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Surprise: Obamacare Enrollment 30% Less Than Previously Expected; Spike In 2015 Premiums Imminent
While the small business scourge that is Obamacare may not last very long now that the GOP has full control of Congress, and a scourge it is according even to the Philly Fed itself as per "Obamacare Is A Disaster For Businesses, Philly Fed Finds"...
... there is some hope that its disastrous impacts on the US economy (one has to find the irony that the economic slam in late 2013 and early 2014 was blamed on snow in the winter and not on the US president), may be finally fading.
The reason: according to the WSJ, moments ago the Obama administration revised its estimate for Obamacare enrollment, now saying - with the bruising midterms safely in the rearview mirror - that it expects some 9.9 million people to have coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges in 2015, millions fewer than outside experts predicted.
Only it's not even 9.9 million:
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Monday the administration was aiming for 9.1 million paid-up enrollees for 2015, though the range could extend to 9.9 million, according to the agency’s analysis. Ms. Burwell said she respected the work of the Congressional Budget Office and its projections but that she believed HHS figures were based on the best and most up-to-date information.
So really 8 million, or less? Which is great news for the economy as it means less forced wealth redistribution, if less than great news for the administration's propaganda. Recall that as recently as two months ago this number stood about 30% higher: according to a projection by the Congressional Budget Office, some 13 million Americans were expected to enroll in Obamacare in the coming year. But what's some 30% between friends? Just blame it on seasonal adjustments. And don't forget: the US budget deficit needs to soar in the coming years to open the much needed capacity for the Fed to monetize even more debt because everyone who lived through October 15 saw what will happen if the Fed continues to monetize more than 100% of net issuance.
It gets worse, or if one is the US economy, better:
Also diminished is the number of Americans who had private coverage under the law’s marketplaces for 2014. The administration said Monday that around 7.1 million people across the country who picked plans during the current year’s open-enrollment period were still paid up for their coverage. That’s down from the eight million who the administration said had picked plans as of this spring.
So... 1 million down in 9 months: must be even more seasonal adjustments.
And just as everyone suspected in late 2013, the wildly overblown numbers by the administration were just that, because sooner or later, even those getting handouts would have to make a token payment or at least confirm they are legal US residents. They couldn't.
HHS officials said they had cut off tax credits for December for 120,000 households that hadn’t responded to requests for more information about their income. Another 112,000 people have had their coverage terminated because the federal government couldn’t confirm they were legally residing in the U.S. That number is down slightly from an earlier announcement from the federal government that it was cutting off 116,000 people over immigration and citizenship status issues.
And with Obamacare's punitive measures having been delayed through 2015 in hopes of "buying" the midterm elections, hopes which now lie crushed in a smoldering heap, next up is the real sticker shocked:
A new window-shopping tool on the federal insurance website that made its debut late Sunday is giving consumers the first glimpse of health-insurance prices for next year. Many people who bought insurance plans through HealthCare.gov will see their premium increase in 2015 unless they are willing to switch insurance carriers.
Changing plans to ones which have far worse deductibles and coverage, which of course is par for the course for anything the government gets its hands on. For everyone else, well: there are higher prices which will more than offset the temporary gas price drop holiday:
Proposed rates filed by insurers with state regulators over the past six months suggested that big carriers that snapped up a lot of customers last year are raising their rates for 2015, and new market entrants and plans that got fewer sign-ups in 2014 are slashing prices in a bid for more market share. The final rates, posted late Sunday on HealthCare.gov, have followed a similar pattern. As a result, most people who bought coverage through the site last year will see their premiums increase for 2015, at the same time that the lowest rate available on the site remains relatively steady.
In Tallahassee, Fla., the lowest-cost silver plan available to a 26-year-old nonsmoker for 2014 was sold by Florida Blue, or Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, with a premium of $228 a month. For 2015, the cost would rise about 20% to $273, according to the premium information displayed on HealthCare.gov. The same 26-year-old could pay a $236 monthly premium for a United Healthcare plan that wasn’t available for 2014.
The punchline:
“We are strongly encouraging people to come back to HealthCare.gov,” said Kevin Counihan, chief executive of the site, on Sunday.
And if people don't come back, do they get an IRS audit?
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kick ass mr president, you son of a whore
How are Herpes & Obamacare very much alike?
Both will present regular, nasty surprises for the rest of your life.
If you want to keep being surprised, you can keep being surprised.
Surprise!
