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Insurers predict 100% to 400% Obamacare rate explosion

i suppose a rate hike like that will be another nail in the coffin of our unsustainable employer-specific system.
 
In otherwords, costs are going up, and you're upset that the insurers aren't biting the bullet.

Yes, I am upset that those least able to afford necessary things like healthcare are facing increasing hardship while those who want for nothing are reaping additional benefits. Doesn't that seem kind of backwards?
 
Yes, I am upset that those least able to afford necessary things like healthcare are facing increasing hardship while those who want for nothing are reaping additional benefits. Doesn't that seem kind of backwards?

I blame the root cause of the price increase, bad policy. Its not "additional" benefits if they are maintaining margins.
 
Health insurance wouldn't have to go up by too much to be priced beyond my means.
 
I blame the root cause of the price increase, bad policy. Its not "additional" benefits if they are maintaining margins.

I blame the ultimate root cause, that we allow a few people to own the keys to good health and deny them to people. The root cause is ownership and profiteering, not attempts to circumvent the greed of a few wealthy oligarchs.
 
I blame the ultimate root cause, that we allow a few people to own the keys to good health and deny them to people. The root cause is ownership and profiteering, not attempts to circumvent the greed of a few wealthy oligarchs.

The root cause is the government (and the thing we are talking about here) is government intervention driving up costs. If it weren't for government regulations preventing medical risk underwriting, we would have lower premiums and more people insured. If it weren't for Medicare paying under the cost of providing care, we wouldn't have astronomical costs on everyone else. You see, government policy usually has this nasty little thing called "the law of unintended consequences" when it tries to control the market to as large of a degree as it does with healthcare. You can call it greed when things don't go exactly your way, but I call it predictable outcomes to stupid policies.
 
Why not? There's always payroll taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, vehicle registration taxes....

Federal income tax is a "payroll" tax. Actually there is no such thing as a payroll tax anyway, they are payroll deductions which include various taxes (fed, state, FICA, etc).
 
Nobody cares what healthcare costs because so few people pay for it directly. Most employer-provided policies have a fairly low deductible...employees don't even know what it costs because they don't have to pay income tax on the premiums their employers pay on their behalf and employers don't tell them.

Hospitals and doctors rarely publish their rates so consumers can't comparison shop. And when they do?? Those aren't hard and fast as charged to insurance companies. They're much higher than what insurance companies pay.

Normal market forces aren't in play with healthcare. Healthcare will continue to rise exponentially until either the government steps in to control it or deductibles are higher. As long as Medicaid and Medicare patients continue to use emergency rooms for sore throats? Our healthcare costs are going to rise and our quality of service is going to fall. That's just a fact of life.

Medicare and Medicaid patients aren't the ones using an ER for sore throats. Uninsured patients are the ones using the ER to deal with things that SHOULD have been minor issues but were ignored due to cost and became major issues.

If I'm on Medicare, I can go to my GP for a cough.
 
Federal income tax is a "payroll" tax. Actually there is no such thing as a payroll tax anyway, they are payroll deductions which include various taxes (fed, state, FICA, etc).

Semantic objection noted.
 
Medicare and Medicaid patients aren't the ones using an ER for sore throats. Uninsured patients are the ones using the ER to deal with things that SHOULD have been minor issues but were ignored due to cost and became major issues.

If I'm on Medicare, I can go to my GP for a cough.

Actually, lots of people can't get in to see their GP for weeks or months on end and are told by their GP that if they don't like it, go to the ER. The ER has become a dumping ground, both by the uninsured who can't go anywhere else, and by the insured who have no choice if they want rapid care.
 
Choo-Choo!




Train Wreck's a-coming. Hold on to your hats.

Don't you mean hold on to your pants? Because the effect will be "bend over, here it comes again." :mrgreen:
 
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