More extremely unsurprising news on Obamacare
This:
Aetna’s chairman and CEO said Monday that the country’s third-largest health insurer had “serious concerns” about the sustainability of ObamaCare’s marketplaces.
“We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges,” Mark Bertolini said on an earnings call Monday, according to prepared remarks.
He said the company remained concerned about “the overall stability of the risk pool.”
Many insurers, including Aetna, have been losing money on the ObamaCare marketplaces, also known as exchanges, in part because of a sicker and more costly mix of enrollees, known as the “risk pool.”
Aetna added that it’s not threatening the company as a whole, since Obamacare is “a small fraction of the company’s business.”
And Rubio eliminated a bail out of the insurance companies in the ACA. How he did it is a mystery to me.
The insurers went along with Ocare because it was going to bring them a lot of new customers. There were probably other inducements as well. The executives who made these agreements should forfeit their jobs. There was all kinds of evidence that this was never meant to actually work long term. This was bad decision-making that threatens the company, and its paying customers, as a whole.
If Rubio eliminated a bailout, I say “Very good of him!” I fear that with creative accounting, these big insurers would be able to gouge us taxpayers for more than they would be due.
The insurers are bit players. Obamacare was always intended to be a transitory offering on the way to single payer.
“… [W]hat I’m going to do is I am going to try to reorganize [the American health care system] to be more amenable to treating sick people. But that means you — particularly you young people, particularly you young healthy people — you’re going to have to pay more.
And by the way, we are going to have to, if you’re very old, we’re not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It’s too expensive. So we’re going to let you die.
Also, I’m going to use the bargaining leverage of the federal government in terms of Medicare, Medicaid… to force drug companies and insurance companies and medical suppliers to reduce their costs.
But that means less innovation, and that means less new products and less new drugs on the market, which means you, are probably not going to live that much longer than your parents.” Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration, speaking candidly about health care at UC Berkeley on October 26, 2007
Obamacare has stuck it to our daughter with another increase. She buys her insurance from Premera in Washington. Her new premiums doubled over last year. Deductibles and co-pays increased as well. The future will be more of the same.
No way to prove it is due to Obamacare, but her practice (mental health counselor) patient load is down since Obamacare started. It seems that people will put off mental health counseling because of the increased co-pays and deductibles. Food, shelter, and medical care come ahead of mental health in most people’s budgets. The people who are most being hurt by all this are those who make too much to qualify for subsidies and not enough to comfortably handle the costs of insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.
I have asked her to write to our Senators and Representative explaining the situation. Unfortunately, she’s like so many others. She doesn’t believe they will read or care about what she has to say. It is frustrating. How do people in government know what is happening on the ground unless citizens tell them? Cynicism abounds and it won’t help change the problems.
JJ,
For the most part ‘they’ do not care. Only ballots make them care for one election cycle. Then it is back to corruption as usual.
IMO, Cruz is the real deal, every other ballot is a vote that either feeds the DC beast or at best is window dressing on an eventual disaster.
Parker:
I hate to say I agree with you, but I do. Except they also care about hitting up donors. I have lived in more than a dozen countries around the world, and I dearly love this country, but it has become unrecognizable in my lifetime. And yes, the elected officials are responsible.
Geoffrey,
You’re correct in your assessment of Obamacare.
However, it should be realized that the limitations designed into the system (“…if you’re very old, we’re not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It’s too expensive. So we’re going to let you die…) or which will eventuate from it with near-mathematical certainty, will emphatically not apply to members of America’s Nomenklatura (a.k.a. the Ruling Class, or, the interchangeable members of the Academic-Corporate-Media Complex), of whom the noble Professor Reich is an example.
Or, as equally epitomized by the noble Professor Jonathan Gruber, see:
https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=iUOyqw5HhRI.
And, wait ‘till the 57 second mark. Note the laughter from the audience.
Parker,
I agree also. “They” simply don’t care.
Obamacare?
Merely another way to sabotage the USA.
The Iran “Deal”?
Merely another way to sabotage the west.
More importantly, the Iran “Deal” is the mechanism—hope Obama and Jarett—that will bring Israel to its knees.
And if a few hundred thousand Syrians and Yemenites (and who knows how many others) have to die in the process, and if Europe has to be overrun, and if the entire Middle East has to be ceded to Putin and the Mullahs; well, you can’t expect to promote social and (Palestinian) justice without breaking a few eggs….
File under: Prevarication, Inc.
How do people in government know what is happening on the ground unless citizens tell them?
They can read internet blogs, just like any other citizen does. Stop pretending your rulers give a damn or have the power to do anything, even if they did.
They aren’t going to protect you. Any more the “police” protected Germany and English girls in Rot.
GB — I can’t believe Reich would actually have said that in public. Do you have a link? Because if he actually did, O-care never would have passed. Remember “There are no such things as Death Panels?”