New federal reports show that the ObamaCare state co-ops have entered their “death spiral” and all but a handful may cease to exist by the end of the year.
And it has cost taxpayers a fortune.
When they passed the health care law in 2010, Democrats insisted on creating the non-profit insurance co-ops to “compete” with private insurance firms in each state.
But like every other aspect of that bill, they didn’t work as advertised.
The government gave billions of dollars in loans to help the co-ops get going. When they started, they offered basement-bottom insurance prices. That attracted the sickest customers, who were unable to get coverage in the past.
Blue Cross Blue Shield reported this year that new ObamaCare enrollees “have higher rates of certain diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, coronary artery disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C than individuals who had BCBS individual coverage prior to health-care reform.”
The influx of newer, sicker customers began what is known as the “death spiral.” Those customers went to the hospital so often that it raised insurance premiums, driving healthy members to drop out of the plan. As they left, the remaining insurance pool was even sicker, raising rates even higher and making the coverage so expensive no one wanted it anymore.
By this January, 12 of the 23 co-ops had failed, costing taxpayers $1.2 billion.
The co-ops, which some liberals prized as the jewel of the plan that could possibly replace private insurance, have proven that socialized medicine doesn’t work. Politifact reported that “the co-ops fared significantly worse than the U.S. average, failing at a rate that is about 40 percent faster than is typical” for a business.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to a GAO report issued in March, nine of the remaining 11 co-ops are subject to the federal government’s “escalation plan,” meaning they are bleeding money so badly that they need outside intervention to avoid massive fiscal losses.
But that doesn’t mean the leaders of these co-ops are feeling the pain. The head of New York’s now closed co-op, Debra Friedman of Health Republic Insurance, was paid $427,632 a year, and many other failed co-op leaders pulled in six-figure salaries.
Incredibly, of the $5.5 billion dollars the government gave the well-connected heads of all state co-ops, it has only recovered $1 million of the taxpayers’ money so far.
Federal bureaucrats have bungled things so badly that insurance companies are losing money on a product people are legally obligated to purchase.
ObamaCare’s defenders say the law is working just fine – you’re just not paying enough.
Larry Levitt, an expert on the Affordable Care Act at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Hill there was no problem with ObamaCare. “The premiums were just too low.”
Now, companies are demanding steep premium increases to keep from going belly-up.
Blue Cross Blue Shield lost $400 million in North Carolina on ObamaCare plans alone, and it pulled out of the New Mexico marketplace after bureaucrats denied it the right to raise premiums as much as it needed to make money – 51.6 percent.
Insurance companies nationwide are threatening massive premium increases just to remain solvent while struggling beneath the burden of federal rules.
When he was running for president in 2008, Obama promised to lower the average family insurance premium by $2,500. Instead, premiums have increased every single year of his administration. The cost of Silver health care plans increased by 7.5 percent last year, Bronze by 12.7 percent.
And the costs just skyrocketing, with no end in sight.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced this year that the cost of ObamaCare will be $136 billion higher than anticipated, even though nine million fewer people will enroll in it than projected. Only in Obamaland could spending more money on fewer people be considered a success.
– The Horn editorial team
Garbage in, garbage out. You elect a failure, you get defeat! Hillary will deliver the final death blow to this country, and it’s not the kind of blow Bill is hoping to get!
i agree if hillary is elected things will be even worse it will be the end of this country as we know it
Presidents, mere figure heads. Doesn’t matter who gets in the same groups and people run the government. Just doesn’t matter. If we had no President you would not even recognize any difference. In fact we have had several recent proofs of that situation. It’s all a game, the game is rigged and the House always wins. We are sometimes allowed to participate in the winnings and sometimes not.
To “Don”: Agree and Disagree: There’s no way a conservative president would have signed an “Affordable Healthcare Act” similar to ObamaCare. As far as the personality and character of politicians, you could probably throw most into a pond full of hungry alligators, and they would just walk out. No longer are the politicos “in it” for patriotism, but only for the money, power and connections that follow. Look at Hitlery’s personal speaking premiums. And Bill’s. And who paid those millions of dollars. And for WHAT? Some promises that, “When I am elected, I’ll make damn sure you get richer”. Big investment firms. Big manufacturing. Big liberal PACs. I’m all for dissolving the “Parties”. The person in the oval office actually WORKS FOR US! We HIRE him/her to protect us, see that we prosper, ensure our constitutional rights are honored, and our way of life, based on our own efforts, is allowed to continue without threat. The one who’s rear is in that seat now is doing NONE of those things. NONE! So, lets elect one who’s not OWNED by the “party”.
