth it and the employees agreed. Even though the employees pay for most of it themselves -- they were getting ripped off, so we cancelled the whole plan.
That slashes the price of primary healthcare to the bone and it is less expensive for the company to pay out of pocket for medical procedures when the odd employee needs one than to pay for insurance for everyone.
Some people were upset at first because they had to change doctors, but HMO's make you change doctors all the time anyway.
Hiring a dozen doctors and a few dentists and a bunch of nurses and setting them up on site costs a hell of alot less than what your paying for HMO coverage for the entire company and it is alot more convenient for the employees because when the doctor can see them the doctor just calls them in their office, no sitting in a waiting room for an hour reading an article in Time Magazine about the death of Leoniod Breshnev
My daughters got to stay only that long for Cesarean sections! When one of them got mastitis, they told her to leave the baby home and come into the doctor's office to wait for him (his office was attached to the hospital). My daughter pumped breast milk (painfully) and left it with her husband and baby and I took her back to tthe hospital. This was 4 days after a Cesarean section, and she was still in a great deal of pain with horribly swollen and infected breasts. They put her in an examining room ON A TABLE and LEFT HER THERE from noon to 5 pm. I got her a pillow from my car and made cold compresses for her to relieve the pain. No one from that office did anything for her. After a number of complaints, they finally told her to go to the pharmacy and pick up a prescription and the doctor would call the next day.
I was just furious. She could have stayed home in her own bed for that kind of treatment.
The next day the doctor called and berated her for her lousy insurance. He said that he couldn't see her because her insurance wouldn't pay for the extra visit.
Needless to say, she hired a different doctor for her next baby, and the whole experience was much more pleasant. I'm still fuming, and the baby is starting 1st grade in the fall!
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