Health insurance costs to jump massively

In the “water is wet” and “it’s dark at night” category comes news that health insurance premiums under Obamacare are about to skyrocket.

Remember when we had the freedom to choose what types of health insurance we would buy, or not buy? Good times, good times. Then came the Age of Obama and the institution of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, and more commonly known as “That God Damn Piece of Sh*t!” well, it’s now coming out that the insurance companies are looking at some major price hikes for the Obamacare policies. Here’s some details from Politico:

The cost of Obamacare could rise for millions of Americans next year, with one insurer proposing a 50 percent hike in premiums, fueling the controversy about just how “affordable” the Affordable Care Act really is.

The eye-popping 50 percent hike by New Mexico insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield is an outlier, and state officials may not allow it to go through. But health insurance experts are predicting that premiums will rise more significantly in 2016 than in the first two years of Obamacare exchange coverage. In 2015, for example, premiums increased by an average of 5.4 percent, according to PwC’s Health Research Institute.

You may be wondering why the insurance companies want such massive hikes in premiums. The answer is simple and the politicians knew this back when they were shoving this thing down our throats that the numbers flat out didn’t work. The Republicans sounded the trumpets and the Democrats flat out lied. The insurance companies? They expected to be taken care of by the Regime when they helped them ram this through. That didn’t work out for them and this is why they are desperate to raise premiums. They’re running out of money.

“Insurers seem to be reporting higher trend, which means they are seeing bigger increases in health care costs,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “But really what’s going on here is they now have data showing what the risk pool looks like. Initially in 2014 they were completely guessing about who was going to enroll and how much health care they were going to use.”

And what has been happening is that healthy people have been staying away from the Obamacare system in droves. The only people who have been signing up are those who thought they were going to get subsidized insurance and those who lost their previous insurance thanks to the Obamacare mandates and were desperate for coverage, no matter how bad it was.

Those who didn’t feel they needed the garbage plans put out by the Obamacare system just didn’t sign up. Oh, and that “Sign up or else” mandate? People figured out that the only way the IRS could get them to pay was to arrange to have a tax refund. If they owed money, they didn’t have to pay the “Tax” John Roberts shoved on us.

The reasons for the rising premiums are complex. Part of it, as Levitt noted, is simply that the carriers know a lot more about the health status and health care patterns of their new customers. Part of it’s rising drug prices. And the planned phasing out of certain ACA programs that were designed to reduce risk for insurers who entered the untested Obamacare marketplaces, are also causing carriers to price cautiously.

Yep, the free money from Obama isn’t going to arrive, and there is a very good chance that all those people who thought they were eligible for subsidies, aren’t and are going to have a massive tax bill sent to them.

In addition, those plan cancellations – and the political outcry they caused in 2013 – still plays a role. To quell the controversy, the Obama administration allowed plans that don’t meet the Affordable Care Act coverage requirements to remain in place through 2017. Insurers are still dealing with the market disruption and economic fallout of competing with those noncompliant plans.

Yeah, this disaster of a law has been routinely ignored by the Obama regime. They have lost a number of court cases over this. Simply put, Obama doesn’t think any laws apply to him and that if he feels the need, he can imperiously wave his hand and change the law.

Affordability, already a political talking point, is a concern of consumers and advocates, who are imploring state regulators to vigorously contest price hikes that could render coverage unattainable for low-income people, even with Obamacare subsidies.

“People are already having that sticker shock,” said Gabriel Sanchez, executive director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico, who ran focus groups recently among Latinos in New Mexico.

What did you expect? Free stuff ain’t cheap after all.

The bottom line for participants, he said, was “I thought this was the Affordable Care Act?

But the large proposed increases among market leaders are sparking a new round of recriminations, and Republicans on the Hill are again pledging to undo Obamacare. Rising costs would also be likely to elevate the issue in the looming 2016 presidential contest.

“People are paying more as a result of the Democrats’ health care law, and they’re going to be paying even more next year, and the year after that, until we’re able to do something to stop it,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, said in a floor speech before the Memorial Day recess. “Republicans are offering real solutions that will end these destructive and expensive Obamacare side effects.

The are three problems with getting rid of Obamacare. John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and of course, the SCoaMF himself, Barack Obama. Boehner and McConnell are spineless cowards who literally don’t have the guts to take down Obama. The slightest resistance from the Progressive Liberal Fascists Democrats and those two fold like cheap suits.

Obama? Well, he is Obama and he rejects anything that makes him look like the complete idiot that he is. (I believe the term is Megalomania) Then we have another wrench waiting to fly into the gears of Obamacare.

Hovering over the rate-setting season is the specter of the King v. Burwell lawsuit currently before the Supreme Court. A ruling is expected in late June, and defeat for the White House would mean subsidies would be eliminated in at least 34 states that use the federal health insurance exchange. That would throw the insurance markets into chaos.

The only hope for Obamacare supporters, (Mostly people who don’t use Obamacare insurance of course), is that the Supreme Court literally rewrites the law. The last time this happened was when Chief Justice John Roberts caved in and declared that the Obamacare fines were a “Tax” and let this unconstitutional pile of horse manure stand. Considering how badly Roberts was hammered the last time, he might decide to actually follow the constitution this time.

In addition, insurers are dealing with uncertainty and the phasing out of “risk adjustment” programs that were designed to protect companies from undue financial risk if they participated in the exchanges. The reinsurance program, which compensates health plans that end up with a disproportionately expensive population, is scheduled to disappear after 2016. The program has already dwindled from $10 billion in 2014 to $4 billion in 2016.

And the results to the loss of that money is already resulting in a number of insurance companies pulling out of the Obamacare system.

The University of New Mexico’s Sanchez said the cost of premiums hasn’t been a major political issue in the state so far. That’s in part because Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, hasn’t actively resisted implementation of the health law like many of her GOP counterparts. But Sanchez thinks health insurance costs could emerge as a political factor if the final rates are close to what’s currently being proposed.

Martinez, along with about half a dozen other RINO governors have either embraced Obamacare or not done anything to fight it. Now the political chickens are coming home to roost, so to speak, and we may see another flushing of of governors in the next election cycle. In this case, it will be those who essentially lied to get into office, promising to fight Obamacare and instead caving in to Obama.

“Most voters, particular in this economic climate, are pocketbook voters,” Sanchez said. “Their personal finances are driving their political behavior.”

Ayup, we are. If it comes down to a choice of paying for mandated insurance or eating, people are going to stop buying this trash. Then will come the IRS taking any refunds since they “Aren’t in compliance with Obamacare” and that’s when the tar and feathers come out. Congress has a chance to end this mess before things get out of hand. Personally, I’m not expecting them to do anything.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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