Employer-Based Health Insurance Continues to Decline

By | September 18, 2013

  • September 18, 2013 at 2:59 pm
    Agent says:
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    Group Insurance as we have known it for many years will be going away as it is shown daily. The latest big announcement by Walgreens, an employer of 160,000 saying they will just cut a check to employees to buy coverage on the exchange. They made a business decision that in the long run, it is cheaper to pay the tax than deal with huge rate increases for the health coverage.

  • September 18, 2013 at 4:33 pm
    BobP says:
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    Agent

    Have hope. After this gigantic disaster unfolds. The pinheads in Congress will eventually figure out that the tax revenues that individuals, along with the Walgreens and any other company that decides to take the easy way out pay, will be so miniscule compared to the actual cost of healthcare, that they will be forced to raise the tax several times over.

    The tax will eventually be so high that the private sector will have to come riding in on a white horse to negotiate better deals with health care providers and then the Walgreens and everyone but the uninsured will coming rushing back to private markets. It the free enterprise system.

    Oh wait, what am I smoking. We’re talking about Congress. They’ll just pass another continuing resolution, add the cost to the national debt and go have a martini with their mistress.

    • September 18, 2013 at 5:28 pm
      D says:
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      More doomsaying predictions based on what is in your own mind. You don’t have a clue on what Wallgreens is paying their people and how much it will buy in the exchanges because they have not opened yet. BTW: The national debt is at a sustainable level now (4% of GDP). In 2009 it was unsustainable (10% of GDP). It’s been going down steadily since Bush left office. It’s estimated (due in part to the mindless sequestor) to get below 2% in 2014. The deficit is reducing at such a rapid pace it is becoming a drag on the economy.

      • September 18, 2013 at 5:49 pm
        Agent says:
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        More leftist nonsense from one who doesn’t understand budgets and budget deficits. What part of spending $3.4 Trillion and collecting $2.4 Trillion in taxes do you not understand? Those of us who do understand know that $17 Trillion in debt with $6 Trillion in the past 5 years is totally unsustainable. Going down since Bush left???? Obama has more debt in the first 4 years than all the Presidents accumulated since the country was founded. Hello! Wake up.

        • September 19, 2013 at 9:43 am
          Captain Planet says:
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          Agent, Presisdent Obama started paying for W’s wars. He took them off the credit card and put them on the balance sheet.

          • September 19, 2013 at 10:38 am
            D says:
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            Well said Captain. Don’t forget Medicare Part D. Another invention of the republican majority of the early 2000s that was “put on the credit” card. Regarding the W wars, he didn’t even put those in the budget. Obama did and you had instant red ink. Yeah, it’s all his fault. And…he got us out of Iraq too. Bush and is loopy neo-con buddies said that war would pay for itself with all the oil revenue we would be getting from Iraq. Really, they said that!
            Mr. Agent: Facts are not leftist nonsense. They are just facts.

          • September 19, 2013 at 11:31 am
            Celtica says:
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            CP — we never heard a peep from the Right about financing two wars on credit and providing a tax cut at the same time. They though it was a great idea (must have been all the non existent Iraqi oil they were counting on).

            Bam! As soon as Obama is elected, they had a huge problem with it. As a result, whatever figures the Right tosses is suspect, suspect, suspect.

          • September 19, 2013 at 11:46 am
            Captain Planet says:
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            Ah, yes, Medicare Pt. D. The ‘D’ stands for Disaster.

          • September 19, 2013 at 1:52 pm
            bob says:
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            QE Twist, over 4 trillion over 4 years, off the balance sheet. Stimulus, almost $800 billion on the balance sheet. Welfare and unemployment spikes: On the balance sheet, they have darn near doubled. He chose to widespread extend those programs. You will claim people needed them. Perhaps they did. But the market needed to recover, which would have helped them more with jobs.

            Show me the breakout that show how much of a trillion dollar debt per year was Iraq. The Iraq war TOTAL during Bush’s years was not that far over 1 Trillion.

