CNS News reported today that the Internal Revenue Service expects every American family to pay a minimum of $20,000 per year for health insurance by 2016.
That figure represents almost half the US median income in 2011, of $50,054. And median income is trending downward, as the laughably dishonestly named Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare pushes prices up to $20,000 per year.
It’s not difficult to envision how this will play out. The upward pressure of insurance costs — some families can expect 85% increases — and the downward pressure of income will drive many Americans out of insurance altogether. Whey they need care, they can face a fine as high as $2,400. So many will opt out of insurance, knowing that they cannot be denied coverage for any pre-existing conditions under ObamaCare. They’ll pay the fine and get insurance if they have to, otherwise they will end up having their health care picked up by the government.
Before long, government will be the only payer, as private insurance companies go bankrupt.
It’s all part of the plan.
“Before long, government will be the only payer, as private insurance companies go bankrupt.
It’s all part of the plan.”
It was THE plan.
I have been researching the statements made in this article and am not finding a single legitimate site that can verify the article. This is an article not necessary based on fact, but on opinion. That being said – it would not break my heart to see private insurance take a hit – they may have to cut back on the billions of bonuses every year to a select group of people.
PART of the plan? Or the ENTIRE plan?
I’m leaning towards the second.
How many insurance companies pushed for Obamacare? Just desserts?
Pat – that is what amazes me – how were these guys so stupid as to not see what was coming down the pike? I mean, were these insurance companies, hospitals, and Big Pharma simply suicidal?
Unfortunately, we now can all live with the results in the next 10-15 years: weeks to months long waits to see physicians; hospital wards for all, private care gone; assisted suicide as a “normal” option for the aged.
But hey, look on the bright side – we all get to sigh at Obama’s smiling visage when it gets carved on Mt. Rushmore after the Dems pass a bill and George Soros puts up the construction funds!
It’s only a disaster if you want your company to compete in the marketplace. If you want to be one of the few chosen to “administer” the government plan, you need to lick the correct boots.
A company’s ability to provide goods or services that the market wants at a competitive price is becoming a thing of the past. We have become a nation where your proximity to the central planners is all that matters. Finance, energy, manufacturing, retail, transportation, consumer goods…the predominant consideration is “where do we stand with the government?”.
Business risk is no longer the challenge, it is “regulator risk”– being caught on the outside when the law is written, and the goodies are distributed.
The business of medical care in the US was profoundly distorted through government intervention long before Obamacare. In no other field are you told the costs after the service; in no other field do American consumers pay substantially higher prices for American goods than foreign consumers do; in no other field can an illegal alien demand a service BY LAW, then leave the country and renege on the bill (EMTALA).
In 1963, an uncomplicated birth with 4 days of hospital stay was less than a grand — http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3012292 — by 2013, such a thing is unimaginable….because nobody writes checks for healthcare anymore, so it’ll either cost nothing, $6K, or millions….and efficiency won’t be recognized or rewarded.
Good to see someone on this site talking sense and facts. Thank you.
“Before long, government will be the only payer, as private insurance companies go bankrupt.
It’s all part of the plan.”
Destroying the health insurance industry was the plan all along, just as the Obamee “green jobs” policy exists to destroy the energy industry.
I guarantee you that whoever is President in 2016 will have won by primarily running on a full repeal of Obameecare.
I also guarantee you that by January 2017, the damage to our health care system will simply be too great to fix. We’re on our way to Canadian-style single payer, only run with American federal government inefficiency.
Forget 10-15 years. Insurance companies will be gone in 5.
The Canadian single payer “works” because their gravely ill patients could get their treatments down south. In a couple of years the poor Canucks have to go all the ways to Cuba for Michael More’s “best” healthcare in the world.
More likey to the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Jamaica, etc. when those “border servers” relocate their practices to more friendly climes.
The insurance companies won’t go bankrupt–they’ll just quit selling health insurance. So — since no one will sell such policies the government will have to provide.
But the result is the same–single payer.
