The New Normal
Insurance premiums to triple. This news report from Forbes.
A California insurance broker, who sells health plans to individuals and small businesses, told me that she’s prepping her clients for a sticker shock. Her local carriers are hinting to her that premiums may triple this fall, when the plans unveil how they’ll billet the full brunt of Obamacare’s new regulations and mandates.
California is hardly alone. Around the country, insurers are fixing to raise rates by double digits. They’re privately briefing politicians in Washington on what’s in store. Those briefings are leaving a lot of folks up and down Pennsylvania Avenue jumpy….
To try and get a handle on rising costs, the Obama Administration will start to go after the healthcare providers. The President seemed to hint about all this when he referenced the need to “lower the cost” of healthcare in his inaugural address.
What difference does it make?
Recalling previous failed attempts to push through health care legislation, including the Catastrophic medical expenses act, AOL’s Andrea Stone wrote of the lessons learned.
It would take until 2003, in the George W. Bush administration, for Congress to bring back a prescription drug benefit for seniors. Catastrophic coverage has never been revived.
When President Bill Clinton assigned his wife the task of reforming the entire health care system in 1993, many recalled the spectacle in Chicago. “That was the first signal a lot of us had that this was really a third rail,” Jaffe said. “It’s an extremely dangerous issue, and if you didn’t handle it extremely carefully, you get burned by it.” As the Clintons soon learned.
Looking back, Jaffe favorably compared the bill Rostenkowski championed to President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, which conservatives have vowed to repeal if they regain control of Congress this fall.
“It was one of the few bills done in a fiscally responsible way. Unlike the new bill, taxes were collected before the benefits kicked in,” Jaffe said.
When Democrats wrote the current legislation, he said, “there were lessons learned. This time, they were very careful to give people the dessert before they served them the spinach.” For example, benefits allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health plan have kicked in, while more controversial parts won’t take effect for years.
Except for the premiums tripling. But by now it may be too late. What difference does it make?
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H&R Block, the income tax preparers, are constantly running a tv ad in which a chubby, smiley, bubbly woman announces that she’s read all 900 pages of the new IRS health care regulations, it’s all new this year, and she can help you.
I find this somewhat less attractive than drug and feminine hygiene ads, but apparently H&R Block is looking forward to herds of scared sheep mobbing their offices.
Not me, I’m looking forward to giving it about five minutes attention, giving myself every benefit of the doubt, and seeing how that flies.
But I do wonder what Joe Blow and Jane Doe are going to make of it all.
FWIW, my Blue Shield policy goes up 11% this year, and becomes a felony next year, as near as I can tell. Wotever.
My wife works for Block. She says the folks coming in are pretty clueless of what was wrought by re-electing these imbeciles. They don’t understand why their taxes are going up and the goodies aren’t as big as last year.
It really seems that the economy is going to take an immense hit this fall, of course that’s what everyone has been saying for over two years now… Whose surprised? 2014 election will either be a dark day for many politician or a bigger vote harvesting election then 2012 was.
A little creative destruction in action. Drive the insurance companies out of business and force everybody into single payer which will hasten the financial demise of the USA
4 @ trangbang68
That is exactly right. These state exchanges were designed to fail from the beginning as the ‘greedy’ insurance companies triple everyone’s premium on what people were told was ‘free’ health care. The cry will go up for the government ‘to do something’ and nationalization will be complete.
It is all proceeding according to plan. The people who wrote the bill were not idiots, and they know where they wanted to go.
We are so screwed. I mourn for my children.
It’s taboo…
But the Marxist result of 0bama is runaway taxation on the (European American) haves and runaway spending on the NAM needies.
=========
The medical powers that be suppress the statistics — but many, many maladies and diseases are highly correlated to ethnicity.
Ashkenazi Jews are almost solely afflicted by Tay-Sachs syndrome. It’s associated with high IQ development within the brain.
Americans of African ancestry are strongly over afflicted with the diseases of early aging. One could make the case that r/K selection trade offs — in Africa — because is life particularly short and brutal — forces early puberty — and early aging, too.
Procrusteans would naturally re-stretch these statistics: and cut short the lives of Americans of European ancestry — and the terrible waste of medical care upon them — in favor of extending the foreshortened lives of the reproductively prolific. r beats K.
==========
The decision will be taken out of private hands. For, after the 0bamataxes, who could have any revenue left to spend on one’s own health?
Likewise, private charities must enter the big sleep. For, after the 0bamataxes, who could have any revenue left to give in one’s own name?
Neo-feudalism must make all but government lives those without purpose.
The apparats will decide all, for all — what’s best.
