OBAMACARE'S HEALTH-INSURANCE STICKER SHOCK !!!!!!!!! OR ANOTHER OBAMA TAX ON THE MIDDLE CLASS

By MERRILL MATTHEWS AND MARK E. LITOW posted at WSJ on line.

Health-insurance premiums have been rising—and consumers will experience another series of price shocks later this year when some see their premiums skyrocket thanks to the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare.

The reason: The congressional Democrats who crafted the legislation ignored virtually every actuarial principle governing rational insurance pricing. Premiums will soon reflect that disregard—indeed, premiums are already reflecting it.

Central to ObamaCare are requirements that health insurers (1) accept everyone who applies (guaranteed issue), (2) cannot charge more based on serious medical conditions (modified community rating), and (3) include numerous coverage mandates that force insurance to pay for many often uncovered medical conditions.

Guaranteed issue incentivizes people to forgo buying a policy until they get sick and need coverage (and then drop the policy after they get well). While ObamaCare imposes a financial penalty—or is it a tax?—to discourage people from gaming the system, it is too low to be a real disincentive. The result will be insurance pools that are smaller and sicker, and therefore more expensive.

How do we know these requirements will have such a negative impact on premiums? Eight states—New Jersey, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Washington, Kentucky, Vermont and Massachusetts—enacted guaranteed issue and community rating in the mid-1990s and wrecked their individual (i.e., non-group) health-insurance markets. Premiums increased so much that Kentucky largely repealed its law in 2000 and some of the other states eventually modified their community-rating provisions.

States won't experience equal increases in their premiums under ObamaCare. Ironically, citizens in states that have acted responsibly over the years by adhering to standard actuarial principles and limiting the (often politically motivated) mandates will see the biggest increases, because their premiums have typically been the lowest.

Many actuaries, such as those in the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman, are now predicting an average increase of roughly 50% in premiums for some in the individual market for the same coverage. But that is an average. Large employer groups will be less affected, at least initially, because the law grandfathers in employers that self-insure. Small employers will likely see a significant increase, though not as large as the individual market, which will be the hardest hit.

We compared the average premiums in states that already have ObamaCare-like provisions in their laws and found that consumers in New Jersey, New York and Vermont already pay well over twice what citizens in many other states pay. Consumers in Maine and Massachusetts aren't far behind. Those states will likely see a small increase.

By contrast, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and Virginia will likely see the largest increases—somewhere between 65% and 100%. Another 18 states, including Texas and Michigan, could see their rates rise between 35% and 65%.

While ObamaCare won't take full effect until 2014, health-insurance premiums in the individual market are already rising, and not just because of routine increases in medical costs. Insurers are adjusting premiums now in anticipation of the guaranteed-issue and community-rating mandates starting next year. There are newly imposed mandates, such as the coverage for children up to age 26, and what qualifies as coverage is much more comprehensive and expensive. Consolidation in the hospital system has been accelerated by ObamaCare and its push for Accountable Care Organizations. This means insurers must negotiate in a less competitive hospital market.

Although President Obama repeatedly claimed that health-insurance premiums for a family would be $2,500 lower by the end of his first term, they are actually about $3,000 higher—a spread of about $5,500 per family.

Health insurers have been understandably reluctant to discuss the coming price hikes that are driven by the Affordable Care Act. Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, the country's third-largest health insurer, broke the silence on Dec. 12. "We're going to see some markets go up by as much as 100%," he told the company's annual investor conference in New York City.

Insurers know that the Obama administration will denounce the premium increases as the result of greedy health insurers, greedy doctors, greedy somebody. The Department of Health and Human Services will likely begin to threaten, arm-twist or investigate health insurers in an effort to force them into keeping their premiums more in line with Democratic promises—just as HHS bureaucrats have already started doing when insurers want premium increases larger than 10%.

And that may work for a while. It certainly has in Massachusetts, where politicians, including then-Gov. Mitt Romney, made all the same cost-lowering promises about the state's 2006 prequel to ObamaCare that have yet to come true.

But unlike the federal government, health insurers can't run perpetual deficits. Something will have to give, which will likely open the door to making health insurance a public utility completely regulated by the government, or the left's real goal: a single-payer system.

