Health insurance... I quit

[TrailBeast]

The "California Health Exchange", ie, the California arm of Obamacare, announced their rate structures the other day. Turns out the rates are affordable. Pretty damn good actually. With actual competition between major insurance companies providing new plans. And the sky didn't fall. And California didn't fall into the ocean. Weird.

http://news.yahoo.com/california-reveals-prices-health-insurance-under-obamacare-221300803.html

I personally don't think Obamacare is the answer to our health care problem. But there is no doubt our health care system is broken, and doing NOTHING about it will result in EVERYONE in the system being priced out in a few short years. Premiums have been increasing at double digit rates, and although that increase slowed last year premium increases are still outpacing wages and inflation by 2-3x easily. That simply can't be sustained.

So maybe, before we simply cancel the whole thing just because Obama did it, we should actually take a look at how its being put into practice. Because so far, its not the doom and gloom that most folks predicted that it would be.

This is what most people that are not getting their facts from forwarded emails are finding out.

 

[1968FormulaS340]

This is what most people that are not getting their facts from forwarded emails are finding out.

What are you talking about? Everything on the internet is true.

 

[magnumdust]

Can i be the Ahole to suggest the notion of premiums based upon how much you tax the system?

I mean at my job all 3 of my closest coworkers are morbidly obese. diabetes, high cholestoral etc etc, and carry on with diets that are terrible. Two them see their doctor on what seems like a weekly basis. I eat right and run 4-7 times a week. Our premiums are exactly the same...

Imagine if car insurance rates were like that. The guy on the edge of losing his license pays the same rate as the boring by the book about-to-get-run-off-the-road guy.

 

[72ScampTramp]

Just here a few months ago my youngest daughter who is 3 had to go i and have a crown put on her tooth. Because her age they needed to put her under to do this. So a 3 hour outpatient process cost....$12,000... Thankfully i have great medical but damn 12,000 for 3 hours of there time?

 

[abodyjoe]

Can i be the Ahole to suggest the notion of premiums based upon how much you tax the system?

I mean at my job all 3 of my closest coworkers are morbidly obese. diabetes, high cholestoral etc etc, and carry on with diets that are terrible. Two them see their doctor on what seems like a weekly basis. I eat right and run 4-7 times a week. Our premiums are exactly the same...

Imagine if car insurance rates were like that. The guy on the edge of losing his license pays the same rate as the boring by the book about-to-get-run-off-the-road guy.

bingo...

my partner at work is 5'9" and 345 pounds. you should see the crap he eats. he jokes about how low his cholesterol is.. then i say how many pills do you take in the morning to keep it that low? has diabetes also. like ya said he is at the doctors what seems like every few weeks. its crazy. obesity is a huge problem in this country and to the health care system.

the cost of our ER visits this past year went up to a tier like system.. nothing to do with who is in office but everything to do with people going to the ER for a common cold.... the system is abused from top to bottom. like just about everything else there is always the people that ruin things for everyone...


i have gotten my partner to lose 40 pounds. he was doing real good watching his portions and was losing at a good rate. his problem is he refuses to exercise at all.. tried to tell him that at this point juts a walk to the end of the block and back will help but he refuses to do anything. and working with him the last two days it looks like he is starting to slip into his old ways of eating. his problem is that he didn't try to change what he eats to something a little more healthy but just doing it all by portion control.. thats fine but you also have to change what you eat along with how much you eat.

 

[ramenth]

Can i be the Ahole to suggest the notion of premiums based upon how much you tax the system?

I mean at my job all 3 of my closest coworkers are morbidly obese. diabetes, high cholestoral etc etc, and carry on with diets that are terrible. Two them see their doctor on what seems like a weekly basis. I eat right and run 4-7 times a week. Our premiums are exactly the same...

Imagine if car insurance rates were like that. The guy on the edge of losing his license pays the same rate as the boring by the book about-to-get-run-off-the-road guy.

It only makes sense. But then the obese with actual illnesses would scream discrimination under the ADA and, thanks to the CDC as naming obesity a disease and recent court precedent, would win. So nothing would change.

Which is funny. I recently had to take a physical for my life insurance to set the premiums.