This is where the American experiment is tapering towards.
And note, insurance is regulated by each state and territory in its own way, with actuarial science (Hard core math for the lofo’s) not open to much interpretation. The only way to change the cost of insurance is to change the level of coverage. Controlling the cost of service is impossible.
As alluded to in W’s last post, certain functions will stay in place even after the statist excrement hits the rotating blades of the ventilation system.
So, can there be a Black Market in medicine? Hey doc, I will write you a check for you to take care of my problem… so 1930′s. Maybe devolution isn’t such a bad thing.
My Aetna policy premium jumped 20 percent, to take effect on March 1. I was notified of the increase last week. Anyone else experience this?
Rates tripling? Well, whaddya know. The very same thing happened to auto insurance rates here in California 28 years ago when that was made mandatory – after being sold to gullible voters that the new law would lower rates for everyone – sound familiar?
The law sure as hell hasn’t prevented me from being crashed into by uninsured drivers – twice in the last 12 years.
How can people cut expenses and survive in the “New Normal?”
1. Replace newspapers with 48 pt sign taped to empty fridge that reads “Oopsie.”
2. Replace vacation with photos on same fridge of Moochelle living it up.
3. Replace expensive car with Green and Eastern chic bicycle.
4. Replace expensive commute with also Green concept, unemployment.
This is such fun. It could become a parlor game.
As the economy implodes millions of Obama voters will be thrown out of work. This will not make life better for you. Now we have been saying that the cost of energy will decline and that should lift all boats, or even make America relatively more prosperous than Russia or China. If Romney had been inaugurated yesterday I would believe that. It makes sense to expect that the Democrats will frustrate the growth of the new energy sector or siphon off the benefits for their favored few. My working rule on what to expect in US policy is to see what would be in the interest of others in the following order; Beijing and then Moscow and then the Muslim Brotherhood, and finally Brussels. The US is not even on the list and large special interest blocks that were cultivated before, such as the UAW, are now disposable.
I’m late to the party. When the news got out many businesses were cutting hours back to avoid Obamacare, a number of people in my social networks started P&Ming about how petty these businesses were being for their guy losing. I tried but of course, their could not be any other explanation, after all its just a few lousy cents per dollar. I noted this was like a guy who overloads his donkey and when the donkey collapses commences to kick it.
As many here are speculating it was all a part of the plan. Obamacare would make it too expensive to be able for private companies to deal with healthcare and when they acted in a rational manner people of course would not be blaming Obamacare but the insurance companies and employers. It always works too. Its like the old Green Bay Packer’s sweep, you knew it was coming but it did not make any difference cause it would roll right over you anyway.
Healthcare reform: Higher costs, less freedom, worse healthcare. How is this an improvement? (Oh, it make left/libersl feel good.)
When will they toss everyone in the VA into Obamacare, or is it already in the bill?
Three years from now some federal agents may walk into your home or business and take your computer while mumbling “It was in the bill” but in fairness three years from now you might try walking into a federal office and grabbing a computer while mumbling “It was in the bill.” The great unread tome and its’ Easter Eggs as an excuse for anything dubious in law may become as legendary as Mad Baggins’ gold.
Evelyn Waugh had Basil Seal run circles around Security by claiming that he was from “MI9″ and that they never had to show ID or badges because of Security. What would happen if people claimed to be from the “Office of Health Care Compliance” whenever dealing with the bureaucrats?
It is important to speak out now if you are against these measures. Don’t hold back, please…
From the Leftard point of view, not only will these new rates likely be the demise of Health Insurance Companies as we know them; these new rates have the added bonus of pushing more and more once middle class into serfdom and government dependency.
It’s all about creating the dependent zombie underclass, upon which our hallowed nomeclatura will build the new Soviet Collective of Amerika.
The rise in insurance premieums, though important, is not the most significant part of Obamacare. That would be the part of Obamacare that creates a panel of unelected bureaucrats that will “economize and save costs” on healthcare by deciding for you IF you will receive health care and WHAT KIND of care you will receive. Over 70 and unemployed? You won’t need those cancer drugs, or that hip replacement surgery. To save costs, Obamacare will do what government run health care always does: ration care and eventually deny care.
If anyone doubts this I have a simple question for them: If Obamacare is such a good idea why did Obama himself and the Democrates in the Senate and House exempt themselves from it?
As for Wretchards question of what difference it makes now, well, that depends on whom you ask. For those of us who saw this coming and tried to stop it, not much. For the Obama Lotus eaters awaiting their free care – you were warned, you fools. And, if you want an example of what its like for the government to take care of you, go visit an Indian reservation.
