quote:Originally posted by Amanecer: The insurance companies are just raising premiums to cover the added expense. Their financial integrity is not threatened by this.
I disagree. As the premiums rise, young healthy people who really only need catastrophic coverage anyway tend to drop their insurance. So everyone left in the premium pool has to pay more then just the premiums not being paid - everyone left tends to spend more in claims.
I bet somewhere there's even an actuarial chart for it. When X number of people who file less than Y in claims cancel their policies, the price per person changes tiers. To make up some numbers, if 500 people drop your bill goes from $600 to $630, but if 5,000 drop, it jumps to $1,000. And when it goes up a tier, another group of people have to stop and ask themselves if they can afford their insurance.
While the health care bill was being debated, everything I read was calling this effect a "death spiral" for insurance companies. I'm assuming the insurance types thought they could ride out the three year gap or they would've fought harder against it, but I don't think anyone anticipated the recession being this bad. When I was Googling yesterday for the latest estimate of when hiring would pick back up, most of the articles were claiming late 2009. How many people lost their insurance after COBRA ran out? What did that do to the risk pools?
And as often as Congress worries about extending unemployment, I've never seen them discuss this. Why not a plan to add workers to Medicaid while they're on unemployment? A provision in the behemoth bill that makes loss of a job one of the events that lets you change your coverage so a spouse or family can be added outside of open enrollment?
Why are the easiest ways to protect the consumers overlooked? Why are taxpayers still just doing without? I truly believe it's because Congress had ulterior motives. Ones they think will lead to a better standard of care for everyone and a greater good in the long run, granted. But I still find it dishonest and potentially dangerous.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by AvidReader: While the health care bill was being debated, everything I read was calling this effect a "death spiral" for insurance companies.
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Well, if I had been prepared for it, it probably wouldn't have been such a big deal. I was just caught off guard. That, and both my son and myself ended up having to have some pretty heavy medical expenses as soon as the new plan year started, so it was just... annoying. Luckily, one of his doctors was willing to set up a payment plan, so I was able to pay it over the course of a couple of months.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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Oh, and AvidReader, loss of a job was already considered a qualifying life event in all of the things I've ever read at any of my employers.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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Really? I only remember getting married, divorced, having kids, or a death in the family. That one I apologize to Congress for. It doesn't make it any easier to pay for, but it's certainly not evilly shutting people out of the semi-affordable heath care market.
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Even loss of insurance. My wife works at the same job, but lost insurance coverage. If insurance was offered by my employer, then i would have ben a "qualifying lifestyle change" and I could have enrolled in it, even if it was past my normal enrollment window.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I just went through my open enrollment window and had to pour through the details, since (annoyingly) you had to enroll to decline coverage, otherwise they would automatically put you in the most ghettolord health coverage available.
Even if you had told them a ten billion times when asked that you are already covered and decline the option to change plans.
After having done so I can confirm everything said here. If I lost coverage or a jorb or whatever, it all counts.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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