by Guest » Tue Oct 29, 2013 12:25 pm
I've had health insurance with the same provider for 8 years. Thanks to Obamacare, my rate, for the same coverage, is going from $328 to $747. I will no longer have health insurance with this provider after Dec 31.
I have a 30 day grace period on my insurance premium payment, meaning, I have until Dec 30 to pay for Dec insurance coverage. My plan is to set my auto-pay bill payment for Dec 29th. If I haven't used the insurance in December, I will simply stop the auto-pay on Dec 29, thus never making my December premium payment, and my insurance will cancel out at that point. If, on the other hand, I'm in a horrible car wreck, and incapacitated, my auto-pay function will automatically pay Decembers bill and keep my insurance in force. Net result, I'll save December's premium payment while still having the coverage, if needed.
Pros / Cons?
I have a 30 day grace period on my insurance premium payment, meaning, I have until Dec 30 to pay for Dec insurance coverage. My plan is to set my auto-pay bill payment for Dec 29th. If I haven't used the insurance in December, I will simply stop the auto-pay on Dec 29, thus never making my December premium payment, and my insurance will cancel out at that point. If, on the other hand, I'm in a horrible car wreck, and incapacitated, my auto-pay function will automatically pay Decembers bill and keep my insurance in force. Net result, I'll save December's premium payment while still having the coverage, if needed.
Pros / Cons?
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 02:47 pm Post Subject:
Thanks to Obamacare, my rate, for the same coverage, is going from $328 to $747.
Welcome to the world of presidential deceit. Why anyone would believe a politician who says, "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it," and "Your insurance will be $2500 less per year than you currently pay," or "It will be free, your insurance company will pay for it," is beyond me.But then, I understand the economics of the insurance business, and I told my students beginning in 2010 after passage of the PPACA that virtually none of what was promised would come true, and a few have recently written to me to say, "You were right."
It is impossible to expect that insurance companies which are forced to accept anyone who applies, cannot charge unhealthy persons more than they charge healthy persons, cannot charge women more than men, cannot charge old folks (age 64) more than three times as much as the young ones (age 21), and cannot impose annual or lifetime limits on most healthcare expenses will not raise their rates.
How else can they afford to do what the law requires and still be profitable enough to pay claims? They've already cut agent commissions down to about 4% or 5% of the premium in order to help meet Medical Lost Ratio requirements.
In this new era of medical welfare called Obamacare, the healthy must subsidize the unhealthy. This is the myth of socialism, beginning with the tale of Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest -- take from the rich and give to the poor. If you earn more than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, you cannot have a premium tax credit, but your earnings and taxes on them will provide tax credits for those whose incomes are below 400% FPL. How long can Congress play this shell game before taxes must also rise?
When that happens, inflation is going to rise, and so will the cost of health care, and so will the cost of health insurance. Or the health insurance companies will stop writing individual health insurance, and you will be forced to accept a "single payer" system of health care. If you thought Medicare was bad, a single payer system will be a hundred times worse. And even more expensive.
But it will lead to the ultimate income tax reform. All of the sections of the Internal Revenue Code dealing with non-corporate America will be eliminated. The Form 1040 will be reduced to just three lines of data:
Line 1: Total household earnings for the year $_________
Line 2: Income Tax Withheld in the year $_________
Line 3: Tax due (subtract Line 2 from Line 1) $_________
This is a no-win game that the politicians either chose to ignore, or knew about full well and lied to the nation about it. You get to decide which one of those is true.
Pros
Sounds like a reasonable plan to me. Price is only an issue in the absence of value. If you don't need to use the insurance in December, then the price is too high compared to the value, and you win that 31-day game.Cons
Your coverage will expire on December 31. If you're in the hospital and you don't have coverage effective January 1, 2014, how will you pay that bill? Unless you have new coverage that will take effect on January 1, 2014, that's the only downside of your plan that I can see.Are you going to qualify for a premium tax credit in 2014 or not? If not, you can look for health insurance today that starts prior to January 1 (i.e., December 1, 2013), and obtain that now. Your premium will be good for 12 months. And you can consider changing insurance companies a year from now during the next Open Enrollment for 2015. Just talk to a local health insurance agent. There's plenty of that to go around.
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