Re: #7 – A black market in medicine? Yes, we will see that and how.
I would imagine it will take several forms: medical tourism to other courntries for those that can afford it. I would expect Mexico, Costa Rico, and other countries to profit handsomely. Perhaps even the Phillipines, Wretchard?
The other form would more traditional, with doctors operating on a cash and carry basis. No checks please, but in a few years gold for care might be quite common.
And, I would expect for some of us, do it yourself care will be common. Herbal remedies (garlic anyone?) will make a comeback, along with hot toddies and other traditional care. Might be a good time to invest in chicken soup stocks. Wine and spirits (the alcoholic kind) too. Nanny government might deny you pain pills, but not that.
And that is the end of the good news about this.
If Health Insurance Premiums increase by a great deal, I’m guessing that the market for quack medicine will expand mightily. Luckily I have just written a book promoting my sardines and bacon diet. The book title is “Fish Can Open Your Way to Health by Pigging Out”.
Well you get the idea. Sham Wow type ads on steroids for every enterprising quack. The Mayans may have struck out with their end of the world campaign but they could easily make a comeback with Mayan Medical Pyramids made from baked beach tar, that cure arthritis when duct taped to the end of your nose. Or something.
Hair-on-fire medicine may be about to flare up.
Obamacare is going to become very unpopular very quickly but folks might not blame Obama. He is very deft at setting up demons – Bush, the Tea party, the rich, add greedy doctors and insurance companies and the low info 47%er will likely buy into it especially with the media echo chamber. It will be interesting to see.
From what I see among my liberal friends nothing but utter ruin will shake their faith. They are invested for many reasons most of which make little sense even to them. They feel their politics they don’t reason it and for many the “high moral purpose” of liberal policies separates their otherwise drab and ordinary lives from their drab and ordinary neighbors.
OLD BLUE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwccBJxRchA
Had an old dog, and his name was Blue
When I got sick he knew what to do
Paid my bills and the doctor too
Old Blue
Obama come, and he come on a run
Said Old Blue, your days are done
Old Blue
Old Blue died, and he died mighty hard
None could afford his old plastic card
Blue, Blue, Old Blue
When I get to heaven I know what I’ll do
I’ll get on the horn and I’ll call Old Blue
Blue, Blue, Old Blue
ok. I came up with my pollyanna take.
This means I can retire to Mexico and not feel bad because I’m living someplace with less than stellar, let us admit, healthcare.
yay obamacare. Just think its only January. Wonder what else is in store for us.
Not only have the medical insurance premiums gone way up – but so have prescription costs, doctor bills, and hospital bills.
At the same time, there are no longer any full time jobs with benefits.
The only people who will have health care and enough income to live on will be government employees, Obama’s neofascist crony-capitalist corruptocrats, people on welfare, and prisoners.
Or people who have left the US and don’t plan to come back.
We will outlast the squalor of the politicians, the mendacity of their claques, the corroding cynicism of their henchmen. By some other name perhaps, in some other form if necessary we will survive nonetheless. And if not in person, then in some word or by some memory shall we endure.
For so it is decreed in a manner we can scarce understand, that the flower is as invincible as the beast. As it was in the beginning and ever shall be, you buy the ticket and you take the ride. Now where was that beer?
Blast from the Past you made a mistake with this one:
3. Replace expensive car with Green and Eastern chic bicycle.
There is a segment of the environmental movement, I don’t know how large, but I have met several of them that does not consider a bicycle to be environmentally friendly. In fact they hate them almost as much as automobiles.
Here are their reasons (I am not joking)
1. The rider needs a shower wasting water If you take a buss or the train you don’t
2. A bicycle needs about as much space on the road as a small car. (This is actually true) so the amount of roads needed would not change
3. Many high end bicycles made from carbon fiber are essentially non-recyclable (This is also true)
4. Bicycles require parking and security which could be better used for other things
5. Off road bicycle can cause localized damage to the environment from erosion caused by trails and frighten wildlife. (This is also somewhat true)
Of course I think the real reason is that a bicycle is a personal mode of transportation. In that regard it is like a car only slower. You can and people do ride them 1000′s of miles. It does not require you to be present at a certain time to ride. You have the freedom to come and go as you please. To the Statist that is anathema. They want to control your life. You should not have the freedom of movement to pick up and move. The Statist wants to reduce you to walking so they can effectively control your movements
Once the statist get rid of automobiles they will start on bicycles. Indeed they already have begun whispering that they are really not that environmentally sensitive
When President Bill Clinton assigned his wife the task of reforming the entire health care system in 1993, many recalled the spectacle in Chicago. “That was the first signal a lot of us had that this was really a third rail,” Jaffe said. “It’s an extremely dangerous issue, and if you didn’t handle it extremely carefully, you get burned by it.” As the Clintons soon learned.
