CBO: Repealing Obamacare would boost economic growth

[Valin]

@WestVirginiaRebel

 

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Americans Pay IRS Penalty to Escape From ObamaCare

 

Even the New York Times is conceding that the huge number of Americans willing to pay a special tax to escape from ObamaCare is newsworthy, although the paper tries to sugar-coat the bad news as much as possible:

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

Tuesday, February 02, 2016 Anybody going to apologize to the Tea Party?

From the Hill:

Aetna's chairman and CEO said Monday that the country's third-largest health insurer had “serious concerns” about the sustainability of ObamaCare’s marketplaces.

 

“We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges,” Mark Bertolini said on an earnings call Monday, according to prepared remarks.

 

He said the company remained concerned about “the overall stability of the risk pool.”

 

Many insurers, including Aetna, have been losing money on the ObamaCare marketplaces, also known as exchanges, in part because of a sicker and more costly mix of enrollees, known as the “risk pool.”

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2016/02/anybody-going-to-apologize-to-tea-party.html?spref=tw

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Now she tells us:
Hillary Clinton says single payer will never happen

But:

Hillary Clinton: 1994 statement on single payer

[Valin]

Remember when it was said As the American people find out more about the Affordable Care Act they will like it? Well Not So Much

[Geee]

How Much Are Obamacare Deductibles Up in Your State? Find Out Here

 

http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/07/how-much-are-obamacare-deductibles-up-in-your-state-find-out-here/

[Geee]

GOV’T GREED: Docs, Hospitals May Go Unpaid In Co-Op Flops

 

Federal health officials are seeking to deny medical reimbursements to doctors and hospitals that have served patients insured by failed Obamacare health insurance co-ops, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

Instead, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are insisting it, not medical providers, has the first right to any remaining funds as 12 of the 24 co-ops go through the liquidation process.

A legal showdown is expected over who pays for the co-op debacle that to date has lost at least $1.4 billion in federal solvency loans. The failures have forced the cancellation of health insurance policies for at least 800,000 customers.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/09/govt-greed-docs-hospitals-may-go-unpaid-in-co-op-flops/

[Valin]

NPR and Harvard Say: Obamacare Is a Complete Failure
John Hinderaker
March 9, 2016

National Public Radio collaborated with Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to survey Americans’ recent experience with health care. As to the Affordable Care Act, the survey’s findings are damning. They suggest that Obamacare has been worse than a complete waste of money.

This is the survey’s only question directly on Obamacare. Most respondents say that Obamacare hasn’t affected them; where it has affected them, most say the law’s impact has been harmful:




The promises that President Obama made about the ACA–cheaper premiums! lower co-pays and deductibles! better coverage!–have completely failed to materialize. This isn’t a surprise, of course, but it is nice to see it so copiously documented:

 

 

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

ObamaCare Will Cost $136 Bil More, Cover Fewer People Than We Thought, CBO Says

Health Reform: ObamaCare has been taking lots of hits lately, but a new report from the Congressional Budget Office is a gut punch. It shows that ObamaCare’s outlook has worsened considerably as fewer people sign up and costs rise more than expected.

 

To little fanfare and virtually no media coverage, the Congressional Budget Office sharply downgraded its forecast for ObamaCare in its latest report, issued in late March. By just about every measure, things are looking worse than they did a year ago.

 

EDIT3-ch-040816First, the CBO has cut enrollment goals for the ObamaCare exchanges. Its March 2015 report projected that enrollment would top out at 22 million. Now it puts the ceiling at 18 million. And given ObamaCare’s track record so far, even that’s optimistic.

 

 

Lower enrollment numbers should mean lower taxpayer costs, since fewer people will be getting taxpayer-subsidized insurance. But higher-than-expected insurance subsidies are soaking up much of those savings.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obamacare-will-cost-136-bill-more-cover-less-than-we-thought-cbo-says/

[Geee]

Under ObamaCare, Insurers Are Losing Money On A Product People Must Buy

 

Health Reform: ObamaCare requires people to buy insurance, but UnitedHealth Group is losing so much money it’s exiting two states, and eight co-ops are on the brink. This is your health care on government.

