Another Chapter In That Continuing “Good News Story” Called ObamaCare
We have some recent news about that Patently Puerile, Asinine Current Administration concept current Administration initiative called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – AKA ObamaCare. And, as usual, the news isn’t all that good.
A few weeks ago, news articles surfaced saying that insurance carriers were worried about ObamaCare. Specifically, they began warning the public that losses sustained by policies issued through state exchanges were unsustainable.
Well, yesterday the other shoe fell. UnitedHealth – the nation’s largest provider of health insurance – has announced it will pull out of most state ObamaCare exchanges next year.
Why? Simple. They want to stay in business. UnitedHealth estimates their losses due to policies issued through ObamaCare exchanges over the last two years at approximately $1 billion.
Gee, who’d a thunk it? I mean, insurance is only based on the market model that the insurer sells many policies, but pays out a comparatively small number of claims. Specifically, over the long term an insurer must take in more in income than they pay out in claims and other expenses to stay in business. Otherwise, over the long term they go belly-up.
That’s a major reason why health insurance companies typically have an exclusionary period for preexisting conditions. It’s also why truly bad drivers end up in the “shared risk” insurance pool in most states – and then pay through the nose for their auto insurance. Both practices are designed to bring revenues above expected claims payouts; and both practices are supported by hard statistical data.
ObamaCare’s prohibition on the exclusion of preexisting conditions radically changes the financial basis for ObamaCare insurance policies – it’s raised the amount paid out in claims hugely. This means there are two options an ObamaCare insurance provider has if they want to stay in business: raise premiums dramatically, or cease participation. United Health has just begun the process of doing the latter.
But wait – ObamaCare has made insurance cheaper, right?
Yeah, right. Now, tell me another shaggy dog story – this time one that’s funny.
It turns out that both patient medical costs and health insurance premiums are rising under Obamacare. Given basic economics, that was also eminently predictable. A recent study by Blue Cross/Blue Shield found that on average ObamaCare policy holders are sicker and require more medical care, at larger cost, than people who obtain health insurance through their employers. Wanna guess where the money for those extra costs comes from?
If you guessed “increased premiums”, give yourself a gold star. Well, that plus subsidies – which are paid out of your taxes.
Gee. What a surprise.
Bottom line: ObamaCare is based on flawed economic analysis, bad assumptions, and with wishful thinking. It’s the equivalent of King Canute ordering the tide not to rise.
However, there is a major difference. King Canute didn’t expect the tide to obey him; he was making a point to his courtiers concerning the limits of his authority. The imbeciles that brought us ObamaCare actually expected basic economics to change on command.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Health Care debate
We warned them. We told them this was going to happen. But they were so happy that they were going to get health care for free that we were dismissed as “right wing racist nut jobs.”
Yep.
One day the left will learn that “free stuff” . . . isn’t. Someone, somewhere, ALWAYS pays for it.
And unless you’re very damn careful, eventually the money always runs out.
Memo to Lars… how you like your Obamacare now? Someone gets dorked in the squeakhole for the “free shit” that you and your academic butt buddies want.
I know Jack Shit… he’s a nice guy
Hi, Lotta. How are ya?
I know Jack.
How’s he doing these days?
Haven’t heard from him in awhile.
Hey B Woodman, YOU KNOW ME, I’m a’doing just fine.
Hey LOTTA have you seen HOLY around lately
???????
Holy is with his cousins Dumb and Bull picking up their grandpa Dip.
No Holy… saw Gotta this past weekend, sends his respects to all.
BTW – Gotta is one of them Italian Shits, the family were all black sheep…
I have been lucking on the page, waiting for the moment when I am really needed.
Yo, Lotta: you got a cousin who goes by “Fulla”? If so, is his legal last name by any chance “Taylor”?
No, but I have a cousin (twice removed) that goes by the name of GOTTA!
I’m giving my name a break, so I’m sending one of my sock puppets to reply to this conversation, “B” or “Jay”, BJ, because I SUHUUUCK!
follow the money. It isn’t that they didn’t know it would fail – it was intentional so that .gov would take over healthcare in a single payer (.gov) system. healthcare will be too big to fail (think banks)….
Our Federal Government manages things as well as Bernath checks his fuel tanks.
