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Posted on 11/11/2025 3:52:28 AM PST by Pete Dovgan
The 42-day federal shutdown forced by Democrats thrust the economics of Obamacare into the limelight, and exposed an uncomfortable truth: An insurance industry whose executives are increasingly liberal donors has seen its earnings soar with the injection of taxpayer-funded subsidies that propped up Barack Obama's signature health program from collapse.
The nation’s largest health insurance companies have seen good business since Obamacare was first passed in 2010 and fully implemented in 2014. This has come in no small part because of federal government subsidies to the insurance industry, which government estimates show totaled $1.8 trillion in 2023 alone.
Those subsidies were greatly expanded by the Biden administration during the COVID-19 pandemic as an emergency measure, but Democrats have fought to keep them permanent.
Obamacare brought health insurance companies historic profits A Just the News analysis of public financial records from four of the nation’s largest health insurance companies found that net earnings ballooned about 216% from 2010 to 2024. UnitedHealth Group in particular, which dominates the industry with a market share of around 15%, saw the largest explosion of profits. The other three companies, Elevance, Centene, and Cigna also experienced a marked growth in net earnings after the implementation of Obamacare.
The healthcare legislation was also a boon for these companies’ stock prices. One study found the weighted average of health insurance stock prices has grown 1,032% from 2010—when the law was passed—and 448% from 2013—the year the legislation’s key provisions were implemented.
This performance far outstripped the most popular S&P 500 exchange-traded fund, which grew 251% and 139%, respectively, the Paragon Health Institute reported last year. ETFs are designed to track the performance of specific stock indices and, as such, generally represent average market growth.….
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
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It’s prevailing premiums - we see the same thing in education, where unionized school teachers are making a LOT more than teachers in private schools. And do we expect the same results? NO.
Years ago, my medical group fired United Health care because they were extremely slow in paying. I had to get a new Medicare advantage provider. Humana was best for us.
In August a company bought the medical group. The purchasing company is owned by United Health Care. One wonders if the group will now accept the United Medicare Advantage patients?
One wonders if the megical group will begin prescribing all sorts of needless procedures cto drive up Humana patients costs?
I am sticking with regular Medicare and my Blue Shield supplemental “Plan G” (Plan N if inflation bites any harder). Not a fan of Plan C co-pays, doctor networks or insurance company procedure “pre-approvals”.
Well, duh!
Obama promised: 1) you could keep your same doctor, 2) insurance prices would be cut almost in half, and 3) the quality and availability of medical care would be increased. How many of those promises has Obamacare fulfilled? Hint: Zero. Time to kill the ACA.
It's the MDs and NPs whose income gets increasd because of the overriding volumes of people who are now insured because pf "Affordable Care" together with the shortage of specialists, hospitals, and prescrivers, all of whom have probably plowedtheir discetionary wealthback into the stocks of big phasrma companies.
It is the insurance compamies that try tolimit the greed of the medical suppliers.
--- "insurers made billions at taxpayer expense"--- "pharmaceuticals made billions at taxpayer expense"
--- "MIC insurers made billions at taxpayer expense"
--- "trial lawyers made billions at taxpayer expense"
--- "green industries, so many now bankrupt, made billions at taxpayer expense"
--- "politicians and those well-connected to politicians made billions at taxpayer expense"
We’re just cash cows for these looting industries.
Sensing a recurring theme here ——
-— “insurers made billions at taxpayer expense”
-— “pharmaceuticals made billions at taxpayer expense”
-— “MIC insurers made billions at taxpayer expense”
-— “trial lawyers made billions at taxpayer expense”
-— “green industries, so many now bankrupt, made billions at taxpayer expense”
-— “politicians and those well-connected to politicians made billions at taxpayer expense”
All brought to you by CONGRESS. People need to force them to work and do a balanced budget.
Agree fully.
The new CEO of United Health Group (after his predecessor left overnight without warning “personal reasons - namely, the stock price fell by 50%”)
...he got a $25 million signing bonus.
What a brilliant idea to tax the working poor for not buying insurance they couldn’t afford. The idea didn’t originate with Obama, it came from Gingrich and Romney. Too many Republican Congresscritters are taking the money from Big Insurance to want to change it.
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=254382
Karl Denninger has been on a ROLL about these topics.
Warning: Often NSFW language borne out of anger on his part.
These are my preliminary thoughts with respect to an insurance company centric replacement:
US citizens and lawfully present persons of a US resident household shall be eligible for coverage as per the PPACA.
The federally subsidy eligible expenses of each eligible issued policy shall be:
1. 85% of Medicare Part A scope coverage provider payouts,
2. 80% of Medicare Part B scope coverage provider payouts, plus
3. 80% of prescription drug coverage provider payouts on a policy.
Uncle Sam shall pay a share of the federally subsidy eligible expenses of each eligible policy equal to 30%,
plus 1/6th of each policyholders’ household premium calculation percentage below 400% of FPL that is above 40%.
[The 30% is to mainly cover the costs of chronic condition people.]
