Obamacare failing as expected....as predicted

[Jess Hawsen Arown]

Originally Posted by Capper Al

You got to be kidding? Were you watching Dobie Gillies(sp?)? Those prices from the fifties are gone. But if talking about those who took advantage of the old system and only bought major medical plans and stuck the rest of us with their emergency room visits, shame of you and them.

Nothing to debate here. You can blow all the smoke you want until you are blue in the face, but people who pay for insurance premiums know the truth. Businesses who have closed down and put people out of work because of health care costs know the truth.

Dobie Gillis?

"Zelda, now cut that out. Thalia is waiting for me. C'mon Maynard, let's go."

[chadk66]

Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing

Before Obamacare I left a job and used the Cobra provisions to continue insurance. Under Cobra you are responsible for paying the entirety of what the employer was paying. For me, that was about $1,000 a month. Just saying, more than catastrophic coverage with really high deductibles hasn't been cheap for a long time.

the reason for that is group insurance programs carry low deductibles, low-copays, cover various things that non-group policies normally don't such as pregnancy, etc. Unless at that time you had a pre-existing condition you would have been far better off buying a private policy with $1000 deductible.

[Parkview_Pirate]

Originally Posted by chadk66

the reason for that is group insurance programs carry low deductibles, low-copays, cover various things that non-group policies normally don't such as pregnancy, etc. Unless at that time you had a pre-existing condition you would have been far better off buying a private policy with $1000 deductible.

Yeah, my COBRA payment is $360 with a $1500 deductible. The Obamacare exchanges were no cheaper.

As for the overall "success" of the ACA, you know it's a debacle when even the insiders are bailing.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare...acare-meltdown

“The next open enrollment period is key,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Obama administration has struggled for several years to bring young, healthy people into the marketplaces, which is needed to offset the medical costs of older and sicker customers.

These problems are coming to light this year, as insurers get their first full look at ObamaCare customer data. Some, like UnitedHealth Group, say they’ve seen enough and are already vowing to leave the exchanges.

Already, many insurers this year are proposing substantial rate hikes with the hopes of making up for higher recent medical costs. The average premium increase next year is about 9 percent, according to an analysis of 17 cities by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But some hikes are far higher: Blue Cross Blue Shield has proposed increases of 40 percent in Alabama and 60 percent in Texas.

Levitt said the premium hikes could be “just be a one-time market correction” in the still-new marketplace. But if insurers continue to lose money, it could be a sign of bigger problems.

That's a laugh. Three years of double digit rate hikes, and the next one will be a "one-time market correction"? How stupid the American people must be to allow this travesty.

Like Obama, she vowed to invest in advertising and in-person outreach to help more people enroll. Clinton would also increase ObamaCare subsidies so that customers spend no more than 8.5 percent of their income on premiums — down from 9.5 percent under current law.

She has also proposed a tax credit of up to $5,000 per family specifically to offset rising out-of-pocket costs — a side effect of cheaper plans offered under ObamaCare.

But other experts say the problems could lie deeper and that it would take a major shift in ObamaCare’s customer base to offset those massive medical costs.

So The Hag is on record with these fine tweaks to improve things - never mind that po' folk don't bother to file tax returns. Just further proof she doesn't care about "the little people", in spite of the propaganda to the contrary.

Last year, more than 11 million people bought coverage through the exchanges. While that figure beat the Obama administration’s expectations for 2016, it’s a huge drop from the Congressional Budget Office’s initial projections that 21 million would be enrolled by that time.

Now, several high-profile insurers are raising new concerns about the healthcare law’s mix of customers and questioning whether their companies can keep selling ObamaCare plans.

Part of those concerns stem from distrust of the Obama administration after its key marketplace stabilization program — known as risk corridors — was too cash-strapped to pay back the insurers. In the first two years of the healthcare law, more insurers than expected have ended up with balance sheets in the red. As a result, the risk corridor pool was left with only about $1 to cover every $10 in claims.

Even with "kickbacks", the program is a dismal failure. Obamacare will go down as the best example of why a smaller government is a better government....

[chadk66]

the program needed 45 million to enroll. most of which needed to be younger healthy people to prop up the claims to loss ratio. they didn't even put a dent in that number. it was bankrupt before it started.

[davew]

the 0bama 'most transparent ever' administration is pushing for next years' rates to be released after the November election - do you think a 20-60% rate increase would change some votes?

[Capper Al]

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy are our local Righties. You actually believe this stuff?

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by davew

the 0bama 'most transparent ever' administration is pushing for next years' rates to be released after the November election - do you think a 20-60% rate increase would change some votes?

