The so-called “young invincibles” — those between the ages of 18 and 29 who don’t have health insurance — may find themselves priced out of the market once Obamacare kicks in.
Others may see rate increases from 50-100% as Obamacare demands more comprehensive and expensive coverages than current plans do.
Insurers point to several reasons that premiums will rise. They will soon be required to offer more-comprehensive coverage than many currently provide. Also, their costs will increase because they will be barred from rejecting the sick, and they will no longer be allowed to charge older customers sharply higher premiums than younger ones.
Supporters of the law counter that concerns about price hikes are overstated, partly because federal subsidies will cushion the blow.
The insurers’ public relations blitz is being propelled by a growing cast of executives, lobbyists, conservative activists and state health officials. They increasingly use the same catchphrase — “rate shock” — to warn about the potential for price surges.
Aetna chief executive Mark T. Bertolini invoked the term at his company’s recent annual investor conference, cautioning that premiums for plans sold to individuals could rise as much as 50 percent on average and could more than double for particular groups such as the young and healthy.
The danger of rate shock has also become the favored weapon of conservative opponents of the law, repeated in a drumbeat of op-eds and policy papers in recent weeks.
The argument is a powerful one because the success of the law, which was the signature domestic accomplishment of Obama’s first term, depends on enough people signing up for insurance, particularly healthy people. The issue is surfacing as the most recent significant challenge in implementing the health-care overhaul.
Supporters of the law complain that the warnings amount to a smear attack by special interests and political partisans, akin to earlier claims that the law would allow bureaucrats to deny life-saving care to save money.
Still unknown and perhaps unknowable until it happens: how many companies will drop their employee insurance plans, preferring to pay a fine rather than cover their workers?
Glenn Reynolds shares an email with a high-powered ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) lawyer who is advising big companies about the consequences of Obamacare:
I am deeply into studying the impact of Obamacare on employers, and I have been communicating with highly sophisticated ERISA lawyers who are advising employers, from Fortune 50 companies to small firms under 50 employees, on whether to keep or drop or modify their employer group health plans.
It has become very clear to everyone involved who is analytical and not ideological that the rational strategy, for both large and small firms, is to cease providing health care insurance to employees.
No company wants to admit that they are considering eliminating health insurance as an option, or be the first one to drop their health insurance plan, but once a competitor does so, the preference cascade will begin. The clear sentiment is “We will not be the first one to drop our health insurance plan, but we would be a close second.”
The coming preference cascade for employer group health plans is what the Democrats fear the most, because Obamacare was sold to the masses as “if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it.”
The people who really know the law, and who have been following the avalanche of regulations, have already figured this out. It will take a while for this specialized knowledge to seep downward, because right now only $800+ an hour ERISA attorneys and the most sophisticated HR people understand how Obamacare really works.
Not a bug, a feature.
“Perhaps I am naive in thinking that people will take out their frustrations over Obamacare on the Democrats.”
naive is a kind way to put it. Your article actually explains what will happen. The Health Insurers will be blamed (and the obstructionist Republicans) and the only possible solution will be for Uncle Sugar to take over health care entirely. That has been the plan all along anyway. It may be obvious to you what is happening, but after the 24×7, months long rage against the machine campaign by Pravda and Obama, the “country” will demand immediate action. The worse it becomes, the faster it will happen.
“the GOP won’t act like a boiling frog and sit there waiting to be blamed. They will hit back with the most effective political weapon at their disposal: “I told ya so.”
right. And I’m the rightful heir to the British throne.
If the Republicans cared, they would be explaining this repetitively to the American public. Even with Pravda, they have plenty of avenues to get the message out. But watch, they won’t. And the reason won’t be stupidity, the reason will be that they are just fine with it. Not a single republican princeling will be deposed. THAT is what they care about.
Even Pravda has been warning us about Democratic policies and how they don’t work, but Republican want to be spineless and “reache across the aisle” to Democrats who’ll just abuse them for their cooperation. What the heck?
Scotland referendum.
I like it!
I am self-insured. I purchased health & dental coverage in August 2009 for $226/month. The price was locked in for 12 months. After that period, it started going up every few months. Last week, I received noticed that the cost would be $339/month. I am a 38 year old male who only goes to the doctor once a year. I don’t know how much more Obamacare I can handle before I am priced out of paying for insurance myself.
