Why Obamacare is failing.

[Doc1]

They were promised loss reimbursements through the "risk corridors", to date they have received less than 12% of the promised money. S

BECAUSE REPUBLICANS FUCKED THEM OVER:

GOP seeks to block ObamaCare settlements with insurers

Just another example of punching holes while talking about a sinking shit.

Dem's failed to convince American citizens to buy into Obamacare, hence its sinking financially.

You are clearly clueless. Individual market covers only about 10% of Americans and this is what happened to uninsured rates when Obamacare was passed:

You know what this graph says? Many millions of Americans getting covered and buying into ACA.

No, you know what it says? Millions are getting coverage by using Tax Payer dollars to purchase inferior coverages.

Doc its not coverage, the annual deductible is so sky high that for most its like not having insurance. Unless you suffer some serious illness or injury you have to pay out of pocket for your healthcare plus pay the Obamacare premiums on top of that. A simple catastrophic healthcare plan and a healthcare savings account would have been far less expensive for most people. But Obamacare banned them because they needed to force those people to pay into Obamacare to fund the hand outs.

I agree, I was including the deductibles in my statement. It really does matter to them that their Mammogram is "free" when the plan won't pay for anything until the 7150 ded is met

 

[AntonToo]

Time for some facts on "annual deductible" growth

To listen to conservatives Obamacare invented rising premiums, to listen to facts is to know they have been rising more or less in line with pre-Obamacare trend

 

[bullwinkle]

Humana healthcare, a big insurance company that was one of those working through the Obamacare program to offer individual plans, is pulling out.

Humana Continues to Build Upon Proven Strategy Following Termination of Merger with Aetna; Provides 2017 Financial Guidance; Announces Capital Deployment Plans | Humana Healthcare

Regarding the company’s individual commercial medical coverage (Individual Commercial), substantially all of which is offered on-exchange through the federal Marketplaces, Humana has worked over the past several years to address market and programmatic challenges in order to keep coverage options available wherever it could offer a viable product. This has included pursuing business changes, such as modifying networks, restructuring product offerings, reducing the company’s geographic footprint and increasing premiums.

All of these actions were taken with the expectation that the company’s Individual Commercial business would stabilize to the point where the company could continue to participate in the program. However, based on its initial analysis of data associated with the company’s healthcare exchange membership following the 2017 open enrollment period, Humana is seeing further signs of an unbalanced risk pool. Therefore, the company has decided that it cannot continue to offer this coverage for 2018. Through the remainder of 2017, Humana remains committed to serving its current members across 11 states where it offers Individual Commercial products. And, as it has done in the past, Humana will work closely with its state partners as it navigates this process.

So another insurer is pulling out. The obvious question is why? Well it is once you get past the I told you so crowing of the anti Obamacare folks.

The reason why the individual market is failing is simple. Employers are required to provide the insurance to employees. Young healthy people were getting their insurance through their parents, or through their employers. Or they decided they didn't need it based upon cost. Those are the young healthy people who were supposed to float the order or more in need of care people in the original vision of the program.

Employer based plans are run based upon the health of the employees who are covered. The individual marketplace was never going to have enough young healthy people without insurance but with the money to afford the program. So Humana is following the example of others, leaving the marketplace to reduce the losses on the financial report.

Now some may sneer and say that Humana is just a greedy corporation. That is just nonsense. Every corporation has a need to meet expenses and a bit of profit. Just like all of us as a matter of fact.

At the end of they year you take a look back and examine your financial health. You look at the losses you endured and the gains. Some are rare like Hurricane loss or severe storm damage. Others are fixed like house payments and still others are flexible like electric and cable. You can use a little less electrical and reduce the bill is what flexible means.

You can probably absorb a little loss once in a while. You can't afford to absorb a loss every year. Nobody else can either.

If Humana lost money year after year they would go bankrupt just like you would. The ACA operated on a flawed premise. The idea that the young and healthy would pay in to support those who were less so. Perhaps they would pay a little, but paying big bills for something you don't use is counterintuitive. The bills were hundreds or even thousands every month.

This is why it was destined to fail. Obamacare was an effort to create a privatized National Health Service. Voluntary participation was always going to be problematic. So they came up with the fines/tax to incentivize people to join. The reality was the fine/tax was going to be cheaper than the plan.

This was the second failure. The idea that people would pay more to get something rather than pay less because they had nothing. If you were going to be fined $500 for not having insurance you would be willing to pay $1,000 and get insurance. It would only cost you $500 more after all.

