Left In Lowell

Bite Me, HMOs

9 Responses to “Bite Me, HMOs”

1. joe from Lowell Says:
   April 12th, 2010 at 5:51 pm

   Torte reform?

   You mean, like, putting a crust on top?

2. Jack Mitchell Says:
   April 12th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

   Thank you Judge Neel. Thank you Gov. Patrick.

   My health care premium will go up 25.5% starting May 15th. I will pay $866/month for this. Today we pay $690.

   My home mortgage is about $1375, including an escrow for taxes.

3. Paul@01852 Says:
   April 12th, 2010 at 7:22 pm

   The obvious reason they thinks it’s “necessary” is because they are (rightly so) afraid the rates will be driven down by universal health care so they are “stocking up” in advance so to speak!

4. nextyearishere Says:
   April 12th, 2010 at 8:00 pm

   I’m not sure about torte reform. Even if your figure of 1% of the annual increase represents the increase in those costs, we must also know what percentage of the cost is in the baseline. If it were 10%, or 20%, then reducing it could be substantive.

5. M.L. Says:
   April 13th, 2010 at 12:15 am

   Paul, what are you talking about? How will rates be driven down with this new health care legislation? The passage of health care reform has simply mandated that a transferal of wealth take place from private individuals (often with assistance from taxpayer subsidies) to the health insurance industry. There’s nothing in the bill that controls costs. If anything, HMOs will use the prohibition on denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions to raise premiums, not that they need such an excuse to do it anyway.

6. Lynne Says:
   April 13th, 2010 at 1:17 pm

   M.L. - economics 101 babe. The fact is, that most of the people not covered are young, healthy, and poorish (just starting out in life). Access to those markets under the mandate in health care reform is a GOLD MINE for HMOs.

   Now, there’s a segment of people who are uninsured and sick, so therefore cannot get care, and the biz plan of the HMOs has been to kick off people who get expensive (or cap them or what have you), but the market of uninsured healthy people is HUGE. Those folks will pay into insurance and not use it as much (at least not yet) and will rake in tons of money for HMOs to cover the more expensive people.

   That’s what the argument for a personal mandate is all about. Of course, I am unhappy with the mandate because I think the person should have OPTIONS, like the public option, I don’t think one should be forced to put profits in the pockets of big HMO executives if you can save money buying into Medicare, but with the mandate, rates should come down.

   That’s IF the HMOs don’t try to suck every living bit of money out of us, of course. We’re used to paying such exorbitant rates maybe we won’t notice. Like with gas prices - anyone seen them go anywhere below $2.50/gal? We’re THANKful not to be paying $4/gal!

7. M.L. Says:
   April 14th, 2010 at 11:44 am

   Lynne, you think rates “should come down?” How naive can you possibly be? Of course HMOs are going to try to suck as much money as possible out of us. They’re profit-driven entities who sell a product that isn’t beholden to a classic supply-demand curve. Premiums will continue to go up, even when this bill is in full effect.

   Economics 101. Babe.

8. Lynne Says:
   April 14th, 2010 at 1:13 pm

   Then you obviously have not been paying attention to the debate and the economics of the whole thing, then. Whatever.

   This is WHY we need a public option and/or heavy government regulation of HMOs. Kinda like Patrick’s administration is doing right now, in fact. It’s protecting us from the so-called benevolent “free market” - they can’t justify the rate hikes the way they want to do them. So, hence, they are capped.

9. M.L. Says:
   April 14th, 2010 at 5:13 pm

   Lynne, you’re all over place and your position is barely coherent, in my opinion. You say we need a public option and/or heavy regulation of HMOs (with which I agree), but you already said (incorrectly) that this bill will drive down costs. But where is the cap in the current health care bill? What provision will drive down costs exactly? There is none. I don’t think you realize it, but you’re putting an enormous amount of faith in the HMOs–that they won’t raise premiums because they’ll be making more money now that Americans are mandated to buy their product. You act like you don’t know how HMOs operate. Premiums will continue to go up. In this respect, it will be as if the bill never passed. You can believe this or not, but it doesn’t change the fact that barring additional legislation, this is an absolute 100% certainty.

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