And when we get priced out of the market, we get to pay a tax/penalty/contribution/fee for having no insurance at all.
Thanks Barack!
Da, comrade, you are learning! Is good to soak the Capitalists, no?
I have collected a good deal of data on Obamacare. It is very poorly thought out and is designed with large “out of pocket” deductibles before it pays anything. The lowest cost plan, the sort that low income people are likely to select because of cost, has an “out of pocket” deductible of $4,000 before it pays anything. Then it pays 60% of the remaining amount, leaving the other 40% up to the individual to pay. So on a $10,000 hospital bill (a rather small bill actually) it will pay $3,600, leaving the other $6,400 for the individual to pay. Which for someone making a couple of dollars an hour over minimum wage, it effectively is of little value as “coverage” for ordinary doctor visits, lab tests, generic drugs. In effect it is “insurance that you can’t afford to use”… Yes, there are better plans, ones that pay more, but they also cost more. And also at least require middle class incomes to pay the premiums.
A far better solution is true free market health care of the sort that existed before the government got involved in health care. Eliminate prescription laws for non-narcotic, non-habit forming drugs. This allows people the freedom to take care of chronic issues such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, simple infections treatable with common antibiotics, non-insulin dependent diabetes. Different tiers of health care providers to meet simplier needs. Completely different from “government run” health care. There is a great deal of “waste” in our health care system, especially as most patients do not realize that there are a lot of conditions that doctors “treat” because they can make money doing so. This is rather similiar to taking your car to the dealership and asking them to find everything that is “wrong”, then asking them to fix it. This is “why” American health care is 50% more expensive than health care anywhere else on Earth. There is simply just a lot of unnecessary treatment, tests, various sorts of unnecessary stuff that is done just to put money in someone’s pocket. Putting patients, instead of doctors in charge of health care is the solution to keeping healthcare “affordable”. The exact opposite of what Obama has done!
From my limited research, I think it would be cheaper for me, should I lose my health insurance, to pay the penalty and pay for health costs, even major surgery, out of pocket. I’ve paid for surgery before, it’s a life changer, but doable.
Good luck with THAT, unless you’re very wealthy already.
Hospital costs and doctor bills have skyrocketed recently.
No kidding. The Collaborationist Media have their audience so well in hand that the major political story for two days was A DRINK OF WATER.
Like every other government program, Obama Care is just another government scheme to steal money from the taxpayer. Like Social Security or Medicare the taxpayer is forced to contribute a dollar and gets a few cents in return. The end result is bloated government in which the participants enrich themselves in the process while also creating dependents and and a voting block of parasites.
As it stands the government is seeking to increase its power over the people by taking more and more of their wealth and independence away.
Just think about it, we send people to Washington and most of them fall into group think and forget the people they represent. Washington turns a lot of elected officials into liars, it is as if they have no immunity against the disease of political corruption. It is a great deception, demonic really. The sad truth is that unless there is a fiery purge in Washington the disease will continue to spread.
Key phrase:
“unless there is a fiery purge in Washington, the disease will continue to spread.”
fiery purge.
Let’s start with Holder and pick ‘um off one by one.
Double, double
Toil and trouble
Round about the cauldron go
In the poisoned entrails throw
Fillet of Kevorkian snake
In the cauldron boil and bake
Eye of bribed congressman and toe of Ezekiel frog
Wool of kos ding bat and tongue of rabid dog
Senator’s pork and blind-bureaucrat sting
Chris Matthews tingling leg and White House eugenics wing
Maw of ravening tax shark
Root of Pelosi hemlock digged in the dark
My rates have already almost doubled for my daughter and me:
End of 2009: $460
As of 03/01/2013: $883
And I have a $3500 deductible to boot.
“Supporters of the law counter that concerns about price hikes are overstated, partly because federal subsidies will cushion the blow.”
And just where do these supporters think the money for the subsidies will come from?
The same thinking from state governments is why they agreed to sign onto the Medicaid expansions. But again, where will the money come from? Some mysterious other group of taxpayers
Golly, will just jack up the tax rates on other taxpayers to help people who can’t afford the insurance rate hikes… redistribution of wealth; you got money, you’ll be payin’ out the nose now!