            The two wars are not the source of the current debt.

          • September 19, 2013 at 1:54 pm
            bob says:
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            D:

            If you’re so against Medicare part D, you should be against subsidizing health insurance.

            If you’re going to use something against a republican, you might want to make sure your guy isn’t doing the aspect of what you are upset about.

            Before you try what I know you will in reply:

            I am against obamacare for different reasons than Medicare part D. You just pointed out the same exact reasons, and you support one but not the other.

          • September 19, 2013 at 2:37 pm
            Agent says:
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            Hey Captain, I have news for you. The current government lives on a perpetual credit card borrowing $.40 of every dollar spent from places like China, Japan and the Federal Reserve. Was the trillion dollar Stimulus that wasn’t a Stimulus GW’s debt as well? Was the underestimated cost of Obamacare which will be three times more expensive than estimated GW’s debt as well. I know you don’t understand spending and debt because of your liberal mindset.

          • September 20, 2013 at 9:08 am
            Libby says:
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            “But the market needed to recover, which would have helped them more with jobs.” I don’t disagree with that statement in premise, but how long do you wait around for jobs while people are losing their homes and going hungry?

          • September 20, 2013 at 2:08 pm
            Ron says:
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            Agent,

            The lack of understanding of spending and debt is not limited to liberals. Unless Presidents Reagan, HW Bush and W. Bush are liberals.

            President George W. Bush: $3.294 Trillion deficit

            President George H.W. Bush: $1.03 Trillion deficit

            President Ronald Reagan9/20/2013 $1.412 Trillion deficit (1st time our nation had a Trillion dollars under a single President’s term)

            Unless you can show Republican Presidents leaving office with a surplus like President Clinton did, stop calling them fiscally responsible. If you are going to find a way to blame Democrats for their deficits and credit Republicans for the surplus during Clinton’s administration, then you must stop blaming President Obama.

          • September 23, 2013 at 12:19 pm
            Patti Cake in the East says:
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            Please, Captain…Obama has more blood on his hands than GWB ever did. Oh–and a MUCH bigger debt than GWB or any other president ever did, too.

          • September 24, 2013 at 12:44 pm
            Libby says:
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            Whose blood is on his hands???

    • September 19, 2013 at 9:35 am
      Captain Planet says:
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      Bob P – the exchanges are run by the private markets. Have you guys even taken the time to read the bill? How about even a Cliff’s Notes version?

      • September 20, 2013 at 1:09 pm
        Agent says:
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        Libby, the economy should have been recovered from the recession long before tackling Healthcare Reform. The Stimulus was obviously not the answer since it did almost nothing to create jobs and just added to the debt. Had the country done the right thing to stimulate by creating incentives to employers to hire, not run manufacturing jobs off to China and reigned in the EPA, we would be humming along at 4-5% growth now with millions of new workers instead of adding millions of new tax takers living on Food Stamps, Welfare and Disability.

        • September 20, 2013 at 1:18 pm
          Libby says:
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          Agent – the people that voted for Obama (I can speak for them, as I am one) voted for him in large part because of his promise of Healthcare Reform. We WANTED this to be a priority.

    • September 19, 2013 at 12:13 pm
      Agent says:
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      So Bob, I see that the government is raking in record revenues this year with all the tax increases and imposing Sequester and yet they still are managing to spend $800 billion more than they are taking in. Hey, that is progress getting it down under a Trillion dollars deficit, right?

      • September 19, 2013 at 1:57 pm
        bob says:
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        With all the cutting 3 dollars of spending for 1 dollar of tax increases you would think it would be lower eh?

        But Obama keeps on saying he’ll cut, and then they don’t go through.

        In the end he’s just saying it to get more tax increases. It’s lie after lie.

        George W did not do this. His tax cuts may have in some people’s opinions harmed the deficit (which really isn’t true but I digress) but he was honest about it. He didn’t say he would cut taxes, and then proceed to not cut taxes.

