Health companies raise rates now to avoid regulation

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Affordable Care Act policies are starting to take effect that make insurance more affordable.
  • For example, insurance companies that want to raise premiums for 2012 by more than 10 percent will have to publicly justify their rate hikes.
A growing number of States have the power to reject unjustified premium hikes.

Additionally, insurers are required to spend at least 80 percent of your premium dollars on medical care, rather than advertising, overhead and bonuses for executives.

If they fail to meet that standard, they will be required to provide a rebate to their customers.

Premiums increased 9 percent in 2011.

These premiums were generally set in 2010, when insurance companies thought medical costs would be significantly higher than they turned out to be.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the health insurance employer cost index (a measure of the price of health care services) was the lowest it has been in over 10 years in the first half of 2011.
Additionally, some insurers assumed that the Affordable Care Act would dramatically raise their costs.

In the end, both assumptions were wrong – but insurance companies still charged high premiums and earned impressive profits.
  • Wall Street analysts’ review of results from the first quarter of 2011 found that 13 of the top 14 health insurers exceeded their earnings expectations, with profits that were over 45 percent higher than estimated.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/27/health-insurance-premium-update
 
\(\()/)/ said:
Affordable Care Act policies are starting to take effect that make insurance more affordable.
  • For example, insurance companies that want to raise premiums for 2012 by more than 10 percent will have to publicly justify their rate hikes.
A growing number of States have the power to reject unjustified premium hikes.

Additionally, insurers are required to spend at least 80 percent of your premium dollars on medical care, rather than advertising, overhead and bonuses for executives.

If they fail to meet that standard, they will be required to provide a rebate to their customers.

Premiums increased 9 percent in 2011.

These premiums were generally set in 2010, when insurance companies thought medical costs would be significantly higher than they turned out to be.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the health insurance employer cost index (a measure of the price of health care services) was the lowest it has been in over 10 years in the first half of 2011.
Additionally, some insurers assumed that the Affordable Care Act would dramatically raise their costs.

In the end, both assumptions were wrong – but insurance companies still charged high premiums and earned impressive profits.
  • Wall Street analysts’ review of results from the first quarter of 2011 found that 13 of the top 14 health insurers exceeded their earnings expectations, with profits that were over 45 percent higher than estimated.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/27/health-insurance-premium-update
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I saw a thread about ObamaCare and the insurance industry and I couldn't understand WHY not a single Rightie had stopped by with the same old derogatory nonsense...THEN I read the article and all becomes apparent!
 
ZappasGuitar said:
I saw a thread about ObamaCare and the insurance industry and I couldn't understand WHY not a single Rightie had stopped by with the same old derogatory nonsense...THEN I read the article and all becomes apparent!
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Give 'em time. They're waiting for Fox or NewsMax to tell them what to say.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
certainly can't have too much regulation, can we?
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Because for-profit health care has worked so well?

Maybe they just need less regulation and some big tax cuts, and they might create some benefits and jobs. Should we appease them?
 
SmarterThanYou said:
this has always been the problem with you anti-libertarian types. 'less-regulation' does not mean no regulation, or even little regulation.
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I'm not "anti-libertarian".


Can you explain how "less regulation" will benefit sick and injured people, or not?
 
The Dude said:
How about dr and hospitals having their prices regulated?
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Maybe they shouldn't have tried to get rich on the backs of the sick and infirm.

When Doctors take the hippocratic oath they swear to treat the sick and injured...not to treat the sick and injured who can afford their care.
 
I've noticed that rightwingers' fabled fondness for fetuses doesn't seem to extend to prenatal care for uninsured moms.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
this has always been the problem with you anti-libertarian types. 'less-regulation' does not mean no regulation, or even little regulation.
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John Stewart from the Daily Show had a question for Ron Paul when he was a guest the other night I thought was interesting...has a totally Libertarian society ever existed anywhere on the planet?
 
\(\()/)/ said:
I'm not "anti-libertarian".


Can you explain how "less regulation" will benefit sick and injured people, or not?
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less regulation would be the onerous paper keeping and red taping that increases costs to business while keeping regulations that deal specifically with patient care benefits.
 
ZappasGuitar said:
John Stewart from the Daily Show had a question for Ron Paul when he was a guest the other night I thought was interesting...has a totally Libertarian society ever existed anywhere on the planet?
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this country had one for about 6 years at it's inception. then it quickly became totalitarian.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
less regulation would be the onerous paper keeping and red taping that increases costs to business while keeping regulations that deal specifically with patient care benefits.
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Please identify the recordkeeping requirements which should be abrogated, and explain how doing so would benefit patients.
 
\(\()/)/ said:
Please identify the recordkeeping requirements which should be abrogated, and explain how doing so would benefit patients.
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not being in the health insurance field or medical field, I don't know. However, my wife used to be an RN and her ex-Mother In Law used to be a doctor. the horror stories of administration and paperwork dealing with the insurance companies were numerous, let alone the cronyism that goes on with staffing state medical boards with the friends of big insurance executives. It leads to all kinds of corruption and milking doctors offices for all their worth.
 
\(\()/)/ said:
Yet you felt qualified to oppose health care reform and make demands that regulations be lessened?
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based upon the first hand experiences of people directly involved in the medical field, to that extent yes. same way I'm qualified to criticize police, politicians, and lawyers.
 
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