This article talks about rate increases. I've talked to a few people and I can't belive the amount of shitty health care policies out there. Any chance an employer gets to change a policy to save money, the employee gets screwed over with "savings". My rates went up and so did my deductable. No one asked me if I wanted a higher deductable, the IRS determines the deductable these days.
In the past 2 years there are MANY services your insurance is required to cover, like preventative services, at no out of pocket expense to you. If you dont use them you are still paying with higher premiums. I think at the end of 2014 insurers will have to get govt approval to raise premiums so the next 24 months will probably be a horror show. Get a govt job , they are the only people with excellent insurance.
That's easy for you to say. I am an employer. We cover over 25 employees and their families. Last year our rates went up by 53% with our original carrier. We shopped it and settled on a different insurer, with a 35% increase. We ate most of it, but our employees had to pick up some of the increase. There is a limited amount of profit margin available in most businesses. As a trader/investor, you should know that by now.
I love health insurance horror stories! When my wife and I had our first kid I had no health insurance and she had a plan through work. All the pregnancy related visits, c-section and stay at the hospital cost us only $1200. Then when we had our second kid I had my own health insurance with my son with a 6k deductible and it happened to be through the same company she had hers though work. But we still figured it would still cost about the same. BUT since I had health insurance and my birthday is in February and hers is in November I am apparently the baby's primary carrier. Therefore the new baby's hospital stay and everything they did to her goes under my insurance. When it was all said and done the same services cost our household $4700. Had I known this arbitrary rule I could have just cancelled my health insurance and everything would have been covered by my wife's. My son and I are perfect human specimens and I pay 380 bucks a month for this crappy plan.
To all who are struggling with the rising costs of health care insurance look into enrolling at your local community college and getting on their group health plan. My local college really beefed up their plan since Obamacare went into effect. I'm currently paying $233 per month for very good insurance.