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Your Health Insurance Premiums Are About To Go Through The Roof -The Stunning Reason Why
After years of delays and failed launches, Obamacare has finally taken hold, and with it the economic and financial implications from this mandatory tax are finally being felt.
We have extensively covered how Obama's Affordable Care Act will end up being a failure, observing both the economic implications in "In Latest Obamacare Fiasco, Most Low-Income Workers Can't Afford "Affordable Care Act" as well as its operational shortcomings in "Obamacare Is A Disaster: Co-Op Insurers Across America Are Collapsing, And Now There Is Fraud", paradoxically even as Obamacare - a tax - was according to the BEA the single biggest contributor to GDP growth in the third quarter.
Of course, the most obvious reason why Obamacare will have a dire impact the economy is also very simple: soaring healthcare premiums, also covered before...
... which incidentally also explain why all those touted "gas savings" failed to materialize in discretionary spending behavior: all of the "saved" money went to cover rising health insurance costs.
None of this should come as a surprise.
What should, however, is that according to a very unexpected twist healthcare premiums are about to soar so much in the coming months that the shocking increases of the past year will seem like a walk in the park.
The reason for this comes courtesy of a new report from the WSJ which explains something few if any had expected: corporate insurers are scrambling to profit from Obamacare!
Yes, we know: Obamacare was written by the health insurance companies, and it was supposed to benefit them first and foremost as US households struggled to catch up to what most rational observers had said would be surging premiums. And, on the top line, it did just that: "under the ACA, insurers have seen an influx of new membership in individual plans and in Medicaid plans they administer for the government, expanding the industry’s total U.S. revenue to $743 billion in 2014, the year the law’s biggest changes took effect, from $641 billion the year before, according to a new analysis by consulting firm McKinsey & Co."
So far so good, and just as expected - incidentally, that 16% increase in industry revenue comes right out of your pocket, dear U.S. reader with the blessings of the US Supreme Court of course.
But where it gets fascinating is that while the surge in the top-line was expected, what comes as close to a black swan as possible, is what happens below the revenue line on the insurers' income statement.
The stunning finding comes from a new analysis by McKinsey which notes that much of that revenue growth has been unprofitable! Health insurers lost a total of $2.5 billion, or on average $163 per consumer enrolled, in the individual market in 2014, McKinsey found. A number are also expecting to lose money on their marketplace business for 2015.
The simple bullet point summary:
- Insurance industry revenues surged by 16% thanks to Obamacare
- However, its costs surged by... more than 16%
How is this possible?
Shouldn't all the benefits courtesy of the Obamacare tax flow through largely unobstructed to the bottom line? The answer, it appears, is no.
At big insurer Aetna Inc., the evidence of the law’s impact could be spotted last month in a Phoenix classroom, where Aetna was training a class of customer-service hires who will support a suite of re-engineered ACA marketplace plans dubbed “Leap.” Those products will have a different service approach, with fewer automated phone prompts and a completely new staff that is supposed to spend more time solving customers’ problems.
A trainee stood at a whiteboard, drawing stick figures with speech bubbles in a Pictionary-style game. “Conversation?” asked a class member. “Transition of care?” ventured another. The teacher gave the answer: The new reps had to keep commitments to consumers. That meant calling them back if needed.
With its Leap plans, Aetna is using many of the approaches that are gaining momentum in the industry. The Leap plans, which will roll out in four states this fall but are expected to be more widely available next year, rest on different technology than other Aetna products, including a new claims-processing platform, the company says.
“It’s a mammoth change in the offering, with everything being brand-new,” said Dijuana Lewis, an Aetna executive vice president. Aetna said this week it would likely lose money in 2015 on its exchange business.
The Leap insurance will include limited networks: In Arizona, it will be built around just one provider, the large Banner Health system. The Leap plans also aim to be easy to understand. For instance, they generally won’t include coinsurance, in which a consumer pays a percentage of the cost of a medical service, a concept many people find confusing.
And, as we now learn, all these changes and all this "simplification" will cost lots of money. In fact more money, than the tax actually brings in for most.
It appears that while US health insurers had modeled out their spike in revenue courtesy of Obamacare, not even they anticipated the associated costs the "Affordable" Care Act would entail.
That, however, is amazing, because while everyone else was worse off as a result of Obamacare, at least the conventional wisdom was that the insurers would make off like bandits. Not only is that not the case, but Obamacare - in a glorious example of how government meddling destroys everything - is actually leading to reduces profit margins for the one group that was supposed to be a sure winner!
However, since it is too late to undo Obamacare, what do these latest revelations mean? According to the WSJ "now, a lot of insurers are recalibrating their approach for 2016, with changes visible at all levels of the industry—from pricing to product design."
Mostly pricing.
The WSJ reminds us that "premiums for a type of plan that is closely watched as a signal of consumer costs—the second-lowest-priced insurance product in the law’s “silver” metal tier—will increase 7.5% on average across the roughly three dozen states that rely on the HealthCare.gov marketplace, according to the administration."
For larger companies, the losses were survivable. But rate increases create a risk that consumers may get sticker shock despite the availability of federal subsidies that reduce the cost sharply for many.
Peter Wainwright, 63 years old, who retired from a telecommunications job, currently has a plan bought on California’s ACA marketplace. He and his wife don’t get a subsidy and pay about $2,230 a month, and the rate is increasing for 2016. “Everything has gone up,” said Mr. Wainwright, of Half Moon Bay, Calif.
The punchline:
The health law remade the individual market, forcing insurers to sell plans to all consumers and banning them from charging rates based on health conditions. Insurers struggled to predict their costs, and many didn’t set rates high enough to cover the care of those they enrolled.
And since the insurers care far more about boosting profits than merely rising revenues which are more than offset by rising costs, and since most insurers are losing money on existing plans, expect all the rate increases incurred so far to be a mere walk in the park compared to the stratospheric premium surges that are about to be unveiled and that would make even the infamous Martin Shkreli green with envy.