When Obama started talking about “help” in the sense of the government helping people to pay for health care, I knew right then this President would be a disaster. Obama took a ten trillion dollar deficit and made it a sixteen trillion dollar deficit. No one asked “where does the money come from” to provide this “help” that Obama has promised. Now we know. $716 billion from Medicare. Higher taxes. Increased deficits. The reduction in disposable income for the American people (we’re seeing a taste of this already) means people only buy what they have to absolutely buy. That means the coffee shops, the sit down resturants, all sorts of small businesses are going to be going “belly up” from lack of customers. At least a million jobs will disappear never to return. “Official unemployment” will zoom up to 10%. Real unemployment will be 20%.
Depression era statistics. Quite a few doctors will take early retirements.
The waiting times to see those who remain in practice will be measured in weeks, if not months. If you need immediate care, you’ll probably drive to the local emergency room. Join the rest of the crowd waiting for service. Our health care will be seen by most people as worse than that of any other developed country…
Sorry, but the GOP had its chance in 2012, as the ramifications of Obamacare were becoming more and more visible. They chose to keep that arrow in their quiver. There was ample opportunity to warn the people (and John Roberts) of what the consequences of implementing ACA would be. They chose silence.
Now, who cares? What difference does it make who wins in 2014? Democrats or Republicans – two sides of the same coin. The only difference is one of degree. Do you want to see your freedoms eroded slowly or taken away all at once? That’s about the only choice there is between them.
As for the young invincibles who voted for Obama – they made their bed. Let them lie in it. If they’re priced out of the market, they’ll have to sign up at one of the exchanges, provided their states have set one up. Too bad.
Maybe Ann Coulter was wrong when she insisted Romney was the best choice when her bff Christie wouldn’t run.
Luckily for us all, Christie is available in 2014.
What could go wrong?
Cristie is just Charlie Crist only fatter– with luck, he’ll change parties and leave us alone.
2014 is the second year of Chrisie’s second gubernatorial term. He’s running this November for reelection. He won’t run for anything in 2014.
For 2014, the fine is $95. It does increase over time, but according to the way the law is written, the IRS can only collect the fine from your refund if you don’t pay it with your 1040. If the Republicans take the Senate in 2014, which I believe is quite possible, while they probably won’t be able to override Obama’s veto over repeal of the Patient Protection, Affordable Care Act, they can prevent the rules from being changed. The smart people will make sure that they end up owing something to the IRS, and as the rules exist now, the IRS can’t collect the fine except through withholding refunds. Then as employers will be subject to a $2,000 fine per employee, there will be enough pressure on Congress that Obamacare will eventually be repealed by a Republican President in January of 2017.
and let’s not forget how much everybody will save on stamps and checks when the kenyan’s government takes $$ directly from your bank accounts.
i can see how that would be constitutional. direct undeposit.
hundreds of overpaid lawyers writing health care laws w/o one doctor or other medical expert in the room. soon more equally trained gov. medical experts will be making the really big decisions about who gets what, when. isn’t this exciting waiting to see what’s in those thousands of pages all those putrid lawyers foisted on us?
when all this goes south please remember the ones who got us here. we don’t want, and our children and g’children don’t need, no temporary fixes. squeeeeze, don’t jerk.
It’s far worse than most folks realize.
If you can find one of the states with an exchange being developed, it’s likely to have a website and a “cost estimator” page. Certainly the CoverOregon.com site has one of these. You put in your family income, family size, and age, and out will pop the total monthly premium and the subsidy. If, of course you put in an income that’s above the 400% of poverty level, it won’t give an answer, but just look at the lower income levels and you’ll see the full estimated premium that you’d pay.
Anyway, for so-called middle class folks over 55, it’s bad, bad news. In my case (age 62, family size of 2) the full premium is pretty close to $20,000 per year! An income of around $60,000 gets you a pretty good subsidy that brings the premium down to around $5,600 per year. But if you happen to have a little windfall that puts you over $60,600 per year, you get to pay the entire $20,000 premium. How lucky that you won that little $1,000 jackpot on the lottery!
I’ve sent letters to my congressman and senators, and get very little in the way of a reply about this awful situation. My existing insurance company doesn’t know what to tell me, but I can hardly imagine that private insurance will be very much cheaper than the exchanges. So, I’m expecting my 2014 premium to be over 300% of what I’m currently paying.
For $20,000 per year, I can pay for a lot of routine healthcare, and since my wife and are (thankfully) reasonably healthy, we are likely to go without insurance, pay the penalty, and hang on until we’re elegible for Medicare.
