Obama health law fix may cost government money (Taxpayer bailout via Risk Corridor slush fund)

SF Chronicle ^ | 11/14/13 | Kathleen Pender

[jimbo123]

President Obama's decision to let people keep their existing health insurance policies through 2014, if their health insurance company continues to offer them, could end up costing the federal government money under the so-called risk corridor provision of the Affordable Care Act.

-snip-

It is too late to change the premiums that have been approved for 2014 to account for changes in the risk pool, says Cori Uccello, senior health fellow with the American Academy of Actuaries. However, under the risk corridor provision, "if insurers' losses exceed a certain percentage, the government will pay part of that loss."

-snip-

In a letter to state insurance commissioners Thursday, Gary Cohen, a director with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, "We intend to explore ways to modify the risk corridor program final rules to provide additional assistance."

[ThunderSleeps]

Great. The democrats - from obama on down - slam through obamacare without any GOP support. Knowingly lie through their teeth about both the costs and the ability (or lackthereof) to keep your coverage... Then they contract the web services to an obama cohort who apparently {expletive}'s off for 3 years while burning through millions of dollars.

Now they want us to pay to fix/bail out that which we don't want, they don't want (they've exempted themselves, remember?), and we've already paid for once. No. Not just no but HELL NO! Scrap the entire thing, repeal obamacare now!

[jimbo123]

Funny how the liberal media says the insurance company bailout will cost the “government” money, instead of cost the “taxpayer” money.

[alloysteel]

No reboot or correction of any government program or policy has ever cost any government ANYTHING.

The people from whom they seize property and taxes are the ones who pay for this or any other fiasco. And they get ZERO return on the money which they have given up.

Zero-sum game. The policies provide zero value, and the people get zero benefit. Zero plus zero is still zero.

[devolve]

OK…nevermind

[old curmudgeon]

Fascism in a nutshell is the government controlling business while leaving the ownership in private hands thus causing the owners to believe that they are benefiting from government regulations.

In reality this has already taken place in the financial world: Federal Reserve, largest banks, auto industry, etc.

Now will come the insurance industry.

The only solution is repeal.

[jimbo123]

POLITICO Playbook (Rubio seeks to repeal “Risk Corridor” bailout provision from ACA)

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3091669/posts

[Flycatcher]

Absolutely correct!

Yesterday, I must have posted "Fascism!" a good half a dozen times regarding Obama's "fix."

I'm hoping America is waking up to this fascist dictator's ploy. The fall in his poll numbers is heartening.

[Jack Hammer]

The “government” doesn’t HAVE any money.

It takes money from those who work for it, then funnels most of it down the toilet.

[randita]

As I recall, the specifics are that the taxpayers cover 80% of the losses greater than 5%. So insurers eat the first 5%, then 20% of the losses after that.

I think people are going to hit the roof when the light is shed on this. I’ve talked to very knowledgeable people who were surprised at hearing this.

[ScottinVA]

I’m not a fan of Donald Trump, but he had a great point on GVS’ show last night — on-the-fly “fixes” like these, in lieu of careful and deliberate planning, nearly always bring a worse result than the one you’re trying to avoid.

There’s no spinning for the dems out of this one. They and Obama together built this debacle and the 2014 elections will see a massive amount of shredded donkey parts when it’s all said and done.

The Repubs would be well-served to simply let them twist in the wind and hand the dems just enough rope to hang themselves.