That's one of the goals built in to the ACA, to put an end to that kind of cost abuse. But that's not going to happen overnight either.

What blows my mind — in a good way — is the quarterly premium I'll be paying for Medicare (next year, when I enroll in SS, the premium will be deducted from that benefit). The quarterly for Parts A and B, plus the monthly for Part D, and the monthly supplemental plan combined are just a skosh more than half of what I was paying for Aetna coverage!

I guess I way off base. In the mail , just now, I got my BC/bs statement for January .

On jan 4, I had my cancer bloodwork done. The Hospital lab charged Medicare and BC/BS. ....$793.70 with BC paying $37.56 and Medacare the rest

On Jan 7, I had my CT scan for cancer. They scan my abdomen and chest with dye.

They charged Medicare and my insurance ...... $7,614.60. With insurance playin $1,522.92 and Medacare paying the rest.


This is using the same machine, procedure and staff as mentioned earlier but now it's six times more. WTF!

Dave

This is exactly what the insurance companies are doing before the Affordable Care Act restrictions begin at the end of this year. My Anthem Blue Cross went up $450/mo with fewer benifits and a higher deductible.

Thank your republican legislators that added lengthy time delays to the process to allow the insurnce companies to screw us all.

I need an x-ray of my foot last month. (hey Steve, what are the chances of that?) If I paid cash for it would cost $45, otherwise they bill the insurance company $150. How much would Anthem Blue Cross refuse to pay? I don't know but I'll find out soon when the bill comes.

California will be one of the first states to implement the federally funded exchanges, so hopefully there will be better & cheaper coverage for me to buy next year at this time.

Yup. The insurance companies are making like the USPS in reverse. Schtupping consumers now to pad their bottom lines before they have to take the ACA hit.

I don't know what your foot problem was, but they had to extract a tooth from my big toe because I stuck my foot in my mouth! Last month the dentist had to yank a hangnail outta my gums!

Insurance is the greatest scam in the history of scams. All insurance.

No it's not. F'rinstance, if you have a decent life insurance (or as they say it in the Mid West, "INsurance") policy, when you die, you collect enough money to last you the rest of your life!

That's all.

Yep you be right.

At work we have this 3rd party insurance thingy for (term life) <-- to me the biggest rip off ever.

However; This insurer says (I find it hard to believe) that if you take a 10 or 20 year Term policy and quit your job or even cancel the policy - > they will give you back every penny in premiums you spent ? ? wtf ? sounds to good to be true.

And how BIG is it... well picture this... go to any big city and most of the big buildings - skyscrapers- are owned by 2 types of companies. Banks and Insurance companies... they're both making killings !!! I get as little insurance as I can... but we all are stuck getting some (life, car, house, health, etc), but I don't go overboard.