I don’t think Obamacare was ever designed to work, for exactly the reasons you stated. Obama and his hardcore lefty supporters never liked the compromise of Obamacare anyway. What they really want, deep down in their little hearts, is fully socialized medicine, i.e. single payer. But they also knew that they could never squeak that one past Congress. So, Obamacare. And the great thing is IF it worked, even for a short term, then that makes them look good. And IF it failed (which it appears to be headed for) then the Obamacare supporters could simply point the finger at “greedy insurance companies” and push what they REALLY want which is single-payer. I can see this happening a few different ways: 1. One by one, the big insurers start dropping out of Obamacare, which forces Obamacare patients into fewer and fewer insurers. Eventually there are only one or two insurers left for Obamacare patients, and when they are faced with bankruptcy due to the discrepancy between premiums and claims, they get bailed out by the government and the bill is sent to us, the taxpayers. 2. With fewer and fewer health insurers willing to take Obamacare, Medicare/Medicaid gets expanded to include Obamacare patients. Eventually this becomes the de facto National Health Service. Again, the cost of this is charged to the taxpayers in the form of higher medicare taxes. As this happens, I would imagine that eventually almost everyone will get pushed into the Nationalized system either by sky-high premiums or by companies just getting out of the business of routine health care because they can’t make money at it. What happens after that? I’m thinking a two-tiered system, whereby people with incomes below probably $50k/year are stuck with the equivalent of military sick call at the TMC or the “free clinic” downtown: Long lines, overworked, burned-out staff, months- or years-long waits for routine surgery, expensive treatment denied, etc. OTOH, those with the means will be able to get supplemental health plans (at a high cost) that will allow them access to more and better care. I would also expect… Read more »
Health care with the efficiency of the U.S. Postal System and the compassion of the IRS. Wait, isn’t that the VA?
Anybody who knows me sees just that, and I’d add “all of the speediness of a DMV Office”.
Exactly. ObamaCare was never designed to work. It was a marketing campaign for the left. Remember, the right is graded on results. The left is only graded on intentions. Thus, the fact that anyone in a basic Econ class could have told them from day 1 that government manipulation of a market, no matter the product/service, usually ends in a greater clusterf@ck coefficient, fell on deaf ears. They (the left) only have to appear to want to “help”. The fact that this entire program wasn’t thought through and downrange implications were NOT considered by anyone with intellect greater than a 5-yr-old was never their worry. Getting the “have-not” masses to see this carrot and then watching as economic realities take it away as well as pinning its failure on the right was the only long term consideration. What did the left have to lose?
‘… never thought through…’?
I strongly disagree w/that assertion!
Everything in the run‐up to StinkyCare™, including direct statements by Stinky™ himself…during speeches to union bigwigs and conventions of union representatives, various references dropped by pResident Bowel Obstruction himself when the audience was upper‐rank Progressives… made it clear that StinkyCare™ was only a final step towards single‐payer, and therefore designed to fail!
Failure was designed‐in, and the hints dropped say that single‐payer is the handle by which they plan to make the final enslavement of the U.S. Citizen.
The hits dropped are obvious, but for those who need more, there were statements made by various Dumper_sCat Reps after its “passage”, one of which was “now we can finally begin to get the American People under control.”
Yes. Though I don’t remember the name of the Rep who said that particular gem, I DO remember my jaw dropping to the floor when I watched him say it on C‐Span!
I honestly thought that would awaken people. Even those who thought they were “safe from the crocodile’s jaws”, b/c, although those people think they’re safely outside the “systems of control” the tyranny uses, (e.g., the MSM’s people believe that they’re immune b/c they’re one of those “systems of control”), a little thought shows that no tyranny can allow any exemptions excepting, perhaps, the Apex Tier– which usually consists of a single individual or a tiny group no larger than 3 to 5.
It didn’t wake them up, and honestly, I’m at a loss on explaining that!
Stupidity, or an actual desire to live under the threat of being “disappeared”, I don’t know which… or even if it is something else altogether.
It does depress me, though.
Well if you are in the drug rehab business there is over 2000 homes in Southern California that are now rehabs thanks to Obummer care and Polusi and Barbra boxcar what a damn joke..
And to think the Rinos or republicans seem hell bent on keeping it greedy assholes
Hang in their folks, Lars bitch ass will be by soon to defend his master Obama.
Every time one of these articles is printed out I like to remind folks that it isn’t just insurers who are bailing out or looking at huge losses, it’s hospitals as well.
I don’t really give a flying fuck how you slice it, but reducing payments isn’t cutting costs, it’s cutting any chance to maintain viability. It’s especially difficult for small non-profit hospitals that serve as regional care centers. There’s a reason that even larger non-profit systems like Baystate Health here in the PRoM are losing tens of millions a year right now. It’s the same reason that smaller regional hospitals are getting sucked up by the Baystate like systems across the nation…those smaller hospitals either assimilate into the conglomerates or close.
Hospitals are closing emergency rooms or considering altering the nature of their existence as well. Dropping emergency rooms and converting the space to long term care facilities or mental health facilities is often a better recipe for operating in the black, primarily because risk and expense drop.
Different issue entirely, VOV.
Without ObamaCare, the majority of those obtaining health insurance through exchanges either would have no insurance or would receive medical care thru MedicAid or other public assistance programs. I’m pretty sure hospitals can’t turn away either emergency or MedicAid patients. Ergo, the hospitals serving those insured thru ObamaCare receive no less in reimbursements due to ObamaCare than they would otherwise receive, and may well receive substantially more (due to the requirement they provide care to indigent emergency room patients).
