This is a shout out to any other Anthem, Aetna, etc. health insurance customers who received a notice recently that their premiums were going up substantially. I saw on the Huffington Post last week that Aetna was forcing 600,000 plus people to lose their coverage, but I didn't realize that Anthem was going to do the same thing until we got notice a few days ago that our premiums were going up 23% starting Jan. 1, 2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/04/aetna-forcing-600000-plus_n_380130.html
We are independent self-employed people in our 50's. We have individual policies through Anthem, because we don't qualify for group plans. We are determined to stay healthy through diet, exercise and supplements. We don't take ANY meds, and the only thing we have used our insurance for are routine exams and tests. So far this year we've only met a couple hundred bucks out of $1000 deductible. They have no reason to raise our rates except that they don't want us on their balance sheet anymore.
We were paying $730 a month, which took a big bite out of our budget, but then last Friday we got notice that our premiums are going up to $875 per month. That is $150 more than we pay now. If we can afford this we would be spending $10,500 a year for an insurance policy we try not to use too often for fear of being dropped completely.
With these kind of rate increases being imposed without merit, how can successful self-employed people continue to survive and make it in this country without the public option being offered to them immediately? The answer is we can't. Because we don't have any public options to turn to, or other carriers to shop around with the only recourse we have is to figure out how to pay our premiums by eliminating other important things out of the budget, try to qualify (if we can qualify) for lesser plans to reduce costs, or to drop our policies and take huge risks with our health and financial lives.
IMHO, most of those folks is DC are clueless about the pain and suffering down here in middle America in regards to our lack of health care options we are offered. I don't see a sense of urgency by them, or our President, to provide us with ANY decent public options anytime soon. Americans are up to their neck's, and they can't afford to wait any longer. While they are pussyfooting around with their political games, the middle class will drown without a life saver like the public option being thrown out to them SOON.
We must stop tolerating politicians who shilly-shally over matters of health care reform. They mess around with us by saying the public option is in one day and out the next. How much more do our so called leaders think we can we take of their wussiness? We need them to be brave, bold and tenacious in their quest for HCR and the public option, because the collective force can't afford to go down the same old worn out path any longer.