43% Increase in Healthcare Premium for Me in 2012. How Bad Is Yours?

by Darwin on October 30, 2011

into-the-stratosphere

Up, Up, and Away!

If I didn’t have side income from blogging I’d be pretty pissed each year when we get our new benefits options for the next year.  I guess it’s downgraded to just being annoyed and not “pissed”.  I understand that healthcare costs continue to exceed the rate of inflation.  So, inflation’s 3%, healthcare rises 6%.  That’s not sustainable forever, but that’s the current rate of increase nationally.  But 43% year over year increase?  WTF!  Clearly, our firm either continues to work with the wrong healthcare providers or we have some really bad negotiators each year acting on behalf of our employees….OR the company just wants to continue to cut costs.  43% is the increase for the same healthcare option we were in last year.  I’m comparing apples to apples.  43%…

I’m not here to complain about my company, I get why they’re doing it.  Because they can.  Biotech, biopharma, old pharma, hospitals, health insurers – they’re all the target of government cost-cutting in the coming years.  Instead of actually agreeing to cut back on the services the government keeps promising people to buy votes, they will instead continue to clamp down on the pricing of goods and services they secure from the private sector.  While the long-term effect of this is simply a redistribution of wealth from private to public, it’s the government model and it’s accelerating.  So, companies in healthcare are looking ahead and see dark clouds forming.  They know what’s coming and they’re preparing for it by cutting costs.  It’s just kind of annoying that this is the new reality.

The good ole’ days are over.  In a new world of 2% raises, 3% inflation and double-digit healthcare premium increases each year, my true salary will decline forever.  We’re all more likely to be a temp than full-time in the years ahead (with no company-sponsored healthcare).  Companies know this, so they don’t really worry too much how far they push you – they know you’re not gonna leave!  I could always follow the headhunter leads and jump jobs for 20% here and 30% there to keep up, but that’s not a game I’m interested in playing.  I actually tend to like my job and the people I work with which is more than most people I know can say.  And I don’t want to move my kids around the country every few years chasing the almighty dollar.  I’ve accepted reality and I’m doing something about it by building additional streams of income (real estate and small biz aside from blogging).

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How Bad is Your HealthCare Premium Increase for 2012?

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

krantcents October 30, 2011 at 8:09 pm

My medical costs are paid by my employer (school district). I am not paid well as a teacher, but my benefits are covered. I supposed some may say that is a huge benefit.

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Darwin November 2, 2011 at 7:13 pm

My wife’s a teacher; when/if she goes back, will definitely be jumping on hers!
The public taxpayer has to foot the bill for lavish benefits, might as well take advantage of the better option between the two of us.

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Martin October 30, 2011 at 9:05 pm

Actually, this is the one thing I’ve been bragging about as we soon enter 2012.

My wifes job at hospital had good health coverage with a decent rate; all benefits including dental, vision, life insurance etc: 214 month covered a family of three. However for 2012, some sort of “Points” system was added just the health insurance.

If you reached got enough “Points” say for example, joining a gym, taking wellness classes at her job, etc etc…you wouldn’t be hit with an extra 50/dollars a month. Well, had we decided to keep her insurance we were just going to pay the extra 50 and forget the wellness plan even existed. We did a rough estimate and found that it would actually cost us more than 50/month to get enough “Points”. That didn’t estimate didn’t include gas and time.

Luckily, with my company being bought out – we’re still seperate work groups and pay rates, but as their sister company, we’ll be paying the same as they do for health insurance. That’ll be a 55% drop in healthcare costs for 2012. The savings my family will see over my wife’s plan will be about $15/month (this is for everything total).

We’re very fortunate.

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Sam November 1, 2011 at 10:58 am

40% up a year for 5 years in a row would be sweet! Bc then there would be a revolt 🙂

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Darwin November 2, 2011 at 7:12 pm

There already is, sorta. Obamacare was supposedly the answer.

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Squirrelers November 1, 2011 at 9:45 pm

43% seems astoundingly off. Were premiums exceptionally low before? Or, maybe this is truly as horrific as it sounds.