Sure, but premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance went up for everybody.
That was a feature, not an unintended consequence.
When something is unsustainable, there is usually a reason, this one has many flaws.
I put the over/under at 4 million, but since we'll never hear the real number, hardly matters........
Let's see the number on how many have actually MADE their first three premium payments in FULL- what is this "token payment" bullshit??? Do I get an "Atta boy nice try" from Barry for that? Which insurance companies are accepting "token" payments without cancelling coverage?
Guess I'll be token-paying my alimony next year.......
When premiums go up, there's less cash in the wallet for consumerin'.
When there's less consumerin', there's less growth.
When there's less growth.....well.....you know.
Premiums on the individual insurance which I've carried for about fifteen years have doubled since Obamacare was passed including back-to-back increases in 2013 and 2014. I can no longer afford the policy which worked well for me. I now have a two week window in which to find a new policy on the exchange. I feel dirty just logging on but I will be one more feather in Obama's cap. It should be easy enough -- I'll simply chose the lowest priced plan available because none of the offered plans has any value other than as a catastrophic contingency. Another satisfied customer!
And, of course, STILL no information on:
I suspect that the answers to the above might be: 1)mostly older and with pre-existing conditions and 2)very few execpt for some of those with pre-existing conditions who could not get insurance. If that is correct, rates will sky-rocket next year. Unless, of course, SCOTUS rules the subsidies (aka more socialism) illegal, in which case it doesn't even need Congress to kill it.
I need more KY; this increase in my Obamacare premiums and deductibles hurts like hell!
Just remember - if any serious, unexpected health problems arise, make sure you have saved enough cash for airfare to Thailand or Latin America, where you can find actual affordable health care.
Dear China,
This would be a wonderful opportunity to kidnap an American President and hold him for ransom. Wouldn't be much bother. Just toss him a packet of ramen noodles once a week and everything is peachy.
If fact, I double dog guarantee that the longer you hang onto him, the better the relations will be between our countries.
Times a wastin', chop, chop.
Who would pay?
Shhhh.
If we're lucky, no one;)
The Shrine Circus might take him. I bet they could teach him a few tricks to entertain the audience.
Those little Shriner cars will be instrumental in the fight against global warming.
I'll bet 80% of the 9 million are illegal Mexicans.
They have their own plan called mexicare. IT's free.
Dems did a good job keeping Obamacare fiasco quiet during election cycle, but still got smashed into tiny little bits.
Here's how Democrats explain crushing election defeats- racism and sexism:
http://tinyurl.com/k4ymrwg
more Obama LIES
AH HA - "even those getting handouts would have to make a token payment or at least confirm they are legal US residents"
Hence the promised executive action on immigration........
Quite a success story there.....depending on ones perspective
What is economics.
translation - adverse selection leading to death spiral.
In order to ass rape you by this bill, we have to pass it to see what's in it.
By the way, did Pelosi ever discover what was in it? Just curious, cause she never actually said.
Can Pelosi read? I mean, let's start with the basics here.
Of course, I'm sure she worked her way to the top of her field on her abilities, its not like she has a rich old man or anything. Or do I confuse her with Feinstein.......or is it the case with both........
I do look forward to the public unions finally getting ass raped by Obamacare in 2015. As those fuckers deserve it.
They're so clueless they'll blame it on the current republican congress.
How long will it be until Obama starts claiming that Obamacare was all Bush's fault?
They already claim that Obamacare is a conservative idea based on some Heritage Foundation (?) paper.
What about a family of 5 on food stamps, do they qualify?
Glad we have no 40 million uninsured anymore.Its prolly 50 million now.
Obozo is brilliant.
Oh wait....
Yeah, the Black market Labor Force & their Families = 30 Million, so that is 40 Million citizens + 30 Million on the Black Market = 70 Million. But we have 82 Million on Medicaid??
Anyway, the .gov doesn't measure things it doesn't want to count or have published. Like the 90K who die from medical mistakes in our very expensive health care system.
And Obama care excuses the Black Market Labor from Obama Care, but of course they use the hospitals when they get sick. We have no idea what Obama was thinking.
Was he thinking?
- 82 Million people on Medicaid
- 151 Million people receive some kind of assistance
Much of this 50 million are never going to sign up for any kind of insurance, government or no, subsidized or no. Just the act of having to think ahead and go through an enrollment process before they get sick, is enough to keep them out of the system. And that's even before we get to the part of them having to pay money while they're still healthy.
