14 Comments

<em>This time</em> it'll work, for sure!*

* It will not work.

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"fucking jobs?"

Legal in Nevada, right?

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Thanks for that image. Now I have to bleach my brain.

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fell? or was pushed? BIKEGHAZI!!!!

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BTW, the big reason that New York rates will drop precipitously is that NYS already had guaranteed issue and (modified) community rating, <em>but no mandate</em>, so rates in the individual market have been dominated by adverse selection, i.e. the individual market pretty much death-spiralled.

ETA: and of course the bill to delay the individual mandate is for the specific reason that without that mandate, the ACA Exchanges will likely also death spiral and thus bring about the fulfillment of the prophecy of skyrocketing rates. Evil fuckheads.

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I wouldn't get too complacent. Once the House gets up to 88 votes, they can go back in time and change the 2008 election ... or was that Doc's DeLorean?

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"In New York, rates for individual insurance plans will be cut by 50%, although that’s mostly due to some quirks of existing New York insurance laws that prohibit limits on pre-existing conditions but allow insurers to set exorbitant rates."

I posted this in a comment to a Matt Yglesias article yesterday in Slate. Please allow me to block-quote myself below.

The savings from the NY state exchange impact far more than just the rates for individual insurance policies for people with pre-existing illnesses.

Here is a before/after comparison of regular premiums for individual coverage in the two state-wide HMOs in NY. The "before" rate is the monthly premium charged for an individual plan for anyone, not for a person with a PEI, in my county in far upstate NY, if that person enrolled today (July 2013). The second set of numbers are rates for Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze levels of coverage from THE VERY SAME HMOS when they become available on the new exchange. Let's have a look...

[block quote]

HMO #1 : Current (07/13) monthly premium for an individual plan in my county: $1,351.63 Approved monthly premiums via state exchange for an individual plan in my region: Pt: $653.97; Au: $564.75; Ag: $487.26; Brz: $377.46 *

HMO #2: Current (07/13) monthly premium for an individual plan in my county: $1,279.20 Approved monthly premiums via state exchange for an individual plan in my region: Pt: $581.67; Au: $494.00; Ag: $411.13; Brz: $317.79 *

These rates are before any applicable premium subsidies are applied.

[/block quote]

These look pretty damned good to me. The Platinum (most expensive) premium for the first HMO is 52% lower than the current rate. The premium for Platinum coverage for the second HMO is almost 55% lower. For Gold level coverage (far more likely to be the high end for most people) the reductions are around 59% and 62%, respectively.

Going from paying $1280 per month to paying $494 per month for the same level of coverage. And this is prior to further reductions from any applicable premium subsidies. Yeah, this is a big fucking deal.

* For the non-chemists: Pt=platinum; Au=gold; Ag=silver; Brz=bronze (unlike the other metals, an alloy) <a href="http://www.slate.com/articl..." target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2...">http://www.slate.com/articl...

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To determine which bathroom it happened in.

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Goddam expensive, though. So I hear.

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What. President of the IRA?

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She responded with a series of French horn rips.

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Um, DUH, that's when most modern history was written

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Newt, you need to call Liz Cheney. She's looking for an astute political consultant.

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Obviously this is a right-wing ploy to make sure Bamz is only a 2 term president.

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