 

The good news just keeps on rolling in for ObamaCare.

 

A few days after the Congressional Budget Office issued a serious downgrade of the law’s future, UnitedHealth (UNH) announced it was pulling out of ObamaCare in Georgia and Arkansas. That could be the first step toward the company’s abandoning ObamaCare entirely — something the insurer had warned that it would do after posting a $720 million loss last year. Some ObamaCare boosters have dismissed this as no big deal, since UnitedHealth isn’t a big player in the individual market.

 

But Blue Cross Blue Shield Companies are big players, and they’re getting hammered as well. A Fitch Ratings report earlier this year found that 16 of 23 had let losses in the first nine months of last year. Many others are reporting losses. Aetna says it posted losses of up to 4% last year on its ObamaCare plans. On and on it goes.

 

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/under-obamacare-insurers-are-losing-money-on-a-product-people-must-buy/

[Geee]

ObamaCare Suffers Three Major Blows In One Week

 

Health Reform: ObamaCare rates will skyrocket next year, according to its former chief. Enrollment is tumbling this year. And a big insurer is quitting most exchanges. That’s what we learned in just the past few days.

 

Marilyn Tavenner, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, revealed that she expects ObamaCare premium hikes “to be higher than we saw previous years,” including last year, which saw double-digit rate increases across the country.

 

Tavenner, for those who don’t know, was head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services until early 2015, which means she helped bring ObamaCare to life. In November 2014, she was boasting how “the Affordable Care Act is working to improve competition and choice among marketplace plans.”

 

Now that she’s jumped to the other side of the fence, she’s discovered the dark side of the health reform monster she helped unleash.

 

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obamacare-suffers-three-major-blows-in-one-week/

[Geee]

Are Democrats Bailing On ObamaCare, Too?

 

Health Care: “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” That was President Obama in a speech before Congress back in Sept. 2009, pitching the health reform plan he’d sign six months later.

 

It doesn’t look like he’s going to get his wish.

 

In the three-plus years since the ObamaCare exchanges opened, the law is teetering on the edge of the abyss. Enrollment is well below expectations, not enough young people are signing up, insurers are failing or dropping out of the program, and, by all appearances, premiums are set to spike even higher than last year.

 

Now a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released late last week shows that the public is far from satisfied with what Obama claimed was the be-all and end-all of reform.

 

Overall, just 38% have a favorable view of ObamaCare, which continues a more or less steady decline in approval since last summer. Fully 43% want the law either repealed or scaled back, while just 14% say that Congress should “move forward with implementing the law as it is.”

 

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/are-democrats-bailing-on-obamacare-too/

[WestVirginiaRebel]

She just doesn't understand how that could have happened:

Clinton responded, “What you’re saying is one of the real worries that we’re facing with the cost of health insurance because the costs are going up in a lot of markets — not all, but many markets. Right now, like with so many of these programs, there’s just a cut off instead of what I would like to see a kind of gradual diminishment.”

 

The former secretary of state went on to say she doesn’t think there should be any income figure that determines whether or not an individual is eligible for an Obamacare subsidy. Instead, Clinton suggested the government should be investigating out-of-pocket costs, like premiums and deductibles.

 

“But I mean that’s my point — It’s like what could have possibly raised your costs? And that’s what I don’t understand. We’ve got to pick that apart to really make sure we understand it,” a bewildered Clinton said.

[Geee]

Insurer Participation in Obamacare Exchanges Declined 27% Since Law Took Effect

 

Report predicts insurer participation will decline further in 2017

 

Insurer participation in the Obamacare exchanges has declined by 27 percent since the year before the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to a report from the Heritage Foundation.

 

Three hundred ninety-five insurers offered individual market coverage in 2013, just before the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to the report. That number dropped to 253 in 2014 and ticked up to 305 in 2015. The number of insurers dropped again to 287 in 2016, a decline of 27 percent from the 395 participating insurers in 2013.

 

“Another measure is to assess changes in insurer participation on a state-by state basis,” the report stated. “Relative to 2015, 45 percent of the states (22 states and the District of Columbia) have fewer insurers offering exchange coverage in 2016, while only 10 states have more insurers offering ACA exchange coverage.”

