What do you think, does Obamacare increase or decrease health insurance premiums?

[jnm2.0t]

Agreed on overall health. I did a health assessment for a credit - non-smoker, height/weight, waist size, blood pressure, blood work...all good.
As for the increase, I was surprised because leadership and HR did not think it was going to be significant back in Aug...however thanks to a nice company profit last in '12...my 2013 salary increase offsets this HC increase and the 2% payroll tax increase.

Yea for the evil, capitalist banking industry!

Yeah we do those here too, something like $480 incentive to do it. Real incentive though is we share our data with the health insurance providers and have been able to keep our cost of insurance flat year over year because we have healthy employees and can show it. Im sure they corroborate this against their own cost of providing care to our employees but I guess they see it makes sense to not raise the premiums. As of now we get it for no additional employee contribution, so long as we keep on being healthy we won't have to pay directly from our pockets, and the money saved by avoiding increased health costs can go into a raise pool.

[tbvvw]

Yeah we do those here too, something like $480 incentive to do it. Real incentive though is we share our data with the health insurance providers and have been able to keep our cost of insurance flat year over year because we have healthy employees and can show it. Im sure they corroborate this against their own cost of providing care to our employees but I guess they see it makes sense to not raise the premiums. As of now we get it for no additional employee contribution, so long as we keep on being healthy we won't have to pay directly from our pockets, and the money saved by avoiding increased health costs can go into a raise pool.

We have 270K employees so our "employee health" is all over the map. Our problem is that we used to have an excellent BCBS HMO and PPO plan and they replaced that with a total garbage plan that costs more and offers less (from Kaiser/Aetna). My health assessment added a $500 credit to my flexible HC spending account.

[AZGolf]

270k employees and you're in Charlotte, NC. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're either with Wells Fargo or Bank of America.

[tbvvw]

270k employees and you're in Charlotte, NC. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're either with Wells Fargo or Bank of America.

You'd be correct. Enjoy a on me!

[spockcat]

We have 270K employees so our "employee health" is all over the map. Our problem is that we used to have an excellent BCBS HMO and PPO plan and they replaced that with a total garbage plan that costs more and offers less (from Kaiser/Aetna). My health assessment added a $500 credit to my flexible HC spending account.

I would assume that the new plan costs more for the employees and less for the company. They are shifting costs.

No way are health insurance costs going down. They will likely jump significantly in 2014 when insurers can no longer turn away people with existing health issues.

[tbvvw]

I would assume that the new plan costs more for the employees and less for the company. They are shifting costs.

You assume correctly.

I have a nice job so I'm not complaining about that...but the order of importance for my company and every company like it is:
1) executives
2) shareholder
3) customer
4) employee

Several years ago I had the pleasure of hearing James Goodnight speak about corporate culture and why he planned and runs SAS like he does. He says he'd never go public because it compromises #3 and 4 above and if you take care of #3 and 4, #1 and 2 will be fine. Simple, yet few subscribe to it.

[Vision33r]

I would assume that the new plan costs more for the employees and less for the company. They are shifting costs.

No way are health insurance costs going down. They will likely jump significantly in 2014 when insurers can no longer turn away people with existing health issues.

Quality will go down and prices go up at the same time. Sounds like the same problem they have in Europe and Canada.

[tjl]

Quality will go down and prices go up at the same time. Sounds like the same problem they have in Europe and Canada.

Pre-PPACA, the US was in a worse position than Canada and much of Europe, with much higher health care costs for the same or worse quality. (Note that public spending as a percentage of GDP was as high in the US as it was in the "socialized medicine" countries.)



Given how rapidly health care costs were rising, it is likely that PPACA made little difference in that trend -- i.e. costs would have done up (and companies providing insurance would have chosen less coverage to save money) with or without PPACA.

[XM_Rocks]

One idea I have always had is to give the largest union in the country some completion.

The AMA controls the supply of Doctors in this country by limiting the amount of seats in medical schools.

All of these politicians that spout off about free markets and deregulation... They seem to fog purged this key point.

Mandate 2 or 4 more medical groups.

Make them mall compete.

Open up a glut of medical schools.

Make it similar to the law field... Where a law degree does not promise you a guaranteed bottom end and job protection.

Maybe a free ride medical program where you have to serve govt program customers for 10 years after graduation.

Anyway my thoughts... Healthcare is going to get so expensive in this country that we will finally give up our 'Murican free enterprise pride and adopt universal healthcare. Might be a private/government plan like the Swiss or the Germans. Or it might be straight up Government run.

The lobbys that shield this industry will not be able o quell the uprising that will happen when people start really feeling the crunch of high costs and inadequate insurance.

[vwconvert]

I highly recommend this book which just came out from someone who actually works in the business.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160...accchangthe-20