Posted on 02/24/2012 11:11:05 AM PST by TonyInOhio
Medical costs for enrollees in the health-care law’s high-risk insurance pools are expected to more than double initial predictions, the Obama administration said Thursday in a report on the new program.
The health-care law set aside $5 billion for a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, meant to provide health insurance to those who had been declined coverage by private carriers. Since its launch last summer, nearly 50,000 Americans have enrolled in the program.
The PCIP program will phase out in 2014, when insurers will be required to accept all applicants regardless of their health-care status.
Those who have enrolled in the program are projected to have significantly higher medical costs than the government initially expected. Each participant is expected to average $28,994 in medical costs in 2012, according to the report, more than double what government-contracted actuaries predicted in November 2010. Then, the analysts expected that the program would cost $13,026 per enrollee.
The costs also are significantly higher than those of similar high-risk pools that many states have operated for decades. States spent an average of $12,471 on enrollees in 2008, according to the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Unexpected!”
I think that if their estimates were off this much, it should automatically KILL that law! I mean just like the severance clauses within bills, we should put in affordability or cost-to-complete clauses in bills and when the costs outpace those estimates, then it should automatically KILL that bill until direct appropriations are required!
As of right now, they just automatically increase spending to match demand instead of revisiting the initial crap! THAT would really stop all this BS, fake-numbers and double-counting, etc...!!
That could happen if there's a fixed federal overhead for "the program" that doesn't vary by number of people covered. Then you could easily have a doubling of the costs per person.
At the same time where are the missing 750,000?
Most states also have balanced budget requirements, and a line item veto. When it comes to spending on federal power grabs, the sky's the limit.
“At the same time where are the missing 750,000? “
Hopefully with the rest of We the People...refusing to “sign-up” for any part of this mess....
None of the Jews in Nazi Germany refused to board the trains!!
Bump
At the same time where are the missing 750,000?
Perhaps the 50,000 that did sign up were the sickest and most expensive subset of the expected 800,000?
Less of a pool to spread costs over?
NOTE: ALL (that is each and every) “Official Government Estimate” of cost to the government (TAXPAYER!) for a particular program is intentionally misstated (low balled) so it will pass Congress and “public” muster.
Likewise, each and every “Official Government Estimate” of revenue increase to the government for a particular change to the tax code is intentionally misstated for the same reasons.
The answers Congressmen get FRom the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation are the ones they want so the spending program or the tax increase will sail right on through the legislative process.
PS THE CBO AND THE JCT HAVE NEVER GOT AN ESTIMATE RIGHT!
I think if ObamaCare is not repealed by Congress or struck down by the Supreme Court it will collapse under its own costs within a few years. I just hope it doesn't drag the rest of the economy into the black hole.
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