Obamacare options contracting and getting more expensive

"......Last year, 86 percent of those who signed up through the federal exchanges received tax credits on their insurance premiums. The credits are available for families earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, the income limit would be about $94,000; a family of two, $62,000.

....Other customers found themselves starting over from square one when their insurance company pulled out of the Health Insurance Exchange or was dropped from the state exchange, like Meritus, Gussio said. Meritus, a nonprofit health care cooperative, was actually removed from the list of approved insurance companies in the Arizona Health Insurance Exchange because the state was concerned that Mertius might not continue to be solvent in 2016. Meritus will close for good on Feb. 1, he said.

Some private, for-profit insurance companies that offer plans through the Exchange are facing the same financial strain, he said. United Healthcare announced this year that it would probably would not offer plans on the Exchange in 2017.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 36 percent of counties in states using Healthcare.gov will see a net decrease in the number of insurance companies that offer coverage within their borders, about 17 percent will see an increase and the bulk will remain the same. There is a total of 2,603 counties that use Healthcare.gov.

The Flagstaff area went from 56 plans offered by a variety of insurance companies for individuals to 19 this year, Gussio said.

People also are seeing an increase in their health insurance premiums, Gussio said.

"The costs for individuals is unbelievable," he said. "We've seen some very, very high premiums. I haven't seen an increase this big in the 20 years I've been working in the industry."

Most of the families purchasing policies sold on the federal exchanges, even those more expensive, will be eligible for tax credits, based on previous years' experience.

Some individuals have seen premium increases of more than 20 percent and some businesses have seen 40 to 60 percent increases, Gussio said. There have also been some decreases in premiums, but the majority of price changes have been increases.

According to a Kaiser Foundation poll of 1,202 adults between the ages of 18 and 64, 46 percent said they tried to get health insurance but found it was too expensive, even with government subsidies.

The increases are partially due to the number of health insurance companies that are going under or are merging with other companies, he said.

Many people are saying they would rather pay the penalty for not having insurance at all rather than pay $1,400 a month for insurance they may not use, Gussio said.

That's despite the fact that the average penalty for an individual not having insurance in 2016 will increase 47 percent to $969, according to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Foundation. The average penalty in 2015 was $661.

Lewis said for a family of three, two adults and a child, the penalty starts at around $1,737.

"That's school clothes or a house payment," he said. "I have not found a person who doesn't want health insurance. They want to be able to afford it. We're trying to show people what's available."

However, Lewis said, even with the price changes he has not had a problem helping people find a new health insurance carrier. In some cases, he's been able to help them find the same plan under a different company at a cheaper price.

Businesses with 50 or more employees are also looking at paying the penalty rather than purchasing health insurance for their employees, Gussio said. He's had a handful of business clients come in asking about the 50 or more employee mandate that goes into effect in 2016.........." Full story

"Iâ€™m not for Obamacare, except it covered people and that was a badly needed change."

Puhlease. It has been federal law for decades that anyone needing immediate health care can walk into any emergency room. Did you know that? This "Obamacare Insurance Scam" has done nothing but increase co-payments, premiums, close emergency rooms, and limit access to "if you want your doctor, you can keep your doctor" for those who don't want to sit in the ER rooms with dozens of illegal aliens.

Sheesh, dozens if not hundreds of doctors are retiring in every State because of this Federal Fiasco! Those that are staying in practice are increasingly turning away Medi-Care patients and going to cash only. I read it every day!

Please let us know when you have to go to an ER and sit there with the little snot-nose kids of illegals. I had to recently because of a real emergency. I almost passed out on the floor, but still had some kid with a runny nose go before me. Yeah, Obamacare fixed it all, didn't it?

“........Three: Many onetime small-government conservatives, frustrated with the president’s success and the impotence and corruption of their party (often a legitimate complaint but often an overestimation of what politicians can accomplish), are interested in finding their own Obama - or what they imagine Obama is, which is to say, a dictator.

Not that this fetishizing of leadership is confined to the progressive Left or the conservative Right. In fact, more than anyone in American discourse, the self-styled moderate pundit loves to talk about leadership. It would be a full-time job cataloguing how often a person will read about the nation’s dearth of genuine leadership - which is, in essence, a call to ignore the democratic forces that make truly free governing messy and uncomfortable. There are entire conferences teeming with D.C. technocrats trying to figure out how proles can be led to preferred outcomes and decisions. The moderates seem to believe that organic disagreements can be smoothed over by a smart speech or two, and they always mythologize about the political leadership of the past.

For many, it’s always the worst of times and we’re always in need of the greatest of leaders. It’s worth mentioning that Putin was democratically elected, with polls showing his approval rating usually somewhere in the 80s. Unity! Regrettably, sometimes I think that’s how unity would look here, as well. We, on the other hand, have disparate forces with an array of concerns, outlooks, and conflicting worldviews. This is why we might be thankful that federalism and individual freedom, often scoffed at, are at the heart of the American Founding.

