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Health Premiums Have Climbed $4,865 Since Obama Promised to Cut Them $2,500
Investor's Business Daily ^ | 9/23/2015 | John Merline

Posted on 09/24/2015 3:49:39 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer

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To: IBD editorial writer

“We’re from the government,and we’re helping you. We’re taking over healthcare (17% of the U.S. economy) to save you money. You will love it. Believe us.”

My premiums and co-pays didn’t lower, coinsurance went up and out of pocket limit went to $6k/$8k. My possible annual costs doubled.

And ask Veterans about government run healthcare (those that lived through their wait).


21 posted on 09/24/2015 5:31:53 AM PDT by polymuser ( Enough is enough)
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To: Rodamala

We are redundant. One of us must die. :-)


22 posted on 09/24/2015 5:33:01 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Rodamala

Imagine going through the doctors office type insurance hassle every time you buy groceries. I’ll bet food would be Moe expensive...


23 posted on 09/24/2015 5:35:15 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: fatnotlazy

“I also think most of us are law abiding, decent folks who believe such protests would somehow be wrong. So we shut our mouths, go to work and keep paying through the nose for the irresponsible. The dictators in Washington are counting on us to keep on doing so.”

I agree, but also I think it is partly due to the tendency of people in the US to “not get involved”. It’s much easier and safer to sit on the sidelines and watch someone else do it. Even if there were a violent attempt to overthrow the government, regardless of macho internet bluster the vast majority would not get involved until they are led away in chains. The government is very well aware of this.


24 posted on 09/24/2015 5:37:42 AM PDT by Gideon300
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To: IBD editorial writer

Look this is no surprise... Obama as usual LIED about the intent of “obamacare”..
The sole purpose of obamacare was to drive up insurance rates driving people to the “cheaper” obamacare and ONE SOURCE / NATIONALIZED HEALTHCARE..

Obamacare does not provide economical health insurance nor does it provide real healthcare..

IT IS STRICTLY A POLITICAL MOVE THAT FOOLED THE LIBTARDS AND FREE STUFF CROWN...AGAIN

the deductables are massive, doctors wont see you and if you get real sick you can die before you get treated...
thus once diagnosed with cancer in the UK .... you will die while waiting for treatment
In the USA the cancer diagnosed survival rate is the HIGHEST IN THE WORLD... but give obamacare time and YOU TOO CAN HAVE THE WONDERFUL NATIONALIZED MEDICINE LIKE THE UK AND CANADA..


25 posted on 09/24/2015 5:38:55 AM PDT by zzwhale
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To: GregoTX
Health insurance is my most expensive monthly cost; before this slimy communist prez the cost was affordable......<><> premium costs for me and my dependents have skyrocketed. <><>deductibles are unbelievable, far out of my budget.<><> next year they will increase again.

Taxpayers still have not felt the "big bang" -- the entire cost will zoom into the trillions to keep the behemoth afloat.

We need to recognize that this was a money-raking scam from Day One---greedy politicians frequently use insurance to perpetrate scams to enrich themselves.

Now let's examine the REAL reasons why the affordable US healthcare system was upended. Egged on by Pelosi, Democrats slavishly voted for Obamacare by an historic straigt-party line vote. It contained a massive, multi-billion-dollar slush fund that was deliberately kept hidden from us "stupid taxpayers".

================================================

EXHIBIT ONE--- In the fall of 2009, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was trying to get the necessary 60 Dimocrat votes to pass the Affordable Care Act. He needed every Dim on board, which gave waffling senators a great deal of leverage. In Landrieu's case, she connivingly saw that selling her aye vote could get her maybe $200 million federal dollars. Obama complied. Reid chalked up another vote for Obamacare----not the measly $200 million but $4.3 billon was attached to the Obamacare bill earmarked for Landrieu.

How $4.3 billion to Landrieu was calculatedly attached to the Obamacare bill, and how Obama and Reid (cough) "failed to catch and fix it," is yet another indictment of the Obamacare atrocity.

The $4.3 billion handoff to Landrieu should be investigated as an indication of how EVERY Democrat came to vote for Obamacare....and how tax dollars were laundered to get lock-stepping Democrats' votes.

FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov

==================================================

EXHIBIT TWO --- The Untraceable $8 Billion ObamaCare PR Budget---truly govt fraud at its finest.