Yeah but Obama the smartest man ever said “if you like you insurance you can keep it, and if you like your doctor, you can keep him” as well as you can keep your insurance policy and it will not go up under his great plan…so you must be lying about the $20,000 per year instead of maybe a thousand or so! You must be a racist cause Obama said so!
Da, comrade, it is counter-revolutionary to remember actual things that happened– only what the Party says happened is acceptable!
For $20,000 per year, I can pay for a lot of routine healthcare, and since my wife and are (thankfully) reasonably healthy, we are likely to go without insurance, pay the penalty, and hang on until we’re elegible for Medicare.
Once ObamaCare fully kicks in, you can’t be denied for preexisting conditions. So, you self-insure for things like routine office visits (which shouldn’t be part of a medical insurance program in the first place but that’s another discussion) and prescription drugs. You pay the penalty for not having insurance. Then, if something bad happens like a serious accident or illness, you apply for insurance and they have to accept you. It’s like buying homeowner’s insurance after the fire has started. Such a deal and you can count on a lot of people doing just this. The penalties for not having insurance are much less than the cost of having insurance, so the incentives are in place to not buy insurance until you actually need it.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, it won’t be quite as easy as waiting until you get really sick to buy insurance. As I understand it, you’ll only be able to sign up for insurance during an annual “open enrollment” period (October and November, I think), or if your circumstances change due to a “qualifying life-change event”.
Still, it’s going to be possible to game the system.
If I was truly a cynic, I’d say that this entire health-insurance-exchange system was designed to result in abysmal failure, with the only viable option after the breakdown being a single-payer system with the Feds running the whole thing.
I don’t live in Oregon but I used the calculator all the same. For an individual of 40 years using your $60K income, I wouldn’t qualify for assistance. Dropping income to $40K and I get a 16% subsidy, that is based off of the estimated premium, which I can tell you from dealing with is simply an imaginary bait number and once you sign the dotted line that number goes up a lot.
So in other words, single small business owners are going to get screwed over again so Obama can give freebies to the Democrat base of layabouts.
We’ll go bare, and pay the tax. If I get really sick, I’ll just show up at the ER and sign up for coverage, then drop coverage later.
What, the government won’t be happy with me? Come and get me, coppers!
Here’s more good news:
* Doctors and hospitals rarely if ever take legal action against patients who don’t pay their bills. They just charge insured patients more.
* The IRS can deduct the Obamacare penalty from your refund, but the ACA expressly forbids them to use any other means of enforcement.
The ACA was designed to punish corporations while letting people (a.k.a. voters) off the hook. People will still suffer indirectly, of course, but this will be blamed on the greedy corporations.
“The IRS can deduct the Obamacare penalty from your refund, but the ACA expressly forbids them to use any other means of enforcement”
if that’s true, pay more quarterly so you don’t get a refund.
People who get refunds are lending the statists interest-free money anyway
Don’t you mean, pay *less* quarterly? Or for that matter, simply adjust your W-4 so that you have less deducted from each paycheck. The ideal to aim for is to owe some to Uncle Sam each tax season, as much as you can without incurring a penalty for underpayment.
Yes, pay as little as possible without incurring a penalty.
That’s the right strategy even without this obamacare nonsense. That just makes it more compelling.
Of course, if they slap some outrageous interest on it and, like student loan repayments, it follows you to the grave, it would probably be better to just pay the poison at the last possible nano-second to avoid the penalty for late payment.
The so-called “young invincibles” — those between the ages of 18 and 29 who don’t have health insurance …they should be celebrating. This demographic almost was unanimous for theMessiah
Ah, redistribution of wealth– the purpose of healthcare reform; you go money, you’ll be payin’ out the nose now!
NEWSFLASH…..Insurance Rates For Some Have Doubled **BEFORE** Obamacare.
My insuranced has doubled since 2009.
Insurance Companies are Raising Rates BEFORE Obamacare kicks-in based on FEAR and HYPE. Its a common business practice used by the Oil Companies.
Bad weather, war, economic reasons hyped by the Oil Companies to raise the oil prices.
Healthcare has been using the same tactic for years too.