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Get the hell out of my healthcare. The Brit's have one agency that is entire create to manipulate crime data. I believe nothing about that system
If you can call living in that shithole living.
There appear to be plenty enough of 'shitholes' in America, dont you think?
the real leverage is in the last 10 days of life, so the system is designed to keep the soon-to-be-dead alive for as many days as possible. Big Do$$ars there. With an aged cousin (78) they broke her ribs resusitating her, so she spent her last week in excrutiating pain. Shameful.
Thats heresy on ZH.
Being one the few to have had to use both systems during my lifetime, NHS,plus the private
BUPA system in the UK, and the medical system here.there is no comparison.
The NHS is gar superior to the American system, and BUPA was far superior to
the NHS by a simi;ar margin.The American system reminds me of the times I required
medical help in third world countries.
Let the downvote commence.
You're fundamentally misunderstanding the US healthcare system. You seem to think it exists to deliver healthcare. If it did, I have little doubt the US would beat the NHS in both cost and performance.
Frankly the NHS sucks beyond believe compared to the US system when it comes to what the US system is meant to do, which is generate profits, not deliver healthcare.
Let's just lay out the basic math, in 2013 the NHS cost was $3,235 per capita v. $8,713 per capita in the US. So it's just 37% of the US cost, or to put it another way, cost per patient is 63% lower with the NHS..
Do you really believe that anyone in the US healthcare system supply chain is going to accept a 63% decrease in per-patient revenue? This article is about the insurance industry freakout over a $100 loss on their share of that nearly 9K per capita spending (and insurance is only about 10% of that). That 9K/year is paying drug companies, hospitals, and doctor's profits. Drop revenues 63% (and make profits not only negative, but hugely negative) and increase the patient load? You think that's going to fly? You're out of your fucking mind! No one in the US system will accept that other than patients and taxpayers, and they have zero say in how this plays out. The US will freaking gun down taxpayers in the name of "saving" healthcare for them, meaning preserving the current cost structure.The healthcare system here exists to generate revenue and profits.
If they did implement the British system, it would be all the of revenue collection parts, and then something would "break" on the healthcare delivery side. Five years down the road there'd be a fix-it bill passed with more revenue collection -- which is precisely what Obamacare is. The system will stay broken. The industry depends on it being broken.
There is an outright feeding frenzy taking place as the US slowly collapses. None of the healthcare discussions are about fixing anything, it's just one more industry segment grabbing dollars, just like the war mongers looting the treasury for weapons systems, local governments fighting for pension dollars, the list goes on.
There's virtually no difference between the sickcare lobby and the MIC in end goals or means to attain them, they're just competiting over the same money while trying to maximize profits and deliver as little as possible to do so.
You're watching an empire collapse. This isn't something that gets fixed moving monetary deck chairs from the war side to the sick care side of the Titanic. No, indeed, there's people cutting pieces from the side of the hole in the ship, making the hole even bigger, and selling those parts for chump-change for recycling money.
You are correct. US hospitals could cut their costs in half tomorrow IF THEY WANTED TO.
All they would have to do is have everyone check in with a nurse triage. If you have the flu or you want a pregnancy test, they send you next door to a pay first retail operation -- like a grocery store pharmacy. If you get out of an ambulance bleeding they whisk you thru to the EMC docs.
But they don't want to do this. They want to charge the federal gov $20,000 for illegals with minor problems. And the idiot gov doesn't give a crap because the rest of us are forced to pay.
Even Obama's corporatist health care system would have us living longer is we "Cut back a few hundred billion on war mongering and black projects" and presumably applied that money to health care. Other Western countries could also fend for themselves when it comes to keeping the Persian Gulf and South China Sea shipping lanes open.
When Vermont tried to roll out a more affordable single payer plan like those of Canadian provinces, ACA bureaucrats prevented Vermont from doing so unless it incorporated Obamacare thus making Vermont's plan unaffordable. Costs can't come down much if the lawyers, insurance companies, and big pharma are kept at the health care feeding trough.
What? Did you think those fancy war bureaucracies, militarized police, massive surveillance, government sanctioned monopolies, and otherwise huge governments where free? Safety by government is expensive. Very expensive, it could cost you your life.
Having insurance is one thing. Being able to use it is compleely different. I'm very lucky to have "good insurance". Only problem, I couldn't get a doctor to see me or in one case return a phone call. Started calling Monday afternoon ended up in ER Thursday morning, finally saw a doctor today.
Fu*k Obamacare.
Yeah, the truth is that most of us deal with some kind of rationed care.
Some places it is rationed by the government. For some it is rationed by their insurer and by ability to pay.
Have insurance too.
Had an issue, tried to see a specialist directly. They want you to be referred in by a primary care physician (didn't have one, we move a lot). This is with major medical, not a HMO or PPO.
Called to try and see a GP...no new patient appointments for 3-4 months.
Go to an urgent care center. We can't help you or give you a referral, you have to go to the emergency room and then they can refer you to a specialist.
Go to emergency room (not what I wanted at all) and finally got a reference in to see a specialist the next week.
As more 'boomers' become eligible for Medicare, currently $105 a month, vs. Oblowmecare, at anywhere from $600 plus a month(without any subsidy) guess what, Oblowmecare implodes.
The young won't pay these ridculous rates or the fine since many are out of work. I give the current edition of the UNACA 2-3 years at the most and I'm being generous.
The "boomers" were the ones who said trust no one over 30. Now they want everyone under 30 not only to trust them but to wash their ass
Completely trusting anyone would be your and their biggest mistake. As far as washing their asses - I'll take a pass.
We ObamaCARED some folks.....whoops....my bad
LOSERS!
I've already looked at the new plans. I even lost my last insurer, because they pulled out. Mine are a little less.
