How to Protect Yourself From Obamacare

[Hoss]

My company has about 3,000 employees and we have open enrollment going on now. There's no increase on employee contributions this year. None last year either. Aetna is the insurance company in Oklahoma but I think there are others in other states. I'm actually insured through my wife with BCBS. She works for one of the tribes with no increase that I know of. My company pays me enough to NOT be insured with them that it covers our cost of insurance on her plan. And her plan is better than mine. And it's not Aetna, which is always good.

Back in the eighties, Aetna was a really good insurance company to have.  When my mother got hurt, her hospital bills were in the low 6 figure range.  With my dad's insurance at Sunoco, I think he wound up paying about 500 dollars out of pocket for that.  Now..well, before the ACA...insurance companies would have likely cut her off after a certain amount, because face it..low six figures today is probably closer to mid or high six figures now.

[Conan71]

My company has about 3,000 employees and we have open enrollment going on now. There's no increase on employee contributions this year. None last year either. Aetna is the insurance company in Oklahoma but I think there are others in other states. I'm actually insured through my wife with BCBS. She works for one of the tribes with no increase that I know of. My company pays me enough to NOT be insured with them that it covers our cost of insurance on her plan. And her plan is better than mine. And it's not Aetna, which is always good.

Definitely big enough to self-insure, Aetna is another clue that may be the case.  IIRC, Aetna was who managed the program at the company I used to work at and that is one of the services they offer.

Looks like they are now making that service available for medium sized employers:

HARTFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aetna (NYSE: AET) is making it easier for mid-sized employers to provide health benefits directly to employees and assume the financial risk for their employees' claims, with Aetna's administrative support. Aetna Funding Advantage (AFA) delivers all the benefits of traditional self-insurance, plus enhanced billing and banking features to meet the cost stability needs of employers with 100-500 enrolled employees.

Traditionally, mid-sized employers have offered fully insured plans. With a fully insured plan, the employer pays a premium to their health insurer to cover both the medical and administrative costs of the plan.

More employers, however, are seeking self-funded options in order to provide a more consistent benefits experience to employees in multiple states with different mandates. The enhanced features of Aetna Funding Advantage have made it easier for employers to make this funding change.

"Employers are looking for consistent payments and simple plan administration. Aetna Funding Advantage allows mid-sized employers to make one monthly payment that includes all administration fees, stop loss premium and claims liability charges, making it easier for employers to self-fund," said Jill Serin, head of Middle Market Business for Aetna.

Employers who move to AFA can get money back in years when medical costs are lower than expected. Alternatively, the plan provides financial protection in years when medical costs are higher than anticipated.

"Aetna Funding Advantage gives employers the control they want, along with Aetna's leading wellness programs, consumer engagement tools, and enhanced reporting, allowing them to better manage their health care costs," said Serin.

http://newshub.aetna.com/press-release/products-and-services/aetna-helps-mid-sized-employers-move-self-funding

[Conan71]

Back in the eighties, Aetna was a really good insurance company to have.  When my mother got hurt, her hospital bills were in the low 6 figure range.  With my dad's insurance at Sunoco, I think he wound up paying about 500 dollars out of pocket for that.  Now..well, before the ACA...insurance companies would have likely cut her off after a certain amount, because face it..low six figures today is probably closer to mid or high six figures now.

Most lifetime limits have been in the $2mil to $5mil range for some time.  High six wouldn't have been very likely to cut her off.

[swake]

So it being open enrollment I just checked and we offer Aetna in all states, in some states we also have Kaiser and Blue Cross. Oklahoma's rates with Aetna are higher than with other plans in other states. My wife's rates are not going up. I know we used to be self insured but are not now. I think the tribe my wife works for is self insured.

My company also has offices around the world, but I can't find, or don't have access to, what is offered in other countries, if anything. Most are universal coverage single payer nations; UK, Germany, Luxembourg, South Korea, Taiwan and Russia; so there is no insurance at all. From what I can find China and Japan have universal coverage but also do have private insurance as part of universal coverage but I don't know what we offer there.

[nathanm]

Sounds like there needs to be a larger pool that you could buy into like the bigger businesses to keep your premiums lower.

That's what SHOP is for.

[Gaspar]

Getting worse.

[nathanm]

Maybe wait until open enrollment is over before crowing about the number of people who have signed up, there Gassy.

[Gaspar]

Maybe wait until open enrollment is over before crowing about the number of people who have signed up, there Gassy.

Perhaps you are right.  Force is an excellent motivator.   It motivates in more than one direction..

[Conan71]

Maybe wait until open enrollment is over before crowing about the number of people who have signed up, there Gassy.

What happens if all these previously uninsured young, good risks decide it's better to pay the $95 penalty tax than to enroll to help balance losses from poorer risks?  If purchasing insurance prior to now hasn't been a financial priority, I don't see much incentive to move someone to purchase it, not even when the penalty tax jumps to $695 in 2016.