Your average deadbeat just wants to do what he does now. I.e., do nothing until he's sick, go to the ER and complain and be demanding until he gets his time with the doctor and his pills, then when the bill comes, say he doesn't have the money and welch on it. Rinse and repeat. The only way to get to 100% is to have a system that doesn't require the deadbeat to do anything other than receive care when he needs it.
yes,yes .... the full text of the free ER care strategy is outlined in chapter 8 of the Free Shit Army manual
Just received a lovely notice from my health insurance carrier that my premiums were going up by 16%. Time to cancel, pay the fee, save the difference and use the savings for a nice health care vacation in Singapore if I need any real medical care. Meantime, eat healthier and exercise more.
I'm in the same boat save the slow trip to Singapore part.
“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” says the MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, who helped write Obamacare. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”
Obamacare was conceived in Arrogance and dedicated to the proposition that all voters are stupid.
Scum like this should be shot....period.
My friends and family have had pretty much the experience our President promised:
My family is saving about $2,400 per year in premium costs, we're keeping our doctor, and can see the same specialists! Winning! Lying!!!
newest vid potus kowtowing to his chinese bosses.
even wearing matching purple monkey suits.
matching purple monkey suits: and here I thought it was an old Jackson 5 get up.
obama lied to push his socialist agenda. fromn now on US president should be required to have at least one job in his life
less services at a higher cost...............winning
'The range could extend up to 9.9 million possibly'.....yea and the range of gold bars shooting out of my ass by 2015 could possibly range from 1 oz to kilo bars.
Now, that's a stretch!
American's ain't buyin' that shit
And there aren't enough illegals flooding into the country to meet targets
Time to open the border inbound and grant amnesty through executive order
If they did Obamacare without a mandate -- in other words, make it JUST a marketplace for insurance that you could go to in order to 'shop' for insurance -- it might actually be successful. Likewise, if they eliminated the 'wish list' for all the services that are mandated to be covered -- they would also get a greater variety of plans with lower prices.
But no -- we must have insurance with a laundry list of unwanted things that are covered, which we have to crack the whip on people to buy. Sounds like one of those old Standard Oil monopolies.
Gubment running anything guarantees always increasing costs with 100% certainty.
I like whatever makes this so called nation get closer to chaos.
'murica... SUCKS.
That is what happens when the government forces you to replace basic Health INSURANCE with expensive Health CARE. There is a difference.
I call it "medical services." "Health care" is a dead give away that a scam is taking place, just like with "human resources."
Serious question for the old-timers:
Do you think the media misrepresentation/dissembling about our current economic/cultural collapse is getting worse, or is it just the internet's increasing ability to get alternative points of view out which makes it *seem* like the media is getting worse?
I once heard a journalism professor talking about Democrat and Republican newspapers back in the early 1900s. Apparently you could read only the papers for one party through an entire presidential election and never see the other guys name printed.
What struck me as positive about this state of affairs is that people were aware of the obvious bias and could take it upon themselves to seek out truth. I wonder how many North Americans just assume that truth is served to them at no cost just for watching a few ads?
On the one hand, I observe that almost everyone is cynical, but thats not really the same as being active minded.
Ah Philosophy..... Everything is a cycle, every orgy has a beginning and end, the ends of which see power passed into the wrong hands- it's just more visible now in real time than it has been in the past. The frustration is just having to sit and watch it break up in front of us, rather than in retrospect.
we have reached critical cop out -
so we got that going
So what if "Obamacare Is A Disaster For Businesses, Philly Fed Finds"?
Hasn't our future Queen Hillary already informed us:
"Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs,"
"...Obamacare may not last very long now that the GOP has full control of Congress..."
The GOP hasn't the brains, Constitutional fortitude, nor the balls, to do what needs to be done with ACA. Justice Roberts usurped Congress with his ruling the "penalty" is a tax. Congress never passed a tax, regardless of what Roberts thinks it is; the legal argument ends there. If the penalty is considered a tax, it is unconstitutional, thus invalid.
Republicans should make absolutely no attempt to stop Obamacare. Just let it collapse the entire system. That'll allow them to blame Obama for the next 10+ years.
Of course, that's if they want to win political points. If they want to actually HELP the country, they could try fixing parts of it, but we know that will never happen.
The purpose of Obamacare, like other “healthcares”, are to eliminate private workers as quickly as possible after retirement; thus, saving Social Security another few years, and the inevitable accountability for those who plundered its assets.
