Health Insurance companies making rounds to sell higher rates

My company's health CARe SALESMEN  met with less than an eager crowd today during "Open Enrollement" announcing a fat increase for next year...nearly 35 percent.  It wasn't a tea party crowd but the hostility was there with all the national exposure about Big Bad Blue Companies looking like holdup artists. No smiles after the meeting, fer sure.  Why the increase?  Because health care costs are rising, or because it takes a lot more money to bribe Congress with lobbyists and contributions to keep things as they are?

I left my company's meeting today feeling much better about ANYTHING Obama's crowd comes up with.  Whats the difference between a Medicare TAX  or an Insurance PREMIUM payroll deduction? Nuthin really.  It's just shared risk.

Learned something interesting.   health care company will completely pay for your horrible COLONOSCOPY if you get it as "PREVENTATIVE", ...BUT IF YOUR TELL YOUR DOCTOR you have a STOMACH ACHE first, then its classified "DIAGNOSTIC" and so falls under the deductible and co-=pay rules that YOU would pay!  Also true with the expensive EKG.  Tricky, huh?

YOU PAY FIRST!  In fact, some health care plans won't pay you a NICKEL until you've paid your premiums and the entire annual deductible.  The insurance saleswomen, all slick and polished tried to dis our CFO who pointed out that the average $25,000 worker will pay out more than $3,000 in premiums and deductibles before the insurance will pay so much as a nickel of your expenses. That's a quarter of low paid workers income, even before they get sick!

How does Big Insurance make its money?  Hoping you'll pay to cover yourself but not get as sick as you think you might.  It's all about fear and paying RETAIL for piece of mind..

You have to be an expert in deciding on today's plans and managing them.  And speculating on your health for next year.  Then there's the USE IT OR LOSE IT flex plans to give a slight break on your personal payouts.  They have us GAMBLING that we'll be sick!  They don't RIGHTSIZE your Flex Account.  That makes too much sense.  Who keeps the LOSE IT part of what you paid into your FlexAccount but didn't use?  Your company!  Sweet, huh?

Today's corporate health care system makes a government OPTION--  without all the fine print and tricky crap very -- very attractive!  I never heard anybody having trouble with the feds paying their parents' bills under Medicare.  No haggling over what's covered and what's not.  Course big insurance has stockholders to pay and they use a piece of your premiums to go on TV hire lobbiests to  convince you and your Congressman to leave things as they are!


I expect even Republicans-- who've been  blindly dissing health care reform -- will swallow hard this year as they listen to the rate increases and technicalities at work.  Employers don't offer choices as to which COMPANY to get, but rather THE BOSS'S CHOSEN COMPANY that offers three equally lousy plans --- and expecting us to look into a crystal ball to speculate if we get sick or have an accident!.  Pick the LEAST bad of the three options, which of course you can't know, because you're not sick get!!  Like bettin against the house at one of the boats!

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS  PRESENTATIONS -- slick, like talkin to the car dealership's Finance Man to close the deal -- you already in trouble and you can't get the carkeys until he's done upselling you!    Even with their slick Powerpoint presentations showing pictures of very happy  models to distract us from the GRIM NUMBERS of the costs... the insurance company presenters' carefully-crafted speeches talk only about what they DO pay.   Well, given that the government hopes to take away Big Insurance's monopoly stranglehold on us, they have a lot of guts to raise their rates THIS year! 

Me... I'd rather my boss not pay part of my insurance and choose the company.  I'd rather they just gave me a voucher and let me buy my OWN on the open market.   To include sending it to the Government if I'd elect for a "Medicare for All" plan.