HHS and Insurance 101: What you need to know

  • Thread starter Thread starter manualman
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

manualman

Guest
The media seems to be determined to obscure this issue, so it really falls on us who ‘get it’ to explain it to people.

The issue is NOT the legality or availability of contraceptives or abortion pills right now. You can buy those things at any Walgreens or CVS. The issue is one of justice and conscience.

Here’s how insurance works. Take an employer with 50 employees with family coverage. They all pay premiums into the insurance pool which then has to pay for all the benefits that are provided to those 50 employees. If today the insurance plan does NOT cover contraception and 25 of those families use it, those families are paying about $600 out of pocket per year each for the pill.

Now comes the HHS and demands that the insurance company provide it “free.” The insurance company now incurs an expense of 25*$600 = $15,000 / year that it didn’t have the year before. Guess what the insurance company does? It raises the premium cost to all 50 employees by $300 a year to equalize the costs (50*300=15,000). Now the 25 couples not using contraception are paying for half the cost of those who do.

The HHS mandate is nothing more than a scam to make contraceptive users into freeloaders on the rest of us. If you care about justice, tell your representatives to go back to the status quo where those who want them can head over to CVS and buy them themselves.
 
  1. Obama cannot mandate the insurance companies provide contraception and voluntary fertilization coverage for “free.” The federal government has no jurisdiction over insurance companies as they are regulated by the states. I have my doubts that he can keep this promise without an overt act of Congress to interfere in the states.
  2. Obama was looking for a new compromise to the old compromise.
  3. I wrote to both my Senators – to no avail. Both are Dems.
  4. There was an “opt out” [conscience] bill – voted yesteday. It lost and the Senate killed it. Only 3 Dems voted “yay.” It lost 51-48. Not only that, the bill really required a 60 vote count to pass, but the Dems used a “parliamentary maneuveur” that required only 50 votes to kill the bill because that maneuveur prevents a fillibuster by Republicans. This was the same maneuveur that allowed Obamacare to pass. Interestingly, the process is also known as “reconciliation” when used to pass a bill without fillibuster. And have the Republicans used it in the past – yes. And it was used yesterday by the Dems to prevent a Republican fillibuster.
  5. Now it will be up to the courts.
  6. I never thought I’d see this attack on religion.
 
manualman said:
…
The HHS mandate is nothing more than a scam to make contraceptive users into freeloaders on the rest of us. If you care about justice, tell your representatives to go back to the status quo where those who want them can head over to CVS and buy them themselves.
Click to expand...
Yes, although you did not include the employer’s cost in your example, but the point is there. As the bishops said, it was nothing more than an accounting gimmick.
 
The employer’s contribution is moot since it is really just part of the employee’s pay.

This ticks me off because I know blooming well that probably 70% of the people in my workplace use contraception. As it stands today, we have a $20 Copay on prescription meds, so they are at least paying $240 a year on the $600 cost of their pills. After next year, the pill ALONE is going to cause a ~$200 increase in my insurance premiums.

So much for “affordable” health care act…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top