AGREED!! One that is NOT owned by the party! From the outside going in! He will then step into a pile & know where he needs to start cleaning!
You mean like Mitt who loves this approach??
Your preaching to the choir!! AMEN!!
Amen. Killary is one of the worse choices.
It is a fact we don`t need anyone who has (so called experience) because we will only get the same BS as we have now. Hillary is nothing but a liar and corrupt and she will not change for the better. She is only power and money hungry and will bring in more of this should she become President.
A Socialist Dictator is what Obama has been…not a President of the United States…he was never that. He has done his best to ruin it as his hatred springs from a childhood with parents who had strange ideological leanings. He fell in with a crowd of terrorists now teaching at Universities (go figure); was at the knee of Rev. Wright, smoked lots of dope and never did much with his life after Harvard except with ACORN. Never really practiced law even disposed of his license; but somehow endeared himself with money and power; amazing how having money and power somehow doesn’t equal common sense.
Just what did people with the Liberal condition expect from a Choom gang Leader? Seriously? This guy is a pot head from Hawai’i that has never had a job in his life.
Sadly. The people without the Liberal condition have to pay for their irrational pell-mell reasoning.
You mean KENYA where his mother trolled for MOSLEM AFRICANS. You never hear him mention that he had a WHITE mother.
You are right, I said that also
Heh now! Your talking to a Coloradan. And boy is this state a mess! We now have a bunch of those Hawaiin types that don’t have a desire to work nor do they have to. Traffic is a mess, not only from the influx but due to accidents x10. The housing market is good though if you want to sell! We sound like California. Illegal immigrants want to work. Whatever politician prioritizes pot will surely get the popular vote! Forget issues at hand. Woodstock.
Larry Levitt– ” expert on the affordable care act —– HAHAHAHA — joke of the century. He might be an expert,as is obozo and his corrupt regime, at misleading, manipulating, deceiving and out right lying to the American citizens. I think all these problems were brought out before this fiasco went into effect but were totally ignored by obozo and his sh!tbirds. The American taxpayers got taken to the cleaners again by this fraud .
How in hell does Mr. Obama have a high approval rating? Many ‘low information voters.’ A Hillary election will result in her attempt to prop up this failed system. The Republicans need to put on their big boy pants and start fighting-like they promised to do. And don’t bail out the insurance companies that overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.
With Pribus in charge He will give away rhe store He is nothing but a Wilber Milktoast!
The Republicans are complicit in all aspects of the failure of our government. This has been 100 years in the making. Each party claims the other is the problem and promises they will be different and fix everything. They gain the majority and we get screwed. Why do you suppose there are only 2 parties? They are working together to keep control. How many 3rd party candidates have you heard about in the main steam news outlets this election cycle? They control the media, the education system, and the money. We are so corrupted and our debt is so huge that this country is in serious trouble. What do we have for choices? None of the above. No Democrats. No Republicans. If no 3rd party candidate is on the ballot, it’s time for a write-in. I do not support the current fake political parties. I support our Constitutional Republic.
I am with you! The Republicans and Democrats are one and the same. We need to get rid of any politician that has been in for more than two terms. As long as we allow the government to keep dumbing down our youth things will continue to head into the dumpster. The main stream media needs to be turned off from media-matters, the George Soros controlled news agency.
This is true. The establishments in both the Democratic and Republican parties are partners in crime against the people of the united States. They do not want to see a 3rd party or an outsider like Donald Trump upsetting their apple cart. Both parties want to carry on business and corruption as usual and to hell with the American people. Each party is catering to their respective voters with the same bottom line. The only difference being one party is in the majority and the other is the minority party. The bottom line is the big money people in this country call the shots. Contributions from banks, big business, special interest groups, wall street, foreign governments, etc. get special favors from our government representatives and then the representatives get rewarded handsomely. Bill and Hillary were almost broke when they left Arkansas for Washington. I that short period of time on a government salary, they have amassed a 100 million dollar fortune. Who says politics doesn’t pay. The corruption in Washington is totally out of control and it seems everyone is on the take. The only person currently that can possibly make a difference is Donald Trump if he wins the Republican nomination. All others in the presidential race are part of the establishment. If you vote for any of them, you are continuing the problem.