O/Care is a huge money-laundering operation---everybody got a cut. From F/L Michelle and her pal who made zillions botching the rollout web site using a phony company---all the way to Obama admin insiders...Jonathan Gruber, and of, course, salivating Dumbocrats.

Not one Democrat told Americans about Obamacare's Section 4002---which mandates an $8B untraceable fund to "promote" Obamacare (apparently b/c Boobamba had so little confidence in his signature legislation).

THE PAYOFF--WHO GOT THE MONEY? In 2010 Taxpayers are extorted $500 million, in 2011, $750 million, 2012, $1 billion, 2013, $1.25 billion, 2014, $1.5 billion, and, in 2015 and on, $2 billion

<><> Where is all that money going?

<><> Was cashing-in the incentive in getting the thing passed?

The sound of West Wing wire-transfers to states and to offshore banks is almost palpable.

==================================================

REFERENCE--ACA SEC. 4002. PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.

(a) PURPOSE. It is the purpose of this section of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to establish a Prevention and Public Health Fund (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Fund’’), to be administered through the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary, to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs.

(b) FUNDING.—There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, and appropriated, to the Fund, out of any monies in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated—

(1) for fiscal year 2010, $500,000,000;
(2) for fiscal year 2011, $750,000,000;
(3) for fiscal year 2012, $1,000,000,000;
(4) for fiscal year 2013, $1,250,000,000;
(5) for fiscal year 2014, $1,500,000,000; and
(6) for fiscal year 2015, and each fiscal year thereafter, $2,000,000,000.

(c) USE OF FUND.—The Secretary shall transfer amounts in the Fund to accounts within the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding, over the fiscal year 2008 level, for programs authorized by the Public Health Service Act, for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs.

(d) TRANSFER AUTHORITY.—The Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of may provide for the transfer of funds in the Fund to eligible activities under this section, subject to subsection (c).

===================================================

EXHIBIT THREE -- IRS Watchdog: $67 Million Missing from Obamacare Slush Fund
ATR ^ | 9/25/13 | John Kartch / FR Posted by Libloather

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent from a slush fund established for Obamacare implementation, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report released today.

The “Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund” (HIRIF) was tucked into Obamacare in order to give the IRS money to enforce the tax provisions of the healthcare law. The fund, totaling some $1 billion of taxpayer money, was used to roll out enforcement mechanisms for the approximately 50 tax provisions of Obamacare.

According to the report: “Specifically, the IRS did not account for or attempt to quantify approximately $67 million [from the slush fund] of indirect ACA costs incurred for Fiscal Years 2010 through 2012.” The report also found several other abuses of taxpayer funds, including:(Excerpt) Read more at atr.org ...

=============================================

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov

26 posted on 09/24/2015 6:18:57 AM PDT by Liz
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To: All
Insurance fraud is an old, old scheme---pols use to get into office and keep themselves in office. Read on.

EXHIBIT ONE: a NJ school supt was arrested in the fall of 2010 and charged with 17 counts of bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud.

Authorities say that while serving as NJ high school superintendent, he and his co-conspirator, a Maryland insurance broker, concocted a scheme to inflate school insurance charges and kick back part of the money as bribes.

The two are accused of concealing more than $1 million in bribes from insurance brokers and other service providers. The company, Federal Hill Risk Management, served as the insurance broker for the NJ Regional school district from 1978.

Court documents say the two men spent stolen money on home renovations, watches that cost tens of thousands of dollars, and other personal expenses......and also allegedly bought a girlfriend - also on the school district payroll - a car and other gifts, including money for the college tuition of one of her relatives, according to court papers.

A federal investigation of the insurance broker of Baltimore has to do with NJ municipalities and NJ school plans---he is under state indictment for allegedly bilking $2.6 million from one school district and more than $200,000 from the muni, and was indicted by a federal grand jury.

The broker's son-in-law and a business partner were charged with stealing $216,000 from the NJ muni for a nonexistent wellness program for city workers.

A state grand jury issued an indictment in July charging money laundering, conspiracy, forgery and theft by deception. Authorities said they bilked $2.6 million from the schools over a six-year period.

A third man, of Bernardsville, pleaded guilty to theft by deception and false representation for a government contract in the same scheme targeting the school district.

The co-conspirators are alleged to have lied to the school’s insurance carrier, Cigna----they told Cigna that the school board authorized the insurance carrier to pay fees on behalf of the school board from its medical claims bank account for health care related programs and services that never existed, authorities said. That money, stolen from Nov 2003 to July 2009, went into personal bank accounts, the indictment alleges.

