As Obamacare Premiums Set to Skyrocket Again, Dems Can Only Lie
POLITICS: ‘The Great Revolt’
May 16, 2018
POLITICS: Denying Trump’s Accomplishments Is Increasingly Irrational
May 17, 2018
By Rick Moran, American Thinker, May 16, 2018
If you buy your own insurance, you know that Obamacare premiums have doubled between 2013 and 2017 and with huge hikes set for next year, that means that Obamacare rates will have tripled in six years.
But instead of doing something about it, Democrats simply want to blame Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is already announcing what he’s going to do about the rate hikes. “We Democrats are going to be relentless in making sure the American people exactly understand who is to blame for the rates.” He means pinning the blame on President Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress. Don’t buy this lie.
Independent insurance experts point to the flawed provisions of the Affordable Care Act that drive premiums skyward year after year. Never mind who’s in the White House.
The biggest cause, according to McKinsey management consultants, is Obamacare’s rule forcing healthy people to pay the same premium as sick people. Before Obamacare, people in most states buying in the individual market paid premiums that varied depending on their own expected medical needs. Not anymore. Now they’re being coerced into paying the medical bills of the chronically ill. Five percent of the population consume almost 50% of the healthcare but under Obamacare, everyone pays the same premium. Few would volunteer for such a scheme. That’s why Obamacare uses force. You buy or you get fined.
Despite soaring premiums, consumers are getting lower quality coverage than before Obamacare. McKinsey finds insurers are restricting choices of doctors and hospitals. Major cancer hospitals are off-limits in many plans, which are barely disguised Medicaid. If you’re seriously ill, getting medications you need — such as Copaxone to treat M.S. — can be nearly impossible, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Texas.
Enter President Trump. With Congress stymied, Trump is changing federal insurance regulations as much as a president legally can to help sticker-shocked consumers. Some 20 million people who can’t afford Obamacare are either incurring the penalty for not having it or getting an exemption.
Trump’s changes will allow consumers to pay according to their own health needs, and to buy 12-month plans without costly extras like maternity coverage and pediatric dental coverage that are mandatory (even for single guys) in Obamacare plans.
Trump also pledged to eliminate the penalty, and the new tax reform law does that in 2019.
The only question remaining is when Obamacare will officially implode. Its demise has been predicted for several years now but despite large areas of the US that have no available Obamacare coverage, the government keeps pushing plans.
Democrats have been unsuccessful in transferring blame for Obamacare’s woes to the GOP, but that could change. The elimination of the individual mandate in 2019 will surely lead to millions of healthy people dropping health insurance altogether. That means more sick people draining more resources from insurance companies making it impossible for them to make a profit.
Whether voters blame Trump and the GOP or not hardly matters. Congress is going to have to address the Obamacare problem after the mid terms next year. It might scuttle the program completely, or keep certain parts of it. One thing is certain; it can’t go on like this much longer.
If you buy your own insurance, you know that Obamacare premiums have doubled between 2013 and 2017 and with huge hikes set for next year, that means that Obamacare rates will have tripled in six years.
But instead of doing something about it, Democrats simply want to blame Republicans.
American Spectator:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is already announcing what he’s going to do about the rate hikes. “We Democrats are going to be relentless in making sure the American people exactly understand who is to blame for the rates.” He means pinning the blame on President Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress. Don’t buy this lie.
Independent insurance experts point to the flawed provisions of the Affordable Care Act that drive premiums skyward year after year. Never mind who’s in the White House.
The biggest cause, according to McKinsey management consultants, is Obamacare’s rule forcing healthy people to pay the same premium as sick people. Before Obamacare, people in most states buying in the individual market paid premiums that varied depending on their own expected medical needs. Not anymore. Now they’re being coerced into paying the medical bills of the chronically ill. Five percent of the population consume almost 50% of the healthcare but under Obamacare, everyone pays the same premium. Few would volunteer for such a scheme. That’s why Obamacare uses force. You buy or you get fined.
Despite soaring premiums, consumers are getting lower quality coverage than before Obamacare. McKinsey finds insurers are restricting choices of doctors and hospitals. Major cancer hospitals are off-limits in many plans, which are barely disguised Medicaid. If you’re seriously ill, getting medications you need — such as Copaxone to treat M.S. — can be nearly impossible, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Texas.
Enter President Trump. With Congress stymied, Trump is changing federal insurance regulations as much as a president legally can to help sticker-shocked consumers. Some 20 million people who can’t afford Obamacare are either incurring the penalty for not having it or getting an exemption.
Trump’s changes will allow consumers to pay according to their own health needs, and to buy 12-month plans without costly extras like maternity coverage and pediatric dental coverage that are mandatory (even for single guys) in Obamacare plans.
Trump also pledged to eliminate the penalty, and the new tax reform law does that in 2019.