Golly, we’re back to big oil now? What’s the matter? The villians in Big Healthcare not enough for you? Rates were going up for a variety of reasons, including the problem associated with third party payers and no tort reform, which the dear leader refused to consider. Nicet try. maybe the other moonbats will buy the shifting of blame, but we’re still on our way to losing our insurance, and your dear leader is STILL the reason why. Not Big Oil, Big healthcare or Big Bird.
wrong. expensive parts of Obamacare have already kicked in: such as having to cover children up to age 26 on policies, preexisting condions, etc. And a lot more on Docs and hospitals. This is the main reason your premiums are going up.
To paraphrase ‘Nanny’ Pelosi ‘You have to pass it to see how destructive it is’ . Dumb American voters have got the divisive, SOCIALIST, Racist Government their naive, gullible STUPIDITY deserves.
It is beyond me why the GOP didn’t run on O’care in 12. Or the raid on Medicare after the convention. We didn’t play hardball against a group that will cheat every chance they get.
Will there be any Doctor in private practice this time next year?
That’s the idea, comrade– no private medical practic, government must do!
All it takes is one major employer to stop offering health insurance. When I mean “major” I mean a company such as Google, Apple, Microsoft or Amazon. When we see one of those major companies drop health insurance expect to see a cascade of companies dropping health insurance under the rubric of wanting to remain competitive. Neither, I bet, will blame the reasoning for dropping healthcare on the implementation of Obamacare.
Obamacare makes America “less” economically competitive with the rest of the world. Companies maybe leave their “headquarters” here and move all of their production outside the US. Heck, Canada and Mexico are already “economic magnets” drawing in US companies. Not much reason for big business to stay here in the USA.
Mine already has double. If they double it again it will be unaffordable. So much for Obama’s promise that you can keep the policy you like and it will cost less. Of course everyone with a brain knew that if a politician says something like that you can expect the exact opposite. That 8% tax penalty will cost a lot less than even my current policy.
Then again, that’s what Obama is really aiming at: to gut the private insurance industry by making it so expensive people can’t afford policies (except for the elite and connected of course) and pushing everyone into crappy medicaid style care.
I wish my American friends good luck on all this.
Was this Obama care not sold as “free health care?”
You could move to Canada where we have “free health care.”
It’s free to the tune of 46.5% income taxes after one makes $80,000.
You see we are much better and smarter than our American friends at wealth redistribution…The majority of our sheeple don’t even know this.
Add the fact That if we do get really sick such as cancer or such you’ll simply wait in line to die..just as my sister in law is doing as I write this.
Tell your sister-in-law to check out the Halleluja Diet at hacres.com. Esp. do the juicing of carrots. Really powerful stuff. The guy who started all this cured himself of cancer this way.
The answer is clear to financial and moral corruption contained in Obamacare.
For President Obama whom TRILLION dollar spending sprees on his leftist political whims-of-the-moment will no doubt continue to bankrupt our national treasury the following must be put on the table for the greater good of the country.
END Obamacare. Kill the awful thing and have the guts to improve what was once the best medical system in the world.
The Offshore Outsourcing of American Jobs: A Greater Threat Than Terrorism By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Global Research, February 17, 2013
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-offshore-outsourcing-of-american-jobs-a-greater-threat-than-terrorism/18725
In a previous post (“The Coming Crisis in Patient Access to Physicians”), Rick Moran described the “phasing in of Medicare” to combat the problem as a “no-brainer”. Apparently, Moran only has a problem with statism if it is done too quickly. Ever the Pragmatism, creeping statism is a-ok with Rick.
Look no further than his article called “The Tom Thumb Presidency”. Moran sweeps aside criticism of Obama’s incursions into the 2nd Amendment by claiming there is not much to see there, thus again proving that it is only a matter of pace by which Moran will allow the government to usurp individual rights.
Principles have no place in the Pragmatist’s worldview. If rights are taken away at a slow enough pace, then they will act as apologists, just as Moran did in the Tom Thumb article.
Too bad America is the frog and we’ve reached the boiling point of water.
And no-brainers like Moran will rubberstamp statist measures if slow enough for him. But since he does not reject government usurpations of rights on principle, on what grounds can he complain about Obama’s pace here?
PJM, get rid of Moran, ASAP. His logic is for “no-brainers”.
Ya know, I don’t have one whit of sympathy for these knuckleheads. You got what you wanted only you screwed up my insurance to get yours. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Now maybe you will understand: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. (And all it’s derivatives)