Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Stop lying about Obamacare

When then Vice President George H.W. Bush defeated Sen. Bob Dole in the 1988 New Hampshire primary, Dole famously admonished Bush to “stop lying about my record.”

It has often been stated here that Obamacare opponents should stick to the facts. It could just as easily be said that foes are flat-out lying about the Affordable Care Act.

The latest example is health insurance premiums, which Republicans have long claimed would “skyrocket” due to Obamacare. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has just declared that “lower-than-expected health insurance premiums under Obamacare will help cut the long-term cost of the program 7 percent over the next decade,” as the Los Angeles Times put it.

These estimates show “the law costing less than in previous estimates in part because of the broad and persistent slowdown in the growth of health care costs,” according to The New York Times.

Bear in mind that these are new trends and one has to begin to suspect a cause-and-effect relationship between Obamacare and health-care costs.

Meanwhile, the CBO has increased its estimates on how many people will sign up for Obamacare, even while new reports indicate that insurance purchases outside the ACA exchanges are actually more significant than those within the exchange. People who don’t qualify for ACA subsidies are dealing directly with insurance companies to get their coverage.

"I think it's probably the case that there are more people insured in the individual market off the exchange than on the exchange right now,”  said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

It all adds up to new coverage for possibly close to 19 million people since the new law took effect, when you add in those who have gained coverage through Medicaid.

So think about what  the Repeal Obamacare crowd is saying. Is it saying that these 19 million Americans should lose this coverage?




25 comments:

  1. Quote the CBO all you want. How often are they right? Letys put a little reality into the conversation.

    "A recent survey of 148 insurance brokers shows that ObamaCare is sending premiums rising at the fastest clip in decades.

    "For the last, about, five years they've been doing this survey, so this was the largest percentage increase in any quarter since they've been doing (it)," said Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute.










    "But at 12 percent, 11 percent increase on average across all the states -- that puts it at the upper end of any increase we've seen for decades."

    That is the national average in a survey done by Morgan Stanley. But in some states, it found rates are soaring.

    "There are specific states with exorbitant increases," Gottlieb said. "Delaware had 100 percent increase, Florida had a 37 percent increase, Pennsylvania 28 percent increase, California had a 53 percent increase in their premiums."

    Rates vary widely, often depending on the state and how highly regulated it was to begin with. Analysts, however, say the main reasons for the higher costs are not medical inflation, but rather the requirements of ObamaCare itself.

    "There are certain regulations and certain requirements that had to be in there. And because of that it's driven up the costs of these benefits," said John DiVito of the Flexible Benefit Service Corporation, which represents hundreds of agents.Rate hikes include ten essential health benefits along with more than 20,000 pages or regulations.

    The reported hikes are for the first policies issued under ObamaCare in 2014.

    The Congressional Budget Office or CBO issued a report Monday saying the average premium for the silver plan this year will be $3,800, or just over $300 a month, rising to $4,400 in 2016, 15 percent below its earlier estimates in 2009.

    Those early, higher estimates make costs now look better – but that does not include deductibles of as much as $5,000.

    But the estimates are comforting to the White House.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney says, "It shows that marketplace health care costs have gone down because premium estimates have gone down."

    The CBO also projects future premium increases over the next decade.

    Insurance companies will soon have to set rates for 2015, and analysts fear reported higher costs now will mean increases next year, as well.

    "They're going to see an announcement that next year's premium's going to be 25 percent or maybe 50 percent higher than what they're now paying," says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

    John Divito of Flexible Benefit Service Corporation said, "we're reading studies where the rates could be 10 to 30, 40 percent higher. Again, it all depends geographically where these rates are being looked at but definitely an increase in rates."

    Scott Gottlieb, a medical doctor as well as an analyst, added, "We've seen insurance premiums go up quite a bit over the period in which ObamaCare started to get implemented."

    Insurance executives say the same thing. Marc Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, recently told an earning conference that he anticipates 2014 spikes of 20 to 50 percent, going as high as 100 percent in some markets."

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    Replies
    1. "Quote the CBO all you want. How often are they right? Letys put a little reality into the conversation."
      Which, to you, means a lengthy verbatim unattributed quote referencing a survey which is unspecified and another bunch of quotes without a citation for any of them.
      If this is the definition of reality you are using and your best attempt to provide convincing evidence, I'm gonna have to take a pass.

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  2. Reality is reality. You cannot insure TENS OF MILLIONS of Americans WITHOUT the cost going up...period!

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    Replies
    1. ask folks with preexisting medical conditions who were denied coverage prior to the passing of this legislation?

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    2. Why don't YOU ask your car insurance company to insure you AFTER you crash your car?

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  3. It's not just about premiums either. There are unrealistic deductibles, co-pays and the inability to keep your own doctor. Insurers are also refusing certain treatments even though a doctor has deemed it necessary. I remain uninsured for these reasons. I would love to see the ACA repealed.

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  4. I read a lot of speculation and very few facts. The facts are what they are. The ACA is has failed to insure a great majority of the uninsured. The ACA has done nothing to reduce premium rather it has increased them. The ACA will not stop people from going bankrupt when they have a $12,000 out-of-pocket cost for an illness.

