Nothing, Eddie? Can you even begin to tell me how much my care is marked up because of uninsured, non-paying jackasses who use the Emergency Room for non-emergency uses?
Can you tell me what it costs me when these uninsured jackasses forego inexpensive, routine medical care, and ignore simple, easily treated conditions until they require expensive emergency treatment?
Maybe you can tell yourself and us if you're a mind to.
With the numbers to be added by the individual mandate there will be many that draw more from the program than they pay. That is the case now for medicare with respect to seniors. No one, not even you, can accurately predict what the spread will be with the individual mandate, or the amount of subsidy required.
Obamacare being affordable is about as viable as the US being able to foster a durable democracy in the middle east.
I guess that's about as close as I'll get to you admitting you don't have a clue. I'll take it.
I guess you don't either. Time will prove, and is already doing so, that the government is not bright enough to manage anything efficiently. And that goes for both parties, too many hands in the till, too much cronyism, and too many pages of obamacare. No one knows the actual cost and with the government that always means it's more than touted.
As this (its) start date draws near, evidence is piling up that ObamaCare will:
Boost insurance costs. Officially the "Affordable Care Act," ObamaCare promised to lower premiums for families. But regulators decided to impose a 3.5% surcharge on insurance plans sold through federally run exchanges. There's also a $63 fee for every person covered by employers. And the law adds a "premium tax" that will require insurers to pay more than $100 billion over the next decade. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation expects insurers to simply pass this tax onto individuals and small businesses, boosting premiums another 2.5%.
Push millions off employer coverage. In February, the Congressional Budget Office said that 7 million will likely lose their employer coverage thanks to ObamaCare — nearly twice its previous estimate. That number could be as high as 20 million, the CBO says.
Cause premiums to skyrocket. In December, state insurance commissioners warned Obama administration officials that the law's market regulations would likely cause "rate shocks," particularly for younger, healthier people forced by ObamaCare to subsidize premiums for those who are older and sicker.
"We are very concerned about what will happen if essentially there is so much rate shock for young people that they're bound not to purchase (health insurance) at all," said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.
That same month, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said ObamaCare will likely cause premiums to double for some small businesses and individuals.
And a more recent survey of insurers in five major cities by the American Action Forum found they expect premiums to climb an average 169%.
Cost people their jobs. The Federal Reserve's March beige book on economic activity noted that businesses "cited the unknown effects of the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff."
Around the same time, Gallup reported a surge in part-time work in advance of ObamaCare's employer mandate. It found that part-timers accounted for almost 21% of the labor force, up from 19% three years ago.
Meanwhile, human resources consulting firm Adecco found that half of the small businesses it surveyed in January either plan to cut their workforce, not hire new workers, or shift to part-time or temporary help because of ObamaCare.
Tax the middle class. IBD reported in February that much of the $800 billion in tax hikes imposed by ObamaCare will end up hitting the middle class, including $45 billion in mandate penalties, $19 billion raised by limiting medical expense deductions, $24 billion through strict limits on flexible spending accounts, plus another $5 billion because ObamaCare bans using FSAs to buy over-the-counter drugs.
Add to the deficit. The Government Accountability Office reported in January that Obama-Care will likely add $6.2 trillion in red ink over 75 years if independent experts are right and several of its cost control measures don't work as advertised.
Cost more than promised. The Congressional Budget Office now says ObamaCare's insurance subsidies will cost $233 billion more over the next decade than it thought last year.
Be a bureaucratic nightmare. Consumers got their first glimpse of life under ObamaCare when the Health and Human Services Department released a draft insurance application form. It runs 21 pages. "Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes," the AP concluded after reviewing the form.
Exacerbate doctor shortages. Last summer, a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than its needs by 2015, thanks in large part to ObamaCare. At the same time, a survey of 13,000 doctors by the Physicians Foundation found that almost 60% of doctors say ObamaCare has made them less optimistic about the future of health care and they would retire today if they could.
Leave millions uninsured. After 10 years, ObamaCare will still leave 30 million without coverage, according to the CBO. As IBD reported, that figure could be much higher if the law causes premiums to spike and encourages people to drop coverage despite the law's mandate.
On Thursday I joined my House colleagues in voting to fully repeal Obamacare. Though the President promised lower costs and greater accessibility to care with his health care law, it has quickly become evident that the true consequences are higher premiums, stifled medical innovation, and slower hiring. A recent Gallup poll found that 41% of small business owners have held off hiring new employees and 38% have held back on growing their businesses due to Obamacare. As a businessman, that hits home for me. We must put health care decisions back in the hands of the American people.
This sounds seriously like someone should have read the Obamacare bill before passing it!
Quote:
By LOUISE RADNOFSKY
Healthy consumers could see insurance rates double or even triple when they look for individual coverage under the federal health law later this year, while the premiums paid by sicker people are set to become more affordable, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of coverage to be sold on the law's new exchanges.