 

The report analyzed the number of unique carriers offering exchange coverage in one or more states over the years. “By that metric, insurer exchange participation not only declined in 2016, but also is now less than in 2014,” the report states. “At the national level, the number of carriers offering exchange coverage in one or more states was 154 in 2014, increasing to 155 in 2015, but declining to 137 in 2016.”

 

http://freebeacon.com/issues/insurer-participation-obamacare-exchanges-declined-27-since-aca-took-effect/

[Geee]

Barrasso: Obamacare Deductibles So High, No One Gets to Use the Insurance

 

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services insists that the Affordable Care Act not only expanded health insurance to many more Americans, but it also "made everyone's insurance better."

 

But some Republicans are asking, what good is the health insurance if sky-high deductibles mean you never get to use it?

 

The Democrats' Affordable Care Act is a mandate -- "not to get care, but to get coverage," Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on Tuesday.

 

"And many people are finding the coverage is not at all of value to them because they can't get care. Either...their doctors don't take Obamacare or the deductibles are so high that they're never able to get to the insurance," Barrasso told a news conference.

 

"The president may call this a victory for the American people. I think this is something the president should not be proud of at all."

 

Barrasso noted that on Wednesday, Healthcare.gov will start reporting the 2017 premium increases for Obamacare policies sold on the exchanges.

 

"The news is not good for the American public," Barrasso said.

 

"We're seeing numbers in New Hampshire above 40 percent increases; in New York, above 40 percent increases; in New Mexico, where Blue Cross-Blue Shield of New Mexico pulled out a year ago, they're talking about coming back in, but only if they can get a rate increase of over 80 percent.

 

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/barrasso-obamacare-deductibles-so-high-no-one-gets-use-insurance

[Valin]

Barrasso: Obamacare Deductibles So High, No One Gets to Use the Insurance

 

 

 

Oh if only someone had warn America about this!

[Valin]

 

Barrasso: Obamacare Deductibles So High, No One Gets to Use the Insurance

 

 

 

Oh if only someone had warn America about this!

 

 

 

Hillary's ObamaCare problem

Peter Sullivan

05/30/16

 

Hillary Clinton is facing the problem of higher ObamaCare premium hikes in an election year.

 

ObamaCare premiums are expected to rise more sharply than they have in previous years, and Republicans are seizing on the issue for electoral advantage.

 

“Despite premium hikes under ObamaCare, Clinton continues to take credit for the law on the campaign trail,” the Republican National Committee wrote in a recent email, above a compilation of headlines about steep proposed increases.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

HHS replies to GOP subpoena with one blacked-out page
Joel Gehrke
5/31/16

Department of Health and Human Services officials have only released "one heavily redacted page of one document" in response to congressional subpoenas about the funding of a disputed Obamacare program, and HHS staff has refused to communicate with congressional investigators, House Republicans charged Tuesday.

"The pattern of conduct to this point suggests that the department intends to frustrate our legitimate efforts to conduct oversight of the Basic Health Program," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, wrote to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

Lawmakers have been waiting nearly a year for HHS to release information on how the department funds the Basic Health Program, which helps states provide coverage to low-income people who are ineligible for Medicaid. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and other congressional investigators believe the Obama administration is funding the program illegally, by sending the states money collected by the IRS that should be reserved for tax refunds.

 

(Snip)

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[Geee]

It's Working: Nation's Largest Insurer Pulling Out of Obamacare in Nation's Largest State

 

At the onset of 2016, a number of health insurers began sounding the alarm about Obamacare's financial sustainability and worrisome enrollment trends. In early April, America's largest insurer announced its withdrawal from a handful of state exchanges created under the law. Several weeks later, UnitedHealth dropped a bigger bomb on the unpopular program, unveiling its plan to exit a large majority of state-level marketplaces in 2017. Obamacare defenders spun the major development as insignificant, but their efforts were weak -- especially in the midst of sharply rising premiums, swelling out-of-pocket costs, reduced enrollment data, and nonpartisan projections that the nation's uninsured rate will actually increase over the next decade. One glimmer of good news buried within UnitedHealth's portentous maneuvering was the company's apparent decision to remain a player in Covered California, Obamacare's largest state exchange. Consider that glimmer extinguished:

 

UnitedHealth Group is leaving California's insurance exchange at the end of this year, state officials confirmed Tuesday. The nation's largest health insurer announced in April it was dropping out of all but a handful of 34 health insurance marketplaces it participated in. But the company had not discussed its plans in California. UnitedHealth's pullout also affects individual policies sold outside the Covered California exchange, which will remain in effect until the end of December. "United is pulling out of California's individual market including Covered California in 2017," said Amy Palmer, a spokeswoman for the state exchange...In April, UnitedHealth's Chief Executive Stephen Hemsley said the company was unwilling to keep losing money on the exchange business overall. "The smaller overall market size and shorter term, higher-risk profile within this market segment continue to suggest we cannot broadly serve it on an effective and sustained basis," Hemsley said in a conference call with investors...

 

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/06/01/obamacare-latest-n2171652

[Valin]

Wow! Never Saw This One Coming!

Uh Oh: Double-Digit Premium Hikes Projected For Low-Cost Obamacare Plans Next Year
Matt Vespa
Jun 15, 2016

If you look up unaffordable in a dictionary, it should be right there under Obamacare. Premium hikes are coming for those on these health insurance plans. We all knew this was going to come down like a hammer. Guy has been tediously documenting how those on these plans are about to hit the inevitable iceberg, where hikes are expected to soar into the double-digits. It’s become so bad that Americans are now opting to pay the penalty and remain uninsured because it’s the better economical choice. Now, those double-digit hikes are going to hit those on low-cost plans under the law next year (via AP):

Premiums for popular low-cost medical plans under the federal health care law are expected to go up an average of 11 percent next year, said a study that reinforced reports of sharp increases around the country in election season.

For consumers, the impact will depend on whether they get government subsidies for their premiums, as well as on their own willingness to switch plans to keep the increases more manageable, said the analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Snip)

[Geee]

Ohio senator demands help for Obamcare co-op customers

 

An Ohio Republican is demanding the Obama administration help the people who held a plan with an Obamacare insurer that has now collapsed.

 

Sen. Rob Portman wrote to the administration Thursday demanding to know what it plans to do to help customers of Ohio's consumer-operated-and-oriented plan, a taxpayer-funded Obamacare insurer that collapsed because of poor management and finances.

 

Portman said in the letter that 22,000 state residents had plans with Ohio's co-op InHealth Mutual. The Ohio co-op is one of 13 out of 23 co-ops to collapse since their creation in 2014 to spur more competition on Obamacare markets.

Portman said plan holders "have to find new insurance or risk paying a penalty to the IRS. Worse, many of them have already paid high deductibles for their co-op coverage, yet they are about to lose credit for those payments and incur more out-of-pocket costs if they chose a new insurance plan mid-year."

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ohio-senator-demands-help-for-obamcare-brco-op-customers/article/2594086

[Geee]

Most Obamacare Co-Ops Have Now Failed

 

Only a third of Obamacare co-ops are still in operation after two more co-ops announced they were closing their doors in the past week.

Connecticut’s co-op, HealthyCT, was placed under an immediate order of supervision on July 5 after being forced to pay $13.4 million for the Affordable Care Act’s risk adjustment program.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services initially awardedHealthyCT $75.8 million in June 2012, then awarded it $3.8 million in November 2013 and $48.4 million in September 2014.

“It became evident that this risk adjustment mandate would put the company under significant financial strain,” said Katharine Wade, Connecticut’s insurance manager. “This order of supervision provides for an orderly run-off of the company’s claim payment under close regulatory oversight.”

Three days later, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services announced it would place Oregon’s Health Co-Op in receivership and liquidate the company’s assets. The co-op lost $18.4 million in 2015 due to medical claims and individual policies and owes $900,000 to pay for Obamacare’s risk adjustment program. The co-op was awarded a total of $56.7 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“We understand changing plans in the middle of the year will be difficult for Oregonians, but this action was necessary given the sudden deterioration of the company’s financial position,” said Patrick Allen, director of the department. “Unfortunately, as a startup, Oregon’s Health CO-OP is not in a position to sustain these losses while meeting its obligations to policyholders.”