When will you people get your head out of your hind in. Trump is the establishment bribing politicians for over 40 years. He will do nothing except make his lying kids richer. He is liberal thick and thin!
soros should be shot ,he is a traitorous barsteward and has caused more misery in the world than should be allowed from an ordinary person, add to this the muslims in your government you are f####d and it is just about goodbye America as we know it time
First and foremost: terminate this travesty of obsma care and collect the amounts due from him and the outrageous salaries given to these “administrators ” of the program. Levitt of Kaiser Permanente insurance needs to wake up!! They don’t cover a darn thing and seem to argue when they do pay! Barry Soetoro is totally responsible for this disaster, proof he hates this country, hides behind lies abuses privileges granted the president
Destroying evil America through healthcare and the promotion of Islamism! Great legacy. The US socialists (ex-democrats) love it!
Couldn’t have stated your comment any better, Mike.
More proof that government does NOT belong in the business of business!
70% of Americans claim that America is going the Titanic way, yet 49% congratulate the pilot!!!! That is how DUMB the mass media and American people are.
What a joke! As if “no drama Obama” is an economist or even expert in the health care industry. His socialist drive in favour of the multitude and with all the so called liberals in support of his devious plans, will lead to an inevitable disaster. Universal health care world-wide has not been successful and has had to be propped up by taxpayers in most cases or increased premiums.
This universality also encourages profligacy in the sense that the “multitude” will now have the attitude of not caring for their own health and fall into the octopus embrace of the pharmaceutical/medical juggernaut. Also the sad part of all is that most so-called diseases are not diseases at all but conditions brought upon by the individuals themselves.
The “first do no harm” dictum has fallen into the wayside and the intent is to fill all the clinics and wards and hospitals for their own gain. Nothing will stop this! So USA, go for the AHCA and vote left wing liberal socialism to entrench it – at your peril. Good luck in coping with the tsunami that will follow.
I believe that even most minorities and many liberals are beginning to see the light regarding Communism/Socialism, and what is does to a people. If you claim to be a CHRISTIAN, then why did you vote for a Muslim/Communist? Pick up that Bible and learn the REAL TRUTH.
GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE AND HE IS STILL IN CHARGE. NO MATTER WHAT MAN TELLS US, GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO. THE FUTURE OF THE W O R L D IS IN GOD’S HANDS. NOT MANS HANDS.
Do not give up on GOD, because HE will never give up on you unless you worship a different god.
I totally agree with you, PHILIP.
Exactly as it was designed to do. Obama and the rest of these traitors have orchestrated the eventual collapse of America. Way to go Liberals! When everything collapses around them they will be forced to live in a hell of their own creation, this will be their legacy!
Obozo care is a GIANT joke it costs people thousands of dollars for nothing it only benefits health care administrators who make 6 figure salaries and don’t give a damn about anyone and if you think putting a lying theiving bitch in office is going to make it better your totally delusional this country is going to hell in a hand basket
Not only is obozo-care too expensive it ruined the quality of care you receive. I have insurance through my work and premiums just keep jumping up & up & up. I now have to make my doctor appointments at least 3 months in advance, I do not get the amount of time with my doctor as I used too because they are now way to busy. Way to go obozo and all dumbocraps!!!
I hear you and agree–my Dr. told me that they had the right idea but then,,,,,F-Ked it all up…in his own words.
It is still baffling to me that Obamacare was able to pass in the first place except for Nancy Pelosi who didn’t care if the house members even read it, more baffling is that so many of the educated people in this country are still Democrats. Phil
Phillip, it always seems mind-boggling when people, especially educated ones, make decisions and choices that seem to fly in the face of logic, that simply make no sense. The phenomenon at play in such cases falls under the psychological term “cognitive dissonance, ” where people who hold a strong belief or conviction in an idea (such as liberalism) or in a figure (such as Obama) will ignore, or avoid discovering, information that contradicts what they beleive to be true so as to ward off psychological stress…people strive for consonance in their lives because the opposite, dissonance, leads to physical ruination, even death. Of course, we do have another choice, and that is to accept the conflicting information to be sufficiently convincing so as to “compel” us to change our position on an idea or person, but now our EGO is at risk of taking a hit…to have to admit we were wrong. Either direction that is taken will lead to “consonance” or psychological peace. And that’s what drives mankind’s choices, right or wrong. To change people’s choices, the change agents must be adept at introducing supportable evidence that challenges their positions, thus causing sufficient psychological dissonance(or pain) so as to bring about the desired change. Educated people, in these scenarios, are paradoxically the toughest “nuts to crack” because many are ego driven.