The 2017 ObamaCare sign up period starts on Nov. 1. How do they expect people to sign up without knowing the rates?

And rate increases generally have to be approved by state regulators. Those rates have to be filed with the states months in advance, and once filed, they are public knowledge.

[Tom]

You have to sign up before you can know what you signed up for.

[Clocker]

The article linked below shows that a primary goal of the administration backers of ObamaCare, including Obama's chief medical adviser Dr. Zeke Emanuel, was to "unleash forces that favor integration across the continuum of care." They believed that consolidation and mergers in the health care industry would cut costs.

Apparently none of these people had ever studied economics and did not understand that fewer providers in an industry can lead to less competition and less incentive to cut costs and prices.

The bill was wildly successful in consolidating the industry, and now the administration is doing all it can to prevent further consolidation. It is fighting the two huge mergers between the health insurers Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna, and is opposing hospital consolidations in many states.

Pharmaceutical companies are participating in an orgy of mergers and acquisitions. Physicians have merged into mega-group practices in an effort to control costs and enhance leverage in health care contracting. Hospitals have acquired private medical practices, with only 1 in 3 doctors projected to remain independent by the end of this year. Meanwhile, hospitals are consolidating into major hospital systems, many of them connected with so-called accountable care organizations established under Obamacare. And then, of course, you have numerous mergers between insurers, including the two now being targeted by the White House.

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-08-11/obamacare-gave-rise-to-the-health-care-mergers-its-advocates-oppose

[Capper Al]

Originally Posted by Clocker

The 2017 ObamaCare sign up period starts on Nov. 1. How do they expect people to sign up without knowing the rates?

And rate increases generally have to be approved by state regulators. Those rates have to be filed with the states months in advance, and once filed, they are public knowledge.

Bureaucracy works funny at times. No child left behind didn't address special need children for one of it's many faults.

[Dave Schwartz]

Apparently none of these people had ever studied economics and did not understand that fewer providers in an industry can lead to less competition and less incentive to cut costs and prices.

The bill was wildly successful in consolidating the industry, and now the administration is doing all it can to prevent further consolidation. It is fighting the two huge mergers between the health insurers Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna, and is opposing hospital consolidations in many states.

It's a shame that big pharma doesn't have lobbyists to get politicians to influence things for them.

Oh, wait. They do.

(Just like every other good-for-the-big-boys deal that comes along.)

[chadk66]

Originally Posted by davew

the 0bama 'most transparent ever' administration is pushing for next years' rates to be released after the November election - do you think a 20-60% rate increase would change some votes?

won't change a thing because those voting for Hillary don't pay for their rate increases anyway. We do that.

[Capper Al]

Originally Posted by chadk66

won't change a thing because those voting for Hillary don't pay for their rate increases anyway. We do that.

And you don't how to interpret the rates.

[Jess Hawsen Arown]

Originally Posted by HalvOnHorseracing

Before Obamacare I left a job and used the Cobra provisions to continue insurance. Under Cobra you are responsible for paying the entirety of what the employer was paying. For me, that was about $1,000 a month. Just saying, more than catastrophic coverage with really high deductibles hasn't been cheap for a long time.

No argument with your facts. Are you paying health insurance now? The most recent quote I saw for an employee's contribution for a family plan was over $1,400 a month. It just keeps going up.

For those on Medicare, the cost of Medicare Advantage (which adds uncovered Medicare benefits) goes up big every year. Most of those plans are free, but what they cover is what is disappearing and many plans are not accepted by health care providers so seniors need to be very careful.

For years the Democrats knew that opening up insurance coverage nationally and tort reform would have saved Americans thousands of dollars in premiums. The reason they did not vote for it was because they knew if insurance premiums stayed artificially high, it would smooth the way to socialized medicine. And now we are suffering even more because of their evil.

[Capper Al]

Originally Posted by Jess Hawsen Arown

No argument with your facts. Are you paying health insurance now? The most recent quote I saw for an employee's contribution for a family plan was over $1,400 a month. It just keeps going up.

For those on Medicare, the cost of Medicare Advantage (which adds uncovered Medicare benefits) goes up big every year. Most of those plans are free, but what they cover is what is disappearing and many plans are not accepted by health care providers so seniors need to be very careful.

For years the Democrats knew that opening up insurance coverage nationally and tort reform would have saved Americans thousands of dollars in premiums. The reason they did not vote for it was because they knew if insurance premiums stayed artificially high, it would smooth the way to socialized medicine. And now we are suffering even more because of their evil.

You uncovered a conspiracy, did you? Don't think so.