Sure would be useful to have a legit, set in stone list of the top, say, 1000 people that need to be horizontalized in order to get this goddamn society sane again.
We could get the house in order in under a week.
Here ya go:
http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/
Any such list not topped by Rothschilds is not to be heeded.
Thers a whole other group of billionaires out there,that don't want,or
pay to stay off that list. I'm keeping my own.
Most members of CONgress are on that billionaire list.
Just walk away folks.
YOU HAVE GOT TO FUNNING ME. The premiums are so high it is an eforced monopoly tax. There is no other G8 country with decades of medical care that has any premium even close. How can a couple (retired) afford over $2000/month on a "roll of the dice I am going to need more than a bandaid" medical.
This is insane.
And for all the criticisms of national health systems throughout the world not one of the systems comes close to the monopolized money transfer to private insurers and doctors/hospitals (all for profit).
Obamacare will never ever ever ever work if multiple insurers write the rules and set the premiums. No way. US will watch this fail slowly as people cannot afford premiums. There is no way a private for-profit insurer is ever going to have any real concern to standard of care. price of drugs or controlling the cost of any procedure.
Check out the 5 or 6 healthcare ministries. The oldest has been around for 35 years. ACA compliant. They are not for everyone but many people are flocking to them.
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
Yet Amerika is surely going to elect Obiwan's chosen replacement, and we will get more Obicare shoved down our throats .... Who the abandon the money you forfeit if you don't have an Obicare plan?
@HalinCA
"Yet Amerika is surely going to elect Obiwan's chosen replacement, and we will get more Obicare shoved down our throats"
Yes, absolutely, however it is by design, not by chance. Some more things will change also.
The NRA will fall. It’s inevitable. Just look at the demographics. The Washington Post, October 19, 2015
by Adam Winkler professor at UCLA School of Law
See also:
Jews and Jewish organizations lead the gun control campaign
Jews and Gun Control: A Reprise by Andrew Joyce, Ph.D.
"are expected to grow to 30 percent of the population in the coming decades"
Just FYI, this guy's entire premise is that political beliefs stay static for decades, and that the US and the NRA will both be around that long.
In 30 years people's beliefs and the political configuration/boundaries of the US will be so different Mr. Winkler's brain will break. I don't have a whole lot of doubt that there will be no NRA in the country of California -- it, and free speech will be banned by decree -- but no one will want to go to that third-world shithole in 30 years either.
That's the best part too, they vote big government until it all goes to shit, and then move on to the next free society and do it all over again.
For god's sakes just stop voting big government people. Don't screw up my home bc yours is a mess.
You mean now we are all suffering high premiums? Yay Socialism!
If there was one person I would go back in time and kill it would be Karl Marx. The man has caused more problems and death with his ideology than even the Nazis.
How does the concept of corporations writing legislation that they profit from equate to socialism?
Or are you saying that the corporations are in fact the government? Because there's a different word, for that.
Give me an F!
people who favor the big HMOs and ungodly rate raises are Socailists-the difference is they want Socailism for the big companies and huge bills for the ratepayers. Corporate Socailism
These HMOs want to be paid with OPM-Other Peoples Money-and you are a captive
Sorry, "Corporate Socialism" is nothing but a euphemism for Fascism, invented for propaganda purpose, the target being the old and dumb who only know that socialism/marxism/communism is BAD and "Fascism" is something that "just can't happen here". It's absurd and oxymoronic to speak of it as an actual societal phenomenon, Socialism by definition is "for the people". The problem is that this country's "people" are so brainwashed that they see corporations as persons too, so another "term" had to be invented to assuage their latent confusion.
What an absolutely bleak, we-are-so-fucked scenario.
my 2016 increase was 56%. i haven't had so much as a sniffle in ten years. i am dropping that shit dec. 31. this economy is going to crash so fucking hard over the next five years it will be breathtaking. basically owebomba took away my health coverage and simultaneously made me pay for someone else's via the tax hit. well played.
Why drop it dec 31? Just hold on through Dec and if you don't get sick don't pay for Dec...you have until Jan 15 to pay for Dec.....save yourself a month....that's what I am going to do with my 30% increase.
The whole thing is a fucking protection racket, worthy of the mob.
Pay for an insurance policy, or get a hospital bill that's jacked up to outer space. Everyone needs insurance if only to get the real prices if something goes wrong, or you get in an accident.
Fully ONE THIRD of our gross paycheck goes to "health care" sic
"Affordable Care Act", no Zio-Marxist-Capitalist SWINDLE.
But hey we White goys are here to serve, right?
$3 Trillion
We could have insurance for the productive if...
The current Unaffordable Care Act isn't workable...Insurance Scumpanies are making a profit at the expense of the middle and working class. They're balancing, as always, any losses they might absorb from the takers on one hand onto the backs of the middle. Always been this way, now it's worse since we're forced to buy this at the point of the IRS bayonet.
This is what I am likely to do since I am part of the gig economy and stuck in the individual market. It is ACA compliant. It looks dramatically cheaper for me in total costs since I don't qualify for subsidy. Check it out.
http://www.libertyhealthshare.org
Not that they are good for anything, but how many Republicrats voted for this bill? I believe the answer was "0". They at least have known this bill was a piece of crap from the get go and have voted nearly 80 times to rescind it. I wonder what will happen now that the TBTF insurance companies are getting hit in the bottom line.
I hope the fed goes and raises interest rates. It should damn near kill this country next year. Just sayin'
if you cant make the premiums they hand you off to medicaid, where they attach whats left of your assets. i think that was the plan all along, collect the premiums then dump the customer off on the government when he or she couldnt pay. then the government sells your house to get their pound of flesh, never free and never easy
Medicaid is INCOME based and not asset based.
You can own a house, car stocks etc. But if your income qualifies you can get medicaid.
nope. If you need hospital care they have a claim on your retirement funds.