Yeah, things seem interesting these days. Healthcare outpaces inflation, College tuition outpaces inflation, standard raises barely keep pace with or trail inflation. Somewhere, amidst all of this, there’a a mystery opportunity waiting….

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Darwin November 2, 2011 at 7:11 pm

Our company didn’t really provide an explanation other than that they looked at market rates and such. I think last year was well into the double digits as well. Who knows, perhaps we were heavily subsidized before and they’re bringing us closer to what peer industry firms offer? Not really sure.

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Akis May 27, 2012 at 5:49 am

Because they have fallen for the lies and half thtrus of the right.It surprises me that so many Americans seem not to be aware about Obama’s healthcare plans [a]. During the election, he campaigned for these changes stating that he felt it was unfair to have a system where insurance companies try to escape paying claims and was elected to bring in changes [b].First of all, too many people do not know that Obama wants to make insurance more available to all. His system is similar to that which works in Holland, Taiwan [c] and Switzerland. It works there and private healthcare companies provide most the insurance to the people there.FACT the USA spends more on healthcare PER PERSON than any other nation on the planet [d].FACT – insurance companies admit that they push up costs, buy politicians and do not pay out for many claims when they should [e].FACT the US has higher death rates for kids aged under five than western European countries with universal health coverage [f].That means that a dead American four year old would have had a better chance of life if they were born in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Cuba, Switzerland, Germany, Japan etc, all of which have universal health coverage. And no western European nation with universal healthcare has moved away from it. And the sad thing is, that the insurance companies have spent loads of money to fight these reforms [g] and loads of politicians are taking the thirty pieces of silver from them to fight the reforms, rather than fight for the health of the American people.Remember, I back my facts up with evidence. Those who say they are wrong tend not to. If they are wrong, e-mail me with proof and let me know.

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FFS November 2, 2011 at 6:31 pm

NIce fake Insurance premium increase!

Notice the author doesnt evene say who the carrier is, or what plan? WHat a bunch of self serving BS by some cowardly conservative!

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Darwin November 2, 2011 at 7:10 pm

Wow, what a schmuck you are, huh? Who’s the coward? Let’s do this.

Everything I’ve stated is factual. I blog anon and I don’t see this as a “vast right wing conspiracy” post as you assert. I actually cited my company as a key source of the increase and not any particular insurance carrier or Obamacare for that matter (which is a complete disaster but outside the scope of this discussion). Your assertion is baseless. But why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?

Let’s set up an account through escrow.com and each deposit $10,000 now. We will find an independent arbiter (a prominent PF blogger or someone we can both agree on) to review my costs last year compared to this year’s plan materials and/or my benefits account. Upon review, they will confirm my premium for the same exact plan I had last year did in fact increase 43%. I will then take the $10,000. If I’m lying, my $10,000 goes to you.

Escrow.com is a legitimate and safe way to resolve such matters and ensures monies are not released until the agreed third party OKs the transaction.

Are you game?
Or are you the coward?

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101 centavos November 3, 2011 at 12:00 am

About 28% incrase for me. 40% sounds predatorily high, but not unplausible.

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Stephane November 5, 2011 at 10:43 pm

Self employed LLC (no company contribution or 100% depending how you look at it) …… premium increased by 29.49 %.
This is why we should have single payer system that have a negotiating power on the price of services and drugs …

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Holly November 14, 2011 at 12:39 pm

So I have an Open Access HMO through Aetna (work sponsored). I make an entry level salary and work full time. I live in the DC area which of course is quite pricey. I was comfortable with my monthly rate of $75.00 and felt I was being covered adequately. The 2012 rate has now gone up to $110.00! That is a 46.4% hike. Guess I have to sell my car after all. Darn. I was so excited to have health care finally (after 10 years without), now I just feel like I have been duped…my whom I am not yet certain. (My bet is on Obama and his faulty economics)

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Chris December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm

My insurance premiums were 162.00 every two weeks for a family plan. I just found out today they are going up to 396.00 every two weeks for a family plan. Right now I am still in shock over this and I do not know who to blame.

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Darwin December 7, 2011 at 9:02 am

Wow, over 100%; I’ll stop complaining!

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