The Health Insurers' Faustian Bargain

The American Thinker ^ | May 15, 2010 | Paul Hsieh, MD

[Scanian]

In early 2009, health insurance companies struck a Faustian bargain with the Obama administration. In exchange for a law requiring Americans to purchase health insurance, they agreed to regulations requiring them to offer coverage to all comers regardless of preexisting illnesses. Now that ObamaCare is law, insurers are learning that they may have sold their souls to the Devil -- along with the lives of the American people.

At first glance, ObamaCare might seem a good deal for insurance companies by guaranteeing them a market for their services. But this guaranteed market comes at a steep price, with the government dictating whom insurers must cover, what benefits they must offer, and what prices they may charge.

Mandatory insurance will inevitably raise insurers' costs. Under any system of mandatory insurance, the government must necessarily determine what constitutes an "acceptable" policy.

[SkyPilot]

How can people in the insurance business be so stupid as to trust Obama and the Democrats?

This would be akin to grocery store companies agreeing with the Obama Administration to cooperate on a scheme to require all Americans to purchase food at their establishment, only to be shocked (SHOCKED!) to discover Obama and the Democrats are demanding price fixing, opening stores in inner city hell hole "enterprise" zones, and accepting discount food stamps from 40% of their customers without full reimbursement from the government. Oh, and their will be "food rationing" if there are too many customers at one particular store, so deal with it. Oh......there will also be new government agencies like the "Office of Minority Groceries" and the "Food Civil Rights Authority" that will hold their companies on a leash to make sure they give away food for free to approved minorities (blacks, Hispanics, others.....but they need not worry about Asians....they are too successful anyway).

Obama Health Care Bill Contains Race Preferences - - - Black Activist Speaks Out Against Proposed Unequal Allocation of Health Resources

[SC DOC]

Before retiring from BC/BS of South Carolina last week (one of the nation’s largest insurance companies), the CEO hosted a conference for health care workers and one of my partners attended. He presented exactly the same scenario for insurance companies in much greater detail than the article, and stated that by 2016 there would be a government run single payer health system. The reimbursement rates that were discussed under this system were Medicaid plus 5%, which is an amount that will leave no medical practice viable. He also predicted the demise of many hospitals within South Carolina specifically. I will be retiring much sooner as a result, within the next few years, but worry about how and where I will obtain competent medical care if I need it.

[I_Like_Spam]

The reimbursement rates that were discussed under this system were Medicaid plus 5%, which is an amount that will leave no medical practice viable.
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Well, what these kind of reimbursement rates would mean is that providers would accept the payment from the government and then just bill the patient for the remainder of their actual liability.

Patients without sufficient funds available to pay their bills-even with their government insurance plan- could buy supplemental policies from private vendors to cover the difference.

[heye2monn]

This article is brilliant from beginning to end. All the nice things that Obama promised up front — like eliminating preexisting conditions — will lead inevitably to the death of the insurance companies and the rise of socialized medicine.

The Democrats in Congress knew what they were doing all along. The idiots who voted for them, well, maybe not.

[kabar]

The reimbursement rates that were discussed under this system were Medicaid plus 5%, which is an amount that will leave no medical practice viable.

Over 40% of doctors don't accept Medicaid now. And Obamacare adds another 16 million to the rolls of Medicaid. Since the states must pick up abut half the costs of Medicaid, the states will have to bear the brunt of this mandate.

[Former MSM Viewer]

I’m shocked, I am...

[jwparkerjr]

Those in the uninsured ranks are basically in one of two camps. Either they don’t choose to have insurance for economic reasons, or they can’t get it because of their state of health. There aren’t enough in the first category, those who choose to spend their money on something other than insurance, to compensate for those in the second category, whose cost of care would be astronomical.

Seems to me the insurance companies were duped by the administration. Probably why the full court press, hurry up and do it, treatment by the libs. They knew if the bean counters at the insurance companies had time to think it through they would raise the alarm.

The simple fact is that NOTHING government ever sets out to do is a easy to do, costs as little as promised, or works out as planned. The vast majority of times you end up with the worst of both worlds. The very same problem, only more more serious and much more of it. Plus, the added bonus of being out a great deal of your money. Yup, that’s the liberal approach to things.

[wildbill]

There is a YouTube vid of Barney Frank admitting that OBAMACARE is merely a step in the direction of mandatory single payer national health care. They were able to pass this—they couldn’t pass their preferred health care program.

The entire package is designed to slowly—or perhaps quickly—drive insurance companies out of the marketplace and employers out of providing coverage for their employees.

Employers will pay the fines required in the near future to get out of paying for expensive health care.

What do you want to bet that Dems will increase the fines exponentially in the future so that ‘evil capitalist corportations’ will pay fines of “company money’ to support the health system?

Just another bait and switch con job.