Texas Health and Human Services
Medicaid for the Elderly and People with Disabilities Handbook
Chapter F. Resources
http://www.dads.state.tx.us/handbooks/Mepd/F/index.htm
You may also enjoy perusing Chapter I. Transfer of Assets.
The investigation lookback period is 60 months.
http://www.dads.state.tx.us/handbooks/Mepd/I/index.htm
Fascism.
Gotta love it.
Neo Marxism, neo-liberalism...this isn't fascism. They're not that competent.
Obviously you've never actually studied the history of the original Fascists/Nazis. Their reputation for efficiency is grossly undeserved.
ObamaCare works in 3's. 3 hours to find a doctor. 3 hours filling out paperwork to send them. 3 weeks waiting for an appointment. 3 hours in the waiting room. 3 minutes with a doctor. $300 billed to insurance just to get a foot fungus cream prescribed. 3 hours on the phone with customer service trying to get them to pay the bill.
Whyever did you go through all that? You can buy several foot fungus creams OTC, without even going to the bother of placing a black-market order through the internet or researching effective non-pharmaceutical remedies.
Americans need to learn to be a LITTLE more self-sufficient medically. Doctors are not magical beings endowed with super powers, and at least 50% of what they claim a monopoly on can be done quicker and more easily without their interference.
The internet is your friend. The internet also is your doctor's friend. Seriously.
Death is preferable to life under Obummercare.
Power to the corporations!
Too bad for you little people!
You have two choices - Come up with the money or DIE !!
There are other options. Go off grid, don't play a game where they change the rules.
an old National Lampoon comic showed what would happen if we became "Socailist"
The panels regarding healthcare:
Sick looking patient with evil 'Soviet' looking doctor in a gross prehistoric doctors office:
"Take 2 of these until morning-if no improvement-DIE! ha ha ha!"
Right outside the office window was a big container trailer truck labled: "PLACEBOS" with a line of waiting sickly people who had just filed out of the (guarded) doctors office
Hey America!
You voted for it, you got it!
Enjoy!
:)
Squid
Our family was nailed with the ObamaCareLess hikes when the law first came into effect (2012-2013). Two notables in my family couldn't understand what we were speaking of because their employers (Bank A & Bank B) absorbed the increase in costs each year so far; so everything was awesome for them.
Since I a disabled (unmitigated widespread pain with no relief till death do us part) we have to use the "insurance"; meanwhile our premiums have tripled and the high deductibles are ridiculous. I am now forced to forgo most treatments that gave a measure of relief; one treatment mitigated migraines effectively and now I am going to be forced to drive 40 minutes each way in order to continue treatment; so I can't keep my doctor. No more prescription discounts with these plans either. Furthermore, the cost of insurance eats up literally 80% of all disability and I am not the only one in that predicament.
Who gives a shit? No one.
Crocodile don't know if this could help you, but worth a shot.
Kratom
http://www.sagewisdom.org/kratomguide.html
Golden Paste
http://www.turmericlife.com.au/turmeric-recipes-golden-paste/
Spinal Cord Stimulator
http://www.spine-health.com/video/spinal-cord-stimulator-implant-video
Someone needs a lead suppository. I think far too many of us are waiting for the party to get started.
You should look carefully at Bernie Sanders' proposal of "Medicare for all". Shifting to a government-run single-payer tax-based system would allow everyone to get the care they needed at reasonable prices by putting the screws on profiteering, cutting out administrative costs (roughly 40% at last count) and spreading treatment costs via community rates. It would also end the social costs of medical bankruptcy and job indenture for need of medical insurance.
"Cutting administrative costs"-- since when, in the history of the planet, has government intervention EVER lowered administrative costs for ANYTHING?
Go sell crazy somewhere else.
Exactly, but the end goal is to inflict more pain and control through government controlled single-payer system and people will ask for it because of the intended pain of the current plan. The good and bad news is that everyone ho is apart of this fraud cannot escape both death and the Judge of all the world.
who the hell would downvote kicking the living shit out of the big HMOs?
nobody in their right mind
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
Try contacting these 5 or 6 healthcare ministries. You talk to an American human and maybe they can help. They are so much better than United Healthcare, Blue Cross, Aetna and Humana (they wrote the healthcare bill.
They do seem to give a sh*t too.
I can see why you turned to religion
What is religion? A set of moral values one claims to guide their behavior and often violate when convenient and change with the winds of culture and impose on others either directly or indirectly. People use their religion with an emotional bias and substitute it as logic and reason; it is why you made that comment..your fallacious logic was manifested by your religion.
I came into a relationship with our Creator who is Jesus Christ; a relationship based on forgiveness and love. Religion, whether formal or informal, such as yours, is man at his worst. Only the Holy Spirit can take a spiritual and damned soul and resurrect it to spiritual life in Christ. In fact salvation is so difficult that only God can accomplish it. You will prefer to die separated from your Creator rather than to see you for you really are a sinner in need of forgiveness. As it is written; people work their way into hell, God jut provides the holding cell since we are eternal beings.
I was not seeking physical relief by coming to Christ; He came to me prior to ALL my issues. If anything; the fact that I am where I am would drive a person away from God because a false Christian would "say God; you have the capacity to heal me and because you chose not to, then I chose not to follow or believe you" and then walk away. (AKA: apostate) It is the opposite of human reason, but God has said the message is foolishness to those who are perishing; I assume you do not know the gospel ad if you did I suspect you would agree with God and say that is foolishness. God coming in the likeness of human flesh and allowing Himself to die so others would not have to pay the penalty for their disobedience to their Creator who is Just and cannot allow lawbreakers to walk away. We, as humans, get pissed when we see an unjust judge...God is not unjust and that is going to be a real problem for so many because their pride and arrogance prevents them from seeing the truth of their sin-problem; they can see it in everyone else and in the world (the evidence), but can't see it in themselves.
