Employee Health Insurance Costs Barely Increased This Year

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by whell

That about sums it up for ya...

Go parse someone who gives a crap in Romney's hat Mike.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Haha, still blaming the GOP when the Dems had 60 votes and STILL couldn't do it

Pete

Pffffffttt, still on with that bit of malarkey eh Pete.

[piece-itpete]

I enjoy saying it

Pete

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by whell

That, of course, is the key to the entire article. The Kaiser foundation study is only looking at premium costs for plans purchased, not premium costs for LIKE PLANS year over year. So, what's really happening here is that the plans that are being purchased are "less rich" year over year, which is the key reason that the spend on premium is rising at a lower rate. Its rising at a lower rate because last year the plan had a $1000 deductible, and this year the employers/employees couldn't afford that, so they opted for the $1500 deductible plan instead. So the employer / employees had a 3 or 4% renewal versus a 10 -12% renewal.

So, to those of you crowing and preening about the wonders of Obamacare and rolling out the predictable "blame Rupbs" mantra, suggest you take a closer look at the facts.

Co-pays and deductibles have been on the rise since way before Obama took office.

And for the record I have always maintained that ROMNEYOBAMACARE sucks.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Haha, still blaming the GOP when the Dems had 60 votes and STILL couldn't do it

Pete

All it took was for one turncoat Dem to break ranks and you Repukes had your filibuster. The insurance companies bought about six just for good measure.

Lieberman was the worst because he turned traitor in a blue state.

Most of the others were red state Dems. That doesn't excuse them, but it wasn't as bad as Lieberman's betrayal.

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

All it took was for one turncoat Dem to break ranks and you Repukes had your filibuster. The insurance companies bought about six just for good measure.

Lieberman was the worst because he turned traitor in a blue state.

Most of the others were red state Dems. That doesn't excuse them, but it wasn't as bad as Lieberman's betrayal.

Ayup. That's what I was talking about. Sure is funny how that facet of the sausage making eludes most 'pubbies like my friend Pete.

[Tom Joad]

Now, let's go back to this graphic.



Here we can see that between 1999 and 2014 the cost of the average family plan went from $5,791 per year to $16,784 per year. That's an average of about 7.4% a year over the 15 year period.

Now lets look at the consumer price index for the same period.

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Between 1999 and 2014 it has increased 43%. That's an average of 2.4% a year. So the rate of inflation for Health Insurance has averaged about three times the rate of overall inflation.

People there is no way to explain that in any way other than to say that the American Public is getting screwed by the Health Care Industry. It's not all the insurance companies either. It's them and the entire industry. Doctors, Hospitals, Drug companies, medical supply, etc. They are all in it together, ripping us off.

[nailer]

The business of America is big business and most of the politicians, Dem or Rep, use this to their advantage.

[piece-itpete]

Originally Posted by bobabode

Ayup. That's what I was talking about. Sure is funny how that facet of the sausage making eludes most 'pubbies like my friend Pete.

Doesn't change the facts my leftie friend

Pete

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Doesn't change the facts my leftie friend

Pete

The facts are that it takes a hell of a lot more than 60 Dems to get progressive legislation passed in the Senate.

In 1935 when the Social Security act passed FDR had 69 Democrats, 25 Republicans, and 2 others.

In 1965 when the Medicare act passed LBJ had 68 Democrats and 32 Republicans.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774721.html

This country really needs to have ratios like that again so we can get back on the right track.