Health costs to $oar

[웃 910]

Health costs to $oar

NYC workers' outlay jumping 30% under Obamacare

Despite assurances from the Obama administration that the recently signed healthcare reform law would save Americans money, benefit professionals are seeing huge medical premium hikes and decreased benefits.

Employers and ultimately taxpayers could get sticker shock as plans companies begin to renew their medical benefits packages for 2011.

A Manhattan health benefits consultant says insurance companies are telling employers they will pay have to pay much more in 2011 -- and for reduced coverage.

"It should be noted that premium increases were in excess of 30 percent over the previous year," said Barbara Brody of Barbara A. Brody & Associates. Brody said average rate increases next year for Manhattan-based firms she advises could be as high as "67 percent but will average 30 percent."

That's because insurance companies, faced with higher costs after the passage of a giant health reform measure, plan to pass most of the costs onto consumers, according to several industry observers.

The additional costs for the insurance companies include: covering dependents up to 26-year-olds as well as pre-existing conditions of new enrollees and coverage for the currently uninsured.

And they will see hefty premium hikes and out-of-pocket expenses rise, they add.

These increases would be in addition to big hikes already put in effect this year, Brody says.

Just this week McDonald's said it may drop its health-care plan for 30,000 employees unless it gets a waiver on the annual coverage.

However, a spokesman for the Obama administration says the benefits of the recently signed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, designed in part to provide health insurance to tens of millions of Americans without coverage, will be phased in over the next decade.

The spokesman also said the law would ultimately help consumers to pay medical bills.

A spokesman for Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the new law, in covering millions of uninsured Americans, will save $1 billion.

Nevertheless, health insurance premiums in 2011 will dramatically rise, the first year of the Obama healthcare reform, medical professionals say.

The problem is Obamacare will squeeze various health insurance companies, Brody says.

"The healthcare reform law does mandate specific benefits to be phased in over the next few years, but it does not address the many ways an insurance company may cut benefits in order to still make a profit," according to Brody.

Brody, who read the 2,000-page healthcare bill twice, says there are many things in the bill that were never discussed in detail.

For instance, the bill contains a category of pharmaceuticals called biologics, Brody explains.

The bill allows the brand-name use of biologics over generics for some 14 years. That will result in millions of dollars of additional costs, she says.

Maybe, she suggests, these things were missed because numerous elected officials predicted the bill would never become law.

"Every insurance carrier in New York state has filed for rate increases," Brody says. She says carriers are anticipating the cost mandates of the new law.

These increases, she adds, will lead companies to cutbacks. Among them will be:

* Higher deductibles and larger co-payments

* Higher out-of-pocket maximums each year

* Specific tests and drugs dropped from the policies

But the Obama administration says the Affordable Care Act will provide help for consumers by eliminating the "worst insurance company practices," according to Stephanie Cutler, an assistant to the president for special projects.

Quicken your pulse

New Yorkers’ health care premiums will soar 30 percent next year because of new regulations, according to a survey of Manhattan businesses.

Single employee

2011 $1,125

2010 $865

2009 $766

Increase/Month +$260

Employee and spouse

2011 $2,249

2010 $1,730

2009 $1,532

Increase/Month +$519

Employee and child

2011 $2,136

2010 $1,643

2009 $1,455

Increase/Month +$493

Employee and family

2011 $3,486

2010 $2,681

2009 $2,375

Increase/Month +$805

Source: Barbara A. Brody & Associates

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/health_costs_to_oar_PxrH0QkqmGiS0rP4SIbKWJ#ixzz11R7jSHNp

[Pooky 3,828]

SOLD ... down the river

[luckytxn 2,265]

The best part is all were told this would happen and no one cared but believed the Socialists were there for them. I think it is time to say WE TOLD YOU SO.

[Pooky 3,828]

The best part is all were told this would happen and no one cared but believed the Socialists were there for them. I think it is time to say WE TOLD YOU SO.

From the other side of the coin, if a single payer system had removed the insurance companies from the basic level of coverage, this problem would never have reared its head.