No person can convert another to Jesus; that is the work of God as ANY and ALL believers will have the same testimony and in in accordance with the teaching throughout the Scripture. I pray that God will reveal Himself to you that you will have the peace that all people desire and never find, for it is bound up in that relationship of reconciliation with Jesus.
What do you expect from a president that comes from Chicago?
A bankrupt city produces a bankrupt president.
the STRAUSSIAN school of economics, UC--NeCON style
Every other developed nation has healthcare figured out.
What's with you Americans.
The Chicago School of Economics. Worship at the altar of theories that were self-serving delusions two centuries ago, applied to services that have been proven over two MILLENIA of human history to respond very badly to profit-motivated systems.
Americans are for the most part propagandized ignoramuses. It's in their genetic heritage.
every other developed industrial nation has the population of just one of our states. The only other countries with larger populations are China and India.
You want to go to India for healthcare? Go right the fuck ahead. It's easier to manage healthcare for one million than 20 million.
But hey, your such a fuckin' expert, you do it. That said, it worked better here before Bunghole and his shit for brains minions got their greasy mitts on it.
they knew it would fail and that is the whole point, to implement single payer eventually.
I most certainly hope so. You might be too young to recall, but the U.S. HAD a "single-payer" system when I was a child. It was called Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and was essentially the only form of health insurance, which was paid for by almost all full-time jobs (and part-time & temp jobs were the province of married women with plans through their husbands, or young women still carried by their parents). It worked, it used "community" pricing, everyone could get it without paying extra premiums for their medical histories, and pretty much everyone could afford it. Of course, it paid for NECESSARY care, not the smorgasbord of frivolous "care", unnecessary procedures, and self-referred diagnostics that patients expect (and doctors profit from) today.
A single-payer plan has sufficient leverage over the market to set prices and force providers to forego excessive profits. Notice the difference this makes in the price of procedures on elderly, vulnerable patients who pose the greatest challenges in medicine via Medicare, versus those same procedures paid for by private insurers for younger people with much lower risk of complications. Furthermore, a GOVERNMENT single-payer plan can cross off the risk-costs of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits with a stroke of the pen.
Study after study has shown that contracting out social services to private providers is the LEAST efficient way of handling them, except perhaps for contracting out the contract to MANAGE said providers to private, profit-seeking middleman. The U.S. pays double what our nearest competitors pay for a medical system which is inferior for all but the very wealthiest citizens. It's about time we quit genuflecting at the altar of Adam Smith and decided to solve our problem in a way that actually WORKS.
Go sell your statist bullshit elsewhere. Last time I checked, all the european welfare states had turned into third-world shitholes. It will be funny watching you trying to get your "free" healthcare under sharia law. Hope you like paying the jizya; it's better than having one's head cut off I suppose.
Price controls lead to shortages.
And the Good Old Days you speak of were when insurance was used for hospitalization and people paid there doctors in cash for an office visit, or better yet a house call.
A righteous man eats until he is satisfied, but the stomach of the wicked is empty. IOW - The wicked are never satisfied and their appetites are never ending.
Because it was written by congressional interns, edited by the insurance industry, presented as a con job on the American public, never read by the Congresspersons (all Democrats) who passed it, and never came to grips with the real issue, the cost and effectiveness of medical care, except to try to dictate How Things Would Be, basically making it illegal to get sick, and then making people pay thousands a month anyway.
A proud moment in American history.
My premiums are also skyrocketing.
I encourage ZH'ers to look into health care sharing ministry (HCSM) plans. It's a health care alternative that "counts" so you won't be fined
I have THE SOLUTION for healthcare. First all providers must list 2-4k procedures and their prices. Second, all insurance companies must list payouts for these procedures and their premiums. The patient is always paid directly, and gets to keep any difference.
Boom! end of problem!
this would actually take us a long way. Shed a little sunlight on the pricing.
Here's some pricing for you. They take cold, hard cash. Leave your Obamacare at home.
http://surgerycenterok.com/pricing/
Obamacare is basically a fascist construct. Mussolini would not have designed it differently himself.
A highly controlled and regulated government market. Every citizen is forced to buy the product on offer. Specially-connected private players are allowed to participate in the oligopoly, and make a minimal profit with government protection. In turn, they fully support the government party’s political and policy aims.
##### SCAM ALERT #####
##### SCAM ALERT #####
##### SCAM ALERT #####
These sickness insurance companies know exactly what they're doing. They purposely maximize inefficiency and play every accounting trick in the book to show losses. This lets them raise premiums and fees egregiously. Since premiums and fees never fall, they lock-in these higher premiums and fees... which is free revenue.
They will find plenty of ways to distribute the unearned revenue to executives and high level employees without triggering lower premiums and fees. That is one of the most developed skills of companies that operate within areas massively controlled by government regulations.
Human predators are feasting on producers with no restraint whatsoever. Until producers refuse to comply and/or exterminate the predators, they are abject prey.
Wake up! At the very least, do not participate. Better yet, get the hell outta dodge.
You are correct & here is what the market reveals as proof; add the S&P 500 for comparison and you will see that Healthcare companies are outpacing the S&P since ObamaCare. Pull up a chart from the links below, click 5 year and then add S&P 500 for comparison and note the separation when the "Affordable Healthcare Act" came into play.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=IHF+Interactive#{%22rsiLineColor%22:%22#38761d%22,%22rsiLineWidth%22:%222%22,%22stochKLineColor%22:%22#000000%22,%22stochDLineColor%22:%22#cc0000%22,%22stochDLineWidth%22:%222%22,%22range%22:%225y%22,%22allowChartStacking%22:true}
(Healthcare providers-above)
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=IHE+Interactive#{%22rsiLineColor%22:%22#38761d%22,%22rsiLineWidth%22:%222%22,%22stochKLineColor%22:%22#000000%22,%22stochDLineColor%22:%22#cc0000%22,%22stochDLineWidth%22:%222%22,%22range%22:%225y%22,%22allowChartStacking%22:true}
(Pharmaceutical Companies-above)
***The idea is to assist in the dismantling of the formidable barrier to the NWO, the American Middle-class and they will succeed and are succeeding. They will eventually get to the desired result and people will scream for it; the single-payer system. Problem-Reaction-Solution; whereby the Problem is created by the people with the Solution and use the media propaganda machine to obtain the desired reaction.
