This is why I feel the "most Americans like their health insurance" cliche is complete garbage.
I loved my health insurance before Obamacare. I had a nice catastrophic coverage plan that was perfect for me. Now those are illegal.
Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
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Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#42Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
But the individual policies on the exchange have increased year over year as well, and a lot of those insurers on the exchange went out of business/disappeared after 2-3 years anyway. (from 2017-2018 for example insurance on the exchange increased 32% for silver plans and 20% for Gold plans)
What does that have to do with what tempsy wrote?
The articles is about employer health plans getting more expensive, the comment was about employer health plans getting more expensive...whats the alternative to an employer provided health plan? An individual private plan, I thought it seemed relevant those are increasing in cost too (at a much higher rate).
Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#44The sooner we can completely divorce healthcare from employment, the better.
I hear this statement all the time...but what does it mean? If employers didn't provide health insurance to employees wouldn't we just wind up with 40% of the insured uninsured? Its not like Corporate America is going to make up the difference and start paying cash to compensate for the lost benefit, at least thats what happened as pensions got stripped away from the workplace. Even if the employer's did make up the…
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Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
But the individual policies on the exchange have increased year over year as well, and a lot of those insurers on the exchange went out of business/disappeared after 2-3 years anyway. (from 2017-2018 for example insurance on the exchange increased 32% for silver plans and 20% for Gold plans)
I don't understand what that has to do my comment. I never mentioned anything about the exchanges. Health insurance policies generally get more expensive year over year for everyone, whether an employer is paying for it or you as an individual.
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Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#46This is why I feel the "most Americans like their health insurance" cliche is complete garbage.
Nobody does. The real translation is old people don’t want to change doctors.
It's worth pointing out that for the vast majority of people doctors != insurance. The payer is not the provider.
The refrain of "people like their health insurance" deliberately conflates the two. People like their doctors, not their insurance. Doctors accept multiple insurance companies.
Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#47The sooner we can completely divorce healthcare from employment, the better.
I hear this statement all the time...but what does it mean? If employers didn't provide health insurance to employees wouldn't we just wind up with 40% of the insured uninsured? Its not like Corporate America is going to make up the difference and start paying cash to compensate for the lost benefit, at least thats what happened as pensions got stripped away from the workplace. Even if the employer's did make up the…
1 - If my company buys health insurance for me, its tax deductible(pre-tax), if I buy it myself it is after-tax. Now companies are can just gross-up pay, and don't have to compete on healthcare...
2) Pooling remains an issue, but as it stands now, consumers have little to no choice, one would imagine that once a 125m households start shopping for insurance there is going to be competition on price...
in most circumstances
Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> individuals can't negotiate individual insurance rates, pools of employees can negotiate group rates, so if anything costs would probably go up This is why the exchanges exist. They're huge pools of people on a group rate. New York state negotiates with insurers on my behalf, and is additionally able to regulate their premium increases each year.
Who is in charge of negotiating for this pool? Just as an example between 2017-2018 the average silver plan went up 32% and the average gold plan 20%, who the hell negotiated that? At least with the employer provided insurance the employer is negotiating, and you know who that is and you know they have a self-interest in keeping costs down.
Sure the employer negotiates the plan, but they are not negotiating on behalf of their employees, they are negotiating based on how much the employer is willing to spend. When the squeeze happens, the employer pays the same amount for a slimmer plan and the employees pay more in the form of wages and deductibles.
Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#49I think another thing about employer-based healthcare that few think about is that if you work for a large company then it is almost certainly self-insured, meaning that you or your employer is paying premiums into a fund that it is managing itself.
How crazy is it to think that not only does Apple or Ford or Trader Joe's need to manage it's own business but that it is also hiring actuaries/insurance specialists/consultants etc to manage a complex insurance program for all of its workers? I'm not sure many people that work at large companies realize that their employer knows every diagnosis, procedure, and prescription you've ever picked up, and actively trying to incentivize you to use as little healthcare as possible.
Re: Employer health plans are getting pricier and skimpier
#50In no other country is your healthcare tied to your employment but the US. Germany has had a national healthcare system since around 1880 (after the country was unified, based on what Krupp did for their employees). Why is the US the outlier (also in cost per capita)?
During World War II wages were frozen to focus on the war efforts so employers used ancillary benefits to attract workers. Then things carried on from there. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-th...