As for me, I get my coverage through my employer. I got it through my employer when Bush was President too.

To accomplish the goals laid out socialized medicine was required. Some people viewed the ACA as a stepping stone to Socialized medicine. That was just stupid.

The analogy I used at the time was this. If a Mechanic screws up your car you aren't going to pay him to fix the car right this time. If a Surgeon amputates the wrong leg you aren't going to tell him to try again.

You are going with someone else, and that someone would not be Democrats.

Every year the costs are going up for the individual plans, and every year more of the young and healthy were bailing on the expensive and in their view unnecessary individual marketplace plans.

Obamacare was always doomed. I believe the Democrats always knew that too.

You have laid out an excellent essay, Savannah, that is easy for a numbskull like me to understand, although it took some effort. But bottom line is what? To return to the days that weren't so 'good old' to so many? What about those who no longer have an employer, or who have an employer that doesn't offer health coverage? Everyone knows the current plan is flawed. Relying on the young to pick up a burden they do not yet realize they will one day need was a pipe dream. There is so much about the ACA I do not understand because I do not use it, but to my knowledge rates have not increased in my area, and I do not know why some areas are going up while others not. And this is the first year my private COB has not increased in the 10 years I've had it.

Thanks for the compliment. What we were trying for was always doomed to fail. A public health program run as a private concern.

Let's look at other ideas to figure out what could have worked. Let's take Mortgages as one example.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the VA all do similar things. They guarantee a loan. They are insurance programs in a manner of speaking. The VA guarantees the loan that Veterans like myself take out to buy a house.

Your bank is insured. The FDIC is an insurance program for banks. It guarantees the depositors accounts.

The only way for the ACA to have worked was if we created a similar public/private organization like Fannie Mae to manage insurance. Insurance policies from employers for example would be taxed, and that plus the fees paid by the insured people would have to be enough to cover expenses.

The second thing needed was interstate insurance policies. The Blue Cross of Georgia plan has different costs than the Blue Cross of New York. Same company, so the costs are because of the state costs. Getting approval from the State Insurance oversight. In Georgia it's the Insurance Commissioner. This means the insurance company has to hire people to submit and explain costs to each state they are active in.

What I mean is that you have national insurance instead of State. My drivers license and auto insurance is valid in all the states. I can drive to California and have proof of insurance in every state I cross. My health insurance is now "out of network". Doctors in Nevada are the same as Doctors in Alabama aren't they? Why should my insurance be iffy in those other states?

I'm afraid I am not saying this right. We needed a national insurance plan. Not a patchwork quilt of State plans. Blue Cross should have been national instead of Blue Cross of insert state name here. There is still plenty of opportunity for consumer protection by the state. But just as my license is valid in every state, and my ability to buy a Ford is not dependent upon the approval of a valid plan submitted to the state, so should my insurance.

It was never going to happen that way. The plan submitted for approval in Georgia had to show the costs and profits for that market only. The plan submitted to California had to meet the even higher standards for California. We needed national standards and national plans.

Two options for success. We picked neither.

Thank you for explaining most of what I never understood. It is now much easier to see and comprehend the complaints against the program as well as what will take to fix it. I have always been FOR the ACA on principle..still am. But I never really listened to the complaints against it, or the shortcomings. You made them valid IMHO. Forward!

 

[SavannahMann]

Cut the bullshit, the prime reason ACA market is sputtering right now is due to huge uncertainties.

How can carriers possibly plan to open new plans while nobody knows what will happen with the law and (market it creates) tomorrow

Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. That fact alone demolishes your argument.

One after another different insurance companies have withdrawn from the ACA marketplace. Those shopping on the website saw choices dwindle and options vanish.

There was only one way the ACA would work, and that one way was the one they decided to avoid hoping for a true socialized medicine program sometime in the future.

Well here is one:

Gee, if exchanges were so financially ruinous why does this one keep expanding?

Um you know United Healthcare was pulling out this year don't you?

Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers In Pulling Back From Obamacare

UnitedHealth Group said in April it planned to pull out of ACA marketplaces in most states, and just last month Humana, which covers about 800,000 people, said it will cut back its offerings to just a handful of counties

You were saying?

No, I didn't know that, however:

Original claim

"Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. " is still false.

There was an expansion of offered plans and participants after exchanges launched, there was some contraction after that, but certainly nothing catastrophic that could not be addressed...but now that it became impossible to plan anything a leak is fast becoming a full out sink.

