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As health insurers merge, consumers' premiums are likely to rise
Los Angeles Times ^ | July 10, 2015 | by David Lazarus

Posted on 07/10/2015 8:37:36 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

As leading health insurers scramble for market share through a series of multibillion-dollar mergers, consumers are no doubt wondering if their premiums are bound to skyrocket.

Short answer: Probably.

Ironically, Obamacare had anticipated the negative effects of runaway capitalism with a safeguard that critics branded as socialism — the so-called public option, a government-run insurance plan offered alongside private plans.

Thanks to business and ideological interests triumphing over economic considerations, a public option fell by the wayside.

Some experts say that, with fewer private insurers and rising rates, we're going to regret not having a public option as part of the mix.

Though the experts said revisiting the idea of a public option is warranted in light of current mergers, they acknowledged that it's not politically feasible.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; healthcareinsurers; obamacare; obamacarepremiums; rinocare; scotuscare; socialism
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1 posted on 07/10/2015 8:37:37 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Some experts say that, with fewer private insurers and rising rates, we're going to regret not having a public option as part of the mix.

The plan all along.

2 posted on 07/10/2015 8:38:45 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: chajin
The plan all along.

+1 - anyone thinking obolacare will be repealed, replaced, or otherwise changed for the better is delusional. The goal is single payer, and single payer will be what we get. It is merely a matter of time.

3 posted on 07/10/2015 8:42:28 AM PDT by dware (Yeah, so? What are we going to do about it?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I love those that think, somehow, obolacare can just be repealed and we will go back to normal overnight. That’s not gonna happen.


4 posted on 07/10/2015 8:43:16 AM PDT by dware (Yeah, so? What are we going to do about it?)
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To: chajin

Bingo. I predict that demands for a public option will become very loud by next fall. Just in time for the election.


5 posted on 07/10/2015 8:43:28 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Ironically, Obamacare had anticipated the negative effects of runaway capitalism with a safeguard that critics branded as socialism — the so-called public option, a government-run insurance plan offered alongside private plans.

The traditional safeguard is to disallow these mergers.

6 posted on 07/10/2015 8:44:48 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Must be nice for the “free market” insurance corporations to have government mandated customers.

COMMERCE BETWEEN MASTER AND SLAVE IS __________?


7 posted on 07/10/2015 8:47:38 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: dware

I was always opposed to a single payer system. Then I turned 65 and now on Medicare with a medigap supplement (not an Medicare Advantage Plan) The many types of Medigap plans are controlled by the government but purchased thru private insurance companies. (Price being the only difference)

I am now essentially in a Single Payer System. Anyone over 65 who is on Medicare tell me why you are opposed to a Single Payer System.


8 posted on 07/10/2015 8:48:14 AM PDT by cynicalman
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Why would prices go down? It was fixed from the start - maternity coverage for every plan, mandated equal rates for both sexes, a boggling list of requirements that plans must follow including expensive freebies - oh, and non-dischargeable debt, a boon for collection agencies. Naturally, the next demand will be a bigger subsidy, after all, people can't afford these incredibly high costs, and need to upgrade to better plans, and the government should pay more of the bill..

The freebie train has left the station, and there's nothing to stop it from reaching the end. Mandated coverage, required purchase, a huge burden on business, and an even bigger burden on the people since not only do they have to pay for their coverage, and the coverage of the 'poor', but they also get to pay for the government's employees getting coverage as well (for the rest of their lives.)

Why is the Fed so proactive right now? Because we really are that close to the bleeding edge of national bankruptcy. Oh, look, the teachers are demanding another raise with fewer students in the system.

9 posted on 07/10/2015 8:48:27 AM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: cynicalman

If you have medicare advantage, you do not need to screw around with the paper work

it is truly an advantage


10 posted on 07/10/2015 8:51:05 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: cynicalman
Let me know how you feel about Socialized Medicine when you hit 75 and you will no longer be able to get anything but ‘end of life’ counseling.
11 posted on 07/10/2015 8:51:36 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: cynicalman
Anyone over 65 who is on Medicare tell me why you are opposed to a Single Payer System.

I'm not over 65 and not on Medicare, but I can tell you that the cuts - even with your plans through private carriers - will soon be impacted. They have been only vaguely affected over the past couple years, but the system is unsustainable and you'll see the downsides soon.

12 posted on 07/10/2015 8:56:52 AM PDT by dware (Yeah, so? What are we going to do about it?)
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To: originalbuckeye

Do you think private insurance companies are going to keep you alive. they will stop paying for any procedures. At least thru Medicare we still have some power (albeit very little) thru the ballot box


13 posted on 07/10/2015 8:58:23 AM PDT by cynicalman
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The Republic is currently in a no win situation we the people are long overdue in performing our constitutional mandate to DEPOSE this current tyrannical communist gov’t.

I want to believe that we can in 2016 place a conservative in leadership but twenty months is a long way off and the prospects are increasingly dim, the communist uniparty is in control and they are not willingly going to relinquish power they have so aggressively lied cheated and stolen to gain, especially to a electoral process that has been severely corrupted and can be so easily manipulated.


14 posted on 07/10/2015 8:58:28 AM PDT by PoloSec ( Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again)
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To: HLPhat
COMMERCE BETWEEN MASTER AND SLAVE IS __________?

Answer: SOCIALISM. Or Cronyism. Or an Oligarchy.

The answer is NOT NOT NOT....the free market. Nothing free market about Obama Care - but they do hope some dolts will think so.

15 posted on 07/10/2015 9:10:33 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>Nothing free market about Obama Care

Supply + Demand = Price

So, what happens when that equation is perverted so that demand is artificially manufactured by government mandate?


16 posted on 07/10/2015 9:21:47 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: HLPhat
So, what happens when that equation is perverted so that demand is artificially manufactured by government mandate?

Intelligent people call it a failure of socialism, or government, and not a failure of the market. Obama has apparently fooled you, like his other low info voters, that Obama Care is a free market system. It was part of this whole charade...and you fell for it, hook line and sinker. You going to your Occupy rally now?

17 posted on 07/10/2015 9:28:22 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright
>>Intelligent people call it a failure of socialism, or government, and not a failure of the market.

Was it Thomas Jefferson's intent to empower people with intelligence when he said "THIS IT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE STATE TO EFFECT AND ON A GENERAL PLAN"?


18 posted on 07/10/2015 9:33:45 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>that Obama Care is a free market system

Except I never said Obama Care is a free market system, LIAR.


19 posted on 07/10/2015 9:36:52 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: Zhang Fei

[The traditional safeguard is to disallow these mergers.]

Bingo! Anti-trust and monopoly issues up the wazoo. The Just-us dept. won’t even bat an eye.


20 posted on 07/10/2015 9:39:24 AM PDT by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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