Higher Health Insurance Premiums Coming For 2017. Can You Afford Hillary And Obamacare?

Until three years ago, I had a great health care plan that insured me, my wife, and our daughter. The premiums were not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but considering the minimal co-pays, extremely low deductibles, and the comprehensive coverage, it was well worth the cost. And while the premiums weren't cheap, I found a way to fit them into our budget.

The reason my premiums were pricier than for most folks is because I operate a one-person business and therefore can't take advantage of group health plans offered by companies with multiple employees. But I managed even after having opened my own business and even though I could no longer take part in group plans.

Then came Obamacare. In October of 2013, I received a notice form my insurer that my premiums would skyrocket to $3,750.00 per month in order to keep my plan. That's right. $45,000 per year in premiums. The only difference was that in 2013 Obamacare did not affect my premiums and 2014 involved the Obamacare effect.

I had no choice. I had to find a different plan that would keep my premiums at a reasonable (relatively speaking) amount. That meant higher co-pays, higher deductible, and somewhat less comprehensive coverage, but I eventually found one that I could live with.

The same thing happened near the end of 2014. I received a notice from Blue Cross that if I wanted to keep my insurance plan my premium was going to go up to almost $3,500 per month. I had to find another plan that I could afford once again. And again, I had to go with a plan that had higher co-pays, higher deductibles, and inferior coverage.

That was for calendar year 2015. It was also the year that I suffered a widow maker heart attack. I dropped dead as a doornail and somehow managed to survive. A year later, I'm still here but my 2015 medical bills were understandably off the charts. You don't spend three days at a hospital's ICU unit, a couple of additional days afterwards in a regular room, treated by several doctors, undergoing heart surgery, and then have all the follow up treatment, without racking up some serious bills. As in a couple of hundred thousand and then some. After I met my deductible, I stopped looking at the bills since they were pretty much covered by my policy. Needless to say, I was very thankful that I had not skimped on health insurance.

Shortly thereafter, I received another notice from Blue Cross. To keep the same plan for 2016, my premiums would skyrocket yet again, this time to $3,400.00 per month. A mere $40,000.00 for calendar 2016.

I had no choice. I had to play the find-another-insurance-plan game. This time I couldn't find anything that kept my premiums even remotely affordable while insuring the three of us. Luckily, our daughter had graduated from college and was working so she could take advantage of health insurance coverage through her employer's plan. That meant one less person to cover under my plan. 

Eventually I found a plan with coverage that was equal to what I had in 2015 at a comparable overall cost. The only catch was it involved a Health Savings Plan which I had to fund and use for the first $3,600.00 in bills for me and $3,600 in bills for my wife. But, because the monthly premiums are lower, it will end up costing me approximately the same as the plan from 2015 in total "premiums".

Of course, the comparison between plans is in no way apples to apples. I was now only insuring two persons instead of three. And, I would have to pay the first $3,600 in my medical bills from the Health Savings Account. Until I paid $3,600, this plan would not cover the first dime in bills.

The cost of my medications alone will eat up that $3,600.00 this year so I may as well have flushed that money down the toilet.

The same applies to my wife. Until she incurs over $3,600.00 in medical bills, the insurance won't cover a dime.

I don't know what it would be like for you to scrape up $7,200.00 to fund a Health Savings Account but for us it wasn't an easy thing to do.

And it seems that even this plan will no longer be affordable for us in 2017. I will not be alone when it comes to being unable to keep our 2016 plan. Most of you reading this will also be looking at plans with higher deductibles, less coverage, and higher premiums.

My insurer, along with every other insurer, was given countless assurances that Obamacare would work. Despite these assurances, they have all suffered huge financial losses. Since they are not in business to lose money they are now pulling out of the health care exchanges left and right. Those exchanges were a financial albatross and the only way the insurers can make up the losses they have suffered is by drastically raising the premiums for non-exchange health plans. As in yours and mine.

Those of use who work for a living, pay our own way, and are trying to make ends meet, are in for drastically increased premiums for 2017 if you have non-exchange health plans. That essentially means that millions of us will be bearing the brunt of Obamacare yet again. 

How bad will it be?

According to statistics, last year’s premiums for private, silver-level insurance plans jumped an average of 11 percent. Notice I used the phrase "an average". The premiums on these plans increased by 76 percent in some states while deductibles likewise increased. For example, a 27-year-old male on a silver plan saw his plan's deductible increase by 8 percent. So, you paid more in premiums in 2016 and ended up shouldering more of the cost of your medical bills.

For 2017, the premiums for an average, low cost silver plan will be increasing by an average of 11%. In some cities, the increase will range between 16% to 26%. For the second cheapest silver plan, an average increase of 10% is expected across 14 major U.S. cities. In Michigan premiums are expected to increase more than 17 percent. In Virginia, the average premium increase could be as much as 37 percent. In California, Blue Cross is expected to raise its rates by almost 20 percent.

For the majority of Americans, this is going to be a difficult pill to swallow given the state of the U.S. economy and the difficulties in making financial ends meet. Most Americans receive health care benefits from their employer and they are going to see their insurance premiums rise more than their wages in 2017.

I liked my health insurance plane before Obamacare. I couldn't keep it, as promised. Not only was the premium increase so high between 2013 and 2014 that I could not afford it, that plan was no longer offered by my insurer after 2014. The premium on the next year's substitute plan was then increased  so high I could not keep that plan either. Ditto for the year after that.

Obamacare is not working for me and I suspect it's not working for millions of you. The only way it will be repealed and replaced with something that doesn't break the bank for millions of us is to elect a President that will repeal the law and replace it with something that works for all of us.

Hillary Clinton will not do this.

Folks, Trump may have hairballs but at least he'll reverse the Obamacare disaster. Think about that when you find out how much your premiums are going to increase in 2017 along with the deductibles on your policy.