AP surveys early costs for Obamacare premiums

I realize the final numbers aren't in yet, but the early numbers don't look good in terms of help for the middle class. And the older you are, the less affordable the insurance will be. So if people can't afford it what then?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/apnewsbreak-early-l … 12365.html
By BearinFW | 09/04/2013 06:01 PM | 5 comments
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  • The ACA was passed by removing the "Public Option" at the ultimatum of the GOP. Had that been left in it would be the eventual end to the health insurance companies and the GOP is not going to have that happen on their watch. When you talk with people and ask them are you happy with your doctor they mostly say yes. when you ask them are you happy with your medical insurance provider they say no. So when the American public wakes up to the fact that it is not the government that controls their health care it is the insurance companies and then demands that be changed we will start to see a huge cost savings. Wouldn't it be nice if you could travel throughout the US and receive the same quality of care for the same price and not have to always worry what your deductible or out of pocket expenses would be? Imagine having to get health services and not have to fill out pages and pages of forms but just show your medical ID card like you do with your drivers license? We have been conditioned to except all of this because of our fear of not having insurance and what that can mean to you and your family from a fiscal point. Tell me why when you have an emergency and you go through the Emergency Door you are charged more? Try this go in the main door with your emergency and see where you end up and what it costs you and ask yourself why does it make a difference which door I enter the hospital through?
    barney290 09/06/2013 09:03 AM
  • The medical industry, insurance companies and, perhaps unwittingly or maybe compliantly, the federal government have conspired to drive healthcare costs through the roof in this country. A recent survey showed healthcare costs in the U.S. triple anywhere else in the world. And it's just because everybody's out to make the maximum buck off everybody else. Since the ACA runs through insurance companies, there's no reason to believe it will be a cureall. At best it might help some around the edges.
    BearinFW 09/05/2013 08:12 PM
  • Finally someone that gets it! Yes the costs are high but look to where they stem from? It is the insurance companies. Why are we paying money to the insurance companies and in turn they tell our medical providers what they will pay them and what procedures they can use. It is an insane way of providing health care and the ACA law is a step in the right direction to fix this. Look into who is providing most of the money to fund commercials and politicians to fight the new law. I am not sure where people are getting their information about costs and who it is hurting because it has not been implemented for all of the uninsured yet that happens 1/1/2014. Those of us with coverage have received rebates,lower rates of increase and less money for prescriptions. The US pays far more and receives for less than all other countries around the world. It is time we get out of the insurance business and into the health care business.
    barney290 09/05/2013 07:39 AM
  • Well, these numbers are going to vary some by state. Toole, you're up in NY. But if the kind of prices mentioned in the AP survey hold true down here in TX, nobody's going to be able to afford ACA insurance, and then if they're just going to be taxed for something they get nothing for, there are going to be A LOT of very unhappy people.

    We'll see how things work out (what choice do we have?), but the early signs don't look good at all in terms of the goal of getting the vast majority of Americans insured. If these numbers are right, the only difference may be that more of the poor and most kids will be insured. But people in the middle would be hurt more than helped. If this holds true, the Dems may be facing a bloodbath in the 2014 elections.
    BearinFW 09/04/2013 10:55 PM
  • I’m paying close to seven and a half hundred a month and when I did need the use of the insurance they told me that the doctors were requesting an experimental procedure... radiation treatments following a cancer operation on a lymphoma. Now, think about it. Do you really want a corporation with a board of directors who are ‘only interested’ in their share-holders to make medical decisions ‘on’ you?... We would never have a chance to influence the corporate directors and their claim decision making clerks... clerks who are paid bonuses for the greatest number of reductions in service or flat out rejections. The alternative... though truthfully a weak one at best... is directed (in concept) on what the people as a whole want through our convoluted petitioning of our representatives who depend upon us for votes. It is ‘some chance’ rather than ‘no chance’ at all. My doctors, all with whom I used to work for up at Columbia/Presbyterian, are in total agreement that they can only truly fulfill their Hippocratic oath for the greatest good by having a single payer insurance, like medicare and give private insurance real competition. The insurance companies are amongst the highest profit corporations in the US today as are the drug companies. I truly believe that I would not be alive today if I had to depend on the benevolences of the insurance industry who I pay through the nose.
    MachineToole 09/04/2013 09:02 PM