Obamacare

[xoxoxoBruce]

This is the best explanation I've seen about Obamacare, what it is/isn't, what it does/doesn't, and why.

[Spexxvet]

very informative and even-handed

[Lamplighter]

It makes me sad to think how much time, energy, money, and political good will
has been wasted by the GOP and GOP governors fighting Obamacare.

[Griff]

I wonder if Roberts will take much heat on this? His position seems conservative in the sense of not being disruptive of the way society has organized itself to address a difficult problem.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Maybe he listened to these Arizona republicans.

Here in Yavapai County, most everybody you’ll meet is Republican. In 2012, Mitt Romney received nearly two votes here to each of Obama’s. And yet in this rural red county in a very red state, it’s only taken a couple of years for federally-subsidized health care to quietly seep into the hinges of everyday life and governance. The rate of sign-ups for the program in the county has nearly doubled from 2014, when 22 percent of the area’s potential market share chose a plan through the federal exchange, to March 2015, when 43 percent did, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The latter figure ranks the county sixth among 54 areas in the state in percentage of the potential market share which has signed up, outranking far more liberal areas in Arizona.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Situation: Uncle Ted claims Obamacare is a train wreck and has cost jobs.

You say: Uncle Ted, you’ve gotten ahold of some old talking points. With greater access to affordable, quality health insurance, the Affordable Care Act is helping individuals and strengthening our economy!

Since the main components of the law went into effect, we’ve reduced the number of uninsured by 16.4 million, the largest increase in the insured in decades. Before the ACA, the U.S. economy faced rapidly growing health costs that put enormous pressure on businesses and consumers. We paid more than any country without better health results, and millions of Americans were one illness away from bankruptcy. Today, we’ve seen the slowest growth in health costs in half a century, improved patient safety has saved an estimated 50,000 lives and $12 billion, and employer premiums for family coverage grew just 3 percent in 2014, tied with 2010 for the lowest on record back to 1999.

Meanwhile, since the ACA was signed, the private sector has added 12.8 million jobs over 64 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. The increase in employment over that period is due almost entirely to higher full-time employment. The number of people working part-time who would prefer to be full-time has fallen by 2.6 million from March 2010 through May 2015, including a decline of 1.1 million since December 2013.

HHC.GOV

[classicman]

Is there supposed to be some correlation between the employment info and the insurance info?

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by classicman

Is there supposed to be some correlation between the employment info and the insurance info?

Of course there is... but the other way.

The GOP has been bullet-pointing Obamacare as a "JOB KILLER"
ever since the ACA was introduced.

[classicman]

So we'd have more jobs without it. OK.

[Lamplighter]

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by classicman

So we'd have more jobs without it. OK.

Well we'd have more hiring anyway, as the uninsured workers would be dying faster.

But big increases next year.

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say they are determined to see that the requests are scaled back.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans — market leaders in many states — are seeking rate increases that average 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee and 54 percent in Minnesota, according to documents posted online by the federal government and state insurance commissioners and interviews with insurance executives.

The Oregon insurance commissioner, Laura N. Cali, has just approved 2016 rate increases for companies that cover more than 220,000 people. Moda Health Plan, which has the largest enrollment in the state, received a 25 percent increase, and the second-largest plan, LifeWise, received a 33 percent increase.
~snip~
President Obama, on a trip to Tennessee this week, said that consumers should put pressure on state insurance regulators to scrutinize the proposed rate increases. If commissioners do their job and actively review rates, he said, “my expectation is that they’ll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.”
~snip~
Health Net, for example, requested rate increases averaging 9 percent in Oregon. The state approved increases averaging 34.8 percent. Oregon’s Health Co-op requested a 5.3 percent increase. The state called for a 19.9 percent increase.

link

[classicman]

Cost transference and cost reduction are different things. Getting those other people to pay for stuff ... never mind.

[Happy Monkey]

If the rate increases are justified, then complaining about it is essentially complaining that more sick people are getting treatment than were expected.

If they're not justified, then people will get rebate checks at the end of the year.

I suspect that, as mentioned in the article, the release of pent-up demand pushed much of the increase. Also, I suspect that a lot of people who were used to going to the ER for routine healthcare are still doing so, but now with insurance cards. That's going to hit the insurance companys' bottom lines until they can get their new members educated and paired with GPs.

[Clodfobble]

Plus, as the article also mentioned, the mass of uninsured entering the system were more likely to be sick than those already insured, because being sick was precisely the reason they couldn't get insured under the old system.

[classicman]

Sicker and older... and they are an increasing population ...
But -
"If insurance regulators “do their job, my expectation is that [rates hikes] will come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.” BO