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ObamaCare is entering its dreaded ‘death spiral’
New York Post ^ | 10/20/2015 | By Betsy McCaughey

Posted on 10/20/2015 8:44:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

ObamaCare is heading toward a death spiral.

The Obama administration is having trouble selling insurance plans to healthy people. That’s a big problem: When the young and healthy don’t enroll, premiums have to be hiked to cover the costs of older, sicker people, discouraging even more young people from signing up.

Last Thursday, the administration predicted enrollment for 2016 will be less than half what the Congressional Budget Office predicted in March.

Despite subsidies to help with premiums and out-of-pocket costs, most of the uninsured who are eligible for ObamaCare are saying “no thanks.” Only one in seven is expected to sign up. That’s despite a hefty increase in the financial penalty next year for not having insurance.

The president sees the writing on the wall. You won’t be seeing the customary nationwide TV campaign to encourage sign-ups, as there were in previous years. Remember the young guy in plaid pajamas — “Pajama Boy,” to conservatives — well, he won’t be back this winter.

Bad enough that healthy people aren’t buying. Worse is that the administration is spending billions of your tax dollars covering up the problem, paying insurers to keep offering the plans, even though they’re losing their shirts. But facts are facts — and there’s no hiding these.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell predicts ObamaCare enrollment will inch up by 1 million or so, to 10 million people — half what the CBO forecasted. Open enrollment for the coming year, which begins Nov. 1, “is going to be a challenge,” she said.

David Wichmann, UnitedHealth Group’s president, announced higher premiums last week because enrollees will “require more medical services than original expectations.”

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deathspiral; obamacare
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To: SeekAndFind

That didn’t take long...the era of Hope and Change is going out with a whimper.


21 posted on 10/20/2015 9:08:59 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike ('You can avoid reality, but you canÂ’t avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.Â’)
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To: ctdonath2

Maybe not...


22 posted on 10/20/2015 9:12:02 AM PDT by 100American (Knowledge is knowing how, Wisdom is knowing when)
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To: SeekAndFind

That has been their intention all along, to bring about single-payer.


23 posted on 10/20/2015 9:13:02 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: cuban leaf

You just gotta hang in there until you hit age 65.

Then Medicare Part A (the “free” part) qualifies as coverage for no Obamacare penalty.


24 posted on 10/20/2015 9:13:05 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Bryanw92

And that’s the point.

Further, the goal is to reward political supporters with free stuff at the expense of political enemies,
and here’s the big thing - at the same time deny those very political opponents access to the stuff they’re paying for for the political supporters.


25 posted on 10/20/2015 9:13:51 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: SeekAndFind
The death spiral was part of the plan from the beginning. That is why it is imperative that we elect a president that will destroy Obama care, before it becomes a permanent entitlement. There is only one that has been consistently opposed to every aspect of Obamacare from the beginning and that is Cruz.

This is the chance to undo nationalized healthcare under government control - Ted Cruz 2016!

26 posted on 10/20/2015 9:16:01 AM PDT by DaveyB (Live free or die!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ve heard that so many times. I refuse to believe that people not wanting plans, astronomically high premiums, co-ops closing, etc. weren’t party of the original plan. The real end goal was and is single payer.


27 posted on 10/20/2015 9:17:42 AM PDT by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
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To: Bryanw92

“EVERY person who voted for Obama is an ENEMY of freedom and should be treated as such. If they are friends, get rid of them. If they are family, shun them. If they are employees, fire them”.

Agreed!!

That’s been my attitude all along.

And when SHTF, the only ones I will have any sympathy for are the children.


28 posted on 10/20/2015 9:17:59 AM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: HOYA97

“The dirty little secret is that not only do health insurance premiums go up but so do Home Insurance Premiums, Auto Insurance Premiums, Liability Insurance Premimus...etc. “

No kidding, I just received my annual “offer” from the a$$holes at Farmers for my HO policy. Premium is up 22% while coverages have been pushed up by 5%. So I called my agent. Seems that “brush” has now become a problem. So I asked him what “brush” meant, and he told me that they now concerned about everyone’s “landscaping” and how it might contribute to a fire. We live in the SF East Bay, not in a place like Middletown, the scene of that horrendous fire from a couple of months ago. So I now see that this is how they “recover” from their losses! Crooks all!