===================================================

EXHIBIT TWO: Judy Rapfogel a 37-year Silver employee---now COS to NY Dim Speaker Sheldon Silver---is under investigation after her husband, William Rapfogel, was fired as CEO of the NY Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

Investigators said Mr Rapfogel bought insurance policies for the Met Council at inflated prices and pocketed some of the excess funds as kickbacks....and directed other funds from the insurer to NY political campaigns.

INSURANCE SCAM OF LONG-STANDING---NYT REPORT--Sixteen years ago, Judy Rapfogel, now chief of staff to Democratic Sheldon Silver, ran for the NY City Council---the seat was in Mr. Silver’s home district and was unusually heavy on political firepower, especially when compared with Judy Rapfogel's rather modest campaign budget of $160,000.

But among the various campaign expenditures for Council candidate, Judy Rapfogel, was a disproportionate sum spent on a seemingly peripheral need: automobile insurance. The insurance payments accounted for 6 percent of Judy Rapfogels campaign’s spending, and cost more than double what the campaign spent to lease the vehicles themselves.

Fast forward to 2013---sixteen years after her losing campaign, a criminal complaint filed against Ms. Rapfogel’s husband has cast new light on Judy's long-ago insurance payments. Mr. Rapfogel is accused of conspiring for more than 20 years to pad payments from the tax-exempt Met Council (largely subsidized by state, city and fderal taxpayers), to a small Long Island insurance brokerage in exchange for kickbacks from the brokerage.

Century Coverage Corporation, the insurance brokerage at the center of Mr Rapfogel's criminal complaint, is the same one that Judy Rapfogel’s 1997 campaign paid for unusually large insurance coverage.

A spokesman for Mr. Silver said that Ms. Rapfogel was also not aware that her 1997 campaign had paid Century. The treasurer for Ms. Rapfogel’s campaign, Freda Fried, did not return calls or e-mails. Ms. Fried is Mr. Rapfogel’s sister.

Judy Rapfogel has not been implicated in the criminal case against her husband but is now being connected peripherally via the Century Insurance payments for her 1997 campaign.....she has hired a lawyer.

=================================================

Authorities said Rapfogel is suspected of stealing $5 million and kept at least $1 million in kickbacks for himself with the rest going to unnamed co-conspirators....... and paid no taxes on the ill-gotten gains.

Investigators seized about $400,000 in bricks of cash Rapfogel stashed in his and Judy's home. Judy Rapfogel said "she did not know" about her husband's stash and did not know about the $100,000 cash gift he gave to their son to purchase a house.

==============================================

Since 2003, city and state politicians have steered $5 million to the Met Council in discretionary funds known as “member items.” By law, charities like the Met Council cannot return the favor by assisting candidates directly or indirectly. But Rapfogel appears to have pushed the interpretation of that law, and at times, Rapfogel’s role as a fund-raiser has been quite direct.

Mr Rapfogel is listed in campaign finance records as collecting $18,250 for assorted candidates from 1994 to 2007. Nearly half of that money — $8,500 — came from people tied to Century Coverage. Century executives and their relatives have also donated or raised $130,000 for politicians who have funded the Met Council, records show.

One such politician is Speaker Silver, who has appropriated $868,000 in discretionary funds to the Met Council since 2006, and received $8,500 for his political committees from Century employees, records show.

Democrat David Weprin is another. From 2004 through 2009, when he was a city councilman, Weprin’s campaign committee received eight checks totaling $4,950 from Century employees. During that time, Weprin sponsored $700,000 in discretionary funds for the Met Council. Weprin, now an assemblyman, did not return calls seeking comment.

27 posted on 09/24/2015 6:22:03 AM PDT by Liz
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To: scooby321
I am shocked that Premiums have gone up Deductibles have gone way up. Your network has changed

You may be, but the media doesn't blink an eye when Obama or Hillary lie to America. They are more concerned about a rally plant asking trump gotcha questions.

28 posted on 09/24/2015 6:26:33 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: IBD editorial writer
Employer-based health insurance premiums climbed 4.2% this year for family plans, according to an annual Kaiser Family Foundation report.

My health insurance premium through my work went down in 2014 and rose about 4% in 2015.

