What you're also too dumb to grasp is that part of the reason your rate is higher is because you now get more than before. Now, I understand that as a teacher you might be operating under some archaic and inequitable tenure system that protects birdbrains such as yourself, and these might not be an issue FOR YOU, but most people have gained security and portability. No lifetime caps, insurance access everywhere even after you might get fired from work, and coverage for preexisting conditions. Fortunately, a majority of people now support Obamacare and outnumber greedy sociopaths such as yourself.
First of all, I am for universal health coverage. Healthcare may not be a right, but at a certain point, as a society develops, it needs to care for its members. Streets, roads, police, clean water, clean air, and access to communications are not "rights" either, but society expects them and they are provided. Health Care, more than most, should be, too! Having said that, you are absolutely wrong as to why premiums have soared. I do not need the mandatory maternity services, or many of the other mandated services in the ObamaCare Mandated plans. I am paying more because now these non-starters are required. Secondly, and MUCH more importantly, I am paying more, or would be, since I am now providing cash flow to pay claims of people that should never ever be covered by "insurance", yes, those with PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS. Covering a know condition is 100% contrary to any and every insurance business model. Just like you can't get homeowners after your house is burned down, and you can't get car insurance after you wreck your car, you should not be able to buy health insurance if you have a known illness. Insurance cannot and more importantly, WILL NOT work in those conditions. Insurance spreads the risk of possible, but uncertain calamities across the pool. Knowing you have a calamity, whether property, casualty or health screws up the model! I am 100% for healthcare for all, but health insurance is not the means to EVER GET THERE. OBTW, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not in this O-care swamp. 24 years of military service and 12 years of teaching, have me up to my neck in healthcare benefits, none of which are dependent on O-care. In fact, my healthcare is so good, that I cannot even benefit from mail order, 90 day Rx because I have to have my primary insurance pay, initially for Rx, not Tricare! Damn the bad luck!
Those additional costs are minor compared to those due to the elimination of lifetime caps and coverage of pre-existing conditions, which are of enormous benefit to yourself. Maternity services are included under the same principle as coverage for prostate problems and erectile dysfunction, that of non-discrimination in coverage and for encouragement of universal participation. Your problem is that you SHOULDN'T expect Obamacare to be traditional insurance. It's not. It's a set of government mandates that seeks universal coverage but unfortunately still includes private insurance companies as the primary mechanism of paying medical professionals. You COULD be paying less than this.... in the form of taxes instead of payments to insurance companies. My own defenses of Obamacare are not that it's perfect, or that it's where we should be. It's that it's a MAJOR improvement over what we had previously and over where Republicans want us to be. I couldn't agree more.
Hey, me too. Just. like I'm all about everyone owning a home - just don't make ME pay for it. Holy shit. I just posted that same example in another thread.