Posted on 07/19/2017 3:37:25 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Health Reform: There were lots of celebrations on the left side of the aisle after the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare died. The good times will be short lived, because one way or another ObamaCare is going away, and it's not at all clear that Democrats will gain additional leverage over what comes next by waiting for its collapse.
It was amusing to hear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say, after the Senate bill failed, that Republicans should "work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."
Lower premiums, stabilize insurance markets, improve health care? Wasn't that what ObamaCare was supposed to do in the first place?
While Schumer and company were busy calling Republicans mass murderers, here's what was actually happening with ObamaCare.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that the number of insurers applying to participate in ObamaCare exchanges next year plunged by 38% compared with last year, and is half what it was in 2016.
CMS also reported that 40 counties in Indiana, Ohio and Nevada are at risk of having zero insurance companies in their ObamaCare exchanges next year. The Kaiser Family Foundation put the number of at-risk counties at 38.
In addition, CMS reported that 2.4 million enrollees in 40% of the nation's counties will have just one insurance company in their area.
The average increase in premiums next year for a Silver plan in eight states will be 18%, according to Avalere. One of the last ObamaCare insurers in Iowa has put in for a 43.5% hike. In Washington state, the average boost is 22%. In Tennessee, the proposed rate hikes range from 21% to 42%. And so on.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I think the Trump hammer is really close to being brought down hard on the Uniparty. He has given his agenda over to them to implement, at their behest, just to find out who it was in the Deep State he was really up against by who was just giving lip service intent on derailing his agenda. Paul Ryan is the epitome of this with Mitch McConnell right there with him. Think about it, he brings in McConnell’s wife to be Transportation Secretary as his olive leaf and Mitch just ground that leaf into oil.
Trump is also smart enough to know he had to make the overtures before cleaning house as I have often referred to his letting the drag click away on a very loose setting just so he could set the gang hook line before snatching the switch to zero. This latest double deal disguised as a failure was executed just as designed. The thing they all miss is that Trump is not a political animal and any shape or fashion.
Just as the media is about to implode, so will the so-called opposition party to the Democrats. Now that primary candidates are being announced, Trump’s roadshow will be to promote new blood and get rid of the Uniparty slugs infecting the swamp. Maybe a key to watch will be the rally coming up next week.
In my mind, COBRA is not within the majority groups.
I believe all COBRA is more expensive than the original group rates before departure.
Self employed places you (and for a while me) out side the boundaries of employer group and Medicare policies.
Also, the GOPe supporters of Obamacare need to feel Trump’s wrath.
>>>>> my gut tells me that most Americans are pretty well satisfied with their health insurance. <<<<<
Holy crap is that ever wrong in my case...and for most everyone I know.
I was satisfied before the 0bamacare insurance scam. Now, I pay 14,800 in premiums and deductibles (400 premium and 10k deductible). So I can’t afford to go to doctor. It’s 200 bucks every time I walk in, then add blood tests at 186, maybe an X-ray at 220, and it adds up fast. I really can’t afford to go.
This is obviously the “rationing”.
My cost is that of a gold-plated plan but my benefits are identical to a catastrophic plan.
I get my ins from employer ...but it has to be 0bamacare compliant. So I have a crap sandwich or a crap casserole. Don’t want either but it’s forced down my throat.
So I believe there is an enormous population that is abnormally angry about it - to the extent that we’re taking action.
This will not go unpunished. Most people (Dems included) hate what’s happened - choosing between mortgage/rent or seeing a doctor is NOT going unnoticed.
The Democrats’ end game all along was that it would collapse and pave the way for them to do single payer.
However, when it became clear California could not figure out a way to do single payer, all the wheels began to come off of the Master Plan.
You are full of bull.
Republicans are not staying home.
49 of 52 Republicans voted REPEAL.
0 of 60 Democrats voted REPEAL.
Only Single Payer, Socialist Republicans stay home.
The war is on. The cowards run.
