Outrage is growing on widespread premium hikes across the nation. Many stories have been emerging.. Massachusetts, California, etc.. Links to some stories: "Kaiser health news, The Boston Globe, GateHouse News Service,Boston Herald, AP writes about CA: WellPoint is defends 39% Premium Hikes In Letter To Sebelius, LA Times on WellPoint hikes.. Also, Congress is investigating (CA)
"WellPoint, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross "is blaming the Great Recession and rising medical costs for its planned 39 percent rate increase for some California customers of its Anthem Blue Cross plan. But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius isn't buying the explanation proffered in a letter delivered to her" today.
Sebelius questioned the premium increases, pointing to WellPoint Inc.'s $4.75 billion profit reported in the last quarter of 2009. "She also noted that the premium increases are 10 times higher than the increase in national health care costs." The president has pointed to the "premium hikes in California as an ill omen of what will happen around the country if lawmakers fail to enact health care overhaul legislation. 'If we don't act, this is just a preview of coming attractions,'"
How we CAN get REAL Affordable Health Care THIS YEAR
Its easy. The legislators are setting Americans up to be milked for every last penny they have, so obviously, its crazy to spend any money now. And it will be until ALL AMERICANS HAVE AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE THAT LEAVES NOBODY OUT AND IS NOT CONNECTED TO VANISHING JOBS.
The way we get healthcare is just by behaving responsibly. Saving. Sending a letter of explanation instead of purchasing each item that we do not need.
People will stop buying when they have no money for anything except insurance. Lets make vendors aware of that and its potential impact on their future business now.
Ive been sending vendors a letter instead of a purchase, explaining that "I would have bought SKU NNNNNN if we had a national health care plan". Explain that you have the money, but instead, are saving it for health insurance premiums and the costs that health insurance does not cover.
I have actually gotten some nice, thoughtful letters in reply to these letters.
Just stop buying and start explaining in writing why you stopped. That is the crucial part. Most of us have all the junk we need anyway. These letters will start piling up and before you know it, we will have decent, affordable national health care.
Because its an absolutely obvious fact that politicians, faced with exposure of their little deal, cannot deny. They will not have any choice, they will pass meaningful reform quickly in the face of a national healthcare escalation "crowd-out" of nonessential purchasing. And change will happen LONG before 2014.
Update: Recent news on the Massachusetts insurance affordability crisis.
This is from the Boston Globe: Patrick wants health cost veto:
Bill targets rates that rise too fast; aims to ease way for small business..
"Governor Deval Patrick is seeking sweeping authority to review and reject rates charged by hospitals, physician groups, medical imaging centers, and insurers, in a broad new effort to make health care more affordable, particularly for smaller companies and their workers.
A 40-page bill filed by the governor yesterday proposes to give the insurance commissioner the power to essentially cap health care price increases.
Rates hospitals and other health providers charge insurers would be "presumptively disapproved as excessive’’ if they increased faster than the level of medical inflation, and they could be rejected after a public hearing.
Similarly, for health insurance plans sold to employers with 50 or fewer workers, premium increases that exceed one and a half times the level of medical inflation would be considered excessive and could be turned down.
The legislation would also impose a two-year moratorium on lawmakers’ mandating any new health benefits that must be covered by insurance plans, a practice that employers have said drives up their health insurance premiums. Small businesses have been hit with double-digit rate increases in recent years.
"Eighty-five percent of our economy is in small business, and they are drowning in these premium increases,’’ Patrick said in an interview with the Globe yesterday."