Finding out which states Blue Cross Blue shield is operating in took 5 seconds.
AP? UPI? Politico?
If healthcare.gov was working, all it could tell you is you can buy Blue Cross/shield in the states in blue, and if the state is grey, there are no options at all. The chicken store is empty, there is no cheeze at the end of the maze, the enrollment document is in the mail.
Note the last sentence that even in some of the blue states, coverage is only for part of the state.
What this tells me is BCBS of NC is active selling policies directly, but refuses to participate in the standardized federal underwriting.
OK, good find. Blue Cross / Blue Shield rates in a state south of the Mason Dixon Line that is generally similar to most southern states (where folks eat fried chicken).
Projected Obamacare Rates for an Individual, Age 21, in a Rating 2 Area (METROPOLITAN, 500k+ population)
Lowest Catastrophic Plan = $108.22/mo x 12 = $1,298.64
Lowest Bronze Plan = $111.50/mo
Lowest Silver Plan = $145.32/mo
Second Lowest Silver Plan* = $151.27/mo
Lowest Gold Plan = $190.95/mo
Lowest Gold Plan for Age 50 = $383.26 – $4,599.12 yr
If you live in a Rural Area Rating Area 7, then you pay a little more $$$$
Lowest Catastrophic Plan = $0.00/mo
Lowest Bronze Plan = $115.81/mo
Lowest Silver Plan = $150.93/mo
Second Lowest Silver Plan* = $157.12/mo
Lowest Gold Plan = $200.33/mo
Lowest Gold Plan for Age 50 = $380.60 – $4,567.20
Younger folks are not likely to sign-up in high numbers. The costs for 50 yr olds are fairly high and a high deductible (not given but it is probably $5,000 or so per person per year). I suspect the reason for not posting rates for 60 year old people is to prevent heart attacks.
BTW, I corrected their spelling for Catatrophic to Catastrophic – I suppose if they had only spent a few hundred million more then the web site developer could afford to run a speller checker and some humans to make certain the spell checker was correct.
The “magic pill” to this is the ACA imposes a 300% age rating limit between the lowest age and the highest. This is really good for me, although I don’t view good/bad public policy through how it affects me personally.
In the current illinois high risk pool, I as a 57 year old male pay $660 a month for a $5000 deductible HSA account…. But between 55 and 64, that curve gets very steep – by age 64, the same account is about $1,800 a month as the really expensive part of your life arrives. By that age, if you did have kids, they’re well into adulthood, you had a decade of peak earning years and fewer expenses, so maybe you’re more likely to absorb the $150k heart transplant.
If age 64 was $1800 a month, that would force the 18 year old to pay $600 a month, which just isn’t going to happen. This forces the actuaries to flatten the premiums, especially between 60 and 64. Look for some unintended consequences.
Since I do not claim to be very smart will you humor me and spell-out what is meant by, “Look for some unintended consequences.”
Sarah Palin has spelled out what she calls “death panels” where care is rationed.
So, does that means the dirty, low-down Pea Tartiers were right all along?
In the absence of infinite resources, rationing will always exist. The free market answer is based on willingness and ability to pay. If there was no insurance or at least high copays, when the doctors want to give an 80 year with cancer their third heart bypass, the person (or more likely the children) may say it’s not worth keeping the battle going.
Before my father passed, he has some crazy invasive surgery with the expectation that it would prolong his life another 6-12 months. It did not. In fact, it made his last 6 months unnecessarily painful. The cost? I don’t know. Probably hundreds of thousands to the hospital and doctors courtesy of Medicare (the American tax payer).
Honestly, the tax payer would have been better served spending that money on a 20 or 30 year old with future earning power.
Doctors selling hope may be doing it because it enriches their own personal accounts.
The magical thing about unintended consequences is you don’t know what they are ahead of time. The general notion is the larger a change is, the more unintended consequences there will be. Right now I’m fairly atypical – but make the premium for health insurance between 60 and 65 artificially low, and you’ll see a lot of people go Galt and drop out of the work force and take early retirement at 62. The more that people have actually saved money for retirement (in other words smart people), the more likely they’ll drop out.
That was part of the motivation of creating Social Security in the first place – to push aside older workers during the Depression so young people could find work – based on the wrong idea that there are only a fixed number of jobs and that if someone gets hired, it must be because someone else lost their job