“There is danger from all men,” wrote John Adams in what may be the most genuinely conservative of all positions. Now, obviously, you have to have a certain skill set to bring people to some consensus, to make decisions about war, and to administrate such a massive body as our government. But the president is not your savior. A person empowered to make everything great also has the power to make everything horrible. If a president alone can transform America, then something has gone terribly wrong with the system.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428999/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-strong-leaders

".....I think it's fair game to say about such people that they are not as conservative as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%; however, to say that they are not conservative at all is to indicate that maybe you need some hobbies, not including inventing reasons to dislike a politician (as rewarding and fulfilling as that particular hobby might be).

A movement that causes Glenn Beck to get off the bus because things are getting a little bit crazy on board cannot expect to end in anything but an especially ugly form of self-destruction.

I don't have a problem with people saying that they would prefer Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% to Rubio - I've said it myself. But to suggest that the acceptable spectrum of nominees for a nationwide election against Hillary Clinton begins on the left with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% and ends on the right with Donald Trump suggests a total and complete loss of perspective. The end result of this kind of rhetoric that makes no discernment between someone who commits one electoral transgression and one who commits 100 is that no one who's ever been elected to any office before and served for even a single term will be satisfactory.

Thus, our primary field is led by a clown. But hey, at least the clown has never cast a vote on an appropriation rider that paid peddlers of outrage didn't like.".......Source

I myself, firmly believe Trump is more conservative than Cruz.

Trump is for returning American jobs.

That is very conservative to me. I know Cruz recently came out for American jobs, but I believe Trump on the issue more than Cruz, who seems a recent convert.

Glenn Beck is irrelevant this go around, in my opinion.

The Donald and the Damage Done

"The left has long depicted the typical Republican as a white, racist, misogynist male with a big bank balance and a small brain. This is a caricature, of course, but the current election cycle has produced an ostensible GOP presidential candidate who personifies the parody so closely that he may as well have been constructed in a laboratory by the Democratic National Committee. Donald Trump is the cartoon Republican that Hillary Clinton and her media lackeys want to run against in 2016 and they are working hard to assure that his florid, frowning visage becomes the face of the GOP.

As Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight notes, "Trump has received 54 percent of the media coverage of the GOP primary." He has been getting more free press than all the other Republican candidates combined. Trump's supporters believe this is about his skillful manipulation of the media. In reality, it is they who are being played by a press corps that is giving him 24/7 coverage to bolster his illusory lead in the national polls. But these polls tell us nothing about the state of the race. Because there's no such thing as a national primary, they measure little more than name recognition.

The people who run the major media outlets, such as CNN, are well aware of this reality. Yet they knowingly publish misleading national surveys, like this poll released last week, showing Trump with an implausible lead of 21 points over his nearest rival. Such "blockbuster" surveys provide a pretext for another tsunami of "news" stories about his alleged lead, additional interviews, and more coverage of the campaign rallies during which he almost always says something ignorant or offensive. These statements are then reported as generally representative of GOP positions."...................

" Even before ObamaCare, it wasn't really free market. As an example, in New York, when I wanted to bid out my health insurance, we had boundaries. I could only go in New York. If I wanted to bid it out to a company from California or New Jersey, anywhere--you get no bids."

If you were a thinking conservative you know the answer is interstate commerce with the competition and the lower prices it would bring.

"No. No, these are different times. And over the years, you are going to change your attitudes. You're going to learn things and you're going to change. And I have evolved on that issue. I have evolved on numerous issues....We must have universal health care"

Yeah, universal health care works so well in other countries with all the waiting times for appointments, waiting times for simple tests, long waiting times for procedures, the doctors retiring, not to mention anything run by the Federal government ALWAYS waste money and reduces efficiency. It's simply the nature of government.

Are you sure you're on the correct board? We here, believe in Free Enterprise that creates competition which always lowers costs. I've owned 3 small companies and know how to read a Balance Sheet and a Profit&Loss statement and know how to compete. Apparently, you don't get capitalism. Maybe you should be talking with the socialist/commies on Slate.

Thought you were a smart person. Apparently you are ignorant to what makes any private company successful, or maybe you're just getting old and want free stuff paid by others. That I would understand, but would hold you in contempt. I'd rather die that make others pay for medical costs. IT'S NOT A RIGHT TO HAVE OTHERS PAY FOR YOUR DOCTOR! It's YOUR responsibility.

Sorry if I misunderstood.

Healthcare is a mess in America right now. Big time.

