Escalating Health Insurance Premiums

A recent AMA News article http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/12/20/gvbf1220.htm highlights the increase of employer based health insurance premiums even BEFORE the so called "ObamaCare" was enacted by Congress and signed into law. One of California's largest health insurers - Blue Shield - announced plans to hike its premiums by as much as 59%. The jacked up premium rates are set to take effect on March 1, pending review from state insurance regulators. The move impacts 193,000 individual Blue Shield policy holders. The company, a member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association with 3.3 million members, which announced the move late Thursday, stressed that its decision has "almost nothing to do with the federal health reform law" and that ultimately the law will help slow down health care costs. But responding to this most recent increase the company said, "our individual market medical costs are rising rapidly due to higher provider prices, increased utilization, and the fact that healthier people are dropping coverage during a bad economy," the company said.
These are FACTS but, unfortunately, many are using FICTION to twist the reality claiming that the new health care law triggers a premium increase even BEFORE most of its components will be in effect in 2014.

Yours

Bernd


Health premiums leap 41% from 2003

Between 2003 and 2009, employer-based premiums for family health insurance coverage rose an average 41%, according to a Commonwealth Fund report released Dec. 2. Delaware saw the lowest increase at 21%, and Louisiana experienced the highest jump at 59%.

Although health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable for families, the report concluded that provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could help reverse the unsustainable increases. If implemented properly, provisions of the health reform law -- including tax credits for small businesses, dependent coverage for young adults up to age 26 and elimination of co-payments for preventive care -- could ensure that patients continue to see their physicians, the study said.