A 25 Percent Increase In Health Care Premiums; Don't Fret, It Could Be Worse -- 33 Percent; 54% In Minnesota; Reality Bites; It's Just Beginning -- July 3, 2015

It turns out those early predictions are turning out to be correct. (A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me the link.)

Three to six months ago there was talk that ObamaCare premiums were going to be significantly higher in 2016.

Then, in the past couple of weeks, there was some chatter suggesting 2016 healthcare premium increases would not be all that significant. That surprised me because the tea leaves and common sense suggested just the opposite. Even President Obama, I believe, in a recent speech said the 2016 premium increases would not be that severe. Of course, he also told us we could keep our same health plan if we liked it.

Reality bites. Pundits can talk about what-if's all day, but it's already starting. Look at these premium increases already approved in the state of Oregon. The New York Times is reporting:

The Oregon insurance commissioner, Laura N. Cali, has just approved 2016 rate increases for companies that cover more than 220,000 people. Moda Health Plan, which has the largest enrollment in the state, received a 25 percent increase, and the second-largest plan, LifeWise, received a 33 percent increase.

Jesse Ellis O’Brien, a health advocate at the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, said: “Rate increases will be bigger in 2016 than they have been for years and years and will have a profound effect on consumers here. Some may start wondering if insurance is affordable or if it’s worth the money.”

Minnesota? How about a 50% increase?

Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans — market leaders in many states — are seeking rate increases that average 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee and 54 percent in Minnesota, according to documents posted online by the federal government and state insurance commissioners and interviews with insurance executives.

The more you read, the worse it gets:

“Healthier people chose to keep their plans,” said Amy L. Bowen, a spokeswoman for the Geisinger Health Plan in Pennsylvania, and people buying insurance on the exchange were therefore sicker than expected. Geisinger, often praised as a national model of coordinated care, has requested an increase of 40 percent in rates for its health maintenance organization.

Wow. All that money individuals are saving on gasoline will go toward health care premiums. Do you think employers are looking to hire more employees with healthcare cares increasing by 50%? The best news in the article above:

“People are getting services they needed for a very long time,” Ms. Williams, a spokesperson for one health care insurer, said. “There was a pent-up demand. Over the next three years, I hope, rates will start to stabilize.”

Over the next three years! You mean folks can look forward to 30% increases each of the next three years in their healthcare premium?

One last note:

“Because of the Affordable Care Act,” Mr. Obama told supporters in 2013, “insurance companies have to spend at least 80 percent of every dollar that you pay in premiums on your health care — not on overhead, not on profits, but on you.”

In financial statements filed with the government in the last two months, some insurers said that their claims payments totaled not just 80 percent, but more than 100 percent of premiums. And that, they said, is unsustainable.

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Drought In California

I've been out here for about one week now; it is interesting how quickly we adapt to a water shortage. I don't know if folks outside California caught this statistic but the state used 29% less water in May, 2015, than they did in May, 2013. The governor had mandated a 25% decrease.

The biggest residential cutback, of course, has been outside watering, and things are starting to turn brown. But even there, there are ways to minimize the damage. My wife puts buckets in the shower, and we now collect all waste water from the sinks, watering outside plants with the water from the shower buckets and the sink water.

We use a minimum amount of water for washing dishes, and our frequency and duration of showers has changed dramatically. Although we haven't gone this next step, families with at least two bathrooms have additional options to really decrease water usage/waste from toilet use. One toilet could be reserved for water waste only, and bricks placed in the toilet tank to decrease the amount of water to a minimum.

But a 30% decrease in water usage by residential customers is quite remarkable, and I doubt -- except for outside watering -- not much has changed for most Californians.