What we had before was a big mess. What Obama created is a mess. But it has some good characteristics because it covers everyone, which in my opinion are what Trump references when he says “repair and replace” it.

And I think it also makes everyone pay for coverage, rather than illegals simply walk into an emergency room when they’re sick.

I don’t know exactly what Trump means by “repair and replace” but am cautiously optimistic about it, anyway.

>> As long as healthcare is so dominated by the government, then the government has a big role to play in making sure it is not prohibitively expensive. <<

Huh?! Government is one of the primary reasons why healthcare is prohibitively expensive.

Also, you seem to keep confusing health care with health coverage. They are not interchangeable. As was pointed out upthread, Federal law already addressed care. The market, not the government, should be enabled to take care of the coverage.

I disagree.

If we’re going to make people responsible for healthcare expenses, then the government needs to get out of regulating healthcare. We need freedom.

We do not currently have such a system however. Government is very, very much involved in medical licensing, and regulation. Big time.

If we’re going to keep the government involved in meddling and controlling healthcare, then the government needs to not allow people to be taken to the cleaners, by it.

One or the other.

If you were a thinking conservative you know the answer is interstate commerce with the competition and the lower prices it would bring.

Yes. Buying everything across state lines only makes good economic, free market sense.

Trump has advocated doing exactly that, removing the restrictions across state lines. Please stop posting like the MSM with your narrow minded, tunnel-visioned views. Trump's key positions are positions he has been advocating for years. There are views that he hasn't held that long that are contrary to his previous views. I can understand how this can be a point of concern, but Trump isn't a career politician. He is a businessman and lives on his word.

"Healthcare is a mess in America right now. Big time. What we had before was a big mess. What Obama created is a mess. But it has some good characteristics because it covers everyone, which in my opinion are what Trump references when he says â€œrepair and replaceâ€ it."

Wow! You are so wrong. Do you read every year how many millions sign up for Obamacare, but then don't pay the premiums for designated companies? I just read yesterday that more that 25% sign on the dotted line, but DON'T pay!
Guess who pays the subsidies?

"And I think it also makes everyone pay for coverage, rather than illegals simply walk into an emergency room when theyâ€™re sick."

Yes, that was the theory, but you're wrong again. Because of the yearly increasing high deductibles and high premiums, people are cancelling their health insurance policies. Remember, under Obamacare, you can get deathly sick and THEN buy an insurance policy. That is like you total someone else car and then you buy car insurance to cover those costs. That is not INSURANCE and neither is Obamacare since you can buy insurance with pre-existing health problems. Again, subsidized by hard-working tax payers.

"I donâ€™t know exactly what Trump means by â€œrepair and replaceâ€ but am cautiously optimistic about it, anyway."

I agree that I don't know what Trump's ideas are fixing the health care system other buying policies across state lines, which he mentions rarely. He talks in sound-bytes. I keep trying to tell the "Trumpets" he is a Perot. Don't know if you remember him, but he also talked in generalities, "Well, we'll just fix it. What ever the problem, we'll look at the issue and just fix it". That was his story over and over and sound like Trump to me.

THE smartest guy on the stage is Ted Cruz. He is not only the most informed, but has the Conservative bona fides since he has written cases to be presented to the USSC and won them.

I think the problem we're facing now is at the rate we're going there won't be anything to buy across state lines as the insurance companies are falling like dominoes (according to plan).

Whereas Trump talks about "across state line" insurance purchases, he rails against insurance companies.

You can pick a lot out of one of Trump's statement (below) and use it to support a myriad of positions - so fluid, so flexible, so worthless.

***********

TRUMP: As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It could have worked in a different age. What I'd like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state. I have a big company with thousands of employees. And if I'm negotiating in BY or NJ or CA, I have like one bidder. Nobody can bid. You know why? Because the insurance companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians. They're making a fortune. Get rid of the artificial lines and you will have yourself great plans. And then we have to take care of the people that can't take care of themselves. And I will do that through a different system."...

".Last year, 86 percent of those who signed up through the federal exchanges received tax credits on their insurance premiums. The credits are available for families earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, the income limit would be about $94,000; a family of two, $62,000."

That's the new "poverty level"? $94,000 or $62,000? Do you know what a tax "credit" is? It's not a partial deduction, it's a complete discount on your top line taxes. Worse, those who are even lower than the so-called poverty level actually get earned income credit which means they get YOUR tax dollars for free without paying into the system at all - not one cent but they get free money. They actually get a check in the mail without paying ANY taxes!
That is NOT okay with me. Every citizen or legal resident, not to mention illegal aliens, should have to pay for their local streets, schools, States, and Federal protection.

The tax code is obscene. EVERY ONE SHOULD HAVE TO PAY THE SAME PERCENTAGE NO MATTER HOW MUCH OR LITTLE THEY MAKE!

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