The only way to avoid that outcome is to convince producers to exterminate human predators... OR... convince them that "mainstream healthcare" is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
The sad fact is, mainstream healthcare IS extremely dangerous. The only thing possibly more dangerous is for individuals to perform zero research into what is a healthy lifestyle, what is healthy food, what is healthy environment, what natural herbs/spices/substances promote health or cure disease... AND the few mainstream medicines that may help in the limited number of specific situations where no natural substance works [well enough]. This might include antibiotics (when none of the natural antibiotics work on the specific bacteria growing in your body), and strong pain-killers (when something so horrendous happened to you that you'd rather die than continue to suffer the pain), and a few other cases.
I have told my personal experiences here in ZH before, and several others have replied to add their experiences, which are similar. The "mainstream healthcare" system killed two of my friends (and I've only had a few, being an extreme non-social hermit-type), they tried to kill me (and would have succeeded if I had not diagnosed and cured my problem while in extreme agony on my deathbed), and perhaps worst of all, misdirect almost everyone away from healthy lifestyle and beneficial natural substances and towards endless seriously awful artificial substances.
Note that not every "artificial substance" is "awful"... plus some beneficial substances aren't easy to classify as being in either category (like H2O2 for example). But today, almost all drug companies purposely only develop drugs that must be taken for the rest of the patients life! They actually brag about this in their annual reports! So they clearly admit they have ZERO interest in curing anyone, but instead only in maximizing their revenue and profits. Since they admit this, one should not be surprised they also purposely take actions that make people sick and give people diseases.
-----
The cure for "mainstream medicine" is... NEVER VISIT THEM AGAIN. I haven't for years, and am much more successful staying healthy by means of my own research and actions. I suppose if I was to seriously break bones or get stabbed or shot with a gun, I might go see a surgeon. Otherwise, I'll do without. Which also means, I absolutely refuse to pay for "mainstream healthcare", just as I refuse to pay other predators intent on harming and enslaving me.
BTW, find and watch a few dozen videos by Dr. Glidden on the internet. He is a naturopathic doctor who gives what mostly seems like good advice. But he is far from sufficient... much reading and research for natural health and natural curers is necessary to know how to stay healthy, and cure yourself from whatever problems may arise on rare occasion (rare because living wisely and naturally means you rarely suffer from any serious condition).
You hit the nail on the head, Ann. Insurance companies are just middlemen, and middlemen make money by marking up costs. Now that the government has their back, the middlemen can raise costs as much as they want, and the consumer HAS to pay whatever price they ask.
It's just like the defense contracting scam. "Cost-plus" contracts don't make money unless you can figure out ways to jack up the costs to the biggest number possible. It's all about looting the taxpayer.
And super positive for GDP, sarc.
Seems like a transfer of wealth from people to big government and the pharmaceutical companies.
If you want a good stock tip, buy the companies that make duct tape and baling wire. The amount that will be needed to keep this country from disintegrating before the magic negro leaves office will be epic
STOP PAYING!!!!!!!
Pay even more for a plan you will never willingly use because you are disincentivized to seek primary care due to ridiculous deductibles. Oh but you will use it, and how! - after you are found unresponsive in a diabetic coma or riddled with cancer, costing your co-insureds and the taxpayer the maximum.
Winning.
Layoffs are going to be epic next year.
Old school doctors are dropping off the list of physicians. I really think the NSA provided political affiliations and voting patterns to accomplish this. Doctors tend to need to live in communities for a lifetime to gain reputations for referrals. Finding a new job as a physician at 50 would mean being a locum tenens (substitute for vacationing physicians). I can see everyone is completely caught off guard by this purge.
Check out healthcare ministries. More and more people are along with doctors.
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
They work how real insurance is supposed to work. They are also ACA compliant.
The USSA govt is totally corrupt.
This is by design, just a step on the road to a one-payer system.
Single pay with large deductible seems like the answer to me. We all buy gas and food. Make everyone have skin in the game for healthcare as well.
I got news for everyone.
You better start to reorganize your assets and income AND start the methodical process of actually JOINING the official indigent class - the proletariat.
Hillary and Google will win the next election. The Democrats of today will evolve into the National Socialist Party of the future.
The only escape will be one of the hundreds of millions that are on the dole.
Citizenship means nothing under this paradigm. It's you and the elderly up against an army of hobos from Timbuktu.
The hobos are winning.
You will need a physical residence in a bad zipcode, state ID and a bank account with less than $700 balance at all times for the last three months.
Sign up for all the county housing, Obamaphone, food stamps, and state medicare programs you can.
Consider this an Eagle Scout Project for your family's survival.
Consider this exit/enter plan as your insurance policy because even with cracker-jack insurance with insanely unaffordable premiums you will still struggle to actually receive care in a timely fashion.
Obamacare is a private tax enforced by deep-staters run amok.
The only way to financially survive the future is to be unable to afford it.
Like Trump says, use the laws to our advantage.
How do 401K’s and etc.s factor in?
That is, can one go on EBT if one has a 401K account but less than 59.5?
And how does a person shield their assets like the Kennedy’s?
That is, some of us may have paid off houses. How do we shield this ‘asset’ into a trust, yet still qualify for the EBT?
The Republicans are not doing anything to stop it in between them jumping up and down giving standing ovations to Bibi or Porky Porshenko and other dual shit-i-zen scum.