[Gaspar]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-improved-obamacare-program-released-on-35-flop,34294/

WASHINGTON—Responding to widespread criticism regarding its health care website, the federal government today unveiled its new, improved Obamacare program, which allows Americans to purchase health insurance after installing a software bundle contained on 35 floppy disks. "I have heard the complaints about the existing website, and I can assure you that with this revised system, finding the right health care option for you and your family is as easy as loading 35 floppy disks sequentially into your disk drive and following the onscreen prompts," President Obama told reporters this morning, explaining that the nearly three dozen 3.5-inch diskettes contain all the data needed for individuals to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace, while noting that the updated Obamacare software is mouse-compatible and requires a 386 Pentium processor with at least 8 MB of system RAM to function properly.

[Hoss]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-improved-obamacare-program-released-on-35-flop,34294/

WASHINGTON—Responding to widespread criticism regarding its health care website, the federal government today unveiled its new, improved Obamacare program, which allows Americans to purchase health insurance after installing a software bundle contained on 35 floppy disks. "I have heard the complaints about the existing website, and I can assure you that with this revised system, finding the right health care option for you and your family is as easy as loading 35 floppy disks sequentially into your disk drive and following the onscreen prompts," President Obama told reporters this morning, explaining that the nearly three dozen 3.5-inch diskettes contain all the data needed for individuals to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace, while noting that the updated Obamacare software is mouse-compatible and requires a 386 Pentium processor with at least 8 MB of system RAM to function properly.

Saw that yesterday.  You really need to break away from your real job duties more to search the int...wait, what?

[Gaspar]

Saw that yesterday.  You really need to break away from your real job duties more to search the int...wait, what?

Yeah, I'm a bit late to the party.  Had a new tax incentive last week.

[Conan71]

Jon Stewart had a lot of fun with Obamacare last night:

On his Monday night program, Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" anchor Jon Stewart gave a scathing critique of the rollout of Obamacare, saying "Democrats can't spin this turd."

Stewart noted that following the government shutdown, which some circles have blamed on the GOP, the United States was poised to turn "bluer than a Smurf's balls after dry humping a bottle of Windex," but following the roll out of Obamacare, those possibilities have been hurt. Noting the number of people that have visited the site and their success ratio, the host unloaded:

"Oh my God, less than 10 percent?" Stewart said. "How bad is that? Twenty percent is the number of dentists who recommend sugared gum. How low is it? According to a recent poll, more of this country believes Obamacare has been repealed than have been able to sign up for Obamacare. The whole point of web sites is to design them so that it is nearly impossible to not sign up for something. Every time I go on Amazon there's a 40 percent chance I'll mistakenly overnight myself six seasons of 'Night Court.' It's just the way it's designed. 'Are you sure you want to leave this page?' Yes I am — oops, turns out I ordered something. So how are the Democrats going to spin this turd?"



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/22/jon-stewart-slams-obamacare-rollout-democrats-cant-spin-this-turd/#ixzz2iUET06a6

[heironymouspasparagus]

WASHINGTON—Responding to widespread criticism regarding its health care website, the federal government today unveiled its new, improved Obamacare program, which allows Americans to purchase health insurance after installing a software bundle contained on 35 floppy disks. "I have heard the complaints about the existing website, and I can assure you that with this revised system, finding the right health care option for you and your family is as easy as loading 35 floppy disks sequentially into your disk drive and following the onscreen prompts," President Obama told reporters this morning, explaining that the nearly three dozen 3.5-inch diskettes contain all the data needed for individuals to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace, while noting that the updated Obamacare software is mouse-compatible and requires a 386 Pentium processor with at least 8 MB of system RAM to function properly.

There is an organization called the Standish Group who issue what they call their "CHAOS Report".  (I suspect you have heard of them already, but if not, Google is your friend!)

They state that zero percent of software projects that cost more than $10m to develop are deemed successful.  Zero percent doesn't mean zero, of course, but successes are in the noise.  "Successful" means a project delivered mostly on-time, on-budget with most of the promised features.  Only 38% costing under $500k are considered successful.


And the contractor chosen has a poor record of performance - obviously a political patronage thing, probably funneled through Chicago Machine Politics, Inc.  Big Cluster no matter how it is parsed.

Maybe that means the good news is that things can't get worse...??  (No, I definitely don't believe that - no matter how bad something gets, it can always get worse!)

[Gaspar]

This should get interesting.  As the Obamacare signup continues to experience delays, a group of Senate Dems have now changed their stance and are pushing for a delay of the individual mandate.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/23/obamacare-woes-put-hill-democrats-bind/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

Even the poodle is growing open to extending the enrollment and delaying the penalty. During an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Wasserman Schultz said "there should absolutely be an openness to extending the open enrollment period."


My bet is that no matter how many Dems come on board with a delay, and no matter how close people get to being penalized for the inability to acquire insurance through the exchanges, President Obama won't agree, because that would have avoided the 16 day shutdown in the first place, and to agree to it now would make it appear that the Republicans were right.