Health Insurance Costs are Taking Biggest Jumps in Years - WSJ

Who's seeing major increases in their employee cost for health insurance next year? Did your company cover the increase or are employees sharing in the pain?

Just wait until it's free.

Doesn't matter what the cost is. It would have been $2500 higher without the ACA!

Just renewed ours with BCBS TX @ +9% y/y

Thank you Biden and the democrats for all the inflationary bills. America has their head up their butt.

18% out of pocket increase for same plan.

just spoke with my wife today about this topic it is the last day for her employer plan. we have always carried the platinum program and she told me that the costs of the bronze program is now more expensive than the best program we routinely had. i don't know the numbers but yeah it's not good.

It's basic economics. When you separate the cost of something from the point of consumption, the downward forces on prices go away, causing prices to go up disproportionately. When you do anything that insurance covers, you have absolutely no idea what the actual cost to anyone is and so don't take cost into consideration, which means prices for everyone will go up.

Sims said:

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Just renewed ours with BCBS TX @ +9% y/y

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Haven't renewed yet but just got quote from BCBS for company and have the same increase. One point to make is that our premiums are age-based so 1/2 of that increase is because everyone is a year older. On a same-age basis, premiums increased less than 5% so not terrible.

bEsT ecoNOMy eVER!

why would joe biden do this?

What's really insane is reimbursements for my specialty were cut 3% last year and over the last decade have been cut 25% for like work. When you take inflation into account it's almost a 50% cut. Insurance, drug companies, and hospitals/health systems are the only people happy with current system.

Phatbob said:

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It's basic economics. When you separate the cost of something from the point of consumption, the downward forces on prices go away, causing prices to go up disproportionately. When you do anything that insurance covers, you have absolutely no idea what the actual cost to anyone is and so don't take cost into consideration, which means prices for everyone will go up.

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This was the genesis of HSA's right? To put the pain a bit more on the employee in hopes of them seeking lower costs, but with the opportunity to gain (through funding of an HSA).

BIMS O1 said:

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What's really insane is reimbursements for my specialty were cut 3% last year and over the last decade have been cut 25% for like work. When you take inflation into account it's almost a 50% cut. Insurance, drug companies, and hospitals/health systems are the only people happy with current system.

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As someone who works for an insurance company, we aren't thrilled either. Inflation has pushed cost up, the unhealthiest, keep getting worse, since it's hard to get pcp appointments, people just go to the er which is costly. For most plans over 90% of the cost come from 10% or less of that group. So blame and shame the ones you see, that's what's crushing your plan, you're just subsidizing it.

I have Humana. Had it since 2009. Humana is no longer offering health insurance in Texas. Not given a reason why.

BIMS O1 said:

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What's really insane is reimbursements for my specialty were cut 3% last year and over the last decade have been cut 25% for like work. When you take inflation into account it's almost a 50% cut. Insurance, drug companies, and hospitals/health systems are the only people happy with current system.

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FDA and NIH are happy as well, especially the NIH, since its employees got kick backs for over one billion dollars from Pfizer and Moderna

My employee count went down one person, cost went up 14%.

This thread got me thinking on the way home that it seems it would get to a point that corporations would almost be better off bringing healthcare in house. I mean you think about the energy corridor; with just Bp, shell and conoco, you have I would guess easily 10,000 employees and the employers are probably shelling out $25,000 per employee for healthcare if I had to guess. $250million a year probably starts to fund a decent medical facility limited to our employees and then you have the scale to negotiate emergency only insurance the employees can pay for.

I mean my company in that group already has doctors, eye doctor, PT, dentists all on site anyways, just start forcing employees hands.

This is one I wouldn't blame on Biden. Our total insurance costs have been going up rapidly for a couple of decades now including under Trump. Why? As some said you have a dislocation between who pays and who decides on health care, bureaucracy, tailored medical care costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, litigation, etc.

As for most of the rest of the inflation we are seeing…..

I'm very fortunate that my employer has increased their contribution and mine are actually dropping almost 20%.

Cost and coverage unchanged again this year. Completely unexpected but glad to have it.

Kansas Kid said:

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This is one I wouldn't blame on Biden. Our total insurance costs have been going up rapidly for a couple of decades now including under Trump. Why? As some said you have a dislocation between who pays and who decides on health care, bureaucracy, tailored medical care costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, litigation, etc.

