Remember this? “Premiums will fall by as much as 3000%” Keep dreaming

Flopping Aces ^ | 01-14-13 | DrJohn

[Starman417]

This was WAY back in 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUd-slJc-GY

"...your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3000% which means they could give you a raise."

Steve Gilbert had some fun with this:

Let’s say an employer pays $4,000 in health care premiums for an employee.

If his premium goes down 100% he will save $4,000 dollars. If it goes down 3,000% that is a savings of $4,000 x 30 which = $120,000.

Which means that an employer will make a $120,000 profit on each employee’s healthcare insurance once Obama-care is passed.

You can buy a lot of unicorns with $120,000.

But now reality smacks into Obamacare

Ooops.

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration's health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.

Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.

Small businesses. The backbone of the American economy.

In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers' filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014.

In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month.

The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies.

Providing free check-ups and mammograms doesn't come cheap.

The double-digit requests in some states are being made despite evidence that overall health care costs appear to have slowed in recent years, increasing in the single digits annually as many people put off treatment because of the weak economy. PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that costs may increase just 7.5 percent next year, well below the rate increases being sought by some insurers. But the companies counter that medical costs for some policy holders are rising much faster than the average, suggesting they are in a sicker population. Federal regulators contend that premiums would be higher still without the law, which also sets limits on profits and administrative costs and provides for rebates if insurers exceed those limits.

About those rate increase:

Although rates paid by employers are more closely tracked than rates for individuals and small businesses, policy experts say the law has probably kept at least some rates lower than they otherwise would have been.

But that wasn't what Obama promised.

(excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...

[Tom Bombadil]

It looks to me like the game plan is to force up the cost of health insurance, and then tell everyone that the only way to drive the cost down is to have a “single payer” system where the government is the only authorized purchaser of health care stuff.

[frogjerk]

If doesn’t cement Owebama as the biggest liar ever, I’m not sure what will.

[MrChips]

Absolutely. It is designed to fail. Hello Big Brother. But, in the meantime, does anyone actually know what premiums for an individual will be? I think at least $400 per month. I cannot afford that. I am paying $175 now for mere Catastrophic, but that will be taken away from me, as Obamacare outlaws catastrophic. So, I will be slammed with the penalty, which I will refuse to pay.