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You have health insurance, but you cannot afford surgery? You should have bought HUM stock.
Obamacare was signed into law on March 23, 2010. However, one year earlier in March of 2009, after Obama's election, drafts of the bill were being circulated within the insurance industry, and amongst the staffs of the politicians they helped to get elected. Although Nancy Pelosi is famous for saying, "We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it,” that was not the case for the insurance company insiders that were actually drafting the bill.
Since the inception of Obamacare, United Healthcare stock has increased more than 340%, and Humana stock has increased more than 440%; this appreciation is in addition to the quarterly dividends HUM has paid since June 28, 2011. This impressive feat may come as a surprise to you, dear Zerohedge reader, as I doubt you will have heard about these great American success stories on television. Can you name the CEOs of Humana, or United Healthcare? No? Hmmm. I wonder why? One might think President Obama would want to hold up these companies as shining symbols of, "The Recovery."
How do health insurance companies like Humana make money? They don't provide healthcare! Very simply, they charge patients premiums, and pay healthcare providers fees. They are intermediaries, middlemen. When they charge higher premiums, and pay providers less, or nothing (via high deductibles and high coinsurance), then they are more profitable. They take this profit and invest it.
Why have United Healthcare, Humana, and the healthcare insurance companies done so well since Obamacare?
- Have the health insurance companies significantly increased investment returns? Maybe, but not enough to justify their stock's return vs the broader market.
- Have the health insurance companies significantly increased covered lives? No.
- Have United Healthcare or Humana significantly increased market share? No.
- Have United Healthcare or Humana significantly increased premiums? Maybe, but not enough to justify the stock price.
- Have the health insurance companies significantly decreased provider payments? Yes.
How? Just as cereal manufacturers decrease their costs by putting less cereal in the same box but still charge you the same price, health insurers have raised the deductible amounts and co-insurance amounts, but not lowered premiums.
Coinsurance: A cost-sharing requirement of some insurance plans where the patient assumes a percentage of the costs for covered services after the amount of the deductible has been met. Coinsurance is described as a ratio, for example 30/70, meaning the patient is responsible for paying 30% and the insurance will pay 70% of the allowable.
Deductible: The amount paid by the member before insurance will begin to reimburse services. It is reset annually, and based on the level of benefits or amount of premium paid. For example, with a $1,000 deductible the patient must pay medical providers for the first $1,000 of allowable expenses incurred by the patient each year, after which costs may be split according to a coinsurance arrangement, and/or may be limited to the patient’s out of pocket expenses.
Premium: The monthly amount enrollees pay the insurance company to be covered.
What is your premium, deductible, and coinsurance? What were they 6 years ago? Many, if not most, of the Obamacare plans actually in use today are $5,000 in-network deductibles, $10,000 out-of-network deductibles, and 30% coinsurnace. Few specialists signed up for the Obamacare plans because of the low fees, so people are likely to have to pay both the $5,000 in-network deductibles, and $10,000 out-of-network deductibles every year before the insurance will begin to reimburse services.
In summary, 1) you are paying more before the insurance company begins to reimburse services, and 2) you are paying a higher percentage of the costs after the insurance company begins to reimburse services, and 3) you are required by law to purchase health insurance...therefore United Healthcare stock has increased more than 340%, and Humana stock has increased more than 440%!
You have health insurance, but you cannot afford surgery? You should have bought HUM stock.
Just like I said in January of 2013...

Bait and switch.
Obamacare is of, by, and for the healthcare insurers. It is designed to remove competition and assure profits for healthcare insurers, exactly as the Federal Reserve Act does for the big banks.
HIPAA was not about privacy for the patient. It is solely to guarantee healthcare insurers access to preexisting conditions.
None of this will change until bribery campaign contributions are reformed.
How does Obamacare assure profits for the health insurers?
What does this mean for those investing in or practicing healthcare in America?
Well, like I said back in October of 2013...
