The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

I got my annual notice that my current CommunityCare health plan is no longer being offered, along with the annual offer for a replacement plan that's more expensive, has a higher deductible and fewer benefits.

I want to stay in the St. John system, and sofar no one has brought up a better insurer than CommunityCare (where automatic payments show "past due" every other month). 
Is this typical for people who want to stick with a good hospital?

Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  With all the attendant issues there.  Like having to call them every single time a claim is made because their first action is to reject it.

Didnt BCBS dump St John?

Mine didn't yet - neither the last one, nor current one (two different states BCBS).   Heard rumors, but when I talk to St John, and BCBS they both say no dumping.   Let me know if you find different...

This is the information I had, I dont know if it has since changed:
https://www.fox23.com/news/local/blue-cross-blue-shield-changes-affect-thousands-ok/19631166

https://www.stjohnhealthsystem.com/medical-center/patients-guests/accepted-insurance-providers

Will investigate, thanks.

I was notified last week by the employer I still work for out of Tulsa that our health insurance is going up 41% next year.  Let that sink in for a minute...41%...almost half again as much as what they paid last year. 100% of my premium is paid by the company and they have always paid about 70% of my wife's premium.

No idea on the explanation for such a massive increase.  I had wondered if it was just our risk group that went up or if this was across the board with UHC. All the testing and ultimately the defibrillator implant I had done last year was into the low 6 figures.  I'd be curious to know if all UHC members had a similar increase or if they are rating us based on last year's claims and the advancing age of most of our employees.  I believe we have only two employees who are less than 40 y/o.

They do it because they can get away with it.  That's what happens when we move away from good policies toward Trump Policies.

Last year, my company charged about 30% more and got high deductible plans across the board - starting at about $4,300 per year and going up to even $10,000 a year.  Premiums for the highest were the same as the previous years premium on a $1,800 family deductible plan.

I'm not aware of a single Trump policy which has been enacted to foil the original structure of Obamacare.  Do you know of any specifics?  Companies were given a cap on profits due to Obamacare.  I'm assuming all the new insureds under the ACA are filing claims and companies are finding it difficult to stay solvent without increases.

Ha!  You are too isolated out there in New Mexico!!

My quote;
"That's what happens when we move away from good policies toward Trump Policies.

List of things done to move away from good policies toward Trump Policies - too long for me to type out;

https://medcitynews.com/2018/04/aca-timeline-illustrates-health-law-changed-since-trump-took-office/

Everything else I've read since you posted your article seems to point to higher losses due to the additional enrollees brought on before Trump took office.  There are some policies of Trump's starting to contribute such as back-market payments, but they are not the sole cause of what is going on here.  Much of what was posted in the exhaustive time-line you posted never came to pass.

Essentially, the government has managed to completely f@ck up the insurance market since 2009 and it is ongoing.

Hmm.  Got my open enrollment started this week.  My insurance went up.....wait for it now....zero.  Same rates I paid last year.  The year before that wasn't much different.  Is it leverage that larger employers have over insurance providers?  That's my only guess.  My rates have gone up about 5 percent in three years.  Guess I should wait for the other shoe to drop next year.

And it is STILL Republican obstructionism that is preventing any mid-course corrections to fix the problems that remain.  As always.  Even though it was their guy and idea - Romney - that put the pilot program in place and said for a while that 'model' was what they wanted.  Until the Dems agreed that it was a good idea and passed it on a Federal level.

*St. John does not participate in BluePreferred, Blue Advantage, BlueLincs, BlueLincs HMO, BluePlan65 Select or BCBS Employee Assistance Programs.

So when you go to the Blue Cross website, BluePreferred and Blue Advantage are the only individual plans offered.  Are all the others legacy plans that existing customers are grandfathered into?  Seeing that CommunityCare pulls every plan ive been enrolled in after only one year I have my doubts.