Largest health insurer on Colorado exchange collapses

[Circuits]

I'm under the impression (from the article) that the more expensive prices are out of hospitals.

They are - you can only pay for all that (required) free indigent care by charging those who actually can/do pay a funkton of money.

[DenverGP]

Decided to dig this up since it's all Obamacare mess:

Just got an all-company email from my employer outlining yet more damage caused by the idiot in chief.

Team – I wanted to provide everyone an update on our medical insurance renewal.

The Affordable Care Act has put us in a difficult spot. Because we are very near but below the 50 employee threshold, we have very limited options. Basically, we can keep our current plan, which is much more expensive than last year, or adopt ACA-compliant plans, which are even more expensive and not as good. We explored other options but none made sense for us.

Therefore, we have decided to keep our current plan for 2016. And, while we will continue to subsidize much of this cost for employees, there will unfortunately be a substantial increase in your premiums. We plan to get the final rates to you in the next couple of weeks so that you can make your elections.

[Gman]

Yeah, everything gets better when the government gets involved. I can't believe they lied to us!

[roberth]

I'm waiting for one of those letters myself, my plan was continued into 2016 so i'll wait again until later in the year.

[TheGrey]

My folks are on Medicare. As soon as ACA kicked in, Dad's cancer doctor retired. Mom's plan disintegrated and is a hollow shell of what it used to cover. They have no dental coverage now, which means that Dad's emergency dental surgery will be taken from their grocery money, which is less than $200/month. A few weeks ago, one of their friends choked on a piece of food that was caught in his esophagus, and he ended up needing surgery. Unfortunately, the surgeon that specialized in repairing such trauma moved to a larger city when ACA kicked in. Their friend ended up having to be medivac'd, instead of being able to go to the hospital as he once was. This ACA is a mockery and a sham, and anyone that doesn't see that is either being deliberately obtuse, or doesn't want to see the corrupt center of it all.

People's plans are being gutted, their benefits are reduced, and their choices removed. Don't give me the whole "who could price match insurance?" That's a straw man argument. People used to have a far greater selection among doctors in their plans. That's no longer the case. Now it seems that the choice is between "one or none."

And by the way, my folks worked their ASSES off their entire lives. Their nest egg and their 401K was reduced to nothing because they chose to help family members in dire straits. Healthy people that get cancer and heart problems are not lumped into the "find a creative way to cover my elective surgery" crowd. We've also got a large number of the populace that's getting older, and as you get older, things begin breaking down. There needs to be a way to bolster Medicare so our elderly population doesn't suffer at the greedy hands of fucking politicians that vote themselves exempt from the vile plan they've saddled us with.

[Bailey Guns]

I am so lucky. I have good insurance from work and the premiums only went up 3% this year. But the good news, I opted for the High Deductible plan last year and the deductible was over $3000. This year the same HD plan has a $1750 deductible. For ALL my benefits I pay a whopping $12 per month...BCBS health plan, dental, vision, life ins for me and wife and short term disability. I put about $750 per year into an HSA and that rolls over year after year.

I don't know how my company has dodged the ACA bullet but so far we have...knock on wood.

[TheGrey]

Sounds like you've got the holy grail of insurance plans!

[brutal]

We are blessed that my wife works for a self-insured hospital group. We have a reasonable monthly copay and they contribute the funds to our HSA as part of the benefits package.

My employer's insurance offerings, given we have around 1,000 employees, is much less affordable and has significant out of pocket costs in addition to the high copays.

[Skip]

[snip]

People's plans are being gutted, their benefits are reduced, and their choices removed. Don't give me the whole "who could price match insurance?" That's a straw man argument. People used to have a far greater selection among doctors in their plans. That's no longer the case. Now it seems that the choice is between "one or none."

[snip]

This is the way I see it as well. The ACA was designed to consolidate the insurers who consolidate the providers. It's a giant pyramid with Barack Hussein Obama at the top pissing on everyone else.

In a true market we have this ability. And prices tied to market rates which would make insurance less of a necessity for basic care. But once gov gets involved with cost shifting, mandatory contract rates, and mandatory treatment laws, all bets are off.

Insurers and FedGov are the middle-men of healthcare and they need every cent from payers.

[Bailey Guns]

Sounds like you've got the holy grail of insurance plans!

I don't know if the plan is really any better than any other...I just don't have to pay much for it.