There are a lot of big words in your statement, some of which I do not understand. Having said that, it seems that I think I agree with you . May I try to summarize your statement?
Tax payer should not have to pay for there mistakes…1 solution is the government should sale some of there assets, like land, they own 30% of the USA so sale the land back to the WE THE PEOPLE there needs to be some kind of repercussion for there ALL THE TIME MISTAKES.. Instead of us WE THE PEOPLE… Or we need some kind of government over the government that represent WE THE PEOPLE
I never wanted Omamacare, and did not sign up for it, nor did my husband either. I heard it doesn’t cover crapola as well and the co-pays are stupid. I read in a blog that a man,( I think it was Texas,) his wife needed surgery and he was told that he had to pay $10,000.00 before the doctors would do the surgery. No one in this day and age has $10,000.00 just molding in the bank. So now anyone that doesn’t have it will be penalized by the IRS for not having medical insurance. NICE GOING WASHINGTON GOONS..!
“The premiums are too low.”
That statement is at the moronic level of intelligence. They were required to be set low by the Department of Heresy and Human Stupidity, or what the Washingtonians will refer to as the Department of Health and Human Services. And these insurance premiums are not allowed to be raised to cover the real costs of Obamacare, thanks to Obama signing Executive Orders that prevent the payment providers from raising them to a proper amount.
This is a program that should have never been implemented. The only reason it was implemented was as a political payoff to supporters of the Democrat regime. The only sensible part of the idea was “encouraging” people to take steps to prevent the costs for catastrophic medical care from bankrupting them and their local hospital. Unfortunately, the law was designed to use the only tool government has–force–to require that there be no discrimination based upon sex in insurance premiums, so that men have to pay a portion of their premium to cover vaginal inspections. (There are many other types of anti-discrimination provisions, but this is the most visually dramatic.) In other words, insurance was required to be set based upon politics instead of actual evidence of economic results. This guaranteed that costs would be allocated based upon politics instead of economics.
If this survives to the next president, the first thing a new HHS secretary should do is to repeal all rules related to what must be included in basic policies. That would have the immediate effect of lowering premiums. But it would only be a first step.
To: all commentators:
Subject: Lie of Insurance Advertising
The idea that insurance is a good thing is badly flawed. The responsible free market alternative is a saving’s account or a rainy day fund. One should also be prudently cautious as to dangerous adventure, and you get to keep all your money. Insurance premiums (why call it a premium, that’s a built in lie) are lost forever.
Just think of it. If a business paid out more than it took in, it would go broke. Considering that half the advertising on free TV are insurance ad’s costing millions of dollars. You know that the insurance companies are not going broke. Every State in the Country requires insurance as a condition of getting license tags or plates for an automobile. What a business!! A guaranteed market. Why not raise the prices? The States call insurance as “being responsible”. Michigan fines you $2,000 if you are irresponsible. Do you wonder why Auto Repair costs are so expensive? The payment is guaranteed.
Don’t you think it’s a racket?
Now as to the lie of health insurance advertising: The idea that it is a good thing is also badly flawed. The whole culture has been sold on the idea that it is an essential. Guaranteed payment of medical costs drives the price of the service and related products up. The free market alternative is, as always, a savings account or a rainy day fund. Absence that, you must pay the insurance premium, and because you have started that, you will not be able to afford a rainy day fund, because the premium costs several times more over the period of a lifetime. Just ask a really old person how much premiums has cost them and their employers over their working life. Then compare that with the dollar value of the benefits recieved.
When the law of supply and demand is working without hindrance The result is always least cost combinations for the consumer. Where any part of the marketing process is coerced by government the result is always high and rising costs for the consumer. As another example, just consider the rising costs for college tuition. Student loans are guaranteed to the lender by the government. This results in guaranteed tuition payments, and the schools just keep raising the tuitions because market forces are not at work, and they always get more money.
Free market capitalism is best economically and morally.
PEOPLE CAN ONLY BLAME THEIR SELVES, VOTED HIM IN AND HE WASN’T DOING GOOD AND BE DAM, VOTED HIM IN THE SECOND TIME, HE WAS LAUGHING UP HIS SLEEVE. HE WILL PROBABLY TELL EVERYONE AFTER HE IS OUT THAT HE WASN’T BORN IN USA. AND WASN’T A CITIZEN, IF SO HE WOULD HAVE PROUDLY SHOWN US HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE. SO I GUESS LIKE THE OLD SAYING ” WE GET WHAT WE ASK FOR “
Its Trash the people that shoved it up our @$$E$, are just Trash as well as Criminal Communists, and Obama is a Traitor to America
I agree with Phillip wholeheartedly!