  • September 18, 2013 at 4:49 pm
    Celtica says:
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    Employer-paid health care benefits — as well as other benefits have been cut, cut, cut for years. Obamacare did not create that situation — but it is the chief reason I want Obamacare — to have access to affordable health care. The alternative is to go without, not a minor concern with an aging population.

    But why should employers be stuck with this tab in the first place? It belongs in the private sector and must be mandatory for all if it is going to work.

    If the shoe were to be on the other foot — that employers MUST provide health care benefits, then the right wing would be criping about how employers are being penalized by the left left for “liberal” benefits.

    It is only a no win situation if you make it so.

    • September 18, 2013 at 5:21 pm
      D says:
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      Brilliant post. My cost goes up every year and gets cut ever so slightly each year too. It’s been that way for more than 20 years. Corporations should not foot this bill!!!

    • September 19, 2013 at 1:59 pm
      bob says:
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      Average increase of healthcare due to Obamacare is about 25% so far.

      Some states went up almost 100%

      Obamacare is not making insurance more affordable. It’s increasing the cost and subsidizing it for lower income people.

      This will harm the middle class. Look at the cut offs for the subsidy. The upper middle class will cease to exist, which will likely include you.

      • September 20, 2013 at 9:13 am
        Libby says:
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        The upper middle class ceased to exist a long time ago, Bob. We now have the largest income gap in our history. The rich continue to get richer, the upper middle class is gone, and the middle class is slowly disappearing. We will soon be a country of haves and have nots.

        • September 20, 2013 at 1:01 pm
          Agent says:
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          All this due to Progressive policy Libby. There is no reason why anyone cannot make it in this country if they get educated and work hard. All of those incentives have been removed and now the society had degenerated into people wanting government to take care of them with entitlements. I didn’t get to where I did by expecting the world to owe me a living. Laziness is encouraged and the work ethic is almost gone. How can a country survive under those circumstances?

          • September 20, 2013 at 1:22 pm
            Libby says:
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            No, Agent. The malaise of the American public is a direct result of the dwindling middle class. You CAN’T make it here with just hard work anymore. And forget an education. That is practically unattainable due to the cost. And if you do get a degree, big deal. You’ll be lucky to get a job as a receptionist.

            I, like you, worked my way to where I am with hard work and more hard work. Those opportunities are not there anymore. There is no manufacturing work, many of the high-tech and professional jobs are going overseas, and greed is slowly turning our once-great Nation into a graveyard.

            Bain Capital and many of that ilk are responsible for the slow demise of the middle class in America. Not welfare recipients.

          • September 20, 2013 at 1:24 pm
            Libby says:
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            Welfare is the result of the killing of the middle class, not the cause.

        • September 23, 2013 at 2:39 pm
          Patti Cake in the East says:
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          You can thank Obama and his cronies for the class warfare, Libby.

        • September 23, 2013 at 6:35 pm
          bob says:
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          So let’s make it even worse Libby?

          Debate my premise, and use the cut offs for the subsidy. Let’s not keep with that comment “it’s been happening forever, so when someone with a D does it I’ll back him” argument. All I ever hear form the left is defense of the left. This is a bad bill.

          There’s no reason to increase the cost $5,000 and then subsidize it. At all.

          There’s no reason to increase home prices, and then to give lower interest rates (reliant on the government) at all. Every time QE nearly ends, housing prices drop. It’s because they are supposed to be lower. He’s propping that up. Maybe, just maybe, everyone could afford a home and have lower costs with lower housing costs, you think? Maybe, just maybe, the 2008 crash was due to housing costs outpacing earnings, and maybe, just maybe, inflating housing prices saying it is a need, while incomes have not gone up, is inflating another bubble. You can claim what some presidents may have done, this is what Obama HAS done. It is not at all debatable that Obama has destroyed the middle class.

