(Illinois) Individual health insurance policy premiums soaring (increases of up to 60%)

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

Illinois consumers to pay up to 60% more, data show

Consumers in Illinois who lose their jobs and have no other option but to buy their own health insurance will get socked this year with premium increases of up to 60 percent, according to state records.

That group of consumers has been growing, as the recession has created more uninsured Americans looking for ways to protect themselves and their families.Now, Illinois consumers will get a glimpse into just how wide-ranging rate increases among individual health plans can be. The data, obtained by the Tribune, also provide a window into the overall trend of premium increases at large and small employers.

For the state's more than half-million consumers in individual health plans, base rates will go up from 8.5 percent to more than 60 percent, according to state data. Base rates do not take into consideration health status, gender, age, place of residence and length of a policy -- all factors that could raise premiums further.

The individual insurance market is relatively small compared with consumers who get their insurance through their employers, but it has become the fastest-growing group in this economy, in which about one in 10 are unemployed. The individual market also has spawned a national debate after a California health insurer raised premiums for this group by up to 40 percent, triggering probes by state regulators and the Obama administration.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-individual-health-insurance-premiums-mar04,0,223417.story

[DURHAM D]

1. This writer is kind of stupid. I quote the lead:

"Consumers in Illinois who lose their jobs and have no other option but to buy their own health insurance will get socked this year with premium increases of up to 60 percent, according to state records."

He does not seem to realize that thousands (10s of thousands) of people WITH jobs don't receive insurance benefits through their job and thus are already buying insurance as individuals.

[PSPS]

8. Really stupid

Besides your example, there are many self-employed who buy their own insurance and are getting screwed to finance the CEO's yachts, bonuses, hookers and political payoffs/bribes to congress.

[Iowa]

14. He makes other stupid assumptions too...

He seems to think that people who lose their jobs HAVE the option to buy health insurance. Many won't be able to buy it at any price due to pre-existing conditions. Furthermore, most who lose their job wouldn't be able to afford it anyway.

[DailyGrind51]

19. Yeah, and if they are buying individual coverage for the first time, it really isn't an "increase",

it is just a damn high price for something they did not need to buy before because they got it through work, when they were receiving a paycheck!

[SoapBox]

2. Let the GOPeers / Rushpubics / TeaScumBaggers explain this...

...go ahead, FREAKS! Defend this.

Heathcare for all...Medicare for all...Single Payer for all.

[SlingBlade]

4. YES !

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. mine rose 50%.

bastards.

[Oregone]

5. Oh, the sky is falling, the sky is falling! Pass the Senate bill quick! Stop asking question

Wanna talk about 3-D chess?

[change_notfinetuning]

12. as he takes another pawn, leaving the king in no danger n/t

[SlingBlade]

6. Tell them that we demand Single Payer NOW

Not ten years from now.

Contact the White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Call the White House
[phone]

Call, Write, Fax and E-mail your Representatives, House and Senate
http://www.contactingthecongress.org /

K & R

[pleah]

11. Done! n/t

[SlingBlade]

16. GREAT, That makes two of us here at D.U. , Only

155,609 to go and we might make 'em squawk :)

[pleah]

17. Down side for me, I have two thugs and a blue dog. n/t

[SlingBlade]

18. Puker Manzullo, Durbin and Burris , Wanna Trade ?

[pleah]

20. Haha, Well, I got Cochran, Wicker and Taylor.

Are you sure you want to trade? :evilgrin:

[SlingBlade]

21. Naa, :)

[ixion]

7. We are now insurance industry slaves

yippee.

[OregonBlue]

9. Are they jacking up their prices now since they know reform is coming and fear they will have to

reduce them? They are cutting their own throats so there has to be some twisted logic behind it.

[Oregone]

13. No, they are jacking them up now to prod the Congress to pass the Senate Bill

All while feigning fear. Its plain-as-fuckin-day.

These people have millions sunked in PR advising firms and lobbyist. You think they would do a bone head move like this on the eve of reform for shits and giggles? Not going to happen.

[Iowa]

15. +1

[superconnected]

10. As a commentor on NPR pointed out, we are a nation where only the sick have insurance

the healthy can't afford it.

Notice how dental visits need to be scheduled 2 months in advance now? It's because people don't do regular checkups anymore. They only go when it's an emergency. Since they can't afford a regular dental plan/insurance, the dentists are slammed with emergencies that could have been prevented.

Preventative care - non-existent in the US. Like not putting oil in your car and ruining the engine. The doctors and dentists are fixing emergency's that could have been stopped way earlier but the person couldn't afford to show up until it became an emergency - heart attack, etc.