You realize that most of the counties in the nation have One insurance choice through the marketplace right?

 

[AntonToo]

Cut the bullshit, the prime reason ACA market is sputtering right now is due to huge uncertainties.

How can carriers possibly plan to open new plans while nobody knows what will happen with the law and (market it creates) tomorrow

Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. That fact alone demolishes your argument.

One after another different insurance companies have withdrawn from the ACA marketplace. Those shopping on the website saw choices dwindle and options vanish.

There was only one way the ACA would work, and that one way was the one they decided to avoid hoping for a true socialized medicine program sometime in the future.

Well here is one:

Gee, if exchanges were so financially ruinous why does this one keep expanding?

Um you know United Healthcare was pulling out this year don't you?

Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers In Pulling Back From Obamacare

UnitedHealth Group said in April it planned to pull out of ACA marketplaces in most states, and just last month Humana, which covers about 800,000 people, said it will cut back its offerings to just a handful of counties

You were saying?

No, I didn't know that, however:

Original claim

"Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. " is still false.

There was an expansion of offered plans and participants after exchanges launched, there was some contraction after that, but certainly nothing catastrophic that could not be addressed...but now that it became impossible to plan anything a leak is fast becoming a full out sink.

You realize that most of the counties in the nation have One insurance choice through the marketplace right?

Which is one more than they will have if Republicans don't formulate something by the middle of the year.

 

[Doc1]

Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. That fact alone demolishes your argument.

One after another different insurance companies have withdrawn from the ACA marketplace. Those shopping on the website saw choices dwindle and options vanish.

There was only one way the ACA would work, and that one way was the one they decided to avoid hoping for a true socialized medicine program sometime in the future.

Well here is one:

Gee, if exchanges were so financially ruinous why does this one keep expanding?

Um you know United Healthcare was pulling out this year don't you?

Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers In Pulling Back From Obamacare

UnitedHealth Group said in April it planned to pull out of ACA marketplaces in most states, and just last month Humana, which covers about 800,000 people, said it will cut back its offerings to just a handful of counties

You were saying?

No, I didn't know that, however:

Original claim

"Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. " is still false.

There was an expansion of offered plans and participants after exchanges launched, there was some contraction after that, but certainly nothing catastrophic that could not be addressed...but now that it became impossible to plan anything a leak is fast becoming a full out sink.

You realize that most of the counties in the nation have One insurance choice through the marketplace right?

Which is one more than they will have if Republicans don't formulate something by the middle of the year.

You're just a hack kid, you'll swallow everything your leaders tell you....and yes, Carriers have been pulling out for years.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. That fact alone demolishes your argument.

One after another different insurance companies have withdrawn from the ACA marketplace. Those shopping on the website saw choices dwindle and options vanish.

There was only one way the ACA would work, and that one way was the one they decided to avoid hoping for a true socialized medicine program sometime in the future.

Well here is one:

Gee, if exchanges were so financially ruinous why does this one keep expanding?

Um you know United Healthcare was pulling out this year don't you?

Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers In Pulling Back From Obamacare

UnitedHealth Group said in April it planned to pull out of ACA marketplaces in most states, and just last month Humana, which covers about 800,000 people, said it will cut back its offerings to just a handful of counties

You were saying?

No, I didn't know that, however:

Original claim

"Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. " is still false.

There was an expansion of offered plans and participants after exchanges launched, there was some contraction after that, but certainly nothing catastrophic that could not be addressed...but now that it became impossible to plan anything a leak is fast becoming a full out sink.

You realize that most of the counties in the nation have One insurance choice through the marketplace right?

Which is one more than they will have if Republicans don't formulate something by the middle of the year.

Yes because there was nothing before ObumblerCare.

 

[SavannahMann]

Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. That fact alone demolishes your argument.

One after another different insurance companies have withdrawn from the ACA marketplace. Those shopping on the website saw choices dwindle and options vanish.

There was only one way the ACA would work, and that one way was the one they decided to avoid hoping for a true socialized medicine program sometime in the future.

Well here is one:

Gee, if exchanges were so financially ruinous why does this one keep expanding?

Um you know United Healthcare was pulling out this year don't you?

Aetna Joins Other Major Insurers In Pulling Back From Obamacare

UnitedHealth Group said in April it planned to pull out of ACA marketplaces in most states, and just last month Humana, which covers about 800,000 people, said it will cut back its offerings to just a handful of counties

You were saying?

