Obamacare Deductibles 26% Higher Make Cheap Rates a Risk – Bloomberg

2013

I’m not willing to say President Obama lied again … but 🙊

His constant message of “affordable” health care was focused on premiums and anyone who accepted that logic will be in for a big surprise when shopping for insurance. For many Americans blinded by the anti-insurance company rhetoric, it is still hard to accept a simple fact; higher benefits equal higher premiums 😡 lower premiums equal lower benefits (higher deductibles and overall out of pocket costs). 😡 That’s just a fact.

And here’s a thought for Mr. Saphire (see below); yes, a $5,000 deductible is insurance. That’s the kind of coverage millions upon millions of workers with employer-based coverage currently have. What is NOT insurance is a low deductible, minimal co-pays and services reimbursed at 100% with no out-of-pocket costs. You see, our President has convinced many people that affordable means free and that if you beat up on insurance companies, the reality of health care costs and their relationship to premiums magically evaporates. He li … misinformed. 😛

Americans seeking cheap insurance on the Obamacare health exchanges may be in for sticker shock if they get sick next year, as consumers trade lower premiums for out-of-pocket costs that can top $6,000 a person.

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama talks about the rollout of his health-care law and his decision to give Americans who’ve received cancellation notices from their insurers a one-year reprieve before they have to get new policies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Obama, speaking at a White House news conference, also discusses U.S. aid to the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan and negotiations with Iran over that country’s nuclear program. (Source: Bloomberg)

Expenses for some policies can reach $6,350 for a single person and $12,700 per family, the most allowed by the health-care law, according to a survey by HealthPocket Inc. of seven states, including California and Ohio. That’s 26 percent higher than the average deductible in the seven states, and a scenario likely repeated across the country, said Kev Coleman, head of research and data at Sunnyvale, California-based HealthPocket.

Private employers have been raising deductibles and co-pays for years to help control costs on health coverage for their workers. Now insurers are using the tactic to lower premiums on the government-run exchanges. While that has allowed President Barack Obama to tout the affordability of plans, it poses a choice: Do consumers gamble they won’t face a major medical bill, or boost monthly premiums just in case?

“If you have to pay $5,000 upfront” when illness hits, “you might as well not have any insurance at all,” said Larry Saphire, 82, of West Orange, New Jersey, who shopped for coverage for his wife and two children, ages 16 and 21. “That’s not insurance.”

On California’s state-run exchange site, the standard low-premium “bronze” plan carries a $5,000 deductible per person, a $60 co-pay to see a doctor and a 30 percent fee, known as coinsurance, on hospital care. In Rhode Island, Blue Cross Blue Shield’s bronze plan has a $5,800 deductible while Missouri’s U.S.-run exchange offers plans by Anthem Blue Cross with the maximum-allowable $6,350 in out-of-pocket costs.

via Obamacare Deductibles 26% Higher Make Cheap Rates a Risk – Bloomberg.