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Posted on 01/20/2013 5:25:15 PM PST by SeekAndFind
As the Affordable Care Act--otherwise known as ObamaCare--begins to be implemented, we are seeing its first big consequence: it is making care less affordable.
The New York Times reports that "Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration's health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers."
"Even though"? In fact, Obamacare is simply doing what a lot of people predicted it would. Critics of ObamaCare warned that it would produce precisely the kind of premium increases we are now seeing, for precisely the reasons that new reports are now citing.
I was one of those critics, and I take no joy in pointing out that we told you so.
In 2009, as ObamaCare was being crammed through Congress, I gave three reasons for predicting disaster.
The first is "guaranteed issue," which requires insurance companies to cover you for a pre-existing condition. This forces insurance companies to take on extra costs, while reducing the incentive for healthy people to pay their insurance premiums. Why pay premiums for years, if you can just wait until you're already sick to buy coverage? So insurers are mandated to take on extra costs while losing revenues. As I wrote back in 2009, "Rather than increasing the number of insured by making health insurance more affordable, this bill makes health insurance more expensive and increases the incentive to simply drop your insurance until you need someone to pay for your medical bills."
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
Just wait. The thing hasn’t really switched on yet.
FROM THE ALASKA DISPATCH:
TITLE: Alaska health insurance providers warn that premiums may skyrocket
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-health-insurance-providers-warn-premiums-may-skyrocket
EXCERPT:
Prepare for first-degree sticker shock if you own health insurance in Alaska, when major changes of Obamacare come into play.
While the act will produce winners and losers, and uncertainty will reign until the changes are in place Jan. 1, the state’s largest insurance company already anticipates having to raise premiums on thousands of Alaskans by heart-stopping amounts.
[SNIP]
“For one thing, they’ll have no waiting period to get insurance. Someone who just got bad news from the heart doctor can walk into an insurance office and order a policy, Davis said. ‘It’s as if could you go home, see your house on fire, call Allstate and say, “Cover my home,”’ Davis said.
“With medical bills easily reaching into the millions of dollars, a few of those cases could quickly add up, significantly boosting overall rates.”
MORE HERE:
Health insurance premiums up in N.J. individual, small employer markets
EXCERPT:
Health insurance premiums rose in 2012 for the majority of people covered in the state-regulated individual and small employer markets, according to the state Department of Banking and Insurance.
Premiums have risen in New Jersey and nationwide for years, and health care experts say the rising cost of medical care, coupled with new federal rules that increase the services that health insurers are required to include in the health plans they sell, continue to drive up premiums.
About 650,000 New Jerseyans have employer-sponsored coverage through the state’s small employer market, for employers with fewer than 50 workers. About half the premiums increases in that sector were less than 10 percent, while the remainder of the increases averaged 15 percent, according to DOBI.
About 140,000 New Jerseyans are covered through the individual market, where all premiums increases in 2012 were under 10 percent, according to DOBI. Premiums rose less than 1 percent, or decreased, for the most popular plan in the individual market, the Horizon Basic and Essential plan, which provides a less extensive menu of benefits at a lower price than the typical health plan. According to DOBI, more than half of those covered in the individual market use the Basic and Essential plan.
Christine Stearns, vice president of health and legal affairs for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said the rates reported by DOBI “are consistent with what I have been hearing from employers.”
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Went to the hospital’s urgent care clinic yesterday. Waited 4 hours. Lots of people there signing up for free health care. I was told the Dr’s offices are being overwhelmed now and there are long waits to see physicians. I don’t mean at urgent care, I mean any Dr’s appointment.
Rationing, huge backlogs are happening.
Actually, rising costs to insurers are by design: it’s to run them out of business so government care will be the only choice left. Liberals just shy away from saying what they really want to do.
Still waiting for a direct quote from a real health insurance CEO (not an “insurance” front for an investment company), that they were not involved in pushing for Extortion-Care. IN ANY FORM.
And how many of them went out of business in MassaExtortionchusetts?
The “Affordable” Care Act should be more appropriately called ObamaDoesn’tCareAndHeNeverWill. JMHO.
By Mid 2014, when things are getting very ugly in the health care sector, congress will simply state,”But ,We can FIX that.” God Help US All
It is unlikely the US government has or will have the resources to subsidize alternative forms of insurance ~ which may well end up privatizing the provisioning of all medical care in the US ~ straight up patient to doctor type care.
The consequences will be that the people the Democrats claimed they wanted to help ~ those without insurance, or those with pre-existing conditions ~ will be without any degree of medical care and will be dying in the streets.
Philosophically I don't have a problem with that ~ provided the costs of medical care come down ~ which they will once it's privatized again.
BTW, there is currently a flu epidemic on. That was Saturday. People get so panicky when they can’t stop going and coughing at the same time, over and over and over ~ so they somehow figure they can go to a hospital emergency room and somebody will know what to do about it.
Yup. We went to our regular clinics UC today. 2 hour wait. I called the private UC provider down the road, no wait.
The difference? The no wait one wants a 200 dollar hold on your CC if you have standard insurance. If it’s state/county funded there is no hold because they can verify they will be paid in real time.
The big insurers won’t show the provider if you have met the deductible yet. Since they don’t know, and want to get paid, they require the 200 dollar deposit.
When they asked for the deposit I just told um flat out, my deduct has not been met. Give me the bill and I’ll pay it today.
The girl didn’t know what to say, or even how to figure the bill.
So they accepted 100 bucks for a 5 minute visit to confirm what we already knew and they wrote us a script for antibiotics.
He has a double ear infection and a nasty one at that again. Now if we could just get them to put tubes in again.
bump
43% increase in my employee plan from last year. Or we could opt for the “no premium” plan with a $3000 deductible. In fact, for us, the high deductible plan was a better financial choice. Affordable? Depends on the definition.....
No, it’s free, it’s free! The vast majority of people pay little or no federal income taxes. For them, health care will be free.
All we need is for the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. That’s the solution.
This might seem like a stupid question. But what if someone doesn’t pay? If they get a $750 “fine” and can’t pay it? If they are already on the system are they exempt, and only the people who are trying to make it would be prosecuted?
As I wrote back in 2009, "Rather than increasing the number of insured by making health insurance more affordable, this bill makes health insurance more expensive and increases the incentive to simply drop your insurance until you need someone to pay for your medical bills."
Well duh, that's the whole purpose of it, so it can "fail" and the state minions can say "well, we tried that, guess we just need to go to single payer socialized medicine"...
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