The following provision, in a nation of deadbeats that cannot put their hands on $2,000 cash for an emergency, when combined with $2,000 deductibles and 70/30 co-pays, is going to be the mother-of-all-unintended-consequences.
Furthermore, health plans from the marketplace could present financial obstacles for physicians, because those health plans are required to have a 90-day grace period for policyholders that do not pay their monthly premiums on time. While other health plans would cut off coverage if a patient did not pay their bill on time, the health plans offered in the marketplace would still indicate the patient was covered during that grace period, and retroactively revoke payments to the physician for treatment provided during that time. In those situations, the doctor would be forced to seek payment from the patient for services already provided.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/October/21/Texas-Doctors-Un...
Short providers, long insurers, long collection agencies.
The next time you see your congressman, ask how his or her Humana stock is doing. The next time you pay your health insurance premium, you may want to stuff some money in the mattress, too, so you can afford the deductible and co-insurance.
Peace be with you!
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The ER would have accepted MUCH less if he had insurance, probably not more $200. The biggest group that "don't pay" are the insurance companies thanks to their contract agreements.
It's the UNINSURED patients with assets that are paying for indigents (and executive bonuses too).
Urgent care operations are going out of business rapidly in California.
My financial adviser told me I should start a healthcare savings account what with soaring prices and the fact that I am not getting any younger. I told him I already have one; I buy shares of TSLA with 33% of my paycheck every week and all the stock does is go higher.
No risk, just returns.
Yea, I am pretty much a genius.
lol. my sister in law thought obamacare was going to allow her to retire at 55. i tried to tell her she will have to work until she is 67 or move to a country with universal healthcare(you know, that socialist thingy). lol. she doesn't want to move because she and her husband are "good" americans.....so she will work until she is 67.
It keeps her off the golf courses. TPTB hate to compete for the good slots with the retirees.
hey DR Do -not many in health care marching on DC, as we see our practice swerling around the toilet bowl.
funny those that provide care cannot find the time to call the whole ins .gov incest what it is, perhaps we are too busy fighting over the left overs. heck at our local 380 hospital the Adm makes $800,000/yr and she is a nurse, who never gave an enema.
No surprise.....I told all my disbelieving friends and colleagues years ago that, when all the dust settled on Obama's healthcare bill we'd discover that, yet once again, a special interest group would be the big winner....in this case the insurance companies. Citizens come last....special interest groups always come first.
I now pay a great deal more for less .....my wife's deductible was tripled and the "premium" remained the same.
No need to wonder why we are in the ME....just another favor bestowed on 2 special interest groups...no, make that 3....oil, Israel, and the defense industry.
The absolute funniest thing--the only funny thing--is how many think that Obamacare is socialist.
Even funnier--also the only funny thing--is how many think that CIA-Obama is a socialist Democrat.
An American, not US subject.
"Yes Ms. Pelosi, you must pass through the guillotine to see what's in it."
We, the US, are no longer socialist, we're fascist.
I call it a corporatocracy for my aquantances who don't know what fascism really means (ie not just Hitler and Mussolini)
for my aquantances who don't know what fascism really means
I've said for a long time that this was fascism. The very definition of it. Most of what we see today it fascism, with little 'socialist' type goodies dripped down on the surfs to keep them from getting out of hand. Socialist would be if obamacare got rid of all the insurance companies, nationalized all the hospitals and everything else healthcare related, and went to single payer. While what you say is amusing IS quite amusing, what always cracked me up about the baby boomer tea party people and republicans was howany of them would say "Obama care is socialism/we don't want your commie-care" etc, and then turn around and say 'hands off my medicare/ no cuts to social security".
A funny thing about the Tea Partiers and many Repubs. was how they kept saying that they would get Obamacare repealed. LOL
I have several friends that won't look me in the eye when Obamacare comes up, but they are listening more.
