Health Insurance Jump

[doughishere]

Any one notice huge jumps in their Health Insurance Premiums. My "old" insurance wants $600 every 2 months now instead of the $250 I paid for the same last year. Anyone have any more insight. Comments? Anyone seeing the same trends?

[ccap]

On the ObamaCare exchanges, there is a battle for market share.  The companies that got a lot of market share last year by offering a low prices raised their prices in hopes of making money.  The companies that didn't get volume the first year dropped prices in hopes of getting filled.  You are basically forced to change carriers to get a consistently low price.

[Gamecock-YT]

My cheapo HDHP through my employer is going up 75% from 2015 to 2016. Average for the entire company is ~30%. Ridiculous.

[mjohn707]

I'm in a small group plan at work and we had a 6.5% increase this year.  We were actually one of the winners after the Affordable Care Act passed and we got something like a 33% decrease that year.

[doughishere]

My cheapo HDHP through my employer is going up 75% from 2015 to 2016. Average for the entire company is ~30%. Ridiculous.

 

I think most people dont see the cost rise because its hidden behind the company. I'm willing to bet that the bods and ceos are seeing a dramatic rise in rates. I bet its more epidemic than just from the employee level.

 

I have heard of small business(first hand accounts from their owners) in the area where i live tell their employees that they can no longer afford insurance and that the employees are on their own.

 

This is why i started this thread....to get the people talking.

[Williams406]

Factor in premium changes as well as deductible amounts. I spoke with an insurance broker who said nearly everyone not qualifying for a subsidy has seen a huge jump in premiums, but also an increased deductible.  So a bit of a double-whammy. Most of his work is with individuals and not businesses, so his insight, assuming its accurate, may not translate as consistently on the group-plan side. Also not sure if that is true across the country or not. I suspect the ACA is having a big impact on both hiring and firing decisions. If your costs as an employer to provide health care to full-time workers goes up significantly, something's got to give.

[Jurgis]

While trying to keep this thread not political: what are the reasons for the premium jumps?

 

- Costlier drugs/procedures/etc? (We know some of this on this board)

- Merging health insurers throwing their weight and gauging customers?

- Doctors/hospitals gauging customers (for whatever reasons)?

- Some consequences of ACA (i.e. making insurers cover pre-existing conditions)?

- Older/sicklier population?

 

As a data point, my and my wife's employer both raised premiums, but not that much (maybe 10%). This is tech sector 10K+ employee companies. We switched last year from PPO to POS option since that saves ~50% of the premium.

[Junto]

One reason is move to self funded insurance plans. We moved our banks last year and it has been a very good move. Generally will be if your workforce is healthy.

 

The result of our moving and other small, medium sized businesses with good health will take profitable clients outside the overall system driving up premiums on those who haven't or can't self insure. Most large organizations have self insured for years. It hasn't made sense for smaller companies until most recently.

[doughishere]

I'm surprised no one else is seeing the same thing.