Strike at Deere plants in the US, more supply chain shortage to come

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

A large provider with 60,000 employees dominated the market being the only provider in some communities which translates into clout.

It simply told providers this is what we charge and when insurance said no it left 100’s of thousands on insured with no Hospital accepting their Insurance…

I'm not following. A large provider of what? Insurance or Jobs? Please elaborate.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Isn't that 3% about what inflation averages per year? Is that actually a benefit?

No inflation averages about 2% a year but this year it will be much higher. I can't exactly remember what the guy at Deere told me but it was somewhere in the 3,4,5 % range. They do it because they're greedy not because it is following the consumer price index. That's why I said Deere is reaping the seeds that they sowed.

 

[rScotty]

That's insane! Now I understand why some of you don't blink an eye at purchasing a new tractor. A couple of years of that and you could easily afford to purchase a new tractor.

Paying your own medical insurance out of pocket does change your perspective on a lot of things.

For instance, if you have even a minor health incident then maintaining the payment to the insurance company becomes the most important payment of the year. Insurance companies can and will drop you given any excuse. If you are dropped, no one else is likely to touch you, and the good will from all those premiums vanishes.
So health care insurance costs determine what you will have left over for everything else.

And if you are self-employed and consider expanding, the mandated employee health care may simply make expansion impossible. So you see a lot of one person "businesses" and a lot of big businesses - but the middle ground is shrinking. Or already gone.

rScotty

 

[Username Taken]

I'm not following. A large provider of what? Insurance or Jobs? Please elaborate.

Many (Most) Companies with over 2,000 employees are self-insured. Even some with under 1,000.

They'll have a stop-loss and they'll have an Insurance Company do all the paperwork, but they're still self-insured.

IOW, your statement might say "HooFlungPoo Mutual" but they're just being paid to adminstrate it. They don't set rates.

Insurance is highly misunderstood. It's why they're the favorite bogeyman of certain types.

 

[Username Taken]

Insurance companies can and will drop you given any excuse.

That is patently false.

 

[Pixguy]

I know someone with Multiple Myeloma (like colen powell) and one of their drugs costs $250,000 annually. How many people that you know could handle that cost?

How many companies can sustain those costs?

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

Insurance is highly misunderstood. It's why they're the favorite bogeyman of certain types.

That is patently false.

You are the first person I have ever come across that favors and defends insurance companies. Did you work for one or something?

 

[rScotty]

That is patently false.

No. Although as someone - was it you? - pointed out, insurance is different in different areas and different states. Our insurance company folded in 2010 and then re-emerged as a new company. That enabled them to prune their customer list.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm not following. A large provider of what? Insurance or Jobs? Please elaborate.

Hospitals live and die based on reimbursement rates and for decades rates basically dictated by Insurance Companies and Medicare/Medicaid

Small local independent Hospitals were often left out of the mix or paid at the lowest rate… basically take it or leave it.

Sutter Hospitals came up with its own strategy and that is to become the dominant provider in many of their markets.

Once Sutter a not for profit business model, achieved dominance in a market the table turned and the Hospital told the Blue Cross and Blue Shields what the Hospital would accept for procedures.

The insurance companies balked and said no leaving hundreds of thousands with insurance no place in their geographic region to use it.

In one way it was giving Insurance Companies a taste of their own medicine…

Subscribers became livid paying premiums for service no longer available and started complaining to regulators with Insurance Companies taking the brunt of the anger.

Healthcare is now the battle of the Titans.

 

[Username Taken]

No. Although as someone - was it you? - pointed out, insurance is different in different areas and different states. Our insurance company folded in 2010 and then re-emerged as a new company. That enabled them to prune their customer list.

Then that's what you should have said instead of telling people, incorrectly, that they can cancel you at any time.

They can not.

Insurance Companies are hardly Saints but if people want to fix the problem instead of just whine about it, they need to understand it.

I can say with some certainty that we are far, far, far from fixing anything.