As for most of the rest of the inflation we are seeing…..

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Well you'd be wrong because they have spiked more the last 2 years dramatically more than previously .

IIRC, Obamacare killed emergency only plans.

Greener Acres said:

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Health Insurance Costs are Taking Biggest Jumps in Years - WSJ

Who's seeing major increases in their employee cost for health insurance next year? Did your company cover the increase or are employees sharing in the pain?

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I own a small business. Our rates increased 18% this year. National average for small businesses was a 15% increase.

Old McDonald said:

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why would joe biden do this?

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I'm pretty sure you're being sarcastic, but Biden didn't do this, Obama did.

As sure as the sun comes up tomorrow, expenses will increase every single year. Phatbob put it best, but when a third party payer assumes the expenses, the buyer doesn't give a damn what the fees are. Over time, expenses increase and will continue to increase forever until the third party payer attempts to arrest the increase of the costs, which they can't do, only revenues.

The government can only control revenues. It happens to every single socialized medical operation in the world and it's guaranteed. I'd bet my life on it like a physics law.

It would have been one thing if government control of medicine had never been tried, but there are hundreds of governments throughout the world that control their medical industry, and it's NEVER been successful without the patient suffering. It will be the same here--period!

Our rates went up 13% this year and company contribution went up to help some. Our coverage sucks given how big a company we are. I went to Mexico recently for stem cell therapy on my back because our insurance refused to cover me on surgery or anything to help. So, I went an alternative route at a lower cost.

Luckily my company is covering the increase this time around. Our premiums have stayed flat for 3 years.

The Lost said:

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BIMS O1 said:

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What's really insane is reimbursements for my specialty were cut 3% last year and over the last decade have been cut 25% for like work. When you take inflation into account it's almost a 50% cut. Insurance, drug companies, and hospitals/health systems are the only people happy with current system.

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As someone who works for an insurance company, we aren't thrilled either. Inflation has pushed cost up, the unhealthiest, keep getting worse, since it's hard to get pcp appointments, people just go to the er which is costly. For most plans over 90% of the cost come from 10% or less of that group. So blame and shame the ones you see, that's what's crushing your plan, you're just subsidizing it.

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Insurance companies are posting record profits. UHC posted something like a $7B profit a couple quarters ago. The employers are who are paying for the cost of care, not the insurance company. I know there are exceptions but a solid majority are employer funded.

Looking at 34% increase coming up for renewal. I pay 100% of all my employees health care. That might change soon. It's ridiculous.

fasthorse05 said:

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Old McDonald said:

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why would joe biden do this?

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I'm pretty sure you're being sarcastic, but Biden didn't do this, Obama did.

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Yeah, but don't forget what a "big ****ing deal" the dumbass Big Guy thought it was. Democrats have zero understanding of basic economics.

canadianAg said:

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This thread got me thinking on the way home that it seems it would get to a point that corporations would almost be better off bringing healthcare in house. I mean you think about the energy corridor; with just Bp, shell and conoco, you have I would guess easily 10,000 employees and the employers are probably shelling out $25,000 per employee for healthcare if I had to guess. $250million a year probably starts to fund a decent medical facility limited to our employees and then you have the scale to negotiate emergency only insurance the employees can pay for.

I mean my company in that group already has doctors, eye doctor, PT, dentists all on site anyways, just start forcing employees hands.

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Did you know even large hospital systems offer coverage outside their system of hospitals for their employees? It's not feasible to have a single healthcare system meet the needs of all your employees, much less create one from scratch.

Greener Acres said:

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Health Insurance Costs are Taking Biggest Jumps in Years - WSJ

Who's seeing major increases in their employee cost for health insurance next year? Did your company cover the increase or are employees sharing in the pain?

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I pay nothing for my health insurance premiums through my company. No griping from me.

The guy was literally riding shotgun, with Obama.

Trout said:

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Looking at 34% increase coming up for renewal. I pay 100% of all my employees health care. That might change soon. It's ridiculous.

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Good gawd.

Our UHC is looking like an 11% increase, for 12 employees. We paid 100% of the cost the first year we were in business (2023) dunno if we're gonna do it again.