A new taxpayer bailout to cover up ObamaCare’s failure? (Make Pelosi pay for it all?)

NY Post ^ | 11/20/15 | Betsy McCaughey

[Libloather]

How dare the Obama administration bail out insurance companies with our money in order to hide ObamaCare's failures. Thursday, just hours after giant insurer UnitedHealthcare said it's losing money selling ObamaCare plans and will likely exit the health exchanges next year, the Obama administration quietly promised to bail out insurers for their losses - using your money.

Nearly all insurers are bleeding red ink trying to sell the unworkable plans. Without a bailout, more insurers will abandon ObamaCare, pushing it closer to its demise. A bailout would benefit insurers and the Democratic Party, which is desperate to cover up the health law's failure. Ironically Democrats (including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders) bad-mouth bank bailouts but are all for insurance-company bailouts. Truth is, it's a ripoff for taxpayers, who shouldn't have to pay for this sleazy coverup.

The pressure is building on Republicans in Congress. Industry groups like the American Health Insurance Plans and giant insurers are joining with the Obama folks to lobby ferociously for a bailout.

[eyeamok]

They don’t need a Bailout, they need more Paying Customers, just issua an Executive Order mandating ALL Public Employees join Obamacare, the Money we save will be tremendous and Obamacare will live another day.

[napscoordinator]

The liberals are loving this. They believe it will result in Single Pay whatever.

[napscoordinator]

So whose winning?

The 10 million who didn’t have insurance at all before. Now at least some can get insurance with pre-conition where before they were out of luck. That at least is good. I think if they are going to get rid of Obamacare they should keep that one part. many people with cancer were never able to get medical insurance again for their lives. That is scary for someone who has had cancer and could get it again and because no insurance company would allow them to get insurance they pretty much die.

[ReaganGeneration2]

“As long as Republicans keep their backbone and their eyes on the fine print, they can stop the bailout again.”

We are done for

[okie01]

Now at least some can get insurance with pre-conition where before they were out of luck. That at least is good.

Understand that insurance for pre-conditions isn't insurance. It's a subsidy -- a known, fixed expense, without any actuarial consideration.

If cancer patients lost coverage because of Obamacare, that's one thing. But if they never had coverage before, that's because they chose not to.

At any rate, let's call it what it is; a subsidy, not "insurance".

[poinq]

Drug companies, hospitals, low income patients with chronic diseases or unhealthy life styles. The reality is that Obama care is just increasing the role of Medicaid. Its really simple, if more people are insured and fewer people are paying their insurance then of course there will be a problem.

The insurance companies thought that the government would force healthy people to buy more insurance. But actually they bought less. Firstly, the affordable care act took about 5 healthy years out of the pool by forcing family insurers to pay for kids up to 26. And then they expected many of the poor to go out and fill out an insurance form. Most of these people never fill out forms longer than a name and signature.

So the reality is that the extra people covered and the extra benefits like preexisting conditions, adult children, pregnancies and birth control mean insurance companies are paying out more.

This is easy math. Everyone should have seen this coming. Anyone who thought different was a fool. It really is no excuse to say that Obama or the government promised it would all work out. It could never work out. More coverage means more cost and that cost has to be borne by someone.

[Lorianne]

Back when Obamacare was passed Congress was majority Democrat (both houses).

Also, when the TARP and various sundry other bailouts happened, Congress was majority Democrat (both houses).

Come to think of it, Democrats have never met a bailout they didn’t like.

[EVO X]

No bailout. Let it crash and burn. Socialism is very costly no matter which way it fails.

The administration is doing a De Facto bailout for insurance companies offering insurance on exchanges. They paid ~$4B for 2014 to insurance companies for people that had silver plans that allowed for additional cost sharing subsidies if they were below the 250% federal poverty level. The standard subsidies aren't in dispute after last summers SCOTUS decision. The additional cost sharing subsidies are supposed to be authorized by congress, but never have been. Speaker Boehner filed a lawsuit to stop the administration from making the additional cost sharing payments to insurance companies without their funding authorization. Even if SCOTUS comes in and saves the day again, the exchanges are still in trouble.

[sheana]

The new millions on the Medicaid roles who don’t pay for a darned thing.