          He’s doing it on purpose, and you know it. It’s called creating government reliance.

          • September 24, 2013 at 12:54 pm
            Libby says:
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            Bob: Quit telling me what I know and don’t know. I know no such thing.

            While I do not disagree with much of what you say about housing prices, you have forgotten one HUGE point in your argument aganist Obamacare. Obama is not responsible for raising the premiums. Private industry health insurance corporations are.

            This once again proves my point about corporate greed and how it, and ONLY IT, is destroying this country. Insurance carriers are standing in line waiting to provide coverage on the exchanges. Why? Because they will make TONS of money. And that’s without even increasing premiums. So why are they increasing premiums now before the law evens kicks in, you might ask? BECAUSE THEY CAN. Then they are blame Obamacare for it and everyone is buys into their big lie.

          • September 24, 2013 at 1:23 pm
            bob says:
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            Libby:

            It’s an expression, and you know it.

            Quit debating emotionally for points. I don’t tolerate it. We’re staying on topic, and it’s disrespectful for you to start your comment with a childish comment like “Bob: Quit telling me what I know and don’t know. I know no such thing.” I’m not your dad, got it? Try to act like an adult.

            Moving on: Then you would Agree that inflating that, is definitely the worst thing we can do, and will cause another great recession. Thank you for that. That is the biggest reason I’m against Obama. Glad you admitted it.

            Moving on again:

            No. It’s not because they can. It’s because that’s what it costs. They were regulated into those costs. You think they just popped up because man those corporations are just fighting Obama?

            In that case, Obama lacks political tact, as he’s causing them to raise rates. Thanks for that too.

            Costs going up after the passing of this law by 25% is what it is, and would not have happened in it’s absence, therefore, the law is bad.

            Accept it. Move on. Whatever has you addicted to democrats is the same pressure others feel. I don’t feel it. That’s called freedom.

            You might enjoy that someday.

          • September 24, 2013 at 1:38 pm
            Libby says:
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            Stop acting like my Dad. You have a very bad habit of doing that and in case you haven’t noticed, it doesn’t sit well with me.

            I have no idea what “Then you would Agree that inflating that, is definitely the worst thing we can do, and will cause another great recession.” means. Please be more clear on what “it” is. Health insurance premiums? Housing? Economy? What? And after that, please explain how Obama is responsible for inflating “it”.

            Health carriers were not “regulated into” any costs. If they were so afraid they would not be able to get enough rate for the exposure, they wouldn’t be standing in line waiting to offer coverage on the exchanges.

            “Costs going up after the passing of this law by 25% is what it is, and would not have happened in it’s absence, therefore, the law is bad.” Please cite your source for this statement. My insurance premiums have not gone up at all, let alone 25%.

  • September 18, 2013 at 5:20 pm
    D says:
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    Employers should never have been in the health care insurance business to begin with. Its a policy that started in the 50s. This country leads the world on what is spent on health care per person. Yet, over 30 million go uninsured in this country. Who thinks that is a good system?? Take a real good look at what other civilized countries do to provide access to quality health care. If the government had taken over this role in the 40s think of the additional capital available to private industry. This is captitalist not socialist thinking!

    • September 19, 2013 at 9:44 am
      Captain Planet says:
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      D – you get a star for the day! Bingo, checkmate, Yahtzee, bullseye.

      • September 19, 2013 at 11:27 am
        Celtica says:
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        D — you are absolutely correct. We have the best health care in the world — but a horrid system of delivery.

  • September 19, 2013 at 11:05 am
    J says:
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    Of course, what drives the problem is too many sick people ! And the cause is capitalism/greed at all costs. Allow companies to sell hundreds of unhealthy food-like substances, as long as they contribute enough to the right politician or government official.
    I don’t know if the European models will work here, as many European countries have banned GMO crops, pesticides that kill bees, food dyes, and other chemicals used in food processing – all things that are part of SAD (Standard American Diet). Fix this and you fix health care.



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