IBD wants ever higher Pharma drug prices.
IBD cannot handle natural stock fluctuations, no prices must always rise like a day trader.
IBD are dummies about investing.
IBD are Socialist Republicans.
Thanks for taking the time to find and post that. Now I understand where you’re coming from.
Who expects their auto insurance carrier to pay for windshield wiper replacements? Or a car wash? Or replacing the spark pugs? Or replacing the tires?
The answer is no one. And yet when it comes to health insurance, people expect every hangnail, runny nose, dandruff remedy and upset stomach to be covered by their medical insurance. This is ludicrous.
Most routine visits and maintenance of your body and health should be borne by the patients themselves, not the insurer or taxpayers. Only catastrophic health problems that can bankrupt people should be considered for coverage.
Trying to provide insurance coverage for every visit to the doctor or pharmacy is what is driving the insurance costs, and therefore the medical costs, through the stratosphere.
The more the government-needs-to-fix-it mentality prevails, the harder it will be to accomplish. Insurance was never meant for routine losses. It was designed to cover catastrophic losses in high risk situations.
But it has strayed so far from that premise, that the government trying to drive the proverbial square peg into the round hole, while never work.
Stop trying to be everything to everyone for every situation. Then, and only then, will we see a solution to this problem come to be.
stop being relevant, we’re discussing policy
We need endless emphasis on the fact that the RATs fully OWN Obamacare. No Republican input was accepted and no Republican votes passed it. Otherwise the collapse will be blamed on our side by the liars in the media.
One year from now as we approach the midterms, more and more people will be very upset at their premiums. I believe that they will not totally blame Republicans - they will blame the half dozen Republicans who have played this cute and they will blame all Democrats - it will be a huge campaign issue, people vote when they are mad as hell.
Well, perhaps I was misinformed
The answer is no one. And yet when it comes to health insurance, people expect every hangnail, runny nose, dandruff remedy and upset stomach to be covered by their medical insurance. This is ludicrous.
Amen, Amen, I say unto you, AMEN!
Well maybe just sheltered from opinions like mine for one reason or another. Although I can only contrive a few ways for that to happen.
Feelings like mine are ubiquitous.
Unless the leadership is required to accept the same level of care as the least of their constituents, nothing substantial will change.
But if your auto insurance policy also covered a catastrophic engine failure, the company would probably insist on covering some routine maintenance items like oil changes. This is probably a better parallel to health insurance. Yes -- your health insurance should cover only major costs and catastrophic events. But the insurance company would really want to cover itself and stay on top of its customers by covering "routine maintenance" -- so big problems are discovered and addressed early on.
Alternatively, perhaps Trump will recognize the situation the nation finds itself is really a (cold) civil war and will begin to act in a manner consistent with fully prosecuting this effort. Forget EOs - it's time to channel his inner Lincoln and get this show started.
We should all consider Lincoln's second address. No one wants this outcome, and we all want to avoid it, but it's here. We/Trump can either deal with it while we have a (nominal) advantage, or we can fight with our backs against the wall.
Not so with health; as lifespans increase, the probability of major health care services being individually required basically nears 100%. Obviously, this outcome cannot be insured, which is why nationalized health works from a maintenance perspective. That is, you may not get great care, but you also won't be left to die on the side of the road.
Add to that mix the ill, poor & indigent, and you have a baseline demand for basic healthcare among those who cannot afford it. Since society will not turn them away, the middle-class ends up paying for them anyway in the form of greatly increased health 'insurance' premiums/deductibles for themselves.
The solution, of course, which may eventually be reached, is to have two tiered approach: (a) basic services provided for the ill, poor & old, and (b) 'insurance' for the great center of healthy, working, self-sufficient, young/middle-aged people. In this way, health insurance would actually work, since risk could reasonably be measured and assigned. But once people move past 55+, it longer is really insurance; rather, it's practically inevitable that a major health care event will occur.
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