Image via WikipediaEvery company that I have ever worked for has had open enrollment for signing up or changing your health insurance benefits in early October. With the passage of the health care reform bill earlier this year, I have been anxiously waiting to see how the bill would impact me this fall.Since the passage of the bill, most of the news stories that I have seen have not been encouraging. There have been numerous reports of higher increases in premiums than in recent years. Other stories highlighted businesses debating whether or not they would be better off dropping employee coverage due to the higher costs of complying with the new federal law.
With my current financial situation, I have been dreading the prospect of having significantly higher insurance premiums. I have been checking my mailbox, visiting the company benefits website, and browsing the company HR intranet site to find any information on the upcoming open enrollment and any changes that I might occur. I finally found an update stating that the open enrollment would not start until November 27th, almost two full months later than normal.
Maybe I am being paranoid, but this delay has me concerned. I fear that our portion of the premium will be going up significantly, or that our choices of plans will be curtailed greatly. The other thing that adds to my concern is a conversation I overheard in the elevator while leaving the office today. One person was apparently working on a presentation because she made a comment about how to make "health reform" interesting. The other person replied, "and all that comes with it." Uh-oh!
I am wondering if anybody else has gotten their information yet on open enrollment. Were there a lot of changes within your company in regards to cost increases or reductions in choices?
as far as the higher prices the different providers said that were gonna charge more ANYWAY. THEY ARE USEING THE HEALTH CARE REFORM AS AN EXCUSE TO RAISE PRICES. BIG BUSINESS STICKING IT TO EVERYONE again!
ReplyDeleteyou're right Mike, it is all the fault of the insurance companies. Those greedy bastards. I guess no company should make a profit of any kind. We should turn everything over to the government because they can do everything so much better.
ReplyDeleteBottom line is that as their costs go up, they have to raise costs to cover their costs. On average, the insurance companies make 3.4 cents on every dollar they take in. That is far less than the major pharmaceutical companies and half of what generic drug makers make.
But Obama and the Democrats say it is the insurance companies that are the greedy ones and you buy it.