What We have is RINO-Care: A more insolvent version of Obamacare ... except this time GOP owns it

Conservative Review ^ | 03/07/2017 | Daniel Horowitz

[Hugh the Scot]

I’m in agreement with all of that.

What I don’t understand is the mechanism for preventing a third party from developing an actuarial risk calculation and investing in that risk? Insurance seems to be a lucrative proposition...

Would the government forbid entry into the health market by third parties?

Would healthcare become so inexpensive that private citizens wouldn’t need to share the risk to avoid being wiped-out completely by an unexpected health crisis?

If so, would that reduce the number of health care providers available, leaving the market susceptible to price-fixing?

I believe the market can handle insurance speculators, and company sponsored insurance plans as well.

[Alberta's Child]

You're 100% correct about insurance in general, but let's step back and look at the unique aspects of health insurance apart from any other type of insurance.

1. An insurance policy is intended to spread the risk of high-cost events from one party to a group of others. This can be a high-cost/low-probability event like a house fire, or a high-cost/defined-probability event like a person's death. In the case of a homeowners' insurance policy, the policyholder may pay premiums for decades and never have a single claim. That's fine, because the whole purpose was to protect the homeowner from a catastrophic loss that might never happen. In the case of a life insurance policy, the coverage is for an event that will happen with 100% certainty, but at an unknown time in the future.

2. In both of the cases I mentioned above, the insurance company can use a combination of actuarial calculations and limits on financial exposure to accurately assess the risk and price the insurance accordingly. The company that insures a $400,000 home knows that its maximum loss is $400,000 if the home burns to the ground. The company that underwrites a $1 million life insurance policy knows that it will pay exactly $1 million to the estate of the policy holder at some point in the future.

3. Medical insurance doesn't operate like traditional insurance coverage because the insurance company has enormous unknown financial exposure. A person can pay health premiums for years without making any claims, then suddenly incur huge medical bills for procedures and treatments that didn't even exist a few years ago. This is the equivalent of buying a life insurance policy for an unknown death benefit that may be $1 million but may also be $100 million ... or a homeowners' policy on your $400,000 home that will cost anywhere from $400,000 to $4 million (or more) to rebuild if it burns down five years from now.

There's no way an insurance company can deal with this using actuarial tables and other traditional methods. In the past, a insurance company would be able to accurately measure its maximum financial exposure for medical policies by imposing lifetime limits on coverage for each policy holder. ObamaCare included a provision that eliminated lifetime insurance caps. Is it any wonder why health insurance premiums began skyrocketing immediately?

There's nothing wrong with a catastrophic health insurance policy that only covers catastrophic illnesses and injuries. Very few people in this country want such a thing, because we're used to living in an environment where we can get whatever medical treatment we think we need, and pass the costs off to others. Maybe we're starting to figure out that the "others" include US now.

[Bryanw92]

>>I do not belI’ve he or the GOP congress can meet the false goal of improving Obamacare without bankruptING the nation

You are exactly right. ObamaCare is the mechanism by which the globalists who destroyed American jobs and the American work ethic will finish off the middle class to create the nation of servile poor people that they can use to compete with the servile poor people in all the other Third World nations. It was a suicide pill from the start. It can’t succeed and it can’t be taken away now that the expectations are in place. Everything about it is a landmine that a single touch is political suicide.

[Hugh the Scot]

All quite rational, and irrelevant to my preceding point...

Insurance coverage for well-care is an asinine idea as well, but also outside this scope.

My question was, “who stops the market from absorbing these risks and costs, absent government regulation?”

[lonevoice]

That last part is critical.

Till now the Democrats owned this piece of sh**, lock, stock and barrel.

Now Republicans have their fingerprints on it.

Absolutely true, and worse. The idiot neverTrumper, Glenn Beck, was already crowing about "TrumpCare" this morning. This is a disaster! If this is the opening bid of what's intended to be a negotiation, then the RINOs are negotiating against conservatives and Trump's base.

This sucks.

[Sam Gamgee]

Yes, listening to Sean’s press conference now. Shit. Ah well.

[Alberta's Child]

My question was, “who stops the market from absorbing these risks and costs, absent government regulation?”

Nobody stops the market from doing anything, except that the entire system collapses because nobody can afford an insurance policy when the market prices these risks accordingly.

Government intervention is what happens under public pressure when the public realizes they can't afford something they think they're entitled to.

[Praxeologue]

The solution is simple, President Trump.

Bring forward a bill with everything in it, now.

The bill would add insurance across state lines, portability and tort reform. This should also reduce the pre-existing issue, though where not, Medicaid would pick up the slack within limits.

It would get rid of Medicaid expansion, which is just for those who would rather spend 'disposable' income on non-necessities than on health insurance.

Lose Snow and Collins, but hold on to Paul, Lee and Cruz.

It might pass; it might not. But you did your best to honor your commitment to the American people, who will credit you for that.

Then two years from now, you will have 56 or so Senate seats and can implement the right plan for us all.

What Ryan is offering you now is a ticket to the price Bush Sr. paid for breaking his promise to "read my lips: no new taxes!"

As for taxes, without Medicaid expansion, removing Ryan’s soaking the middle class with another 10 points on our tax rate between $75,000 and $215,000 would be revenue neutral.

There would be no "kicking it to the out years”, no phase-in or delay. Move to the best approach immediately.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Why he ever endorsed that back stabbing rat bastard is beyond me.

[Hugh the Scot]

I’ve never learned a damn thing from a man that agrees with me.

[Alberta's Child]

That’s a very interesting and insightful post. What prompted that? LOL.

[Hugh the Scot]

Thank you for the civilized conversation?

[Alberta's Child]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure it applied to me or to anyone else posting on this thread. LOL.

Thank you, too!!

[DBeers]

It's a given, that to get 'there' from here without creating any undue hardships on the majority of people who detest yet are now enrolled in obamacare and the minority who require tax payer funded medical care regardless who now use obamacare THAT the 'here' is obamacare as it is now.

The question is not what 'here' looks like today, the question is, what will 'there' look like tomorrow with a follow up question when will tomorrow be, would it be naively hopeful to consider tomorrow to extend beyond Trump's guaranteed 4 year term?

Those are the targets and constraints that I want to see debated and agreed upon THEN once clearly identified, LEGISLATED.

[vikingrinn]

[savedbygrace]

President Trump, as Candidate Trump and as Nominee Trump, promised to repeal ObamaCare. This bill, which President Trump supports, does not repeal ObamaCare.

That is the truth.

[Democrat_media]

Obamacare replacement is obamacare lite or RINO care because ALL of these politicians including the Gop politicians are owned by Soros.

Only Donald J. Trump is not owned by anyone and is why the Donald is the only on on the side of freedom and the American people.Trump is his own man and is for America

[Pride in the USA]

I hope this flops as it is written right now.

[momincombatboots]

I said planned, not wrote. So nice try.. right back at ya. There is a difference. Obamacare light.. here we go! It makes zero sense to send a replacement plan through reconciliation. That just screams weakness. I am still comparing RONO care to the freedom caucus. If Rinocare gets passed, it will go back through committee and get some adjustments. Just can’t see the final bill defunding abortions. That was a bone to conservatives to get them to cave.

[IWONDR]

“You mean all those tens of millions of immigrants are in perfect health or can afford health care?”

exactly. the millions of illegals that have poured into this country in order that hard working tax paying Americans must pick up the tab for their healthcare as they jam the hospital ER for their “free” care is a major major blight on our economy. we pay more for our medical care because someone must pick up the health care costs of these free loading invaders.