The Tea Party was a sheeple-distracter from day one--shit it was launched on CNBC for heaven’s sake. LOL again.
Now the funniest thing about the Tea Partiers and various Repubs. was their absolute and total naiveté that things would change. LMAO!
I kept telling them that the dead giveaway that the Tea Party was a elitist construct to distract and fool the sheeple was the fact that the various governments—local to DC—allowed the protests to happen without sending out the goons to squash them.
They aren't calling me "negative" now.
An American, not US subject.
The new definition of "socialist" -- no billionaire left behind.
The Democrats are just as socialist as the Republicans.
She needs to make another trip to the Middle East.
The only way not to lose is not to play.
Truer words...
I developed a lump on my balls last month....Long story. It was an abcess. Finally broke down and made a Dr. appointment because I was in excruciating pain and thought I was going to die. The PA gave me a local and sliced it open and drained it. In a week or so I'm all healed. The bill came and was $190. Blue Cross paid $40...BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY EMPLOYER I PAY OVER $6,000 A YEAR FOR THIS CRAP THAT IS GOOD FOR NOTHING EXCEPT SKIMMING!!!
I had health insurance for years on my kids.
Son got sick with something mysterious a few years ago and had a high fever and a seizure. We went to the emergency room. They found nothing and the problem went away. I think it was an allergy to some lawn chemical I put down.
Anyways, the bills come. The insurance company basically denied 20% of their portion (I computed it to be exactly 19.87%) as "unnecessary," etc. I told the hospital to substantiate their charges with the insurance company, as I have no medical expertise to gauge the "necessity" of any care. They were not pleased when I threatened to sue based on that assertion. They either swallowed the charges or settled with the insurance companies because they left me alone.
I then dropped the insurance, as I figured that if the insurance companies were just going to make me pay, I might as well negotiate with the hospital/doctors after the fact.
Worked well the next time I had to use the emergency room. They sent the bill, and I negotiated to pay Medicaid rates, as my doctor clients informed me what those should be.
LOL
"With a gun to my head you can make me stick your dick in my mouth, but then from that point my teeth and I are in control."
Change you can believe in.
It's all about the Skim, always has been always will be.
And which group has always been best at the skim off society?
A: You know
Cognitive dissonance defined: thinking that a bill written by the health insurance industry is going to stick it to the health insurance industry.
And poor stoopid shmuck Charlie Brown believes this time, Lucy won't pull the football...
@moroots: You're right, it's all Cog's fault. Mrs. Cog should give him a swift kick in the seat of his pants...
By the time this all washes out, Dr.s will be bartering their services for suckling pigs and garden vegetables. The moneychanging meddlemen will by then presumably have choked on their filthy lucre remnants.
They already are. Our Doctor for the last twenty five years promptly retired after ShitCare passed. His replacement, a young hispanic lady that I named "Hanna" (last name Montana)..carried the practice for a year then dropped out of the health network to go to all cash, private practice. She's open to trade. More Doctors are starting to look at what they've been dealt and are going black market. (I got my dentures from a garage, for instance.)
Now what's happening in my personal, employer based, Anthem Blue Cross ShitCare plan, is that we have a local health network that 'manages' the plan for Blue Cross. A bit of a scare sent me to a cardiologist and another issue sent me to a physical therapist, and my wife was sent of for a colonoscopy. Our referral letters specifically said there were no co-pays or deductables (now referred to as co-insurance).
The doctors and physical therapists offices had similar letters.
Shit shakes out and Blue Cross ShitCare comes back and tells all that the test and procedures we did are subject to $40 co-pay per visit, and 30% 'co-insurance'. Local health network says that they provided what Blue Cross ShitCare provided on their data. Blue Cross told me to go fuck myself.
The money, at this point, isn't substantial...it's the surprise factor that pisses me off. Suddenly I owe a couple grand that I didn't expect.
But I can only imagine those people with really serious, and expensive, problems who get bitchslapped with these unexpected costs.
