Thursday, May 29, 2014

A Touch of Obamacare Schadenfreude

Another series of small storms moved through last night, no with no thunder that we heard (although is was apparently severe farther north), leaving us with a few mm of rain, much cooler temperatures (55 F of so) and cloudy skies.

Obamacare Schadenfreude?  Just more evidence that it's going to drive up prices: Here come the higher healthcare premiums for employer-provided plans
That is to say, higher healthcare premiums and major changes in the attempt to control costs have already arrived and will keep on arriving, as we knew they would — but here are some quantifiers, via USA Today:
More employees are getting hit with higher health insurance premiums and co-payments, and many don’t have the money to cover unexpected medical expenses, a new report finds.
More than half of companies (56%) increased employees’ share of health care premiums or co-payments for doctors’ visits in 2013, and 59% of employers say they intend to do the same in 2014, according to the annual Aflac WorkForces Report. It’s based on a survey of 1,856 employers and 5,209 employees at small, medium and large-size companies.
In 2013, 19% of companies implemented a major medical plan with a high deductible (more than $1,000) and Health Savings Accounts as an alternative to a traditional medical plan, the study finds. …
The need to control costs is driving many companies’ decisions on benefits, Owenby says. The report shows that almost half of employers (49%) agree that controlling costs is the primary objective…
Remember how it was supposed to lower "costs" by $2500 per family?


No comments:

Post a Comment