B-Man Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Read it and weep. Kaiser recently released its study analyzing 2016 ACA rates. Everyone jumped on the conclusion that some silver plans are cheaper than last year. What wasn't reported was that the reason those plans are cheaper is that they exclude many physicians and hospitals. You know, something that many here predicted would happen. The NYT, no less. : Obamacare Insurers Are Suffering. That Won’t End Well. This was part of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news cycle for Obamacare; as ProPublica journalist Charles Ornstein said on Twitter, “Not since 2013 have I seen such a disastrous stream of bad news headlines for Obamacare in one 24-hour stretch.” Stories included not just UnitedHealth’s dire warnings, but also updates in the ongoing saga of higher premiums, higher deductibles and smaller provider networks that have been coming out since open enrollment began. It now looks pretty clear that insurers are having a very bad experience in these markets. The sizeable premium increases would have been even higher if insurers had not stepped up the deductibles and clamped down on provider networks. The future of Obamacare now looks like more money for less generous coverage than its architects had hoped in the first few years. But of course, that doesn’t mean insurers need to leave the market. Insurance is priced based on expectations; if you expect to pay out more, you just raise the price. After all, people are required to buy the stuff, on pain of a hefty penalty. How hard can it be to make money in this market? What UnitedHealth’s action suggests is that the company is not sure it can make money in this market at any price. It’s as if the whole thing is a scam designed to result in single-payer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 So you are whinning that you want more? You are unhappy with how much you have? Sorry must suck to be so angry Want? Who said anything about want? When I comes to want I'm in control of that. The word is keep. I would like to keep more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Let’s Not Do That Again The insurance companies that were the greatest boosters of the so-called Affordable Care Act are now fleeing the exchanges or preparing to flee them; certain unkind rodential-nautical metaphors come to mind. Let’s take a second to remember how, exactly, this mess got sold to us: On the one hand, we got endless sob stories about the horrors of American health care circa 2008—“This telegenic child has a terrible disease and big mean meany health insurance companies won’t help,” “This telegenic single mom has a horrible ailment and she lost her insurance because of greed greed greed,” etc. The Republicans’ response was, roughly, “Harrumph,” or, if they were feeling loquacious, “We have the best health-care system in the world, harrumph, harrumph.” Swayed by the sob stories, a substantial share of the American voters convinced themselves that nothing could be worse than what we had, and the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Axis of Mediocrity set about proving them wrong. And here we are. Reality isn’t optional: On the matter of UnitedHealth Group, USA Today writes: “The nation’s largest health insurer warned Thursday that it may pull out of the Obamacare exchanges after 2016 – forcing more than a half million people to find other coverage – after low enrollment and high usage cost the company millions of dollars.” Not only could that outcome have been foreseen, it was foreseen, predicted in these pages and among economically literate people of all sorts. People respond to incentives, and Obamacare creates exactly the sort of incentives that produce the outcomes that UnitedHealth cannot afford. All of the political pressure is configured to make Obamacare more expensive and to do less to pay for it, thus Democrats, pushed by their union-boss patrons, are working feverishly to repeal the “Cadillac tax,” one of the main revenue instruments by which this mess was supposed to be funded. Who could have seen that coming? Everybody. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 People are getting services they needed for a very long time, Ms. Williams said. There was a pent-up demand. Over the next three years, I hope, rates will start to stabilize. That from GG's link. We can all be happy that people that need health care are getting it. Oh wait, most of you are Conservatives and hate that... Want? Who said anything about want? When I comes to want I'm in control of that. The word is keep. I would like to keep more. Most people do, so what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) Most people do, so what? So if most people want to keep more money why are you advocating for higher taxes? Edited November 20, 2015 by Chef Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unbillievable Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 So if most people want to keep more money why are you advocating for higher taxes? It's not your money. The paper says "united states dollar". It doesn't say "Chef Jim's dollar." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 It's not your money. The paper says "united states dollar". It doesn't say "Chef Jim's dollar." That's why I bank electronically. My electrons are mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Obamacare crumbling before our eyes It wasn't very long ago that President Obama would jeer at Republicans for the many congressional votes they had taken to amend or repeal his healthcare law. But, much though he loves to jeer — his shameful and unpresidential fit of pique about GOP concerns on terrorists camouflaged as refugees, was a recent example — the president may soon beg them for a few more such votes. Because as its sixth birthday approaches, his health insurance law is in critical condition. The latest bad Obamacare news came on Thursday, when America's largest insurer had to tell Wall Street that it is losing its shirt by participating in the Obamacare exchanges. In a press release, UnitedHealth Group slashed its earnings outlook, causing its stock to fall by 6 percent in the first few minutes of trading. {snip} The root causes of this debacle are deeply troubling — a system so badly conceived and constructed that a company with a proven track record in making money on health insurance loses nearly half a billion dollars. Obamacare's exchanges held forth the promise of government-subsidized health insurance, for which people cannot be turned down or even charged a bit more based on even expensive pre-existing health conditions. The result is that a disproportionate number of those who hurried to sign up for exchange plans did so because they already needed expensive treatments. The hope was that as time went on, healthier and younger customers would sign up too. That didn't happen, and now most sensible people have abandoned that pipe dream. Obamacare's exchanges are projected to enroll only half as many people as originally expected. Middle class customers without major health problems look askance at the high premiums. They may also stop paying for insurance after they realize that their premiums are being kept lower than they would be otherwise by high deductibles and narrow networks. Even the controversial requirement that everyone buy insurance under penalty of law has failed to attract these customers. As a result, there aren't enough net-payers into the pool to cover the healthcare costs of the others. Insurance companies are begging for a bailout. Although it is not a certainty, the threat of the so-called "death spiral" still remains. The good news? Repeal looks more politically feasible, more attractive, and even more likely to attract at least some Democratic support every day this goes on. When Obama leaves office, more than half of the 60 Democratic senators who voted for it will have retired or been defeated. The party will have much less invested in defending it against common sense, as it has done now for seven grim years. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-crumbling-before-our-eyes/article/2576805 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 This is wonderful! http://www.ocregister.com/articles/blom-694315-restaurants-restaurant.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 Collapse of NY’s largest Obamacare co-op has doctors refusing new patients Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 Collapse of NY’s largest Obamacare co-op has doctors refusing new patients But at least, thanks to Obamacare, they finally have access to health care... ...oh, wait. ****. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 President Obama's health-care reform hasn't meant less time on the job for American workers, according to three newly published studies that challenge one of the main arguments raised by critics of the Affordable Care Act. ADP's findings were confirmed in another study by Aparna Mathur and Sita Nataraj Slavov of George Mason University and Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Their paper, published this month in the journal Applied Economics Letters, uses data from the federal Current Population Survey and finds no statistically significant change in the proportion of part-time workers in the sectors most likely to be affected by Obamacare, such as janitorial and restaurant work. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/12/no-obamacare-isnt-killing-full-time-jobs-new-evidence-shows/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 A Clear Path for Repealing and Replacing Obamacare Is Coming into View House and Senate leaders deserve a lot of credit for putting together a bill that repeals much of Obamacare and skillfully navigating it through both chambers using the budget-reconciliation process. That’s no small achievement, though President Obama is sure to veto the bill as soon as it reaches his desk. But it’s likely to be only a partial preview of what could happen in 2017 — if a Republican wins the White House. It is telling that the bill Congress is poised to send to President Obama delays repeal of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and health-insurance subsidies for two years. That way, Republican senators could promise their constituents that a replacement for Obamacare would be put in place before the federal funding for their plans was withdrawn. If there is an opportunity to repeal Obamacare in 2017, these senators (and many House members too) will want to include the replacement provisions in the same legislation rolling back Obamacare. That’s also likely to be the case for a Republican president in 2017. Obamacare is unstable, and full of problems, but that does not mean returning to the pre-Obamacare status quo will be an attractive option for a newly elected president. A Republican president will want to put in place a program that is better than Obamacare. That means providing access to health-care coverage that is better than Medicaid or what is offered on the exchanges. House speaker Paul Ryan understands this. He pledged this week that the House will take up and pass a plan to replace Obamacare next year. Passing a bill in the House would force more compromise among different factions on a precise replacement plan and lay the groundwork for legislative action in 2017. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428091/repealing-replacing-obamacare-clear-path Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 (edited) UNEXPECTEDLY! ........................CBO projects 2 million fewer jobs under ObamaCare. Remember, if you predicted this back when the bill was under debate, media “fact checkers” would ask the White House if that was going to happen, then give you four Pinocchios when the White House said no. And then call you racist. OBAMA’S HHS GAVE A SWEETHEART DEAL to a medical analytics firm owned by a company that had to settle a health data fraud case brought against it by the New York Attorney General for $400 million. Can you guess what the sole-source, five-year, open-ended “Blanket Purchase Agreement” is buying for the Obamacare program from the lucky firm? If you said health data – including an undetermined amount from the database used in the New York fraud – you get the gold ribbon. Oh, and did I mention that Andy Slavitt, Obama’s nominee as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (which runs Obamacare), is a former top executive with firm at the heart of the fraud? Maybe that’s why he got an unusual ethics waiver from the Obama administration that allows him to participate in decisions affecting his former employer? Just saying …. And one more thing: Not only does the contract’s renewal not have to be made public, according to federal procurement regulations, nobody knows how much the deal is worth because there’s no dollar amount affixed to it. http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/220813/ Edited December 8, 2015 by B-Man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 More than two-thirds of Kentucky residents don’t want the state to roll back its expanded Medicaid system, according to a poll released Friday. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll also shows that half of Kentucky residents hold unfavorable views of the Affordable Care Act, the federal law that allowed the state to expand Medicaid. Among Republicans, 54 percent favor keeping Medicaid expansion as it is over changing it to reduce the number of people with coverage, according to the poll. Of people who voted for Bevin, 43 percent support the current Medicaid program, while 50 percent want it scaled back to cover fewer people. http://wfpl.org/kentucky-aca-medicaid-opinions/ 50% of his voters want to take away health care from other people. F'n savages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanker Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 http://wfpl.org/kentucky-aca-medicaid-opinions/ 50% of his voters want to take away health care from other people. F'n savages I wouldn't call the healthcare uninsured F'n savages. They may want more from the government than what they realistically have coming, but I don't think of them as savages, and certainly not F'n savages. That's pretty harsh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I wouldn't call the healthcare uninsured F'n savages. They may want more from the government than what they realistically have coming, but I don't think of them as savages, and certainly not F'n savages. That's pretty harsh. Not to mention that "covering less people" does NOT mean less health CARE. but simple minds have been repeating this same mistake for seven years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unbillievable Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 The idea behind socialized medicine is that it's better to hand out free toothbrushes to 320 million people, than to allow 280 million of them to see a Dentist for the same price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Not to mention that "covering less people" does NOT mean less health CARE. but simple minds have been repeating this same mistake for seven years It'd be easier to just kill grandma already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 It'd be easier to just kill grandma already. Seriously. What purpose does she serve? Her cookie production quantity and quality has been in serious decline for years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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