Try having a heart attack. Friend of mine had one, emergency heart cath, 1 stent, 16 hrs total in hospital and the bill was 48k. Take your typical 20% of that. Good thing he's got money.
It's not all his fault. lol
By the time this all washes out, those like hedgeless and family who can source their food and largely provide for their own health will be the winners.
Buy your arable land with primary source water, and then stop making money.
Poor means you get to sign up for medicaid, which simply means you get a pass from the IRS, and don't have to pay any insurance premiums.
BY NO MEANS SHOULD YOU EVER GET ACTUAL MEDICAID HEALTH CARE SERVICES! THOSE FUCKERS WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!!!!
Por means you don't have to pay any income tax.
Poor means you are closer to the cracks that you get to fall through.
Poor means no-one in authority will ever notice you. See cracks, above.
Poor means you can work hard and go to bed early. Poor means you will have to give up the "good things of life", all of which are injurious to your physical, mental, and spiritual health. See medicaid, above.
Poor means you will have to be creative to get things done, instead of just throwing money at the problem du jour, hoping someone else will be creative, instead of just taking your money and doing a shitty, uninspired job.
Poor means you will actually need your family members and neighbors, and so, you'll have to work to keep the relationships healthy. Enlightened self interest will go 9/10ths of the way to curing you of assholitis.
right on! plus the things that actually keep you healthy are relatively dirt cheap: coconut oil, cayenne pepper, lugol's iodine, epsom salts, bob's red mill baking soda, zeolite, bragg's apple cider vinegar, plenty of fruit and veg, and stop eating meat. you'll find more expert opinions at earthclinic than any hospital on the planet, the croakers no doubt hate it.
http://www.earthclinic.com/ailments.html
take control of your own health or else!
I really appreciate the pure evil of those that decided to call it the Affordable Care Act.
They just didn't tell you affordable to who?
When the government buys votes with "Social Security" and "medicare" it wote a put, and now that it's going against them, they are going to unwind the position, by using the contract to limit the exposure presented by the counterparty-you and me.
We, the members of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, hereby delare you unworthy of further care....
"Death panels."
Just wait for the Keep Murrikin Children safe from Genocide on Home Soil act.
Nice article and nice comment, h_h.
Nice to see that you are still around, DCRB.
Another excellent example of fascism here in the US.
Not sure what I will do when\if my employer finally dumps our insurance, leaning toward medical tourism.
The Real Winners with Obamacare. Big Daddy Warbucks wins again.
Too bad Physicians have lost their power - they are now just highly educated Janitors as far as the Insurance Companies, Lawyers, and Corporate Hospitals see it.
The middle-men have successfully inserted themselves between Doctor and Patient, Voter and Politician.
They were called money-changers back in the day, and Jesus flipped over their tables.
What we have now is not insurance - it is an asset confiscation scheme.
It is an unholy, immoral, unethical, and evil tax upon the society.
Add fuel, utilities, food, plus ZIRP to healthcare and you really get to the meat of the asset confiscation scheme.
Add fuel, utilities, food, plus ZIRP to healthcare and you really get to the meat of the asset confiscation scheme.
The key though, is it criminal? Since 1913 when the Federal Reserve was incorporated into existance, we have been slaves financially, we were made to enjoy slavehood during the development of the railroad system in this country when monopolies were instituted in our transportation sector.
Until these slimy goblin lawyers, and their political enablers are dispatched to Federal prisons, the totally corrupted system will continue to spiral down the drain.
"The key though, is it criminal?"
Its a fair point.
I'm pretty sure gangsters think they're doing a public service as well. People want hookers and meth, doesn't really matter to them how many lives are lost or wrecked in the pursuit of their profits.
Of course, when their "in-the-pocket-legal-gang-members" show up with badges under the pretext of "law" to put other gang competitors out of business, thats when its all legal ;-)