But instead, this landmark legislation was voted through with no price controls, language hidden amongst the 2000-odd pages that no-one in Congress ever read and with the insurance companies, who had the money to pay people to read the bill line-by-line, circling like piranhas in the knowledge that this administration had mandated that Joe Public had to purchase coverage from them, or face a fine. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

From the left and from the right, this "healthcare" reform bill is rapidly collapsing into the disaster it always promised to be. November will just compound the misery.

[Ban Hammer 13,508]

The best part is all were told this would happen and no one cared but believed the Socialists were there for them. I think it is time to say WE TOLD YOU SO.

i wonder how many have buyer's remorse now.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Insurance companies have been jacking rates, even by this articles admission, and are simply proving the folly that private for profit insurance makes economic sense only for insurers.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Insurance companies have been jacking rates, even by this articles admission, and are simply proving the folly that private for profit insurance makes economic sense only for insurers.

oh yes, because insurers control health care costs

[Pooky 3,828]

oh yes, because insurers control health care costs

No, they're proving that the main purpose of health insurance companies is ... shock! horror! ... to make a profit, make money for their shareholders and pay their executives.

[luckytxn 2,265]

i wonder how many have buyer's remorse now.

Seeing how the many that were not hardcore Socialists that are now fleeing and ripping their bumper stickers off and ready to vote them all out I would say most.

[luckytxn 2,265]

From the other side of the coin, if a single payer system had removed the insurance companies from the basic level of coverage, this problem would never have reared its head.

But instead, this landmark legislation was voted through with no price controls, language hidden amongst the 2000-odd pages that no-one in Congress ever read and with the insurance companies, who had the money to pay people to read the bill line-by-line, circling like piranhas in the knowledge that this administration had mandated that Joe Public had to purchase coverage from them, or face a fine. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

From the left and from the right, this "healthcare" reform bill is rapidly collapsing into the disaster it always promised to be. November will just compound the misery.

It was nothing but a huge give away to that industry. The Socialists never received so much contributions (Bribes) before. (Check it)

The single payer would have done in that industry but decimated the health care of this country when that huge bloated bureaucracy got their hands on it. It would have been maybe I am sure even cost us even more. Most people have only gotten a small taste of what a nightmare a bureaucracy can do by going through this visa process. I have first hand knowledge of trying to wade through the bureaucracy and even worked in it for awhile myself. Yearly we would have had the politicians adding and tweaking or changing it to where it would have been a huge colossal mistake. Why is most countries now trying to get out of it now or at least stop the bleeding?

No you Socialists are totally clueless by wanting the Feds to become a nanny state and care for us from cradle to grave. But I do hope we do get this as we will even when the Republicans come into power (They are the same) as I want to laugh at all the idiots when the crying starts.

[Pooky 3,828]

No you Socialists ...

Me? A Socialist?

Don't tell Steven, 'cos he has me marked down as a RWN

[Heracles 417]

The best part is all were told this would happen and no one cared but believed the Socialists were there for them. I think it is time to say WE TOLD YOU SO.

Interesting, considering health care costs are 1/3 of what they are here in the countries you deem socialist.

Checkmate..

It never gets old pwning you.

Edited October 5, 2010 by Heracles

[Heracles 417]

oh yes, because insurers control health care costs

They do actually. It's why pharmacies, for example, are instructed to not sell medication under x cost. It's why I can purchase brand name medication over the county and in factory sealed blister packs, versus the cheap el povo yellow vial they come in here, for 1/10th the price it costs here abroad.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

They do actually. It's why pharmacies, for example, are instructed to not sell medication under x cost. It's why I can purchase brand name medication over the county and in factory sealed blister packs, versus the cheap el povo yellow vial they come in here, for 1/10th the price it costs here abroad.

no, that's called patents and how the government betrayed the US Citizenry by giving longer patents to pharmaceutical companies and the right to keep foreign drugs out of the country.

[Heracles 417]

no, that's called patents and how the government betrayed the US Citizenry by giving longer patents to pharmaceutical companies and the right to keep foreign drugs out of the country.

Same brand name drug dude, just different pricing in the rest of the world versus the US.

We don't really do generic in AUS.