O-Care premiums to skyrocket (w/ massive political implications)

THE HILL ^ | 3/19/14 | Elise Viebeck w/ Sheila Timmons

[Liz]

EDITED Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the Obama administration. The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs.

The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015. Political operatives will be watching premium increases this summer, most notably in states where there are contested Senate races. In Iowa, which hosts the first presidential caucus in the nation and has a competitive Senate race this year, rates are expected to rise 100 percent on the exchange and by double digits on the larger, employer-based market, according to a recent article in the Business Record. ......there will be a slew of bad headlines for the Obama administration just months before the election. “It’s pretty bad timing,” said one insurance official.

Republicans frequently highlight President Obama’s promise on the campaign trail to enact a healthcare law that would “cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”“They’re going to have to backpedal on that,” said former CIGNA exec, Bill Hoagland, who called Sebelius’s comment a “pre-emptive strike.” HHS had no comment for article.

The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past. “The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year. “It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity. The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.

Insurers will begin the process this spring by filing their rate proposals with state officials. State Insurance commissioners will then release the rates sometime this summer, usually when they’re approved. Insurers could also leak their rates earlier as a political statement. In some states, commissioners have the authority to deny certain rate increases, which could help prevent the most drastic hikes.

The White House and its allies have launched a full-court press to encourage healthy millennials to purchase coverage on the marketplaces. HHS announced this week that sign-ups have exceeded 5 million, a marked increase since March 1.

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday claimed the administration has picked up the pace considerably, saying months ago reporters would have laughed if he “had said there would be 5 million enrollees by March 18.”

It remains unclear how many of those enrollees lost their insurance last year because of the law’s mandates. Critics have also raised questions about how the administration is counting people who signed up for insurance plans.

more at thehill.com

[Liz]

Mmmmmmmm......cant wait to see the “true believer” comments over at DU WRT this bombshell.

[sickoflibs]

ACA will still be called ‘Affordable’ by Dems.

[dforest]

It sure is nice for Obama and the demoncrats to have all the focus on Ukraine and the missing airplane.

Oh, look a squirrel over there.

[Liz]

Ever notice......Obama always manages to be AWOL when blame is being assessed. But somehow karma comes calling: 2010 elections were the first signs of Obamacare's toxicity. Back then, O/care was just a gazillion-page bill waiting to be implemented by bureaucratic vultures hovering over the dying body politic of US freedom. Now O/Care is a live parasite choking the life out of our health care system .... all thanks to Democrats straight party-line vote

LET'S STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, Democrat candidate Obama advanced his signature healthcare plan---ultimately enacted, by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote, into the "Affordable Care Act"

QUOTING 2008 OBAMA: "No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.”

Repeated over and over ---- with the promise that every American family would be saving $2500.00 on healthcare costs.

Significantly, Obamba NEVER corrected lock-stepping Democrats, all reading from the same Democrat talking points, all of them repeating the same Democrat promises---over and over again.

LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930-40's ERA EUROPE Obama And the Dems marched in lockstep.....the persistent Dumbocrat drumbeat ---- in obeisance to Obama ---- kept ringing reassuringly in our ears: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."

===============================================

Even if Obama manages to escape the O/Care stigma, he is toxic for Dems---all of them super-glued onto his persona......

BACKSTORY In 2009, retiring Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry presciently warned that ObamaCare was setting up Democrats for a huge 2010 midterm defeat; just as “HillaryCare” led to Democrat loss of 54 House seats in 1994.

Obama scoffed at such concerns; he told Berry, “Well, the big difference here is you’ve got me.”

SO MUCH FOR O'S EGOTISM 2010 Republicans went on to win 63 House seats and six Senate seats.....the largest swing to Repubs in the House since 1938. So Obama was right---the difference was him. ROTFL.

On to 2014, 2016.......and beyond.....as the O/Care parasite eats away at our health system

[TADSLOS]

The health insurance business will dry up, but then, that’s the goal for bammy.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

They’re liars, and the people who say that Obamacare is cutting out the best cancer treatment hospitals are liars too. Obama will give us free healthcare. You people are mean! Barak is da bomb!

[dforest]

There was a thread last evening about DU.

Apparently Mr Armpitt was screwed hy Obamacare and used the FU word to Obama. Quite a meltdown.