After all, what else can we say about a program that subsidizes poisonous concoctions a trillion $/year for the next 75 years – with the Prescription Drug and Modernization Act.
Few people seem to understand that every prescription drug is a poison. This is why it has to be “approved” by the FDA. Before a company can submit its concoction to the FDA, it has to provide a so-called form LD-50; Lethal Dosage 50%; the form lists the dosage that would kill 50% of those that ingest it.
You figure it out: vitamins, enzymes, minerals and other health supplements improve one’s health, prolong life and generally produce a higher-quality life… and none are subsidized by criminal and useful-idiot classes. My health regimen includes such supplements; and has caused me to REDUCE – not SLOW the aging process – fifty years. As a result, I have the coordination, health and physical condition of a professional athlete around the age of 20; I am over 70 years of age. My validation is the best evidence possible: physical performance (video and webpage – each leads to the other).
On the other hand, prescription drugs – each a small dose of poison – tear up the body, shut down organs, and hasten degeneration; and, usually lead to a very ugly end. And prescription drug peddlers receive a trillion/year for the next 75 years (practically, to the end of time).
The task of abolishing Obamacare is a very long-term project; and I would expect it to destroy itself. On the other hand, my health regimen will begin to REDUCE your biological age the minute you begin it.
Hey, I always wondered what ever happened to "Jay the Juiceman".....
bat in the belfry, I aint inthemix
I don't know anything about you health system but seems you are fucked
That's all you need to know.
We also have the Supreme Court ruling coming up here too. Just like the markets, it's the machines running the Affordable Care act. Our Digital experts bit off more than they can chew here with this one.
So the legal parts of the US today just think about verbiage while tech companies just code around it and that's the big problem and of course it's modeled after the markets except we can't as humans move like data. Also we be aware that choosing an insurance carrier is going to be much more difficult in making sure your doctor is in network as even the insurers are having issues getting a higher than 60% accuracy rate with the doctors they list in network. The lists are flawed to the point that if you don't have a doctor, you could in fact chose one from the listings that is dead. I'm not kidding here.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/10/here-come-dead-doctors-again-located-in.html
Here's a little bit from my opinion piece on the Supreme court decision to get a hand in this and even Moodys is bitching about this too as they know as well it's the machines running the ACA.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/11/supreme-court-to-hear-challenge-to.html
So here we go again and as I stated in the tittle here, the machines run the Affordable Care Act. When you think about all of this, what runs Healthcare.Gov, it’s the machines or servers if you want to use the correct hardware term. This is reality and those who live off in legal verbiage world rarely give this much thought but the time has come to where you can’t ignore it any longer as IT Infrastructures run and enforce the laws and make insurance and other services available.
So how much technology knowledge does the Supreme Court have? I guess we’ll find out. Not only in this case but in other places, the legal verbiage interpretations without connecting technology is really doing the country and consumers a huge disservice. I agree there’s a lot about the law that needs to be changed and perhaps we should have called the Affordable Care Act a model instead of a law? That’s one idea but with the age of technology we live with today laws have to be updated to fit the times too. I get a laugh out of some of the press I read on this as there’s always the need to make this political when in fact what we are talking here is a political type decision that rides on machines, so guys what are you going to do at the Supreme Court?
I thought the White House was smarter with technology on some of this and I think they used to be but something happened. I know the White House email bot took a real dump and is directed at the level of a 5th grader most of the time too and I see some wild stuff that comes out of that templated bot sent email at times. This one in particular was rather disappointing to see the White House use “junk science” and I’ve repeated this many times. When I read it, I thought to myself “do they really think I’m that stupid”. What I’m talking about is the sucking in of any stats and numbers tossed out there today and people do get sucked in. Quants, mathematicians, developers and others know better as we write the stuff and know all about correlations and can spot most spurious ones in a heartbeat. For the last number of months I’ve probably driven a number of my Twitter followers crazy as I always have to pick off the junk.
I’m not saying everyone has to write code in the world even though all on the web say you have to, but take time and listen to the folks that write the stuff and are hones and tell you when you are being sucked in with flawed data or just flat out lies sometimes.