The Jonathan Pollard "conseravtives" and Neo cons over at Free Republic love TPP/TPA and H-1B plus Goldman Sachs Ted Cruz. Free Republic - they must not have ever read what the Framers said about armies and empires cause they slobber over The Pentagram and MIC.
My bcbs hsa went up $4 per month. Deductbles stayed same, out of pocket limit raised by 1k.
No complaints from me for a change.
BC/BS is discontinuing the PPOs in this area. HMO plans will be available for about $5/month more.
Don't want to even think about how hard it may become to ever get in with a primary care provider if the PPO and traditional plans are pulled from an area.
Not worth it.
The Health Saving plans are what they are trying to get you to because it's basiclly a high deductible plan where you pay out of pocket (though it's actually out of money in savings) up to deductible. You have catastrophic coverage and the money you put in to the HSA can be invested and builds up over your lifetime for use to pay for medicare supplemental and other health related costs. If you want to go to the doctor for every sniffle, then you won't have much savings. If you only go when necessary you'll build up savings, and for meds you get the bcbs negotiated price. The money you pay for meds comes out of the deductible, so if you have a high cost prescription you will pay the first 3k out of the HSA savings for example, but then it is covered.
When this law came into effect and Obama changed the rules after it was law. To keep the public from the terror that it is finacially ,for the 2012 elections.Now before the asshole is out of office this is coming home to roost.The problem is the Rinos are now going back on there word to get rid of this evil federal non freedom to choose crap.Total proof the federal government doesnt care about people.The sooner it falls the better.
Monthly expiring health put derivative.
If you don't work you don't pay. Isn't graduated theft unconstitutional, Winston?
The non-producers outnumber the producers.
Doesn't take a GED.
Euthanasia is the only answer.
Don't worry. Jeb will fix it.
OOPS. Game over Jeb!
I am not paying fuck them !and for the fine fuck them! change you deductions they can't do anything to you only hold any refund ...
I'm not buying this line of horseshit. We spend at least 50% more on healthcare in the U.S. than other developed nations, and most of the difference is the "for profit" part. They're not losing money fer sure on this side of reality.
That's because Americans don't pay their healthcare bills, their insurance companies do. So what was our solution: FORCE more Americans into the opaque Insurance pricing model. Brilliant!!!
Meanwhile over at the Oklahoma Surgery Center the prices are usually %50-%80 less
http://surgerycenterok.com/pricing/
(No insurance accepted, but they'll help you file your claim)
The “official” US interest rate for 2015 is < 1%.
you will bow down to the predatory fed. or you will be eaten.
imagine the US federal government as the ultimate predator. you better run.
You're too late ... mine already did. Medical Insurance through the roof.
Wanna know my unique solution? Coverage from a deadbeat third world country that can't afford to pay its debts to the IMF. YEAH BUT ... their doctors are pretty good and health care is practical and affordable.
THE PROBLEM IS AMERICA - Unable to simplify, unable to cut the scammers out of the system.
The monthly surveys I do of hospital emergency room suggest an incremental # of ACA-exchange insured patients that used to contribute to hospital bad debt. These patients ARE sicker than private insurance patients, thus more expensive. It makes sense that the non-profit exchanges offering Preezycare are going BK, while the hospitals are doing MUCH better financially. This is temporary, tho. The future is lowest common denominator care provided @ Medicaid reimbursement rates than few good docs or hospitals will accept. Several options exist, including .gov using their control of the TBTF banks to acquire the health insurance providers (then they could simply print and pretend), or CMS (Medicare) taking an ugly stick to reimbursement rates, and thus creating downward pressure on healthcare professional wages, drug/device prices, and facility fees. Something's gotta give, tho. If you look @ a hospital's cost structure, largest is wages, than drugs/devices/technology/supplies. Very soon, investors are going to want to get underweight US healthcare.
Healthcare is extremely expensive doing it they way we are in the US
I say cut back all the fancy stuff unless you have the funds to pay for it
Give us just basic care
Right now we pay for some real expensive care for people who care less about complying with their medical care.
I realize that is only a part of the problem
But as an ICU RN for over 25 years, most of us are pretty disgusted with the system
It ain't cheap being in ICU for 2 weeks are more cause you are withdrawing from some drug and are on a vent, and swinging at your healthcare workers with a sucker punch
That was my patient 8 weeks ago lol. I try to avoid ICU's but I hear that happens a lot. Most problems are self inflicted
I do a lot of international healthcare survey work. Just like with drugs, devices/equipment and skilled healthcare labor are multiples more expensive in the US than international geographies. The same heart stent is 33% as expensive in Germany as in the US. That same stent is 50-65% of the German price if it is sold into India. Skilled labor is similarly overpriced in the US. Some of it is litigation, but most of this difference is merely the product manufacturers pricing to the consumers ability to pay. That's why medical tourism (US residents heading abroad for therapy) is growing >20% annually (by patient volume).
When I started work as a brand new RN in 1980 at one of the big hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, the Dutch had just instituted their national medical care system. This was back in the day before stents. The Dutch needed to build out their facilities and hire cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons to meet the sudden demand. In the interim, the Dutch govt contracted with our hospital and with a hospital in England for heart surgeries. They would try to direct the greater number of the patients according to the exchange rate. Every two weeks or so, their government would send an airplane with 50+ patients and their spouses. Some of the patients arrived with almost a complete workup. Some needed heart caths. There were two floors devoted to the Dutch, but often the presurgery patients would end up on our OB floor because OB/Gyn was considered a "clean" service.
The census was rather amazing that summer. The admissions office called local patients and postponed elective surgeries. That happened just about the day that some of the doctors had to make preop rounds at the Holiday Inn across the street where the hospital had gotten a block of rooms for out-of-town patients who were going through their preop tests and exams.
Later, I spent 3+ years working in a neurotrauma ICU. I can testify to the bad histories of some of our most expensive patients. There is something about being intentionally run over -twice - that does bad things for ones health.
