Huge Obamacare Price Increases Looming (RATS knew all about it)

The Democrats knew what they were doing when they deferred the implementation of most provisions of Obamacare until after the 2012 election. What is surprising, really, is that Obamacare has been so unpopular, given that most of its baleful effects have not yet been felt. But it won’t be long now. The Associated Press reports that health insurers are warning of massive price increases beginning next year:

Some Americans could see their insurance bills double next year as the health care overhaul law expands coverage to millions of people.

I did the calculations a while back. I'll try to dig them up and repost them.

Well, I didn't find them. But, it didn't take long to recreate it.

This graph requires a bit of explanation. Scroll down after it for more detail:

Each line plots the ratio between the cost of a lifetime of contributions vs. the value of the resulting Social Security benefit in retirement. So, if it is greater than 100%, you get more than you paid. If it's less than 100%, you get less than you paid.

Assumptions: you start working at age 21 and retire at age 67. Then, you live until age 84. This is approximately the average life expectancy at retirement. The average indexed monthly earnings is the average (after adjustment for inflation) of all of your earnings. This a bit of a simplification, as Social Security uses the highest 35 years. Each of the lines represents a rate of return AFTER inflation. So, the green line is if your rate of return matches inflation. If average inflation is 3% and your average rate of return is 3.5%, you should use the purple line.

The purple line is closest to reality for Social Security, because over the past 30 years or so, long-term Treasury bond rates have been about 0.5% higher than the inflation rate. Corporate bonds have returned a higher rate: about 2% above inflation. You don't want to know what equities have done, even after all the variability.

If we use the purple line as our benchmark, it cross the 100% threshold at average indexed monthly earnings of about $4,700. After that, it continues to decline until it reaches about 69% -- meaning that you would receive about 69 cents for every dollar you contributed plus what you would earned in dividends/interest.

So, now you see the problem with comparing Social Security contributions to benefits: it depends on your rate of return (relative to inflation) and your average income. Some people do well, and others don't. $4,700/month is $56,400/year, and pretty close to the median income. So, as a rough approximation: half get a good deal, and half don't. The half that don't get a good deal are effectively giving part of their benefits to the other half.

Don't you mean your insurance premiums went up?

Because the price I pay to be seen at my local “private clinic” has remained the same.
Where a real doctor sees me, and renders “health care”.

The rates are posted on the wall.

I know how much the visit will cost, and all of the standard, routine medical tests are listed with a single charge for each one.
I won't pay more if I am “uninsured” and won't pay less if I have insurance.

The price is the price, and is non-negotiable.

Pity, but I can't price shop most other health care providers.
They don't have any published standard procedure fees.
Rates for all procedures vary widely, based solely on your “insurance”, not the level of health care provided.

Try it yourself.
Call several dermatologists and request an estimate of charges for a single visit and biopsy of a specific lesion you think might be cancerous.
Good luck with that!

"Medicare is supposed to pay for elderly health care expenses, via the taxes from years of prepaid workers premiums."

The key words here are "supposed to pay for".....since seniors still have to PAY for Medicare out of their own pockets and even after all of those decades of paying into the system via taxes out of their paychecks. I believe my neighbor says she pays around $100 a month for Medicare. And that doesn't even cover all of her medical costs, only about 80%. She still has to fork over even more money per month for supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare does not cover, just as my mother had to do....and all on a VERY limited, small, fixed income (neighbor had to apply for social security at 62.... since there are no jobs available for folks her age in the Obamanation).

It's all one big government scam.....like everything else socialists push, propose and support.

“Is there any excuse for such ignorance? I can’t imagine that these people will ever get it.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

There is no excuse, I can only call it WILLFUL ignorance, the solid refusal to see reality even when it is in front of your face. Four years ago there were people of all ages carrying on as though their every dream was about to come true. I was feeling sick on my stomach and I still am, just more so.

Yes. I do know.
Now.

But at the time all the sweet promises were made, while everyones money was being confiscated,(or deemed delayed compensation)it wasn't known.

I don't care if the new cut off date is one day before I myself become eligible for “benefits”, but all the people who based all of their future lives on what they had paid into the “system”, should be the very last ones to suffer, not the first.

And my child, her generation,and the next, should not be forced to suffer financially for the crimes our government has committed against us.

Cuts have to happen, but the first cuts must be in foreign aid, next for illegal aliens, then against the federal, state and local elected and appointed civilians who made this entire mess happen in the first place.

We don't start with the most helpless and least culpable, when apportioning blame and punishment.

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