Remember the era of patient exclusion due to pre-existing conditions? The era of medical bankruptcies? Of arbitrary ‘chargemaster’ bills of $600 for an aspirin and $10,000 for an appendectomy? How short are our memories …. LOL
It’s easy to blame the ACA, but that is not where the core problems lie. And these problems predate the ACA by many decades – explosion of diabetes due to poor diet and lack of exercise and use of ER for relatively minor non-emergency problems, and guess what … we ALL pay for those visits even though most ER visits cost an average of over $1200 and require a waiting time of 4 hours or more while more affordable options at urgent care centers cost around $60 and can have you treated within 20 minutes.
It emerges that 65% of ER visits are for trivial things, and much of those visits are never paid for leaving a huge hole in hospital budgets that we all have to pay for in increased insurance costs and hospital expenses!
As the penalty for not having medical insurance increases over the years, more folk will see the virtues of routine visits to health clinics where chronic diseases can best be treated at much lower cost. Right now, those 9 million uninsured are costing the rest of us a fortune. The ACA is hardly to blame when these same problems pre-existed long before the ACA was implemented.
Give it time folks – and perhaps we can evolve towards a system where every person takes better care of themselves … and pays insurance … and makes regular prevention visits to their local clinic. After all, Personal Responsibility is a Republican goal. Right?
‘Course we can blame the ACA. The ACA helps entrench the surgery and patent-medicine basis of American health care. People who might have used cheaper, more effective alternative medicines now have to use mainstream medicine because they’ve spent so much on premiums they don’t have any money left for out-of-insurance treatments.
They ought to pass a law: your company can’t file for bankruptcy unless your top wage-earner is getting no more than 10x you bottom wage-earner.
Obama care was a Joke from the start. But obama insisted eveyone had to get it. So you’re. Force to pay high preimum for insurance you can’t. Afford or get fined until you do. That is a LOAD OF CRAP!!!! Then when Obama Care Fails all that money is lost, and the insurance payers LOSE….
I think we are all approaching the problem from the wrong end. I agree that national healthcare is important and beneficial, but the real problem is the high cost of hospital stays and medications. Reducing these stabilizes prices and allows budgeting. Hospitals only accommodate people, even with the most severe operations, for a couple of days while the beds stay empty.
A day in a hospital should only be as expensive as a stay at a nice hotel plus medications and individual treatments. Accountability for the tremendous costs being charged should be basis for a national health plan and could cause the premiums to go down. Before establishing a national plan this should have been researched first, but a naive president with no business experience, no political experience and no oversight bit off more than he could chew. He figured that when people’s health and lives are threatened they don’t questions cost, they accept being blackmailed into footing the most expensive costs; and hospitals, doctors and the pharma know these facts very well. Obamacare needs to go and a new health plan with no more than 20 pages (no pork) should become law.
In a world full of trouble and instability, it is good to remember that we are just strangers passing through. Waiting for that “brighter land” is not easy sometimes. My son reminded me of this fact with this song he recorded the other day. Hope it encourages you!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3T25BuOk9-A
Socialism has never worked. EX: The kids want to elect Sanders, a socialist. Demos have kept moving to the left and Repubs a like amount. tho not as far. AND nothing is working
I’ve said before, I understand Blacks voting for Locobama, their first chance at the FIRST black. There were better choices. Anybody else voting for him was crazy. His church hated us. Some church.
Another liar, the Witch, also unqualified wants the job to be the FIRST female.NO. She can’t make socialism work either..
We MUST cut costs. Eliminate crooks and crooked departments.
Americans wanted a change and got it!! They took the bait- it was on a HOOK! If you get hooked you get cooked!! Only the LORD GOD JEHOVAH knows the future and HE is in charge !!
Obamacare reflects the utter failure of government managed enterprises. Obama instituted a reform package that looks more like something you would find in a socialist country. Mr. Obama foolishly believed he could solve health care problems by decree. In the end Obamacare is going to become a monument to bureaucratic incompetence and the failed notion of socialism.
Barack Hussein Obama’s time in office has been a celebration of incompetence and embracing flawed ideas. Hopefully the next president will replace this with a common-sense health care system based on free enterprise.