I was shocked to see this comment from QuarterHorseDem:
Kaiser just raised my premium 40%!
There is virtually no competition in Northern CA(Aetna dropped out of the market for self employed individuals), and I will be paying about $150 more PER MONTH(about $1,800 more per year than I am paying now) for a much, much crappier policy( now I have to pay 40% of all care after I meet my deductible which went up almost $2,000).
Premiums alone will cost me over $6,000.
I wonder why the State of CA is allowing such a huge rate increase? Why is this legal?
Since I don't qualify for subsidies, I am really getting screwed. Thanks, Rethugs, for fighting single payer and handing over huge profits to Kaiser since they just about the only game in town.
This surprised me... I thought Kaiser was going to be one of the cheaper options.
Once I finally got into the CoveredCA site to preview the plans I saw that Kaiser wanted $800ish for a Bronze and $1000ish for a silver. Both on the HIGH end compared to the other plans for me and my family of 5. (I'm 37, wife 35, children 5, 3, and 1 month in SoCal)
Now granted - still probably a lot cheaper than what COBRA would be although I'll see that price for sure soon.
I might have to look into another health care provider other than Kaiser.
But I also did some Googlin' and found this article:
Why does Kaiser have the highest premiums in the California exchange?
In California’s new state-run health insurance market, Kaiser Permanente will cost you.
The healthcare giant has the highest rates in Southern California and some other areas of the state, surpassing rivals such as Anthem Blue Cross and other smaller competitors. The relatively high premiums from such a strong supporter of the federal healthcare law surprised industry analysts, and it has sparked considerable debate about the company’s motives.
Some experts say Kaiser intentionally bid high to avoid drawing too many customers next year who are sick or who have been uninsured for years and may be costlier to treat. Others suspect Kaiser was worried that lower premiums would bring an influx of newly insured patients that could overwhelm its in-house roster of doctors and hospitals.
Here's some more from that article:
There is another reason that is perhaps the most important of all. Kaiser Permanente is a truly integrated health care delivery system with its own hospitals, clinics, health care professionals and other components of the health care delivery system. They can provide virtually all services to every one of their plan members. Carefully planning and executing system capacity is absolutely essential in the Kaiser model.
Large, abrupt changes in enrollment can be catastrophic from a business perspective. If they lose too many patients all at once they are sitting there with expensive excess capacity that is not generating revenues. On the other hand, if they have a sudden large influx of patients, especially patients who would require greater amounts of health care, they would strain their capacity, with overloads in their primary care clinics, with patients destined for admission waiting in the hallways because the hospital’s beds are full, and with intolerably excessive queues for patients waiting for high-tech and specialized services. Obviously, they would have very unhappy patients.
I like Kaiser... but the cost is making me look into cheaper plans on the exchange. I'll have to do my research.
What's everyone else's experience?