The predicted failure of Obamacare has been discussed for years by those in the health insurance industry. The master plan was so huge, complicated and expensive, it would never get off the ground.
Now the lame stream media is catching on, even if they are late to the party.
For years they have talked about the windfall to health insurance carriers. Millions will be FORCED to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. Young people who are typically healthy will be required to buy health insurance and their premiums will be used to subsidize the older, sicker crowd.
But participating in government exchanges means playing by the government’s costly rules. Insurers will have to adhere to strict coverage standards that vary by state — and they’ll face restrictions on how they can price their products. Insurance companies will even have to pay a fee to sell insurance on the exchanges. That levy starts at 3.5 percent of every customer’s premium — and could increase from there.
Insurers may even need to put together a local provider network in each state exchange they join.
All of these costs will be added to the premiums and passed on to the consumer.
Health insurance will be MORE expensive, not less.
In addition to carriers that have already dropped out of the major medical business, remaining carriers are either cherry picking the states and exchanges where they MIGHT participate. Others have weighed the cost of developing HMO networks and appear to be wavering on moving forward.
Reminds me of the line from the 60's.
Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?
Well, suppose they gave us exchanges to purchase health insurance and none of the carriers participated?
The viability of the exchanges is also dependent upon whether the federal government subsidizes coverage as prescribed in the law. The cost of doing so has exploded beyond initial estimates — and the exchanges haven’t even launched.
On February 5, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office announced that the cost of exchange subsidies had risen an astounding $233 billion. The total tab will exceed $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
If Maxwell Smart were in politics he would use his fingers to indicate a small amount and say "Missed it by this much".
And the president will remind us that Obamacare will not add even one dime to the deficit.
This is the same guy that promised to cut the deficit in half by his first term and close Gitmo.
But wait, there's more!
In future years, Congress may not have the political will — let alone the money — to subsidize the exchanges at levels necessary to ensure widespread participation among insurers or consumers.
Further, those billions in expenses don’t include the funds that states will have to outlay for information technology systems to administer their exchanges. Nor does that trillion-dollar tab include the amount of money the feds will have to spend operating exchanges themselves in the 25 states that have defied Obamacare’s order that they establish them on their own. The Obama Administration has responded to all these concerns not by identifying ways to lower costs or entice insurers to participate — but by undertaking a rebranding effort.
Sounds like a runaway train.
Since Obamacare was signed, health insurance carriers have dropped out, the remaining ones have increased premiums significantly, health insurance carrier home offices have closed field offices and laid off staff. Employers that included health insurance as part of their package have dropped coverage, laid off staff to get below the 50 employee mandate and reduced hours in order to avoid providing health insurance for full time workers.
Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!
If you asked Veep Biden about this today, would he still say this is a BFD?
I don't think we are in Kansas any more, Toto.
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