hfojvt
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Mon Nov-13-06 03:11 AM
Original message |
Holy Bat Guano. My health insurance premium went up by 15.6% |
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This in a year in which there was only 3.89% inflation - supposedly.
I suppose that is not news because it happens all the time. Tomorrow I will visit HR and see if I can look at the trend for the last 5 years.
My employer used to pay for it, then they paid for most of it, if you got the buy-up for $14.66 a month, which seemed worth it. Now that I went to part-time, they only pay for half of it. Premium went from $384.46 to 444.34.
It is very good insurance, IMO. My $13,000 hospital bill only cost me $400 and my $5000 knee surgery was entirely covered - except for a couple $20 co-pays.
On another note, I see that my employer pays $427.64 a month for a single employee but $682.43 for a couple and $775.16 for a family. So, in a sense, if a co-worker has a spouse, they get paid $3,057.48 a year more than me and if they have a family they get $4,170.24 more. Considering that it is tax free too, that works out to about $2.5 an hour more or 21% at my wage-rate.
That does not seem fair, and any sort of universal coverage is likely to have me paying for other people's kids too. Maybe not though. As a part-timer, my taxes might not even be enough to pay for my own coverage. Also, I work for a government, so right now all taxpayers are paying for my coverage, but they get my time and effort out of the deal too.
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flordehinojos
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Mon Nov-13-06 06:04 AM
Response to Original message |
1. your insurance seems to have a scale ... many insurances do not. |
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scale: "I see that my employer pays $427.64 a month for a single employee but $682.43 for a couple and $775.16 for a family. "
There are insurances which might deduct $350. from an employee's check for "family coverage" whether the employee has 1 dependent or 10.
For those who have $350. deducted from their check for what amounts to coverage for 1 dependent and then see that those who have 10 dependents also have $350. deducted from of their checks, the mathematics of it all does not seem very fair.
...not to mention of course, there are those who have no coverage at all.
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hfojvt
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Mon Nov-13-06 06:22 AM
Response to Reply #1 |
2. seems like it does not have a scale |
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for the top coverage, a single person pays $16.70 and couple pays $251.62 and a family pays $282.44. The employer pays the rest of the premium which I mentioned in the OP. The coverage is the same for any size of family from 3 to whatever. The larger family gets a better deal, but that is coming from the insurance company rather than the employer.
My OP was meant not so much about my own 'troubles' which should get a :nopity: but about rising health care and insurance costs. For employees who pay a larger percentage of their premiums that's a bigger bite. For employers and self-employed it's an even bigger bite. Their labor costs go way up, but it doesn't translate into more benefits for the workers.
I was hoping other DUers would share their health insurance stories.
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flordehinojos
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Mon Nov-13-06 11:56 AM
Response to Reply #2 |
7. hi ... i didn't take your post as a rant on your troubles...the way i read the piece |
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was that, those who had less dependents paid somewhat less into the insurance fund, while those who had a greater number of dependents paid more...that sounded fair and equitable vs. the pay the same into the insurance fund regardless of the # of dependents who will be making use of it...that is more tilted because those who have less dependents pay more for the same coverage, services and benefits as those who have a greater number of dependents. anyhow, that was how i read the piece.
these days we pay more for our insurance, receive less coverage, and who knows what tomorrow will bring.
i like the idea of UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE and I don't buy into the line that i would be paying for everyone else's coverage under UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE because everyone else will be contributing to the fund... plus, i think with UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE insurances won't be able to deny coverage--as they have to many people that i know--and their denials have come after their having received procedures ordered by doctors in their said insurances' health insurance plans. i don't think insurances could have done that under the clinton administration--but quite frankly, these days ... i just don't know what to think anymore.
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Uben
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Mon Nov-13-06 06:22 AM
Response to Original message |
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When I retired, the wife and I had to get a private policy for healthcare. It wasn't that great, mostly a catastrophic policy, for about $450 mo. Well, the wife got breast cancer, had a double mastectomy, and has been cancer free for almost four years. The insurance saved us tens of thousands of dollars, but now is costing $1000/mo due to increases every year. We have to keep the policy we have because no one else will take us due to the cancer thing.
It can always be worse!
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hfojvt
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Mon Nov-13-06 06:39 AM
Response to Reply #3 |
4. I did not mean to sound like I was complaining for myself. |
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I pay very little, or would, if I had stayed full time. That cost went from 14.66 a month to 16.7 a month. Almost a 14% increase, but big whoop, that 14% is only about $20 a year. Most of the increased costs are born by my employer (and hence the taxpayers) except for the extra $2400 a year I am happy to pay for the privilege of working only half-time.
My thread was meant to be about rising health care/insurance costs in this country starting with my own example. I just neglected to add the line asking DUers to tell their own stories. Kinda thought that was obvious in a discussion forum.
I am glad you posted your story, although it is not a happy one. How much have your costs increased in the last three years? Has it more than doubled in just six years?? That's crazy. $12,000 a year would be more than my entire annual income now.
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Vinca
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Mon Nov-13-06 07:41 AM
Response to Original message |
5. "any sort of universal coverage is likely to have me paying for other people's kids too" |
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Why is that so bad? If the cost is shared amongst every member of the population, everyone has health care and the overall cost is lower.
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Warren Stupidity
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Mon Nov-13-06 07:46 AM
Response to Original message |
6. I've been dealing with this crap for years. |
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Try being self employed. The rate increases exceed the official (and completely bullshit) inflation rate by huge amounts every year.
Universal Health Care is the only reasonable answer.
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AnnInLa
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Mon Nov-13-06 12:03 PM
Response to Original message |
8. you should see the increase in my house insurance! |
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I live in an area devastated by Hurricane Rita....our home insurance went up alarmingly.
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hfojvt
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Mon Nov-13-06 02:32 PM
Response to Reply #8 |
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My home owners insurance went up by 14.6% in 2005 and I did not even notice. This year, though, I dropped my homeowners coverage and only have renter's insurance. Not happy about that, but it seems better than the alternative. I think I am already paying 2 or 3 times more for property insurance than I was paying in Iowa or Wisconsin. That may be because we have a Republican Insurance Commissioner who was just re-elected by 70% of the vote. Or it may just be because prices have doubled or tripled in the last ten years.
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newportdadde
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Mon Nov-13-06 03:02 PM
Response to Original message |
10. Mine is up 20% this year. From 2000 to 2007 - up 350%. |
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