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In response to
"Ask most STers here how much their insurance has gone up since the bill passed"
by
bacon via droid
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Favourites: 2
Insurance premiums started going up rapidly in 2001. Right now, the companies are shitting their pants over the 80-20 rule. That is, they have to pay
Posted by
Trish (aka trisha)
Jan 29 '12, 00:07
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out 80 cents of every dollar collected from their insureds for treatment and care. They can keep 20 cents per dollar paid for administrative purposes, stock dividents, and salaries. The top execs are about to lose their multi-million dollar bonuses that they previously earned by denying payment for treatment using every trick they could come up with. The insurance business was deregulated by Ronald Reagan. Up until then, they made very little profit, honest people ran the companies, and common stock was basically a slow growth investment. After deregulation they started patient shopping, denying coverage, raising premiums and refusing to pay for treatment. In 2000-2001 the premiums started rocketing up, coverage was decreased and deductibles kept rising because of the government's preferential treatment to corporations rather than citizens.
2012 is the first year that companies have to prove 80-20 and most of them can't. If they aren't able to prove it, they have to refund every single beneficiary the percentage amount they were under 80% at the end of the year. There will be no exceptions. In retaliation, nearly all companies raised premiums to the point that coverage was unaffordable to all but the most wealthy, thereby forcing the middle and lower classes to buy in to the state plans.
I don't see why so many people have such difficulty understanding this. Insurance companies are not your friend. They don't give a damn about you. 80-20 is perfectly do-able it's just that greed has overtaken common sense. What so many people call "Obama-Care" in a really sneering tone of voice is actually a program set up to get insurance companies back under control instead of allowing them to be money making machines. So when you're bitching about your premiums going up, deductibles going up and coverage going down, put the blame right where it belongs--on the insurance company. Medical malpractice lawsuits didn't cause the problem, President Obama didn't cause the problem. Simple greed caused this mess.
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