That's up from 3% the year before. Since 2008, average family premiums have climbed a total of $4,865

So what percentage is that total, and what were the pre-Obamacare increases?

29 posted on 09/24/2015 6:31:59 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Sacajaweau

Yes, I no longer do telephone work but I have spoken with people in many states within the past year and heard story after story of how people have lost very good health coverage which they had been able to afford and have been forced into plans with huge premiums, huge deductibles and only seventy percent coverage in hospital if they ever do get to the point where the insurance starts paying. We would be better off to throw the whole thing out, pass a law saying the FEDERAL government will never again involve itself in health care and let the states handle it.

A note to any who ever believed in Obamacare. Expecting the federal govenment to come up with a plan to IMPROVE healthcare is expecting the impossible. You may as well walk behind a horse and expect him to drop gold neggets on the ground rather than horse apples.


30 posted on 09/24/2015 6:43:49 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
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To: Fresh Wind

One of the most alarming indicators of what is wrong with America is that almost no one even commented on the absurdity of talking about premiums FALLING by 3000%. Had he made that claim to a group of eighth graders in 1955 he would have been hooted off the stage because preteens knew, in those days, that that is IMPOSSIBLE. We can have no hope of salvaging this country so long as people can make idiotic statements like that and get away with it. Anything that decreases by 100% ceases to exist.


31 posted on 09/24/2015 6:52:48 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
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To: IBD editorial writer

(sigh)....Hillary or whomever the Dem candidate is will run around the country next summer blaming the BIG EEEEEEVIL GRRRREEEEEDY Insurance Companies, and most of the Low Infos will buy it. We’ll have single payer within a few years.


32 posted on 09/24/2015 7:11:54 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: RipSawyer

Obama is the “Magic Negro”. With him, anything is possible.


33 posted on 09/24/2015 8:33:08 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Falcon 105)
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To: IBD editorial writer

The DC Lawyers have now completely hijacked healthcare and will continue to line their pockets with additional profits. Lawyers have developed an extortion racket to get a piece of every business. They run every branch of all federal and state governments which explains why we now have 5000 federal crimes and more than 100,000 additional rules and regulations, everyone of which benefits the lawyers and judges. Judges—black robed tyrants—have become dictators making new laws with the stroke of a pen by claiming some fabricated interpretation that always results in another cascade of lawsuits and extortion money for “the law”Yers. Some blackrobe in Oregon recently declared an old couple must pay a couple of homosexuals a $135,000 for not making them a wedding cake. But, but, this is “the law. Selective enforcement of the laws is now the game they play. We are all criminals if the lawyers say so.


34 posted on 09/24/2015 9:59:26 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

The short answers to profits for obamacare, lawyers, and leeches: government overhead added into healthcare costs and people who paid nothing before, still pay nothing for more available, free healthcare. Obamacare is a giant increase in welfare and added pocket lining for the DC lawyers and bureaucrats.


35 posted on 09/24/2015 10:01:04 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
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To: polymuser

I will say it again. The short answers to why costs continue to skyrocket: government overhead added into healthcare costs and people who paid nothing before, still pay nothing for more available, free healthcare. Obamacare is a giant increase in welfare and added pocket lining for the DC lawyers and bureaucrats.


36 posted on 09/24/2015 10:02:12 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
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To: cuban leaf
Imagine going through the doctors office type insurance hassle every time you buy groceries. I’ll bet food would be Moe expensive...

Access to "affordable food" is clearly a Human Right...

I can hear it now:

"If you like your food, you can keep your food. If you like your grocer, you can keep your grocer, period."

37 posted on 09/24/2015 10:43:56 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Neoliberalnot

When Government jobs are removed from Labor Reports, and Government spending is removed from GDP, then, and only then will those metrics have some real bearing on REALITY... and the true scale of the economic collapse this nation is really in.


38 posted on 09/24/2015 10:52:33 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Neoliberalnot

You have a very, very key word there - lawyers.

When I consider how and where we’ve been taken to the cleaners, it all involves attorneys. Everywhere.


39 posted on 09/24/2015 10:55:39 AM PDT by polymuser ( Enough is enough)
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To: fatnotlazy
The lazy lumps who won’t get out of bed and go to work made out. They don’t care that someone else broke his back to finance that freebie.

They may have free or low cost premiums but they have a $6K deductible. Or am I wrong?

40 posted on 09/24/2015 10:56:56 AM PDT by Lizavetta
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