April 15, 2016

Analysts warn that huge increases in Obamacare premiums are coming "soon"

Do you like how Obamacare is working?  Or are you one of the tens of millions of Americans who has lost employer-sponsored health insurance--cancelled because the requirements of Obamacare made it far more expensive for employers to provide health insurance.  And now, forced to go to the government for your insurance, you find the average deductible for a family is closing in on $10,000.

Some deal, eh?  Government set up a system that made it punitive for companies to continue to provide health insurance, then demanded (at gunpoint) that you buy crappier insurance, at a higher cost with a crippling deductible.  WOW, THANKS!  

But if you thinks it's shit now, just wait a few months--cuz it's about to get worse.

Companies that sell health insurance are warning that unless they get approval for huge increases in premiums soon, they may drop out of the market.  They say they're losing money on their ObamaCare plans.


Analysts had hoped premiums wouldn't have to increase if enough young (thus overwhelmingly healthy) people signed up.  But most young people are bright enough to realize that health insurance isn't something they're likely to need for awhile.  And if they do, the utterly perverse provision of the law that bars insurers from refusing to sell policies to people with "pre-existing medical conditions"--and for the same cost as healthy people--suggests that 20-somethings aren't likely to rush to sign up.

Now for the benefit of liberals and Democrats--most of whom know nothing about economics--here's a quick review of Econ-101:

When the cost of something goes up, what happens?

If you said "With very few exceptions people buy less of it" you win the prize.

So if companies increase health-insurance premiums (or deductibles), what effect is that likely to have?

Yep, fewer folks signing up.  Which would increase losses for the companies, leading to more companies getting out of the market.  This is known in the insurance industry as a “death spiral.”

But don't worry, citizen:  Neither the emperor nor any congresswhore will allow the complex, crappy, inefficient system forced on us by that wonderful law to die.  Cuz that would a) show that the whole enterprise--rammed down our throats entirely by Democrats--was a lousy idea, thus damaging Democrats; and b) would be used to paint any Republicans who voted to allow it to die as heartless, eeeevil, raacist monsters who were trying to kill off minorities.  So it ain't gonna happen.

Instead the money to cover the losses will be created by executive order (imperial decree).  Cuz your emperor is just that good.

Just kidding.  The feds will raise taxes.  Which will come mainly from the middle class.

That would be you, citizen.

One thing you can be sure of is that insurers won't say a word to the public about needing big premium increases until after the November elections, since doing so before then would damage the election chances of Hillary and all Democrats.

One of the causes of the big losses by insurers is that people signing up for Obamacare have had much higher medical costs than expected.  In other words they've been sicker than the historic average of all policyholders.

And of course that was totally unexpected.

Just kidding:  It was not only predicted, it was utterly obvious well before the law was rammed down our throats.  Because the law demanded that insurers sell policies to people with pre-existing medical problems--people who often couldn't get health insurance before, or only at much higher prices.  Now I totally agree that that's terribly unfortunate, and that a majority of American citizens might well agree to some sort of tax to fund either medical care or affordable health insurance for their unfortunate neighbors.  But the point is that the law's pushers--like the infamous lying Jonathan Gruber--deliberately ignored these and other obvious pitfalls, in their obsessive push to get the thing passed.

They were all either lying, incompetent or stupid.  If there's another explanation I'd like to hear it.

And you'll be paying for their incompetence (or whichever) for the rest of your lives.  Thanks, Democrats!

BTW, the source for this piece was NOT Faux News but the staunchly pro-Democrat rag "The Hill."

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