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  5. Glenn, you are such a liberal tool it makes me ashamed to say I was born and raised in Pontiac. Why is it all of the Liberal journalists are so set on supporting every attempt at the government to control the "Herd" So called journalists such as yourself should find new work in pushing your socialist agenda for Obungler and the rest of the Left that want us all to be slaves to the federal government. Under our forefathers you would have been hanged. I wish they were here to adjudicate that.

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    Replies
    1. And I would volunteer to kick the chair out from under you.

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  7. You need an education in economic theory. More people to insure, costs go up. Period!

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  8. Sorry but my premiums went up and I have less coverage than I did before with higher deductibles.
    YOU need to stop lying about OBAMACARE!!!

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  9. My cost to self-pay is around $675/mo with a $2500 deductible - effectively it's useless for anything beyond primary care. The reason the plans are so bad is O'Care has actually limited the coverage by holding the insurance company hostage because they have to provide care at a set rate and there is a limit to the kind of care they can absorb so everyone winds up at the lowest common denominator - *the* hallmark for Socialism and Communism.

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  10. Glenn Gilbert. It is painfully obvious that you are a huge Obama supporter and an extreme left Liberal. You are so in love with your Kenyan lover but you do not take into account folks like me. Me employer cancelled my insurance when Obozo care went online. My health care contribution went from $275 per month with a $1500 deductible to $600 a month and a $3000 deductible. So, what do you say to people like me who are already struggling to get by? I do not qualify for a subsidy. I am not sure which one of Obamas guest rooms you sleep in but I am guessing it is next to him.

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  11. This Gilbert guy is really something. I figure he has been pegged to replace Kal Penn as Obama's next mouthpiece/stooge. They let him write for this paper? With what, crayons?

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  12. Why is this still on the front page blog? It's been there for over a month and everybody knows that it's BS anyways.

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  13. the FACT that my insurance went up 389 a month for less coverage (privately insured) due to obamacare is not a lie. My company covered half of it I had to pay the rest from my earnings. If you can't accept fact you're a hindrance to the world.

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  14. Is this opinion going to be forever on the front page of the on-line Oakland Press?

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  15. OP please take this down it is from April and the opinion has now been proven wrong. It makes you look bad.

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  16. The Claims Pages is the largest circulated reference source for insurance claims adjusters.The Claims Pages print and online directories have become the largest circulated reference source for insurance claims adjusters.
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  17. Everyone knows the responsible folk who actually work and make money, and have investments etc, in other words, assets, are paying for the 'have nots' by having their premiums jacked way up. So far, we have only seen the individual subscribers. Wait until 2016, when company plans must be in place. I have a company, I told my employees to get their teeth fixed, new glasses etc cause its all going away when the crud hits the fan on costs and they are sent to the exchanges to negotiate their own healthcare insurance under Obamacare. I won't be footing the bill anymore. Thousands of other companies won't be footing the bill either. That will be an unpleasant eye opener in 2016......At least I won't be in the healthcare business anymore and can go back to making parts.......

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  18. Why is this goofy old "blog" still posted on the front page or, for that matter, anywhere. I elected my individual medical insurance policy prior to the passage of Obamacrap -- real insurance. Unfortunately, although grandfathered, I have now been notified that my policy will be discontinued as of the end of February, 2016. My policy is no longer financially viable for my insurer in light of Obamacrap compliance and medical care costs.

    I am now being forced into the Obamacrap program: My deductible will increase to $6,500 ($6,800 out of pocket/year); My premium will increase 40% to $336/mo; and even then, the garbage policy will only pay 70% of medical costs once the deductible is met!

    Oh...and I've also lost my doc. He decided to retire early (he's only in his early to mid-50's) instead of trying to integrate Obamacrap into his practice.

    Macomb Daily: Lose this clueless moron's blog!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Why is this goofy old "blog" still posted on the front page or, for that matter, anywhere. I elected my individual medical insurance policy prior to the passage of Obamacrap -- real insurance. Unfortunately, although grandfathered, I have now been notified that my policy will be discontinued as of the end of February, 2016. My policy is no longer financially viable for my insurer in light of Obamacrap compliance and medical care costs.

    I am now being forced into the Obamacrap program: My deductible will increase to $6,500 ($6,800 out of pocket/year); My premium will increase 40% to $336/mo; and even then, the garbage policy will only pay 70% of medical costs once the deductible is met!

    Oh...and I've also lost my doc. He decided to retire early (he's only in his early to mid-50's) instead of trying to integrate Obamacrap into his practice.

    Macomb Daily: Lose this clueless moron's blog!

    ReplyDelete
  20. What o joke I paid 2800 a month for blue cross NO de. Now I have 7500.00 de. To bad for the poor and non working get a jog what next? Does the big 3 have to give a car to the walking person like bridge cards phones section 8 housing?

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  21. This blog has been proven to be wrong. Obamacare is a ripoff.

    Trump will dispose of it in the trash, and we will get some decent healthcare insurance once again, insurance that we want, and that we pay for, not the other way around, the ones who work, paying for those that don't , which is the current Obamacare formula.

    Time for this blog to say 'good nite."

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