Junk Science Appearing Everywhere, Even The White House “PR Templated” Correspondence Creates Spurious Correlations…So back on topic here, what will the Supreme Court do? Will they think about the code involved with their interpretation of the law? Will we ever have a marriage of the minds and not put continue to put consumers through more hoops? We have a lot of broken models out there and they need fixing all the time and sadly we have those that are just flawed, broken or those that cheat for financial gain too. Perhaps the Supreme Court will give this some consideration too as if we have to go through and Model this ACA Law again with too many complexities, everything will come to a complete stop, as again the machines run the Affordable Care Act and they have to be in harmony with the verbiage as well. .
I keep hearing this “repeal” thing and again I think that buzz word would maybe go away if more people realized again “IT’S THE MACHINES THAT RUN THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT”, so don’t just give us a simple ruling that’s going to require extensive, expensive and time consuming models to be rebuilt. Think about us as consumers and how more madness we can take as the legal profession needs to include the technologies that will be changed or impacted by their decisions.
I think of Nancy Pelosi on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart when she was asked about the ACA and she had the same attitude “we just make laws” and tossed Health and Human Services under the bus completely, who was already pretty much living there out of exhaustion with fighting the Sebelius Syndrome of whacky technology perceptions that were vocalized and senseless, tech folks saw that over and over.
I could care less about Obamacare, cures for cancer and other diseases, I'm just praying for a cure for the common hangover
Only quitters get hangovers.
Here's your cure.
Take a peek up Michelle's voluminous dress.
That'll knock you right off the wagon.
If my premiums go up anymore I'll just tell .gov to fuck off.
2 patients limp into two different doctors’ offices with the same complaint: Both have trouble walking and may require hip surgery.
Patient 1. is examined within the hour, is x-rayed the same day and has a time booked for surgery the following week.
Patient 2. sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, then waits 8 weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn’t reviewed for another week and finally has his surgery scheduled for 6 months from then, pending the review boards decision on his age and remaining value to society.
Why the different treatment for the 2 patients?
The FIRST is a Golden Retriever taken to a vet.
The SECOND is a Senior Citizen on Obama care.
Let's see what we have here. A stupid law that was written by the special interests and for the special interests which features subsidies for the lower classes who somehow cannot afford the crazy deductibles. Anyone who does not qualify for the subsidies is paying outrageous rates for insurance that covers hardly anything.
Does anyone see a problem with this setup?
I won't go into the the rest of what is wrong with the ACA as it would crash the whole Internet as I fed it to ZH's servers.
For the sexual preference questions part of the ACA, I will prefer hermaphrodites on one doctor visit and midget trannies for the next one.
9.9 million sign-ups isn't bad.
Seriously, 8.9 million is pretty good.
Honestly, 7.9 is impressive.
I'm sure the administration is thrilled with the 6.9 million sign-ups.
Seems to me we're still finding out what's in it...
Another great acheivement by our own beloved "Thief in Chief." Thanks for nothing. My current premium is $734.00 a month up from $350.00 a month before Obamascare. And I'm in good health!
Healthcare is ridiculously expensive because many people have convinced themselves of three things: The answers for good health outcomes rest with pills and procedures rather than good diet and exercise. Death at late stages of life is some strange, recent development in human history which justifies and necessitates extreme, exorbitant payouts to delay it for every possible last second. And last but not least, thinking that mixing all the myriad of "health care" transactions that result from the just mentioned concepts with health insurance as originally conceived to protect a person from unforeseeable, catastrophic events like an accident is a good idea.
Last night I received notice my health care cost were jumping to $1,365 from $1,065. The year before $934 and the year before that and prior to Obamacare they were at only $750 a month. While I have not used the policy once or even visited a doctor. and I have no healthcare issues they site increased cost as the reason. I should mention I have a $5,000 deductible policy meaning this is not great coverage!Just because we can preform or do some kind of medical procedure does not mean we should, healthcare is like a tape worm ever ready and always wanting to grow larger. More on why healthcare is so expensive in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/05/healthcare-going-forward.html
when I called about my obamacare benefits and asked about contraception i was thinking along the lines of condoms, diaphragms...
they sent me two hazmat suits !!!!!
charged me $7500 !!!!
raised my premium $500/month !!!!
told me my deductible was $5500
.... and then wished me luck on a future pregnancy !!!!
Fuck this BULLSHIT Zionist fake attempt to soak Americans yet again or still.
Fuck you Gruber you fuckhead.
We reenrolled in December of 2013 to avoid the ACA mandates in 14. This plan expires in December.
Our quote for 2015 ACA compliant plan with the same deductibles and carrier is 25% higher than the premiums we paid in 2014.
It's a big hit.