No, I didn't know that, however:

Original claim

"Pfui. Insurers have been pulling out for years. " is still false.

There was an expansion of offered plans and participants after exchanges launched, there was some contraction after that, but certainly nothing catastrophic that could not be addressed...but now that it became impossible to plan anything a leak is fast becoming a full out sink.

You realize that most of the counties in the nation have One insurance choice through the marketplace right?

Which is one more than they will have if Republicans don't formulate something by the middle of the year.

One of the selling points was that competition would keep prices down. Now with a majority of counties having one insurance choice you don't have competition. You have a mandated monopoly. A monopoly that people are required to use.

 

[Doc1]

Time for some facts on "annual deductible" growth

To listen to conservatives Obamacare invented rising premiums, to listen to facts is to know they have been rising more or less in line with pre-Obamacare trend

Huh, you don't even know the difference between Deductibles" and "Premiums"?

 

[francoHFW]

Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA despite GOP sabotage. So fix it! Most importantly, go after ridiculous Big Health and Big Pharma costs and stop obstruction in red states and areas, where strangely all the major problems are...ACA is the longstanding GOP plan after all, dupes. Let it work, it already is...

 

[Doc1]

Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA despite GOP sabotage. So fix it! Most importantly, go after ridiculous Big Health and Big Pharma costs and stop obstruction in red states and areas, where strangely all the major problems are...ACA is the longstanding GOP plan after all, dupes. Let it work, it already is...

LOL, I'll bury you on this Red Bull.

 

[francoHFW]

Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA despite GOP sabotage. So fix it! Most importantly, go after ridiculous Big Health and Big Pharma costs and stop obstruction in red states and areas, where strangely all the major problems are...ACA is the longstanding GOP plan after all, dupes. Let it work, it already is...

LOL, I'll bury you on this Red Bull.

Someone stopping you? lol. What's your plan- let insurers do it? The way it got to be 17.5% of GDP, 50% more expensive than anywhere else, with 40k deaths a year due to no insurance, scams everywhere, no pre-existing insurance, biggest worry of people, 500k bankruptcies for people who THOUGHT they had good insurance etc etc etc?

 

[Doc1]

Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA despite GOP sabotage. So fix it! Most importantly, go after ridiculous Big Health and Big Pharma costs and stop obstruction in red states and areas, where strangely all the major problems are...ACA is the longstanding GOP plan after all, dupes. Let it work, it already is...

LOL, I'll bury you on this Red Bull.

Someone stopping you? lol. What's your plan- let insurers do it? The way it got to be 17.5% of GDP, 50% more expensive than anywhere else, with 40k deaths a year due to no insurance, scams everywhere, no pre-existing insurance, biggest worry of people, 500k bankruptcies for people who THOUGHT they had good insurance etc etc etc?

No deflection boy.

This is what you said.

"Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA"

That is your lie.

 

[francoHFW]

Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA despite GOP sabotage. So fix it! Most importantly, go after ridiculous Big Health and Big Pharma costs and stop obstruction in red states and areas, where strangely all the major problems are...ACA is the longstanding GOP plan after all, dupes. Let it work, it already is...

LOL, I'll bury you on this Red Bull.

Someone stopping you? lol. What's your plan- let insurers do it? The way it got to be 17.5% of GDP, 50% more expensive than anywhere else, with 40k deaths a year due to no insurance, scams everywhere, no pre-existing insurance, biggest worry of people, 500k bankruptcies for people who THOUGHT they had good insurance etc etc etc?

No deflection boy.

This is what you said.

"Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA"

That is your lie.

The rises are much lower than under Bush, duh dupe.

 

[Doc1]

Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA despite GOP sabotage. So fix it! Most importantly, go after ridiculous Big Health and Big Pharma costs and stop obstruction in red states and areas, where strangely all the major problems are...ACA is the longstanding GOP plan after all, dupes. Let it work, it already is...

LOL, I'll bury you on this Red Bull.

Someone stopping you? lol. What's your plan- let insurers do it? The way it got to be 17.5% of GDP, 50% more expensive than anywhere else, with 40k deaths a year due to no insurance, scams everywhere, no pre-existing insurance, biggest worry of people, 500k bankruptcies for people who THOUGHT they had good insurance etc etc etc?

No deflection boy.

This is what you said.

"Premiums and deductibles have gone down in their rises since ACA"

That is your lie.

The rises are much lower than under Bush, duh dupe.

In your head sure, in the real world no, and the deductibles sky rocketed due to the ACA as MANDATED by the Law