ObamaCare has little or no bearing on the Medicare allowable charges, which are the primary ones driving the train re: medical costs. IMO what you’re addressing is thus an entirely different argument, one that would exist whether or not ObamaCare in its current form existed or not.
ObamaCare is an abomination, but the problem you describe isn’t IMO attributable to ObamaCare.
Actually they are closely related Hondo, the ACA is designed to expand coverage which you state, it also however has an effect on revenues to DSH (disproportionate share hospitals) who are designated as those hospitals providing treatment to a great many uninsured patients sometimes as high as 1 out of 5 patients. The ACA has a DSH reduction provision which is supposed to mean the newly insured no longer represent the same population percentages and consequently the payments to DSH hospitals are reduced. The problem is the reduction in payments still doesn’t cover the shortfall for providing services to those still uncovered…
The theory behind what the reduced payments would be based on the newly insured, as with all things ACA, are under estimated. Consequently these DSH hospitals will see rising shortfalls and those rising shortfalls either stress the state budgets or remain uncompensated shortfalls.
I believe I read something where a study of California hospitals indicates the projected shortfalls of 195 million to either 600 million or 750 million depending on whose numbers you’re willing to believe. These are significant ACA related issues.
That was my poorly articulated rant.
California is about a cunt hair away from going full-socialist at this point already. So, not really surprising.
Quite a few of my friends there only live there because of their families or because they like the city they’re in. But, I wonder how long that will last when the 15 bucks an hour problem hits and raises costs and businesses leave even more than they already have for the last few years.
I do think this debacle was designed to force a single payer bailout of the system at some point and bring in a European style single payer system….we’ll see how it works out…
I don’t see Trump actually dumping the system, but it’s possible I suppose. A Clinton win guarantees we’re stuck with it….
So free shit ain’t free, huh? Go figure.
Will Limpdick deny this or try to claim that it’s actually a good thing?
He will try to convince us that the sh!t sandwich called ObamaCare tastes good and is highly nutritious.
“Life is like a shit sandwich – the more bread ya got, the less shit you gotta eat.” – Anonymous
Why is this no surprise? Why is ANYTHING masterbat- er, masterminded by bodaprez and his sidehacks not a surprise?
I can practically guarantee that hospitals will be reduced in number so that the only one available you will be 35 miles away. That is what has happened in the UK. There are other things going on there, too, but eventually, we may go back to the doctor or visiting nurses who made house calls to sick people and charged a modest fee.
Even vet medicine has changed from vets making house calls to take care of your sick dog or cat plus the horses and cows, to small animal clinics and large animal vet groups.
It’s almost as though things will swing back in that direction. And why not? Why should emergency rooms be tied up with people who are suffering from a cold, or from the flu because they didn’t get a vaccination for it?
GE WHIZ what a surprise – NOT!!! If Government-provided healthcare is such a great idea then 0bamacare would never have been necessary because Medicare and Medicaid would have done that BUT since those too were set up for failure via pols and bureaucrats they find new ways to waste money and time while lining their pockets. Which Nevada brothel was that, was it the Mustang Ranch? It was taken over and operated by the Feds after the Owner(s) defaulted on some taxes and the Feds proved that they couldn’t even run a whorehouse!
“The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” – Lady Margaret thatcher
It was said to be the Mustang Ranch, but that story’s been largely debunked. The IRS seized and foreclosed on the property after a judge disallowed the gov from trying to run it.
Not that I would trust the gov to run it or anything else mind you…
The judge must’ve known what a disaster a government-run whorehouse would be.
Hypothetically speaking, though, do you think they’d take payment in food stamps?
Oh, come on, guys! The government-run whorehouse is on Pennsylvania Avenue. Haven’t you figured that out yet?
I thought the phrase “Brothel on the Potomac” referred to all of DC, Ex-PH2.
Well, technically, yes, Hondo, it does.
But I thought the people paying 5,000 and 10,000 dollar deductibles through ACA would be covering all the sick people? And/or the people paying ridiculous premiums each month already.
King Barry doesn’t care because he and his family won’t ever have to use the system. His “associates” Capitalists who call themselves Socialists won’t use it either because they’re so rich.
In fact, we should start calling it “Obamadontcare” instead, because that’s more appropriate.
(applause)
There are medications that for a single dose, cost $1000 or more. The only way our system will ever work is for more people to pay into it than draw from it. That quit happening about twenty years ago. This is nothing more than a train wreck going somewhere to happen — and we all have tickets to ride.
And where is the Poodle in all of this? I’m sure he has nothing really important to say, but he’ll say it anyway.
Shall I conjure him? Okay!
By light of Mao Tse-Tung’s brown eye
By his receding hairline
And his morbid sigh
And the victims that around him lie,
I do conjure thee, Poodledick!
Where are thou? Come, birdbrain, come!
I wot the fool doth sleep the sleep of the Dead.
I think it was Tucker Carlson that said “If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait untill it’s free!” He was right. Of course, anyone who was ever involved thih the insurance industry could have told you that.
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