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Obamacare: Silence of the Insurers
Townhall.com ^ | December 18, 2013 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 12/18/2013 5:02:22 AM PST by Kaslin

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1 posted on 12/18/2013 5:02:22 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Hostages should be seen and not heard.


2 posted on 12/18/2013 5:03:59 AM PST by NonValueAdded (It's not the penalty, it's the lack of coverage on 1 Jan. Think about it.)
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To: Kaslin

One thing we need to stop doing—hating on the insurance companies. Obama desperately wants to shift the outrage…and we’ve all hassled with insurance companies, but Obama’s long-term plan is to put them out of business. Then we will truly be helpless.


3 posted on 12/18/2013 5:04:50 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: Mamzelle
"One thing we need to stop doing—hating on the insurance companies. Obama desperately wants to shift the outrage…and we’ve all hassled with insurance companies, but Obama’s long-term plan is to put them out of business. Then we will truly be helpless."

Well said. Everyone needs to focus on what the authoritarian Obama is doing and how health care will be when there is no recourse from a government which holds your life in its bureaucratic hands.

4 posted on 12/18/2013 5:07:40 AM PST by Truth29
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To: Kaslin

>>When will the insurers revolt?<<

“Sir the insurers are revolting.”

“You betcherass — they stink on ice!”


5 posted on 12/18/2013 5:08:20 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Fight Tapinophobia in all its forms! Do not submit to arduus privilege.)
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To: Kaslin
Get real, they're not going to revolt when the gov holds a gun to their heads.

They'll take what they can get and if that means providing free advertising for obamacare then free advertising it is.

The option is endless litigation in a kangaroo packed court and a smear job by the state run media.

6 posted on 12/18/2013 5:13:45 AM PST by Pietro
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To: Kaslin

“Of course, urging isn’t forcing. But as Avik Roy of Forbes notes, the difference is subtle. Also last week, HHS also announced last week that it will consider compliance with its suggestions when determining which plans to allow on the exchanges next year. A request from HHS is like being asked a “favor” by the Godfather; compliance is less than voluntary.”

That may be so, but in automated systems you can’t do whatever you want. They have no employees processing claims, it’s all computerized. Those who do not have policies will have their claims rejected.


7 posted on 12/18/2013 5:17:57 AM PST by proxy_user
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To: Kaslin

Jonah Jonah Jonah

it’s so obvious

the insurance companies ARE IN ON IT

waiting for all that lovely government money to stream in....

waiting for all the new insureds FORCED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO PURCHASE THEIR PATHETIC PRODUCT

Don’t you believe if what the insurance companies were hawking was a good product people wouldn’t be FORCED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO BUY IT

the insurance companies are IN CAHOOTS with the government


8 posted on 12/18/2013 5:18:25 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Mamzelle; Kaslin

Obama is definitely trying to shift the outrage, and while insurance companies certainly deserve some of the blame for not standing up to Obama and trying to prevent Obamacare while there was time, I think many of them were not only greedy for the handouts he promised them, but actually afraid to oppose him. Remember, they had already had his attacks on private industry during the first term as an example of how he would use the government to destroy any opposition, and I think some of the companies simply felt that all was lost and there obviously was not enough political or popular support to protect them.

We’ve never before seen a government so set to destroy private businesses or even an entire industry.


9 posted on 12/18/2013 5:22:07 AM PST by livius
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To: Kaslin

The 20% markup on cost might be a clue. Do you think the feds have a real shot at auditing the charges? Insurance execs are all pissing their pants over the thought of mega profits.


10 posted on 12/18/2013 5:22:13 AM PST by meatloaf
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To: Kaslin
In other words, the insurers knew the administration never had their best interests at heart but got in bed with it anyway.

I think it's a little more complicated than this.

I've said all along that the long-term goal of the insurers is to get out of the business completely. An insurance pool can't be sustained for long under the upside-down demographic profile of this country, so they knew damn well they were going to be driven out of business anyway. Who wants to be an insurance carrier in an era when a disproportionate number of your customers are in the 40-65 age group and facing the peak years of their claims?

