Good day all. The headline is pretty much a standing one, in that every time I write about the disaster that is Obamacare, things are getting worse for it. If you’ve been following the news, you know that insurance companies are bailing out of the Obamacare exchanges big time.
The reason for this is that they a losing money by the truckload. This wasn’t supposed to happen of course. The insurance companies saw Obamacare and the mandate to buy insurance, or else, as a guaranteed revenue stream in the 10’s of billions of dollars annually.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Now, the insurance companies have realized they were sold a bill of goods by Obama and instead of huge profits, they are losing money at unsustainable rates. Now they are pulling out of the Obamacare exchanges. Here are some of the details from Fox News:
Six years after ObamaCare was signed into law – and countless assurances later that the law is “working” – America’s major insurance companies are facing mounting losses and threatening to pull out of the exchanges, leaving customers facing higher costs and fewer options.
They aren’t threatening to pull out, they are doing it.
In the most recent example, Tennessee regulators are bowing to pressure to let insurers refile their 2017 rate requests, which could lead to steep hikes for customers. A state official acknowledged to The Tennessean they are “not alone” in letting companies seek bigger increases — as some insurers head for the exits.
According to the story in the Tennessean, the state has already had a couple of the insurance companies pull out and are terrified that all of them will.
Given that the state has lost several insurers from the exchange in recent years, the loss of Cigna and Humana would imperil access to coverage in several parts of the state. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is the only insurer planning to sell state-wide. BCBST asked for a 62 percent average rate request increase.
Yeah. My insurance rates for one person skyrocketed 60+ percent. It’s frankly, unaffordable for me and if I can’t find a job in short order, I will have to decide which is more important. Obeying the, (irregardless of what the USSC says), unconstitutional mandate to buy insurance, or eating and keeping a roof over my head. Yes, it’s that bad. My primary expense is my mortgage. My health insurance bill is now close to 2/3rd of my mortgage payment. Getting back to the Fox News story:
Earlier this month, Aetna, once one of ObamaCare’s biggest cheerleaders, slammed the breaks on its expansion plans and became the last of the five major national health insurers to project significant losses tied to the Affordable Care Act.
Aetna’s CEO was one of those who drank deeply from the Kool-Ade and saw nothing but a license to print money. Honestly, the CEO and all those on the Board of Directors that supported this scam should be dismissed from their positions for shear incompetence.
CEO Mark Bertolini blamed “structural challenges” associated with the health care overhaul and said Aetna intends to withdraw all its “2017 public exchange expansion plans” and undergo “a complete evaluation of future participation in our current 15-state footprint.”
In other words, “We were screwed over by Obama, Reid and Pelosi, so we’re getting out of this disaster before we go under with it.”
When the health insurance exchanges were first rolled out, the Obama administration strongly pushed a win-win narrative – marketplaces would thrive and Americans who had been unable to afford medical coverage in the past would finally be able to do so.
And anyone with two functioning brain cells, which leaves out anyone who voted for Obama and is looking at voting for Cankles, knew the Affordable Care Act was a complete scam and couldn’t work. It was always about totalitarian control of the people by the Democrats.
While clear evidence that the law was expanding coverage, the soaring enrollment numbers have created a fiscal nightmare for insurers which, in turn, has serious consequences for customers.
And why was that you ask?
A majority of new enrollees are considered high risk, meaning insurers will have to spend more money on people in poor health and requiring expensive care.
Gee, and who didn’t see that happening? Why that would be the senior executives at the insurance companies it seems.
One by one, the nation’s top insurers – Humana, UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross and Anthem – have shifted their tone on the law. Once optimistic, each has reported struggles with plans sold on the exchanges. Many say they weren’t ready for the influx of customers that have generated more claims than predicted.
Frankly, I don’t believe that. Insurance companies are all about managing risk. If they missed what would happen, then really, the shareholders need to start looking at replacing the managers of these companies. I think what happened is they misjudged the costs of the mandated coverages.
For instance, did you know that women are entitled to prostate exams? Oh wait! Women don’t HAVE prostates! There’s also mandated coverage for child birth. Coverage for pregnant women isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but for a woman past child bearing age? Or a MAN? That is the major problem and one the main reasons health insurance is so expensive. Mandated coverage that will never be used by the customer.
As a result, companies are scrambling to find ways to cut their losses and stop the fiscal bleeding. A few say they’ll be forced to pass on costs to customers.
A few? Try all of them.
Blue Cross reported losing hundreds of millions of dollars on its exchange plans across the country. In Tennessee, it took a $300 million hit; in North Carolina, $280 million and in Arizona, $135 million. In California, the company is expected to raise rates 19.9 percent – more than triple the average annual increase.
Others like Humana are threatening to quit altogether.
Humana said it will stop marketing its exchange plans, and will only offer individual plans in 156 counties across 11 states — a decline from the 1,351 counties across 19 states it currently serves.
“We see Humana following a similar path as UnitedHealth in 2017 and expect the company will significantly reduce its overall exposure to the struggling public exchange marketplace,” Scott Fidel, a Credit Suisse Group AG analyst, said.
From what I’ve been reading, the whole Obamacare mess will come to a head, probably next year. As it is, most of the Obamacare exchanges have already collapsed.
To date, 70 percent of the original co-ops have folded due to financial strains, with only seven of the original 23 operational.
“The only remaining question is when will all the co-ops collapse, not if,” Josh Archambault, senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, told FoxNews.com. “Some might take slightly longer than others, but the future looks bleak, even after billions of federal taxpayer dollars were spent to get them off the ground and keep them afloat.”
One of the problems was Obama himself. One of the plans was to ship taxpayer money to his cronies insurance companies to cover their loses. The problem was, the money was never appropriated by Congress. The Obama Regime tried playing a few budgetary games, but were caught and slammed down pretty hard.
The impending collapse of of Obamacare has moved into the General Election. Trump has laid out a basic plan to scrap and replace the system. However, Clinton wants to keep it and actually move more toward her original “Hillarycare” plan from the 90’s. That was the one where if you wanted to pay your doctor for services, both of you would be put in jail.
The problems and possible fixes for ObamaCare are playing a significant a role in this year’s presidential race, too. Republican nominee Donald Trump claims ObamaCare has cost the country millions of jobs.
“One of my first acts as president will be to repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare, saving another two million jobs,” Trump said during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
He’s right too. Obamacare has cost millions of people any hope of a job, and far to many of the jobs out there are contract positions or part time only. Obamacare is designed to punish companies that hire full time employees. However, Trump’s plan has its detractors.
However, a May study by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that Trump’s plans for ObamaCare would cost the country $550 billion and result in more than 20 million people losing their health care coverage.
I don’t know anything about this group. I did a quick google search and it looks like they’re just another bunch of Beltway Bandits Washington Think Tank that’s just a bit to cozy with the inside the Beltway crowd. Besides, Trump’s plan is just a framework and a place to start talking with Congress. There are a number of plans out there to replace Obamacare.
Then we have Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Her philosophy is:
[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU’]
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has defended the Affordable Care Act on the campaign trail and says if elected, she’ll go after companies who she claims are “gouging American consumers and patients.”
Yeah, right up until they each donate a few million dollars to the Clinton Slush Fund Foundation. Then all those problems will just go away. Obamacare was a walking zombie from day one. Conspiracy theorists, and I’m beginning to fall into that camp, are saying that it was never meant to succeed. The goal was to nationalize healthcare into a government run system. If you think Healthcare is to expensive now, wait until it completely free.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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