No kidding, or in the language used by today’s infantile Dem’s, “no fucking kidding” – Finley: Obamacare lies keep coming
The current big lie is that the GOP’s Obamacare fix, passed by the House last week, would strip millions of America’s most vulnerable citizens of health insurance and drive up premiums for those who manage to keep coverage.
Obamacare is already doing that, thanks to the economic naivety of the Democrats who crafted the law.
In 11 states last year, average premiums rose by 40 percent or more. Obamacare exchanges across the country are in crisis because insurers are bailing out, burned by the unfulfilled promises of the Affordable Care Act. Unchecked Medicaid expansion is ravaging state budgets.
On and let’s not FORGET that coverage for pre-existing conditions is being struck down by the evil GOP…
Democrats and their media chorus are pushing the canard that heartless Republicans are ending protection for the sickest Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions. The GOP plan doesn’t do that.
Mandates remain in place for guaranteed coverage, and for controlling premium prices for those most at risk. It does allow states to seek waivers if they believe they can craft better plans for less money, but only if they agree to tap into a $100 billion high-risk pool.
That pool will shift the burden of subsidizing the sickest policyholders from their healthier neighbors to the federal government, which promises to both lower premiums and end the unsavory practice of insurers filtering out the costliest customers with onerous co-pays and deductibles. It could fix a major Obamacare cost driver.
Remember Obamacare was going to insure everyone? Let’s refresh your memory…
Cost of Obamacare to federal taxpayers rose to $110 billion in 2016. What are they getting for that money? President Barack Obama sold Obamacare on the promise that it would provide coverage to the 45 million, or 15 percent, of Americans who lacked it in 2009.
Not even close. Seven years later, 28.4 million people, or roughly 10 percent of the population, remain uninsured, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
So Obamacare upended the insurance market for all Americans, and sharply drove up their health care costs, to reduce the number of uninsured by 5 percentage points, or just under 17 million people. We could have let the market be and given all of the uninsured vouchers for private plans and produced a better outcome.
Just in Colorado we’ve had the following issues:
- As of 2017 no PPO plans available
- Only a portion of plans available from a single carrier has Children’s Hospital in network
- 14 of 64 counties in Colorado only have a single insurance provider
- Colorado Coop went bankrupt
- Humana and United Healthcare left the state in 2016
- Only one company has a statewide network
- Most coverage networks are regional
- With minor exceptions coverage outside the network region is not covered
- Rural areas in Colorado have some of the highest insurance rates in the nation
But no worries, Obamacare is a winner. Head meet sand.