Mr. Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Litow is a retired actuary and past chairman of the Social Insurance Public Finance Section of the Society of Actuaries.

You never noticed your insurance premiums rising every year before now? Must be nice in bunkerville..

At a rally in Virginia in June 2008, Obama said: “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” And again, in a debate with Sen. John McCain in October 2008: “The only thing we’re going to try to do is lower costs so that those cost savings are passed onto you. And we estimate we can cut the average family’s premium by about $2,500 per year,” Obama continued with his lying saying “We won’t do all this twenty years from now, or ten years from now,” he said. “We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.”


Spending on health care rose 4.6 percent in 2011 — up $4,500 per person, on average — according to the nonpartisan Health Care Cost Institute. That’s up from a 3.8 growth rate in 2010.

And apparently they will increase even more in 2014......

Will you admit that Obama mis-led us about the costs of his ObamaCare ?

You never noticed your insurance premiums rising every year before now? Must be nice in bunkerville.. Originally Posted by i'va biggen

Obama said our premiums were going to go down substantially. Instead, they're going up substantially. The initial cost estimate for Obamacare was under a trillion dollars. Now the estimate is closer to two trillion. We were lied to. Obama is a lying sack of shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4rkKzajF7Y

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...michael-tanner#

Obama on a 60-minute interview:

"Taxes are lower on families than they've been probably in the last 50 years. So I haven't raised taxes. I've cut taxes for middle-class families by an average of $3,600 for a typical family."

Horseshit........

Obama on a 60-minute interview:

"Taxes are lower on families than they've been probably in the last 50 years. So I haven't raised taxes. I've cut taxes for middle-class families by an average of $3,600 for a typical family."

Horseshit........
Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Obama pisses on the country, then tells us it's raining. Fifty one percent of the people don't know or care they're being lied to.

This was obvious to anyone that understands insurance. Unfortunately, that is not a lot of people.

RANDMAN

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While ObamaCare won't take full effect until 2014, health-insurance premiums in the individual market are already rising, and not just because of routine increases in medical costs. Insurers are adjusting premiums now in anticipation of the guaranteed-issue and community-rating mandates starting next year. There are newly imposed mandates, such as the coverage for children up to age 26, and what qualifies as coverage is much more comprehensive and expensive. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Shocking. The nerve of those dirty, greedy insurance companies!
When has any government program been more efficient and cost effective than one from the private sector?

Although President Obama repeatedly claimed that health-insurance premiums for a family would be $2,500 lower by the end of his first term, they are actually about $3,000 higher—a spread of about $5,500 per family. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Who here wants to honestly defend Obie on this one? Give it your best shot.

REPUBLICAN MEDICARE SCAM OVERHALL

RANDMAN

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Who here wants to honestly defend Obie on this one? Give it your best shot. Originally Posted by Chica Chaser

REPUBLICAN MEDICARE SCAM OVERHALL

RANDMAN

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Not him apparently

Welcome back, Choom-Czar-Who-Is-Not-Marshall!

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

Spending on health care rose 4.6 percent in 2011 — up $4,500 per person, on average — according to the nonpartisan Health Care Cost Institute. That’s up from a 3.8 growth rate in 2010.

And apparently they will increase even more in 2014......

Will you admit that Obama mis-led us about the costs of his ObamaCare ? Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Maybe I'm lucky but my health insurance increased maybe $10 for 2013 over 2012, and about the same for 2012 over 2011, the same for 2011 over 2010.

Can you tell me how PERSONALLY your health care costs have increased in recent years?

My premium increases have been about 5% per year over the past three years.

During that same time frame the same procedures I have had (routine check ups/visits/lab work) have increased by as much as 15%. So costs have gone up dramatically - premiums paid and out of pocket expenses.

My increases have been about 5% per year over the past three years. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

I should have said my monthly health insurance premiums increased about $5 PER MONTH. About 4% increase year-to-year. This is about the same increase pre-Obama as during Obama. My increases have had nothing to do with Obama-care. At least for me.

Have your out-of-pocket costs increased up to 15% or has your insurance picked up the increase? And are those increases due to any part of Obama-care?