All we're seeing here is the whole house of cards collapsing sooner than anyone really expected.

11 posted on 12/18/2013 5:23:42 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: Kaslin

It’s a tax code benefit versus current revenue. My guess is that the execs will keep their mouths shut.


12 posted on 12/18/2013 5:31:50 AM PST by SC_Pete
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To: Kaslin

Insurers, Doctors, and Hospitals, have all been blackmailed into either silence or support.

The IRS is a terrible weapon to waste.


13 posted on 12/18/2013 5:36:47 AM PST by G Larry (Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Psalms 109:8)
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To: Kaslin
IIRC, close to half (40%, plus or minus) of health insurers that provide coverage for close to half (plus or minus) of policy holders in the US are non-profit organizations, like the Blue Cross/Blue Shields and Kaiser. In effect, they just form a conduit between the insured and health care providers. Not to say that they don't need to be concerned about solvency, but they don't need to be concerned about stockholders. Many multiline insurers sell health insurance but it's a sideline and it doesn't do much to their bottom line.

Our health care payment system has been pretty much a giant unguided missile and what the ACA did was provide a spark to the middle of the fuel tank. Who knows what piece is going to land where when the smoke finally clears? I don't know, but it's not going to be the result that the libs envisioned.

14 posted on 12/18/2013 5:38:26 AM PST by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: G Larry

One anecdote was of a woman who believed the promise of keeping her doctor.
After she signed up, she was looking for her doctor among the choices and didn’t find him.
She went to his office and they called in to ask how to get her doctor on the list.
The answer was “that information is confidential”.


15 posted on 12/18/2013 5:39:10 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Kaslin

They put up with crap for a while longer and see how it goes. They can come out great in the end

1) Mandated purchases of crappy insurance

2) Additional sales of “useful” insurance supplements (access to larger doc networks & the best hospitals, better drug coverage, lower deductible etc)

3) Turn the MLR around and use it to request 20% higher premiums than medical costs. Then jack up medical costs (stop negotiating tough with providers) and blame congress & the regulators for the higher premiums. Or, if regulators don’t accept the higher premiums point out what coverage the “death panel” regulators won’t let them provide.

4) Use “it’s the ACA’s fault” as an excuse for almost anything customers complain about. Whether or not that’s true is almost impossible for any consumer to find out.

They have to put up with a lot of crap now but can make more money and blame the ACA for a long time if they handle it right. Alternatives that would put more control in consumer/patients’ hands and drive down medical costs will likely cost insurers a lot.


16 posted on 12/18/2013 6:18:31 AM PST by LostPassword
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To: MrB

Anyone see Chris Wallace’s interview of Ezekiel Emanuel? The smarmy bastard tried every rhetorical trick he could to put a shine on the Obamacare sneaker, but I liked his eventual answer to Chris’s question about whether enough young people will sign up to make the system actuarily viable. Zeke’s response was telling: young people would start to sign up in droves when they saw what a good deal they’d be getting due to subsidies. In other words, he expects people to sign up when it’s to their advantage, while the redistributive economics of the system require the people who are getting statistically screwed to pay into it to make it work. The insurance companies are going to be announcing double-digit annual price-hikes for quite awhile.


17 posted on 12/18/2013 6:28:05 AM PST by thanatz
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To: Kaslin

Insurance Industry = Unindicted Co-Conspirators of Obamacare


18 posted on 12/18/2013 6:39:17 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: proxy_user

You know everytime I have a prescription filled they know exactly what insurance I have, whether it is up to date or not, what meds they will cover, and the copay.

It is all automated.


19 posted on 12/18/2013 7:47:44 AM PST by sheana
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To: Kaslin
Ted Cruz:

The Legal Limit: The Obama Administration's Attempts to Expand Federal Power -- Report No. 2: Obamacare "The Administration’s Lawless Acts on Obamacare and Continued Court Challenges to Obamacare / By U.S. Senator Ted Cruz...

20 posted on 12/18/2013 8:37:02 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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