By Rick Peterson,
Tollefson Publishing General Manager
Are you kidding me? Affordable health care, my A$$.
This column is in no way a reflection on our local insurance agents. In fact, I can’t imagine the guff they are taking as the annual renewal time for health insurance is upon us. This is the second go-around for open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, and health care has been anything but affordable.
I was watching a report on the network news the other night, and they reported the average increase in health care premiums is around 7 percent.
I have no idea what fantasy world they are reporting from, but in my little world right here in Rock County I haven’t heard of one person that has been lucky enough to only see a 7-percent increase.
If you’re out there, bring me your premium notice and I’ll correct my statement in my next column. So far, the increases that I know of have ranged from 30 percent to a high of 72 percent.
Personally, my increase was 53 percent, or to give you an idea of the dollar amount, that increase will add nearly $265 to my monthly premium. As if that wasn’t enough, they also raised my deductible from $900 to $4,000. That is on top of a 29-percent increase last year. So in two years my premiums have gone up over 80 percent and my deductible has increased by a third. How the heck is that affordable?
If you add together my wife’s and my new health care premiums, our health insurance cost per month is more than our house payment and two and a half times more than our car payment.
The only thing worse than the criminally high increases in premiums is the lack of outrage by the public. The national and statewide news organizations seem to be turning a blind eye to this, and one has to wonder why.
Who’s to blame? Let’s start with the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, corporate lobbyists, health insurance companies and the health care industry itself.
So you say, “What does an additional $265 dollars a month mean?” First, that is $3,180 for next year just for me. Who knows what it will be the following year.
I am going to throw some numbers at you that are completely unfounded but make a point.
Let’s just say Rock County with a population of roughly 9,000, give or take a couple hundred, has only 3,000 Rick Petersons (I know, God forbid!) residing here who are experiencing the same kind of increase that I am.
So 3,000 Rick Petersons times a $3,180 annual premium increase (keep in mind that is just the increase in premium over last year) adds up to $9,540,000 taken out of Rock County’s economy.
How many years of increases or extortion do you think we can handle?
Enough is enough. It’s time to take a stand. Call your senators and representatives and let them know how you feel.