[Liz]

Maybe a giant rabbit will show up-—after all, we’re t-h-i-s close to Easter. (cackle)

[Wolfie]

Do you really think the insurance companies got in bed with the Government to lose money?

[dartuser]

... premium increases this summer, most notably in states where there are contested Senate races.

0% chance that this will happen before election day ...

[Liz]

ACA will still be called ‘Affordable’ by Dems.

Another great piece of schadenfreud.

When "O/Care" began sticking up the political climate---Boobamba demanded it be called the Affordable Care Act....to ease the stigma on him.

[Bruce Kurtz]

“The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.”

That’s gonna make it more affordable!

[ripley]

“ACA will still be called “Affordable” by Dems.”

Absolutely.

They and their minions, in the media and elsewhere, will conjure up a propaganda and brainwashing storm that will have a “George Bush did it” and a “Democrats will save you” theme that will be outrageous in its chutzpah.

(Repeat the biggest lie one can think of and it will become the truth.)

They will make Mr. Alinsky very proud.

IMHO

[ThomasMore]

I tried to read some of the vile crap over on DU the other day. It had been YEARS since I had last tried. It made me sick to see how those people think.

btw...Tolkien called them Orcs and Goblins. Tolkien described them as big, ugly creatures, “cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.” That describes the DUmmies, correct?

[jsanders2001]

Looks likes the SS Titanic Affordable Healthcare Act has struck another iceberg...Everybody knows Obamacare is an abysmal failure and a many tenacled privacy invader, a political tool of oppression and nut visegrip to control the masses, and a citizen registry. Hell Soros probably drafted the plan and told his disciple how to implement it.

[Liz]

Here it is.

Never thought I would---but ya gotta love them Obama-hating Dems.

Posted At DU: “the ACA says insurance companies cannot deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. But they can--and do-- deny coverage for life-saving meds to treat p/e conditions. the ACA exchange I'm signed up w/ just denied coverage for my wife's multiple sclerosis meds. We're “covered,” to the tune of $700 a month...just not for what she really needs. FU, Mr. President, you piece of sh** used-car salesman.“From my heart and soul, FU.”

(Sigh) those sentiments are so, so sweet.

=====================================================================

HE'S FALLEN AND HE CANT GET UP (CACKLE) Obomba's Achilles Heel is the disappearing lock-step support he once had from Democrats.

FACTOID Seven Dems helped Repubs defeat Obamba's choice for the DOJ Civil Rights Division---nom was a cheerleader for the crazies defending a cop-killer. FACTOID Dems are now lining up to defeat Obomba's gun control worshipper for Surgeon General....even w/ Harry's vaunted nuclear option.

=========================================

Its amazing what a Dumbocrat loss in Florida can engender. Peeling off Dummycrats from Obomba has begun to look like a full-time hobby.

Mmmmmmmm........looks like lock-stepping Demorat party loyalty has gone out of style. I keep wondering what Debbie Wassername is going to do w/ all those DNC-issue brown shirts (cackle).

DNC FASHION NOTE: what well-dressed lock-stepping
Democrat party loyalists are wearing this election season:

DNC-ISSUE BROWN SHIRTS.

[TexasFreeper2009]

cant be!

Obama said premiums would go DOWN by $2,500 !!!

are you suggesting Obama LIED again!!!???

[Liz]

Looks likes the SS Titanic Affordable Healthcare Act has struck another iceberg...Everybody knows Obamacare is an abysmal failure and a many tenacled privacy invader, a political tool of oppression and nut visegrip to control the masses, and a citizen registry. Hell Soros probably drafted the plan and told his disciple how to implement it.

N-i-c-e deconstruction.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”They and their minions, in the media and elsewhere, will conjure up a propaganda and brainwashing storm that will have a “George Bush did it” and a “Democrats will save you” theme that will be outrageous in its chutzpah.”

They wont be bringing up GWB in that context, they are already claiming that ACA problems are the GOPs fault because they wont work with Obama to fix them, and that is because he is a black man.

I saw Rev Al on his show last night (at fitness center) and he did a segment about how the GOP is still dissing blacks, latinos, women, LGBTs(gays), and stilling up hatred and anger in their angry white base to get them to vote in November.

They made a plea for those other groups to come out and vote in November.