Hey! The CTA (nee Chicago Transit Authority) switch department applies third rail heaters http://preview.tinyurl.com/ayfajkw to the third rail without ever turning the power OFF!
That’s the problem today. We’re under the thumb of WUSSY LAWYERS!
http://preview.tinyurl.com/a2wcqn2
Thu Feb 3 07:02:07 2011, in response to 3rd Worst Storm Versus CTA “L”, posted by ChicagoPCCLCars on Wed Feb 2 11:33:36 2011.
Despite the exposed third rail, there were no “July fireworks” of arcing, thanks probably to anti icing spray and third rail heaters.
HILLARY IS A WUSS!
The foreman of the Wild Well Control team using my “Venturi Tube” said, “You’ve got to be careful or it will suck your heart out!
Boo Hoo, Hillary’s got a boo boo and all Bill would tell her was, “You should put a Band-Aid on that”.
He is such a cad, that I don’t know why she stays married to him, except that she is a power craving B****!
CORRECTIONS TO ITEM 25
WARNING – CTA SIGNAL CREWS ARE TRAINED PROFESSIONALS. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS YOURSELF!!!!
Bill Clinton actually said, “You better put some ICE on that”. http://www.wnd.com/1999/02/3599/
We regret the errors.
The CA medical rate hikes are already here, and I’m living proof of it.
My California medical insurance increased from $900 monthly for my wife and I in 2012, to $1600 for 2013. Another rate hike like that and we’ll be self-insured. My “Cobra” policy ends this summer, by which time I intend to be OUT of California; we’ll see.
@9. Spiny Norman
I read a statistic that something like 50% of California drivers are uninsured. Which of course, approaches the number of hispanics in the California population, but I doubt seriously that there’s any correlation (/end sarcasm). My family has ALL been hit by an uninsured, hispanic driver. That’s except my daughter’s, whose “hit and run” driver WAS insured, plus the accident was witnessed by her employer’s managers. The police did nothing, but when she filed the claim with the insurance company, the insurance company discovered that the driver was actually covered by their company. So, my daughter lucked out, and wasn’t charged the deductible.
JWarrior @5 and trangbang68 @4 … You are exactly right. Single payer is the goal and always has been. The pain is intentional, and is designed to panic voters towards their protector. This whole thing is icky.
What difference does it make?
It is not as if all these results haven’t been predicted. Yet the bill still passed, challenge to the Supreme Court betrayed by single ‘sway’ vote from the chief justice, and now it is here.
For a more callous response,
“What difference does it make” if you are diagnosed with kidney cancer, in fact it is your liver that gives you trouble?
A piece on FNC the other day explained that the cost of a typical family-of-4 health plan this year was going from $1500 to $2500. A major reason was the “kids eat free until 25″ business, and that makes perfect sense. You do more, it costs more.
Back in the 70′s I recall a USAF enlisted guy complaining that after his kid had left home his car insurance company kept charging him for the kid on his policy if he lived closer than 100 miles or so. The theory was that if the kid lived that close he would be driving Dad’s car. This is the same principle, except that due to it being law, it does not matter if the kid moves to Mars.
And parts of Tricare, the military health care system, is being eliminated under Obamacare. Justification for the change was – and I am not kidding – “people were using it too much.”
Meanwhile, the much-vaunted Obama “digitalization of medical records” has been shown not to save a dime. Even the NYC says so now.
Remember, socialism is about Militant Mediocrity. Ultimately, everyone getting equally poor heatlh care is the goal.
Unfortunately the laws of thermodynamics are not just strict but inevitable.
I’ve always felt that the real purpose of Obamacare was to unionize by fiat every person who provides even the least of services to a recipient of federal funds under the act.
That would provide the SEIU, or whichever union wins the prize, with a cash flow of tens of billions to determine the outcome of any election and to steer the social agenda as far Left, and as close to democratic tyranny, as an unlimited supply of guns, money and lawyers will allow.
Well there is still hope for nullification. I have always believed the only solution to this stampede toward Socialism/statism is states reasserting their sovereignty. I may soon become a Texan once and for all times.
I’m getting me one of those Thomas More hats…subtle and in-your-face at the same time.
http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2013/01/23/a-scalia-for-all-seasons/
The increase in premiums would be predictable if folks recalled the effects of California’s gas-tax increases.