29 posted on 10/20/2015 9:21:41 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: SeekAndFind
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

― Margaret Thatcher

30 posted on 10/20/2015 9:22:57 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: rjsimmon
Since I don’t do Obamacare, I am unaware of the mechanics for sign-up. Is there a window with which you must purchase a policy or can it be at any time during the year?

I don't do Obamacare either, but from what I've read, it's similar to other policies that might be purchased in a group setting. That is, you have a window for sign-ups, and that's it.

If you have some pre-defined "life event" however, you can apply for a new, or amended policy. For example, you get married, have a child, lose your job, etc.

31 posted on 10/20/2015 9:42:33 AM PDT by Lou L (Health "insurance" is NOT the same as health "care")
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To: SeekAndFind
ObamaCare is entering its dreaded ‘death spiral’

As intended. They openly admitted yeas ago that this was simply the means to get Single Payer done, so that we would all have that VA-quality care. Ugh.

32 posted on 10/20/2015 9:44:51 AM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: SeekAndFind

Single Payer Icebergs ahead, Cap’n!! Lots of ‘em!!!


33 posted on 10/20/2015 9:47:22 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (SEMPER FI!! - Monthly Donors Rock!!)
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To: SeekAndFind; All
Yep, but for retirees dependent on social security, no cost of living increases because the GOVERNMENT tells us there is NO INFLATION !!

for the third time since 1940 - and all three from O'bummer

That said, the monthly deduction from your SS check is going UP by @$55 - making it an average of around $159 per month.

That, alone, is quite a hefty 'cost of living increase' - by their usual formula of giving a COLA of, say, $20 an month and raising medicare premiums by almost the same amount was evil enough.

Back in the beginning of O's Reign, he froze SS for 2 years, resulting in an average of $600+ per years, forever, and now this...an additional COST of about $600 a year.

That would fill up the fuel oil tank twice.

But they had enough $$$ to, in addition to swapping 5 top terrorists for a traitor - to give them millions of dollars. A drop in the bucket of the billions that has been diverted to Muslims/Muslim countries out of our pockets.

We need a candidate that will take office and put back the trillions that have been embezzled form Social Security - and then LOCK THE DOOR.

Fund the lazy couch potatoes out of the General Fund...not out of the account seniors PRE-paid into for 50 years!

AND abolish the IRS. Go to FAIR TAX - the gov't would actually have more 'income' - they just wouldn't have total oversight and control over us law-abiding citizens.

AND a president who would close the largess incomes and retirements of our 'representatives'

34 posted on 10/20/2015 10:02:21 AM PDT by maine-iac7
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To: laplata

>>And when SHTF, the only ones I will have any sympathy for are the children.

They’ll be like the children of Dresden or Tokyo—when the war is over, I’ll care about them. Remember that as the children of Progressives, their minds are already tainted and will betray the next generation just as their parents and grandparents are betraying the promise of America today.


35 posted on 10/20/2015 10:11:35 AM PDT by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: rjsimmon
If the latter, what is to prevent people from signing up Dec 30/31 and then cancelling the policy Jan 1/2 in order to avoid IRS penalty?

Nothing because I have it on good authority that the back end data interchanges to the IRS have never been built.


36 posted on 10/20/2015 10:13:29 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

So why are Trump and all the rest of the candidates, except Ted Cruz, talking about replacing Obamacare and substituting something that either will not work or else will be almost as expensive and will sooner or later enter into a death spiral of it’s own?


37 posted on 10/20/2015 10:13:35 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: SeekAndFind

Another “gift” from the Central Planners goes awry.


38 posted on 10/20/2015 10:18:09 AM PDT by windsorknot
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To: maine-iac7

IMHO the Dems are deliberately holding down SS increases so that they can run on “Taxing Wall Street to EXPAND Social Security” next fall.

In the nutjob places where they hang out on the interweb they are already telegraphing this.


39 posted on 10/20/2015 10:19:47 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Bryanw92

That’s exactly right.

We’ve never been in a war like this one.


40 posted on 10/20/2015 10:20:22 AM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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