BC / BS of TN

[A.J. Holst]

Reported on WUOT, 91.9 on your radio dial, er display.

Will be requesting permission for premium increases.

I swear I heard "by an average of 62%"

PERHAPS the 62% increase is spread amongst all the policy holders remitting  premium?  Equally?

Yikes.

I have done no additional fact checking.

Rename it the Affordable Care Tax 

 

[MacGyver]

I got my letter the other day.  They did not specify the amount in the letter.  I've heard the 62% figure. The state said they asked for 36.3%.  

[btq96r]

BCBS had offers WAY below CIGNA and the others ones in the ACA Marketplace.  Not sure if they were hoping people just didn't use the services like they did, or the .gov teat would subsidize their losses, but the rate increase request being this big seems to be them admitting their strategy the first few years didn't work out.

More discussion here:

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/91913-obamacare-rate-increase/?page=4

 

[Chucktshoes]

I got my letter from UHC letting me know that they weren't offering my plan next year. Of course I knew that because they are pulling out of the exhanges all together. 

[Oh Shoot]

1 minute ago, Chucktshoes said:

I got my letter from UHC letting me know that they weren't offering my plan next year. Of course I knew that because they are pulling out of the exhanges all together. 

Geez, weren't they the biggest?

[Pain103]

 My employer went back to BCBS a few months ago and it jacked my rates up. I was paying $108 a month for family coverage before with UHC now $260 a month. Keeps going it will be more expensive to be a working member of society than to just get the gubment handout.

[Chucktshoes]

13 hours ago, Oh Shoot said:

Geez, weren't they the biggest?

Yep. They have essentially declared the exhanges a disaster by saying that even with the .gov kickbacks they can't make them profitable. 

[jpx2rk]

I'm on my wife's BCBS thru her work, and its' $400/mo just to add me on to her policy.  There was an increase but her employer picked up the increase.  She wants to retire in December, so I dont know what we'll do then.  Go broke paying for horrible insurance coverage.  

[94user]

21 hours ago, MacGyver said:

I got my letter the other day.  They did not specify the amount in the letter.  I've heard the 62% figure. The state said they asked for 36.3%.  

The 36% was for this year.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2016/06/10/tennessee-exchange-rate-requests-2017/85569454/

[Scorpion Equalizer]

Yep, I guess you can say that voting has consequences.

[greenego]

Like others, I got my letter from BCBS week or so ago. My insurance, just for little old (62) me is now over $500 per month. This is up from a little over $300 a year ago. Only health issue is cholesterol. Take 5mg of creator. and go to the DR twice a year. So i am paying over $6000 a year now, and by the way high deductible policy. If it goes up 36% i will be paying around $700 a month. .

[Dane]

  Keeps going it will be more expensive to be a working member of society than to just get the gubment handout.

Isn't that the point?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[krunchnik]

So my major concern is what does a person do if they absolutely cannot pay these premiums-if ya aint got it ya cant send it!!!

[Oh Shoot]

6 hours ago, krunchnik said:

So my major concern is what does a person do if they absolutely cannot pay these premiums-if ya aint got it ya cant send it!!!

Well, just like before, one goes uninsured. There are still about 28 million uninsured in the US (measured through 2015), and even HuffPo admits in Feb article of this year that figure may hold pretty steady.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-uninsured-rates_us_56b90b93e4b08069c7a872dd

What they don't mention is that as rates soar, more of the newly insured will again lose coverage because they can no longer afford it, and the total may well simply climb back to pre-ACA levels.

You'll note that both Hillary and especially Bernie have been ranting about how healthcare needs major overhaul. Same mantra as before Obamacare, eh?

- OS

Edited June 24, 2016 by Oh Shoot

[bersaguy]

I think a lot of what is driving the costs up it the amount of Doctors that are opting out of the ACA and the doctors that are staying are charging triple plus for services. I honestly don't see how people can be expected to pay the premiums when they have to pay a $3,000.00+ deductible before the ACA plan pays a dime. I have one friend down in SC that has a $5,000.00 on each him and his wife and pays 690.00 a month premiums. Before the ACA he was paying 425.00 a month and had a $1000.00 deductible. he cannot find a doctor near him that takes the ACA at all.

[Oh Shoot]

3 minutes ago, bersaguy said:

...... he cannot find a doctor near him that takes the ACA at all.