Oregon’s Health Co-Op is the second to fail in the state since Health Republic Insurance of Oregon closed its doors last year.

 

The two failed co-ops in Oregon and the failed co-op in Connecticut join 12 other co-ops that have failed in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah, as well as a co-op that served both Iowa and Nebraska.

http://freebeacon.com/issues/most-obamacare-coops-have-now-failed/

[Geee]

Sick enrollees doom UnitedHealth's Obamacare business

 

The largest insurer in the U.S. expects to lose more money in Obamacare because enrollees were sicker this year than in previous years, a new development as other insurers plan to raise rates next year.

 

UnitedHealth said in an earnings call Tuesday that it has generated more losses from its Obamacare business in the second quarter of this year. It has lost about $200 million this quarter and expects to lose $600 million by the end of the year.

 

The company said the latest losses are because of the Obamacare population getting sicker over the past year.

 

"The reality is the severity of chronic conditions inside the population actually increased on a year-over-year basis," said Daniel Schumacher, chief financial officer for United, on the earnings call. He said the prevalence of people with conditions such as hepatitis C, diabetes and HIV have increased from 2015, but he did not specify by how much.

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sick-enrollees-doom-unitedhealths-obamacare-business/article/2597187

[Geee]

16 Obamacare Co-Ops Collapsed. Here’s How the Rest Are Faring.

 

Since Obamacare’s rollout in the fall of 2013, 16 co-ops that launched with money from the federal government have collapsed.

The co-ops, or consumer operated and oriented plans, were started under the Affordable Care Act as a way to boost competition among insurers and expand the number of health insurance companies available to consumers living in rural areas.

 

Now, just seven co-ops—Wisconsin’s Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative; Maryland’s Evergreen Health Cooperative; Maine Community Health Options; Massachusetts’ Minuteman Health; Montana Health Cooperative; New Mexico Health Connections; and Health Republic Insurance of New Jersey—remain.

 

Despite the grim financial footing from previous years, health care experts agree that it’s likely some—though not all—co-ops may remain standing for at least a few more years.

 

http://dailysignal.com/2016/07/26/16-obamacare-co-ops-collapsed-heres-how-the-rest-are-faring/

[Valin]

Aetna: On second thought, we’re backing away from ObamaCare
Ed Morrissey
8/2/16

Two weeks ago, the Department of Justice blocked Aetna’s attempts to merge with Humana and purchase Cigna. Today, Aetna announced that, without the economies of scale the merger would have provided, they will not expand its reach into new ObamaCare markets as originally indicated. In fact, they may pull out of the ObamaCare business altogether, leaving almost a million customers in 15 states to find another carrier:

(Snip)

Remember how utilization rates were supposed to stabilize by the end of the third year? Clearly, that’s not happening. ObamaCare consumers continue to be sicker and older, while younger and healthier Americans pay retail for their care and save thousands of dollars by choosing the tax penalty instead.

 

Meanwhile, Obama might have a tough welcome home when he returns to Chicago after he leaves office in January. Illinois residents got let off the hook last year on health-insurance premiums, but their luck appears to have run out. The Chicago Tribune reports that two of the major providers in the Land of Lincoln want double-digit increases in rates for 2017:

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

Cost of Obamacare Medicaid Expansion 49% Higher Than Previously Estimated

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government report finds that the cost of expanding Medicaid to millions more low-income people is increasing faster than expected, raising questions about a vital part of President Barack Obama's health care law.

The law provided for the federal government to pay the entire cost of the Medicaid expansion from 2014 through the end of this year.

Obama has proposed an extra incentive for states that have not yet expanded Medicaid: three years of full federal financing no matter when they start. But the new cost estimates could complicate things.

In a recent report to Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the cost of expansion was $6,366 per person for 2015, about 49 percent higher than previously estimated.

"We were told all along that the expansion population would be less costly," said health economist Brian Blase with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. "They are turning out to be far more expensive." Blase previously served as a GOP congressional aide.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/medicaid-estimate-renews-cost-concerns-over-obamacare