BCBS rates went down for next year

[67walkon]

This is a first. I'm planning on retiring either at the first of next year or April 1 next year. The cost of health insurance is a major concern. Every year in our small business, the cost has either gone up or we've switched to a crummier program to keep the cost about the same for the 5 owners and the other 10 employees. We cover the employees.

We just found out the rates for next year are going down for the same coverage. For a family, it's going down almost $200 a month to just over $1,000. I plan to keep the insurance through the business until I reach medicare age, and was very pleased to find out it will cost about $1,000 a month instead of $1,200 or even more.

Of course, all this will change in 2014.

I sure wish I could find some of those $400 to $500 a month plans to cover me, my wife and our remaining dependent college age child, but there don't seem to be any out there, even with the high deductible.

 

[John Galt III]

Wow, that is a first ! That's encouraging to hear.

 

[Tyro]

Is that a pig I see flying over my house‽

I hope it's encouraging too, but part of me wonders... is it conceivable that it's a teaser rate of some kind?

 

[rodi]

We're in open enrollment at work.
I can tell you that for the first time in years there was no increase in employee contributions.
I can't tell for sure if that's because the insurance companies are charging less, or if the new owners (we were purchased this year) are covering more. I'll know that when I see the COBRA rates posted.

(That's how I was able to tell they were shifting a greater percentage to employees over the last few years.)

 

[homestead]

My Blue Cross Insurance will be going up In December
from $236 to $257. It is a HSA with $3500 deductable
with out of pocket max of 5K per year.

 

[ejw93]

Consider yourself lucky- BCBS rates for Federal Employees go up by over 4.5% in 2013.

 

[Mulligan]

Consider yourself lucky- BCBS rates for Federal Employees go up by over 4.5% in 2013.

I know that no one likes rate increases, but if I was offered a chance to lock in 4.5% annual increases until Medicare 17 years from now, I would sign up immediately.

 

[rbmrtn]

I know some folks in a small biz, just got theirs from BCBS... 21%

 

[rescueme]

My son's Medicare Advantage plan went up 33% for 2013.

 

[martyb]

I'm a federal employee too, but I have Compass Rose. Transferred from BCBS a couple yrs ago. For 2013, my Compass Rose is increasing more than 19%. So....I'll be shopping for another plan. Currently, I'm looking hard at NALC...National Association of Letter Carriers. I don't work for the USPS, but I can still join this plan, I just have to pay the annual dues of I believe $36 or so. It'll still be more than $50 cheaper per month than BCBS. These plans go up, and yes...sometimes down a little. I watch from year to year and adjust accordingly. We're (feds) very lucky that we have several different companies with multiple plans to choose from, so there's at least some competition. Also, since they can't bar you for pre-existing conditions, it's really just a matter of dialing in the level of coverage at the amount you're willing to pay.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

We are just beginning to get information together to see how much our Medicare Advantage Plan (Florida Blue), under BCBS, is going up. I say that because nothing ever goes down. We received the new pricing guides and although almost everything is going up, it's nothing we couldn't handle. Still, we pay no additional premium except our Medicare premium. The number I always look for is the maximum annual out of pocket expense. For 2013 that number is going from $4700 to $5900.
Hopefully, we'll never get to that amount.

One big thing we have found out is that the doctors under our plan are starting to drop other plans like Humana, United and Universal. One physician told me it was because they were getting impossible to deal with and took too much of their time. For what ever reasons, they are sticking with BCBS and we will probably do the same.

 

[DayDreaming]

My BCBS just went up $1.18/month. It's annoying to have to change my automatic bill payment for such a small amount, but... I'm certainly not complaining!

 

[rodi]

The posted the cobra rates (so I can see what 100% of the charge is) for our work plans.

I find the COBRA rates interesting because this is the rate that a megacorp can negotiate (vs private party insured.) And as mentioned before - my megacorp had been slowly shrinking the amount they subsidized.... and the only way to figure that out was to look at employee contributions vs COBRA rates.

We have some "self-insured" plans that are managed by Anthem/Blue Cross. and some areas have HMOs available. (Most employees aren't offered HMO options - only California for my megacorp.)

All of the self insured plans are the same year over year, for the cobra rates.
For Kaiser Permanente NorCal it's a 10% increase in the cobra rates.
For Kaiser Permanente SoCal it's a 6% increase in the cobra rates.

As mentioned earlier in this thread - employees had no increase, regardless of plan. First time in a LONG time. I'm happy to not have that HMO increase passed on to me. (And surprised.)

 

[grasshopper]

Next month our BCBS will go up 9% PPO $2500 in network 80/20. I will be 65 about the time Obamacare kicks in so I will stay with the program so that I am Grandfathered if needed.