Sounds like incomplete info to me, as that doesn't make much sense. Doctors contract to accept certain insurance companies, not "ACA". Since all the insurance companies that offer plans through the online exchanges also offer them just straight to consumer, there's really no difference, if a doctor accepts Blue Cross/Shield, Aetna, UHC, Cigna, whatever, then he accepts all the plans from those companies.

What insurance company does he have? Then you'd have to actually look around to see who takes it and who doesn't. I can't imagine hardly any docs don't accept insurance from any of the carriers that also offer their programs on the ACA exchanges, otherwise they'd be basically on a cash-only basis.

- OS

 

[Garufa]

Think what you will but this country needs to take over the health care industry and stop all this foolishness.  Regardless of Obamacare, we are going to reach that point anyway.  There is no way in hell the average citizen can afford health care at the rate costs are increasing and they have been increasing at this rate for years.

Prove me wrong....and tell me why.  "Death panels" and "free market economy" are not valid arguments.

[94user]

4 minutes ago, Oh Shoot said:

Sounds like incomplete info to me, as that doesn't make much sense. Doctors contract to accept certain insurance companies, not "ACA". Since all the insurance companies that offer plans through the online exchanges also offer them just straight to consumer, there's really no difference, if a doctor accepts Blue Cross/Shield, Aetna, UHC, Cigna, whatever, then he accepts all the plans from those companies.

What insurance company does he have? Then you'd have to actually look around to see who takes it and who doesn't. I can't imagine hardly any docs don't accept insurance from any of the carriers that also offer their programs on the ACA exchanges, otherwise they'd be basically on a cash-only basis.

- OS

 

My wife had a hard time finding a doctor that would accept her ACA plan. They mostly told us they could only accept X amount of people under the various BCBSTN  insurance we could afford.   It took several tries and in the end she ended up having to go to a nurse practitioner that has her own clinic.  NOT a doctor, and the fact that a NP can have his or her own clinic is also a farce when it comes to quality medical treatment. This NP sees as many people as she can in a day and told us she can only do so much or the insurance would deny her and our claims leaving ME holding the bag. It isn't pretty Mac.

[krunchnik]

Yup-right now I officially am not employed-My left shoulder has 2 tears and has what they call frozen shoulder on top of the tears which according to my specialist in my case is extremely difficult to fix due to the compounding effect.In short I have BCBS of Tenn-but not for long.My wife also has the same-BCBS thru her employer-just to add myself would cost us nearly $500.00 monthly

[Dustbuster]

Bcbs tn sucks ass. They should be shutdown for criminal fraud. Avoid like plague

[NextExit]

12 hours ago, Dustbuster said:

Bcbs tn sucks ass. They should be shutdown for criminal fraud. Avoid like plague

And with United Health Care leaving at the end of this year, that would leave us with only Humana.  Maybe Hillary can put us all on medicare.

[dawgdoc]

8 hours ago, NextExit said:

And with United Health Care leaving at the end of this year, that would leave us with only Humana.  Maybe Hillary can put us all on medicare.

I have been telling people since Obamacare passed that it seems the ultimate goal is to make everyone hate whatever insurance they have so that the people will beg the government to swoop in and save us all.  Every time I have to deal with insurance, it reaffirms my belief.

[rmiddle]

On 6/24/2016 at 8:01 PM, Oh Shoot said:

Sounds like incomplete info to me, as that doesn't make much sense. Doctors contract to accept certain insurance companies, not "ACA". Since all the insurance companies that offer plans through the online exchanges also offer them just straight to consumer, there's really no difference, if a doctor accepts Blue Cross/Shield, Aetna, UHC, Cigna, whatever, then he accepts all the plans from those companies.

What insurance company does he have? Then you'd have to actually look around to see who takes it and who doesn't. I can't imagine hardly any docs don't accept insurance from any of the carriers that also offer their programs on the ACA exchanges, otherwise they'd be basically on a cash-only basis.

- OS

 

They actually contract with certain insurance company's and plans.  Had a bit of a problem with my 1 doctor at one point not doing my plan.

Thanks

Robert

[xsubsailor]

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the state's biggest health insurer, will raise individual rates by 62 percent in 2017, or nearly double the 36 percent rate increase adopted this year by BlueCross. Small group rates in the marketplace exchange will rise by only 6.5 percent, however.

 

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2016/aug/23/state-approves-62-percent-jump-individual-health-exchange-rates-bluecross-next-year/382624/

[Omega]

"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan."

More like if you can afford your doctor!