Anthem Blue Cross of California to raise health insurance as much as 39%

[Pox Eclipse]

Insurer Blames 'Demographics' For 39% Premium Increase In California

Sassi said a minority of Anthem Blue Cross's 800,000 individual policy holders in California will see rate increases as high as 39 percent. Most premiums will rise around 24 percent when the rates take effect March 1.

The parent company, Wellpoint, only made a $2.7 billion profit last quarter, so the need for a increase is understandable.

Anybody still believe we don't need some kind of radical health care reform?

[eddiescabin]

Yes, i believe that we do NOT need more Government intervention into private commerce.  Can't afford Anthem, get another health insurance, can't afford that?  Maybe some additional education will help you get a better job. I certainly do not need the government to wipe my butt!  But then I did not go to school to eat my lunch.

[muldoon]

seems to me government regulation is part of the problem now. 

Why can't Californians buy health care insurance from a company in North Dakota or New Mexico where it might be cheaper?  Because there are rules that you cannot buy out of state coverage. 

take away all subsidies of all kind for medical coverage, the prices of health care will drop like a stone. 
take away all subsidies of all kind for college, the prices of college will drop like a stone. 
take away all subsidies of all kind for housing, the prices of houses will drop like a stone. 

We dont need more damn programs to help people pay for things, we need to stop putting trillions of dollars into the system *paying for things* so that prices return to sane levels. 

Take a look at this from last week.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/fire-department-bills-basic-services-horrify-residents-insurance/story?id=9736696

Firefighters billing people whos house burns down 20-30grand.  because insurance will pay it.
Billing people 700 dollars to transport to emergency room. 

For 700 dollars, you can get a doctor in a BMW at your house.  The problem is too much "assistance" .. 

[Pox Eclipse]

You are under the quaint illusion that there is a free market in health insurance, where competition keeps rates down.

Welcome to the real world:

In 21 states, the top two insurance vendors control more than 70 percent of the market, while in nine states that portion has been captured by a single provider. In Alabama, for instance, Blue Cross/Blue Shield controls 83 percent of the market. In Rhode Island, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and UnitedHealth together own 95 percent. As the report notes, "The U.S. Justice Department considers a market 'highly concentrated' if one company holds more than a 42 percent share of that market, a level that is common in...more than 30...states."

The notion that consumers can vote with their wallets when choosing health insurance would be laughable if not for the thousands who will die because they simply cannot afford health care.  In the very near future, this will include not only those at the bottom of the economic ladder, but those squarely in the middle class as more and more employers drop health insurance benefits or shift more and more of the premiums to the employeee.


Sooner or later, something has to give, and saying it isn't your problem (yet) is not a very responsible way to make sure our population is healthy enough to compete with nations with universal health care.

[muldoon]

You are under the quaint illusion that there is a free market in health insurance, where competition keeps rates down.

I think there would be some support to fixing the above.  if they want to completely "re-do" healthcare, they can re-do it however they want.  Changing the above is legitimately an option.  It just doesnt generate as much wealth so it's not an attractive option. 

 

[eddiescabin]

Muldoon, $700 is a deal for an ambulance!  Try $3000 for a 3 mile ride here in California,  but it is a deal to have 2+ trained professionals show up at O'dark thirty if you are about to die. BTW, the USA already has free health  care, if it is an emergency you will not be turned away anywhere in this country, even if you are in the country illegally.  These lawbreaking vermin have no true identity to the credit bureaus, thus they never pay and do not care what happens to their non-existant credit rating.  Something the lawmakers SHOULD concern themselves with is stoping the lowlife illegals from jumping the fence.  they break a law to get in and some think they will respect any law?  Foolishly  the state/feds provide welfare, WIC, food stamps etc.  to these tax cheats and societal leeches.

[glenn kangiser]

$5000+ for 120 miles for Sassy last year - just an ambulance transfer.

Delay in increase

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fi-anthem14-2010feb14,0,747384.story

[eddiescabin]

That's scary Glenn, and I'm in no way saying things do not need fixed. I just do not believe an entire layer of Govt. needs to be invented. The Govt cannot run anything efficiently. One can just casually think of the insurance premiums we pay, though they can be out of hand crazy, but when compared to the price tag medical providers are putting on the services...it is bizarre to think my $7500/year even puts a dent in the outlay an insurer "supposedly" pays for the service.  There seems to be a need to fix the inequities in the "retail" price and actual cost of providing the service.  If that cannot be done it all sounds like another ponzi scheme house of cards.

[glenn kangiser]

Now you are starting to get it, Eddie.

There is already an entire unseen layer of government directing things for their profit.  Our congress critters are nearly all two faced double agents serving not the people but the interests of the elite, big business and their own investments.  They just made it legal for corporations to buy their own politician - sale goes to the highest bidder - no spending limits....  see what our criminal _SupremeCourt did here....  they of course are owned too....    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html

Congress critters are heavily invested in AIG and other insurances.  Why would they fix anything in a way that does not bring them even more profit.  Hopefully they soon break the system and are out starving in the streets.  If that happens I'll bet they do not want to let anybody know who they are.

The shell game... make pacifying moves for the people.  Keep so much stirred up that there is no way the people will keep track then swith it to their sugar daddies benefit.  The bailout peoples choice was no and hell, no per muldoon.  They all told my wife in e-mail replies they would not support the bailout.  They all supported it because they were invested in the companies they bailed out in one place or another.  

They don't really scare me, Eddie.  They disgust me.  All that greed and no integrity.  

Quote from Daniel K. Inouye    

"There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force,
its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and
the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest,
free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself."

J. Edgar Hoover, quotes about Conspiracy:  
The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst.

[eddiescabin]

I'm right with you Glenn, I (from what little "they" allowed us to read) do not think the Health Care Bill was going to help.  You mentioned AIG...their "credit default swaps" were an easy thing regulators could/should have seen a mile away.  Basically a CDS is an insurance policy on the performance of mortgage backed securities...the glaring prob I see is that anyone, even if not invested in the mortgage backed security could buy a policy on it's performance. Regulators SHOULD have limited the CDS to those who were actually invested in the security and only for dollar amounts up to the amount they were in for.  This would have kept people from betting against/ adding incentive for failure