Insurance is going up

> My Insurance guy wrote me a email today saying that our company insurance (Blue Cross) is going up 20% for the year and next year after the Obama Care (Affordable Care Act) kicks in it will go up 60 % . I have paid for my employees Insurance 100% for the 17 years I have been in business . I am afraid this may change or forgo raises . There is only so much money that can be spread around to stay in business . Sometime I wonder if its worth it.

Posted before...We dropped the health bennie back in '03 after BCBS doubled our group HMO premiums 3 years in a row. Each employee received $1 and a business card for a local insurance agent.

> My Insurance guy wrote me a email today....

His timing could be better.

Blue Cross profits, executive pay up in 2013

Sounds to me like you have been very gracious to pay 100% all those years. I've never had that. Let them start to kick some and know exactly why.
Then suggest to them they should let their legislatures know how it is impacting them. Most especially Harry Reid who claims it's all lies.

I beg forgiveness should this turn political.
E

darn

we saw a steady increase in Harvard Pilgrim since the announcement of ACA

so we just switched to BlueCross

we still pay 50% of our employees

There are two separate issues here:

1. The amount a business is willing to contribute toward employee health insurance. Determining this is a simple business decision, and it's only incidentally related to changes in the cost of insurance.

2. The increasing cost of health insurance, which has been rising much faster than the official rate of inflation for over a decade. The predicted large jump in the cost of coverage due to the ACA is due in part - and maybe in large part - to the increased benefits required by the ACA.

> My Insurance guy wrote me a email today saying that our company insurance (Blue Cross) is going up 20% for the year and next year after the Obama Care (Affordable Care Act) kicks in it will go up 60 % . I have paid for my employees Insurance 100% for the 17 years I have been in business . I am afraid this may change or forgo raises . There is only so much money that can be spread around to stay in business . Sometime I wonder if its worth it.

Agreed. We had to swap our renewal date to see if Congress can fix the crazy increases. Ours was about 1k/month for all employees and it's doubled with no rational explanation why other than the ACA. No new group members, no issues with being sick, nada.

Jim

We experienced No. 2. We have to carry maternity and other items we never use (directed toward women). We had the cafeteria plan that fit the company and employees and was tweaked as necessary.

considering that my coverage is actually worse than before the ACA, I have to say I find the increased premium is not due to more or better coverage, in fact I now have to pay an extra 1000 deductible and a 200 prescription deductible plus a 30% copay to keep the insurance at a 30% increased cost from last year...It would have been far better to just have a premium increase. I stopped paying health benefits due to the ACA.

> 2. The increasing cost of health insurance, which has been rising much faster than the official rate of inflation for over a decade. The predicted large jump in the cost of coverage due to the ACA is due in part - and maybe in large part - to the increased benefits required by the ACA.

Don't forget to include the outrageous increases in co-pays and minimum out of pocket costs before the POS [un]AHCA crap kicks in.

I won't lay total blame on increasing health-care costs strictly to that stuff.
I WILL lay a huge amount of blame on ambulance chasing lawyers looking to sue anyone for anything.
There used to be a time when doctors, lawyers, pharmaceuticals were not allowed to advertise. They let the flood gates open about the same time they stopped tobacco and alcohol sponsors for basically anything.
I don't care what they say. The top level of NASCAR is still the Winston Cup and the next down is still the Busch Series.

Apologies to Wendell and Angel. This is sure to become political.

That pretty much says it all. Wages up 16% ... Healthcare up 818% ...

Yep...there's the doubling each year from 2000-2003.

Follow the money. Profit driven healthcare is working for somebody, but I don't think it's anyobody posting here. All politics aside of course.

Wow....all I can say.

Do you work for your self or employed by private or public sector .

> Do you work for your self or employed by private or public sector .

I've run my own company since '90...'bout 8 years longer than you, eh?
I've had up to a dozen employees at any given time. I have plenty of experience when it comes to offering and managing health, retirement and other company benefits.

The family plan I had back in 2003 cost $480 monthly for me and my wife.

Now the plan is over $2k monthly to include our daughter.

To bring it down to $900 monthly we had to raise the deductible to $14k and other watered down coverage that pays near nothing and everything is out of pocket.

They ask for the 29% increase for the last three years straight and was told that would probably continue because of the new healthcare laws.

On top of all that, they grandfathered us into a group that does not have to comply with the new healthcare act to provide yearly physicals and required payment for certain tests.

I fired them at the end of 2013 and we are entering into Obamacare system whether it be good or bad with a cheap policy.

🙁

Where I used to work, I heard the boss kicked everyone off a group plan and now gives them a monthly "bonus" to purchase their own health insurance off the exchanges. Supposedly, it's saving him a lot of money, and I guess it makes sense since most survey employees will probably qualify for a subsidy.

Commie. 😉