Healthy consumers could see insurance rates double or even triple when they look for individual coverage under the federal health law later this year, while the premiums paid by sicker people are set to become more affordable. Louise Radnofsky reports.
The exchanges, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's health-care law, look likely to offer few if any of the cut-rate policies that healthy people can now buy, according to the Journal's analysis. At the same time, the top prices look to be within reach for many people who previously faced sky-high premiums because of chronic illnesses or who couldn't buy insurance at all.
Several big provisions in the law taking effect in six months affect rates for the estimated 20% of Americans who don't have coverage through an employer, Medicare or Medicaid. Plans must be available to consumers regardless of their health and must cover certain items such as hospitalization, maternity care and prescription drugs. The exchanges are set to open Oct. 1 selling plans effective Jan. 1.
A review of rates proposed by carriers in eight states shows the likely boundaries for the least-expensive and most costly plans on the exchanges. The lower boundary is particularly important because the government wants to attract healthy people to the exchanges, and they may choose to pay a penalty and take the risk of going without coverage if they believe they can't get an acceptable deal
For a 40-year-old single nonsmoker—in the middle of the age range eligible for exchanges—a "bronze" plan covering about 60% of medical costs will be available for about $200 a month in most places, the proposals show.
Though less generous than "silver" and "gold" plans on the exchanges, a bronze plan would still include fuller benefits than many policies available on the individual market today.
The challenge for the law is that healthy 40-year-olds can typically get coverage for less today, especially if they are willing to accept fewer benefits or take on more costs themselves. Supporters of the law say tighter regulation on insurance practices gives consumers more protection and is worth the extra cost, but they have to persuade people who don't have an immediate need for health care of that. If only sick people buy into the new insurance pools, prices could shoot up.
Bob Laszewski, a Virginia health-care consultant and former insurance executive, said the new offerings were likely to anger people who had preferred lower-cost products that were no longer available.
"If a person in 2013 has a choice of buying a Chevrolet or a Cadillac health plan, and in 2014, they can only buy a Cadillac…are they going to be upset? I think the answer is, yes," he said.
Virginia is one of the eight states examined by the Journal and offers a fairly typical picture.
In Richmond, a 40-year-old male nonsmoker logging on to the eHealthInsurance comparison-shopping website today would see a plan that costs $63 a month from Anthem, a unit of WellPoint Inc. WLP -0.33% That plan has a $5,000 deductible and covers half of medical costs.
By comparison, the least-expensive plan on the exchange for a 40-year-old nonsmoker in Richmond, also from Anthem, will likely cost $193 a month, according to filings submitted by carriers.
The law is likely to offer a benefit to those who have difficulty getting insurance now or are pushed out of the market because they have had illnesses. Under the current system, the rate on the $63-a-month plan could be revised higher if a consumer indicates prior health problems in a medical questionnaire that must be filled out before buying the plan. The application also could be rejected entirely based on specific answers given.
Under the new health exchanges, plans are available regardless of health status, and a price can't change once it is offered. Top-of-the-line plans on the exchanges that cover 80% of medical costs and have a wider network of doctors and hospitals are likely to be available for about $400 a month for a 40-year-old single person.
That is a lot of money for the lower-to-middle-income Americans who are expected to be the main customers on exchanges, but it could be less than some people currently encounter after a carrier considers their medical history.
Those without coverage face out-of-pocket medical bills in the tens of thousands of dollars if they get sick.
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"The quality of the coverage is transparent, so you know what is covered and that you can count on it, without having to worry that your coverage will end when you need it the most," said Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Consumers in states that aren't creating their own health exchanges will use an exchange run by the federal government. Americans who already get health coverage on the job or through Medicare or Medicaid are likely to be affected more by other elements of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, such as those encouraging doctors and hospitals to cut back on inefficient care.On the exchanges, not everybody will have to pay the prices in full, because the law offers some income-based subsidies toward the cost of premiums.
A 40-year-old with income near the poverty level—currently $11,490 a year for a single person—would likely qualify for a subsidy of as much as $234 a month toward the cost of premiums in Virginia, potentially covering the entire cost of a bronze plan.
Any subsidy in Virginia would vanish once an individual reached annual income of about $33,150.
Tom Perriello, who voted for the law as a Democratic House member from Virginia and who now works for the left-leaning Center for American Progress, called the costs of premiums "a work in progress" and added, "Over the next few years, we should see that cost curve bend."
Prices may change slightly in some states before the fall, and the picture for 2015 and beyond is fuzzy.
Some carriers have been more cautious in judging the risks of the new market, and several large insurers are mostly sitting out the exchanges for the first year to see how they work.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH -0.55% and Humana Inc. HUM -2.65% both currently sell a range of products in Richmond but haven't proposed to sell through the exchange, according to the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
The companies declined to comment on the commission's list of proposals.
A version of this article appeared July 1, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Insurance Costs Set for a Jolt.
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