I supported health care reform and still do. I think it will have a big impact in the lives of those who had none before or who have pre-existing conditions, etc. I would have preferred single payer. In any case, I wanted to share the impact it has had on my employer provided plan. I am curious if others are seeing similar impacts.
We are in Open Enrollment period for 2011. The provider our company uses is United Healthcare. The info on the summary sheet, in big bold letters, are the changes from the reform: the age increase for children staying on their parents insurance, no co payments for certain preventative care, etc. and then in the same bold letters, and I'm summarizing here: in order to prevent increases in your premiums due to these additional benefits, all plans will now have a deductable. So basically, they didn't raise my premiums, but my plan went up $250.00, where before I had only a co pay.
I'm not surprised this has happened. I'm fortunate that this will not be a big impact on me. I'm sure the right will complain mightily. A for profit system is going to pass costs onto the customer. Insurance companies are not going to sacrifice profits for our well being. If our system is going to use the private health insurance model, I think this is a perfect example of why basic health insurance needs to be non profit and should not be dependent on employment.
This type of increase will allow insurers and employers to say they aren't increasing premiums while still increasing the costs to the insured. The right will say "I told you so", let's repeal.