I was given notice on April 1st of increases in premiums for Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Average increase is 18 percent; my increase is much greater than this. The requested increase is "excessive" and "discriminatory." I am 63 years old, have a $2500 deductible, 20% coinsurance, and have never reached that amount. I have never approached this deductible or received a penny from the company on an office visit, lab work, or x-ray.  Premiums started 5/1/2003 at $210.90, as of 5/1/2009 my monthly rate which is automatically deducted from my checking account will change from $367.57 to $480.41. This pretty well exhausts my social security deposit. I have very little income and no retirement funds.

Sort of outrageous, isn't it? Some of the increase is due to the increased costs of Medical care in the past 6 years. Another large element of the increase is the fact that in 2003 you were in the 50-59 age bracket and since then you crossed from being a 59 year old to a 60 year old. Rates step up with age, as higher age is correlated with significantly higher costs of care. Some of the increase is due to the fact that Anthem / Wellpoint is a huge public company whose executives take huge salaries, got themselves a huge number of stock options and want to have ever increasing earnings to show Wall Street that their company should get a high Price-Earnings ratio so they get filthy rich.