A policyholders’ premium calculation percentage shall be the lesser of 100% or 25 times:
statutorily expected household monthly income,
less the HUD fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment,
less expected student loan repayment expenses when computed on a monthly or 30-day basis,
less vehicle loan obligations when computed on a monthly or 30-day basis,
less vehicle insurance obligations when computed on a monthly or 30-day basis,
less court-ordered obligations due, including child support, fines and costs, when computed on a 28-day, 30-day or monthly basis,
less other monthly or corresponding amounts the coverage issuer reasonably deems to be mandatory,
divided by 1/12th the annual FPL amount for the covered household size.
The statutorily expected household monthly income shall be the sum,
for each person of the household at least 19 years of age,
excluding the primary caregiver in the household for the under full-time school age children of the household,
the:
1. the hourly computational wage rate for the household’s state*100[what can be expected from working retail],
reduced by two-thirds if a full-time college student
and a photocopy of the student’s college ID or proof of tuition payment is on file with the coverage issuer,
2. if higher, the person’s income last stated by the policy purchaser, or person,
3. if lower, the person’s net income stated reasonably accurately not more than 70 days ago by the policy purchaser, or person,
for no more than four months of the policy year.
Hourly computational wage rates for 2026 shall be assumed to be as follows:
1. AK, HI, WA, CA, OR, NJ, NY, MD, MA, RI, DC - $16/hour
2. CO, AZ, IL, NB - $15/hour
3. ME, VT, VA, UT, FL - $14/hour
4. GA, MI - $13/hour
5. NM - $12/hour
6. AL, MS - $10/hour
7. other states $11/hour.
[States with severe winter weather may be given a lower rate than their statutory minimum wage rate.]
Extractable profit to not exceed:
1. 1% of the Medicare amount, plus $100, for each inpatient episode paid within 30 days of initial correct provider billing and within 60 days of initial provider billing,
2. 1% of the Medicare amount, plus $8, for each other provider bill paid to the contracted amount within 30 days of initial correct provider billing and within 60 days of initial provider billing,
3. $1 for each off-patent drug prescription paid for, $3 if for 90 days,
4. $5 for each patented drug prescription paid for within 30 days of the policy year, $15 if for 90 days, and
5. $20 for each recombinant drug provision paid for within 30 days of the policy year.
Administrative related and in-house care costs shall not exceed the extractable profit limit, any applicable reasonable state law limit, or any policy limit. All issued policies shall have a reasonable percentage of premium limit stated within the first 1000 characters of any initial normal course of access policy specific marketing page.
Insurers may, with reasonable 30-days online posted notice, raise premiums of a PPACA policy type to reasonably expect to reach the extractable profit level based on actual and reasonably forecast expenses during the calendar year, subject to a 5% monthly premium rise cap.
Any funds left over after claims on PPACA policies have been paid for the calendar year and profit extracted shall be paid over to Uncle Sam.
There shall be a customer premium payment grace period, to 11:59PM of the third Friday of each month, for the third and fourth full coverage months of the policy.
There shall be a customer premium payment grace period, to 11:59PM of the fourth Friday of each month, for the remaining months of a policy .
My current thought to adjust the PPACA subsidy amount if the PPACA is to be retained:
The federally subsidy eligible expenses of each eligible policy shall not exceed the PPACA 2nd lowest silver plan subsidy base amount for the rating area in 2025, or an average including rating areas within 300 miles of the rating area the Secretary of HHS may choose to designate by regulation, adjusted for Medicare Part B premium growth thereafter, plus a percentage of 1.4 times the percentage drop of PPACA insured persons in the rating area since the corresponding month in 2025.
Hospitals are local monopolies.
When you’re having a heart attack, you’re not going to read weekly hospital flyers.
What insurance companies do (and what the lady does) is to try to bring market force in by threatening to place a hospital out of network. That doesn’t work very well.
What I have suggested:
For health care, bring on market force:
1. Break most hospitals into two highly competitive entities
2. Convert other hospitals into real estate leasing entities with competing surgical suites and nursing wings
3. Separate out drug coverage so hospital systems can run care coverage systems and cut out insurance company overhead and meddlers.
4. Create interstate drug plans that don’t have to cover every drug....Group and exchange plans to offer vouchers at plan set amounts for out-of-formulary drugs.
“Trump has the idea. Send the money directly to the people to fund HSAs.”
You probably live in a self-funded HSA with a limit of around $400,000. It probably has lots of plywood and 2x4s.
The local hospitals, which are local monopolies with pricing power that would make John D. Rockefeller delirious, would love to have a whole lot of your equity.
What the insurance companies bring to the table is some limitations on provider greed.
Better that insurance companies make 5% than to have hospitals overcharge most of their customers by 100%.
“Trump has the idea. Send the money directly to the people to fund HSAs.”
$5K for 2026
$5K for 2027
October 2027, heart attack, $56,000 hospital bill
$46,000 problem
And Medicare 'Advantage' is worse. If Trump felt our trade deals were done by crooks, just wait til he takes a goiod look at 'medical care'...
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