Whenever the legislature debates adding taxes onto regular fuel costs, fuel suppliers assume these public servants reflect the popular will of the public (many of which they assume are fuel-consumers), and so they raise their rates in response.
Their action is entirely rational: if users of unleaded fuel in Marin and San Francisco counties elect people who actively argue that drivers should pay more for gas, then it’s logical to assume that these consumers think they are underpaying for auto fuels.
And if you own a gas-station in Stinson Beach, that is an easy problem to fix!
Same goes for healthcare. By reelecting Obama, the American people have signaled that they not only think they are underpaying for health-care, but that they want more of it to boot. It is no secret that his plan expands health-distribution networks to newly-mandated markets, while “handling” preexisting conditions – so mid-high information voters knew costs would have to go up before the election. And yet we re-elected the increases’ architect.
Kaiser, BCBS, and anyone else paying attention to political signals is raising premiums to match our expressed want. They only have a narrow window in which to do this (because the longer-term effects of the bill will be to equalize premiums across the industry), but for now, premiums inflation is an entirely predictable and rational response to the turbulent health-care market.
But it’s a tad worrying, too. Each of these appositional adjustments begin to concretize Obama’s landmark legislative achievement into legacy. Even while they prove again the insidious, distortive effects of government legislation on private markets.
If one wants to tame government, without a violent overthrow, indirection and soft words may go further than a straightforward attack. May I suggest that rather than grumbling, or suggesting sweeping reforms, start a movement to put legislators firmly in charge with 3 small changes that should help on the federal, state, county and municipal level.
First, no bill or law should be longer than 20 pages, so the law makes can give it thorough consideration and can weigh the consequences.
If this should make it harder to hide pork barrel legislation, it is only a consequence (I wouldn’t mention it).
Second, no regulatory agency may make rules or laws to govern or apply to anyone but their employees. All laws must be duly passed thru lawmakers.
Third, all governing bodies must spend one month a year reviewing old legislation and weeding out outdated or superseded laws.
21. john
This means I can retire to Mexico and not feel bad because I’m living someplace with less than stellar, let us admit, healthcare.
Actually, Mexican health care can be quite good for most basic purposes and then some. You can even get house calls. It depends on locations and income factors, but you don’t have to be affluent to afford the better doctors there.
What are Medicare recipients who opt to also have supplementary insurance going to do? For probably a majority of retired seniors the supplementary insurance is their biggest expense after housing. If Obamacare is going to cause their premiums to skyrocket, most will have to drop that option.
Slightly OT but very refreshing. The MSM have fomented and supported much that is ridiculous. But not in Ireland where this Irish News Reporter relays nothing but the facts. H/T Small Dead Animals.
7. michael hoskins
“…(Hard core math for the lofo’s)…”
“lofo’s”, very good abreviation.
The American people will not buy insurance for any reason if they cannot due to the expanding cost and shrinking returns as well as no jobs or jobs that work only 28 hours a day.
Mandatory car insurance when made law meant the very poorest car owners just did without and ran the risks.
Said to lower the cost of auto insurance the law actually made auto insurance more costly and mandatory.
But it did not make folks buy insurance when they could not afford it.
The people don’t know, don’t care and despise the politics that gets them where they are going.
Then when they arrive wonder how in the hell this happened.
Much like alcohol prohibition when millions of American’s woke up and realized some dipshits had made their beer illegal.
These uncaring non political folks will wake up and realize they are spending more money on insurance than they are on beer and then the screaming will begin.
Speaking of medical tourism, I hear that Germany actively seeks medical tourists.
I was an expat there and had some extensive medical care for a small fraction of what it would have cost in the USA. All out of pocket of course, but it was good care and was easy enough to afford. I didn’t use (or even know of) the office of medical tourism but arranging for care is easy especially if you speak German or have someone who can translate.
See https://aaps.wufoo.com/reports/m5p6z0/ for a list of cash-friendly doctors, and http://tinyurl.com/ajbgwpq for an eye-opening explanation of medical costs.
Iam a retiree from UPS (2006) just got a letter from my health care provider that my deductable a year is going up from $600.00 a year to $6,000.00 a year !!!! yes its true the great health care coverage we once had is a thing of the past. Hello Obamacare.
When Kaiser was forced to open up coverage on parents’ membership to “adult children” I put my son (21) on. It costs me several hunded a month, but it is cheaper than his purchasing it on his own. Even with coverage avaliable from his job, it is currently cheaper to keep him with me.
The young are not the largest consumers of health resources. Right now I bet the insurance companies are making good money on them. If 0bumblecare were repealed I wonder how many insurance companies would continue to offer piggyback coverage?
AD