This is an absolutely frightening number. When I used to work full time, year round as a nurse assistant I made about $18,000 per year. Even after earning a bachelor’s degree one of the positions I worked payed $12 per hour and the position required a BS degree, so my salary was not much above $20K then either. Most people, even those working full time, do not have the means to pay these costs. Even if they do, it is not worth it. If on average, factoring in a base risk for a catastrophic event, a family’s medical expenses do not justify such a cost, it would make better financial sense to put that money into a health savings account and pay out of pocket. I don’t understand, the “government” cared so much about all of those poor people who were going bankrupt and losing their homes because they couldn’t afford to pay for a $100,000 procedure, but it’s all cool that every family will have to pay that much every five years now and most likely not be able to afford ANYTHING else. I live in a house that cost less than $100,000 and the 30 year mortgage is manageable but still it frightens me. How the hell are ordinary American’s going to come up with that kind of money? Then to top it off, the cruel overlords in Panem will penalize you with a tax if you can’t afford their chock full of mandated bullshit healthplans. Those freaks in Panem are so out of touch with the value of a dollar in the rest of America that it makes my head spin.
What they conveniently forget to mention is that this for the people who need to buy such a policy, because they’re not covered through their employer, or Medicaid, or Medicare, then the $20,000 cost for insuring a family of 5, is offset by premium subsidies:
A family with income up to $35,923 – pays no more than $718 in annual premiums.
A family with income up to $40,515 pays no more than $1,621 in annual premiums.
A family with income up to $54,020 pays no more than $3,403 in annual premiums.
A family with income up to $67,525 pays no more than $5,436 in annual premiums.
A family with income up to $81,030 pays no more than $7,698 in annual premiums.
A family with income up to $108,040 pays no more than $10,264 in annual premiums.
And of course, if you have insurance from your employer, you don’t have to worry.
Um yes, actually you do still need to worry. If the cost for health insurance continues to rise then the money your employer would have paid you as a raise will go towards higher premiums instead. If you are starting out in the workforce there will be less positions open with lower pay.
Just because you didn’t see the tree fall over in the forest does not mean it didn’t happen. Just because most people don’t pay attention to how much of their health insurance premiums their employer pays does not mean it does not effect them. That extra money spent on mandated coverage of aromatherapy could have instead been a raise for the employee.
With that hypothetical raise, the employee could pay out of pocket for aromatherapy at half the cost without the bureaucratic middlemen.
You are sleepwalking, my friend.
Employers will STOP PROVIDING COVERAGE. Friends of mine at large companies are already getting letters that their employers will no longer offer health insurance as of January 1, 2014. The companies will pay the fine instead. It will be happening all over in the months to come.
And, if you don’t want to pay the personal tax for the privilege of *not* being insured (at $600 per head…so a family of four would see their tax bill increase $2400), into the goverment plan you go.
Charlie, not to put too fine a point on it, but you are an idiot. Someone is going to pay the $20,000. Workers, by reduced pay and benefits, taxpayers, consumers, businesses which won’t re-invest or maybe even be created.
No free lunches, Charlie, not even from the Won and his Demo-crats.
Obamacare was intended to create a two-tiered health care system.
The liberal rich, government workers and other connected entities will have the money to afford the top of the line Obamacare policies.
Everyone else will be reduced to paying the penalty for not having a policy and will get crappy public health services like they have in England and other places with socialized medicine complete with long waits lists, worse outcomes and death panels.
Yeah, just like in England. Our socio-commies can’t even invent their own chains; they have to copy something from their comrades in Europe.
Time for the GOP to get ahead of this. Medicare for everyone! Allow supplemental insurance, high deductibles and private medicine but make sure everyone has skin in the game. That was the original plan when LBJ foisted Medicare and Medicaid on us. Much better than what we have now. Unlimited government care for old people, poor people and government workers. The rest of us saps paying for these plans plus our own. Time to clear the table.
Is there anybody blind enough or dumb enough not to have seen this coming?
If there is anybody that dumb they should be sterilized.
You might want to include video of Obama advisor, Jacob Hacker admitting that his plan (the blueprint for Obamacare) is a “trojan horse” for socialized medicine, meant to undermine the private healthcare industry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sTfZJBYo1I
It’s a feature, not a bug.
Newsflash people, healthcare is expensive! Here are some figures for 2012:
“The average annual premiums in 2012 are $5,615 for single coverage and $15,745 for family coverage. Average premiums increased 3% for single coverage and 4% for family coverage in the last year. Consistent with recent years, average family premiums for small firms (3-199 workers) ($15,253) are significantly lower than average family premiums for larger firms (200 or more workers) ($15,980).”
The author of this article is either directly misleading you or has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.