Also, being too career-minded as a bouncer and tackling the hood of a moving vehicle can have ill effects. That one liked to swear and take swings at one of the 5 ft tall female nurses. His behavior mysteriously changed after the 6'1" male charge nurse pulled the curtain around that bed, put a hand on the guy's chest, and offered in colorful language to meet up to go mano a mano after the guy was discharged. In the meantime, the suggestion was to behave and get well. The behavior took a miraculous turn for the better.
Obamacare was written by the ig farben insurance companies.
When you go shopping you can get a two fer. If you enroll in or have Cigna insurance, you can now put money to the bottom line of two insurance companies, Cigna and United Healthcare. The United Healthcare subsidiary pharmacy benefit manager is the PBM for Cigna folks, locked in for another 8 years of a 10 year contract. In addition, you can also help support the buy backs of both companies, both on the S & P 500.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/10/if-you-are-insured-by-cigna-guess-what.html
If that's not enough, get a Health Savings Account with the United/Optum bank, a full custodial bank complete with ex CEO of Fidelity sitting on the board of United Heatlhgroup. HealthEquity is another shadow bank operation with health savings account complete with a couple former United/Optum officers working there. The kicker here is the marketing to move your money to mutual funds as soon as you hit a $2100 balance and of course you lose your FDIC status when you do that.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/10/united-healthcare-owns-bank-optum-bank.html
So there you go, another "bank" you have probably never heard of, and yes they will also give you a MasterCard to get more data to sell and help you empty out the account, all of this with fees of course.
p.o box 271629 salt lake city utah 84127-1629 member fdic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PtjxbWJIoY
Depressing as hell. But I consider your site a must stop in my quest to keep an eye on the enemy.
"... which incidentally also explain why all those touted "gas savings" failed to materialize in discretionary spending behavior: all of the "saved" money went to cover rising health insurance costs."
Economists Stunned By "Irrational Consumers" Who Used Gas Savings To Buy More Expensive Gas (???)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-20/economists-stunned-irrational-c...
But I am a bit confused here because where did the gas savings go to, health insurance or more gas?
Paying down debt?
Well.. WHAT YOU EXPECT WITH OBAMACARE?
People article
http://www.budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/2012/3/presiden...
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/9162-obamacare%E2%...$17-trillion-unfunded-liability
CBO article
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/50250
Only shithead looser think this is a good idea.
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Next your health care system is how should i put it.....??? SHITS!!
I'm in the medical business. That's all you need to know.
You know YOUR DRUGS COST? For the famous drugs? 60% cost is for PROMOTIONS!! For un-famous drugs? that number goes to 80%!!
Why do you think doctors can go vacations to Hawai, Disneylands, carribeans twice a year?? Have you seen the "doc's/nurses score cards" held by pharmacy representatives??
Bwahahahahaha.. stupid americans.
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THAT'S WHY.... your blood pressure medication cost 220$ in US, cost 4.5$ at my country. For 30 days supplies. The other? cost 1.5$/box (100 pils/3x daily/1 month supplies).
My Mandatory National Insurance? (All coverage, nationally, incl. Chronic & Previously Known Desease) Cost 4.5$ (1st class in hospital bed choices. The drugs/treatment ALL the same coverages, no matter what bed choices you choose), 3.5$ (2nd class), 2.5$ (3rd class).
Why do you think many expat's now retires in my country?? People from Netherlands, AUS, Jap's, Koreans, Chinese..
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Bwahahahahahaha...
It's a tax. What the fuck do you people expect? Seriously.
Got our notice today....great timing Zero....up 18.7% with Blue Cross. 20 years we have been with them and never anything more than a check up every 18 months.....its a travesty of rape and pillage.
You just know that when the Congress critters write a new law, the name of the law will be the complete opposite of what you'll get.
Hence the name, the Affordable Care Act. I recently thought, 'Surely, it must be from the same folks who brought us the USA Patriot Act.'
And it appears I was somewhat correct. According to WashingtonsBlog.com, Joe Biden drafted the core part of the Patriot Act: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/12/joe-biden-drafted-the-core-of-the...
Voted for it? Ya dumb bastards.
If the law were such that you can put money away in an trust, which only you control and buy catastrophic health insurance like a $20000 deductable and use the remaining money to pay for health expenses out of pocket that would have been a great law.
The law would only need to require all health care providers to make a public price list for the costs of procedures etc. that they regularly perform.
I have done this for my employees. They get money in trust and there are many now who have been around for 15 years of so and have in excess of $70,000 in their accounts. In the days before the FED started stealing from savers to finance the 1% that would have gotten 6% interest and would pay for all health care expenses and still allow their fund to grow.
Instead, Traitorcare is nothing more than welfare for insurance companies and a great reason for the medical profession to increase their costs. Amazingly, paying for one's health care in cash gets you a pretty good discount for services and provides grerat incentive for shopping around.
One employee needed a blood test for pregnancy and she gots quotes from $780 all the way down to $65, which happened to be the source lab that does all the tests for everyone in the area including all the high priced bozos.We keep a list of providers in the area and what costs have been paid in cash by our employees and things are really cheap when you know where to go.
Keeping the insurance company in the equation except for serious medical problems allows higher prices and wastes 40% for insurance company margins. Plus doctors then need to hire extra employess to fight with insurance companies for payement increasing costs again for the person who has to pay.
But it is great for raising $1 billion to finance a Presidential campaign.
For those of you who elected Obama bin Laden hope you like you parent's basement because that is as good as it is every going to get.
You are essentially describing a health savings plan, which is likely already available to you.
Hey! Look here! No! Look over there! No! Look over here!
You guys think this is something? You just wait. See what happens when they pass this Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal...
"A bill for $100,000 in every pot and a Martin Shkreli in every garage."
It's getting more and more cheaper to put a gun to your head and shoot yourself