Today’s post fails to wrap up these saddening current events since even this sixth post will not be enough to cover how poorly constructed, poorly financed, and poorly implemented this legislation is becoming.
1) We have already discussed the crumbling financials of Obama Care in detail. We reviewed how the original estimated cost of the law has already doubled. How government experts themselves now estimate that the legislation will add trillions of dollars to our national debt. And most importantly, how it now looks like the cost of health care for American citizens and American businesses will rise even more dramatically, the exact opposite of what the legislation and its supporters claimed would happen.
But let’s do a little I told you so. This escalating of health care costs is a surprise to only those that wrote the legislation. Clear thinking Americans and experts knew this was going to happen years ago, the politicians either did not believe basic math or did not understand basic math.
In a May 27, 2013 post on Liberty News website,
http://www.libertynews.com/2013/03/obama-2009-premiums-to-drop-3000-sebelius-today-not-so-much-in-fact-theyre-going-to-rise/
the website owners went back through history and reviewed what the experts were saying about Obama Care a few years ago. You will see that the disaster we see unfolding today because of the legislation was fully predictable when the legislation first appeared and was enacted (bold and italics added by me for emphasis):
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I) In 2009, the Wall Street Journal determined:
“No Big Cost Rise in U.S. Premiums Is Seen in Study,” said the New York Times, while the Washington Post declared, “Senate Health Bill Gets a Boost.” The White House crowed that the CBO report was “more good news about what reform will mean for families struggling to keep up with skyrocketing premiums under the broken status quo.”
Finance Chairman Max Baucus [the same Max Baucus that now claims Obama Care is a “train wreck”] chimed in from the Senate floor that “Health-care reform is fundamentally about lowering health-care costs. Lowering costs is what health-care reform is designed to do, lowering costs; and it will achieve this objective.”
Except it won’t. CBO says it expects employer-sponsored insurance costs to remain roughly in line with the status quo, yet even this is a failure by Mr. Baucus’s and the White House’s own standards. Meanwhile, fixing the individual market—which is expensive and unstable largely because it does not enjoy the favorable tax treatment given to job-based coverage—was supposed to be the whole purpose of “reform.”
Instead, CBO is confirming that new coverage mandates will drive premiums higher.
II) In 2010, Forbes determined:
If you’re thinking the legislation will tamp down overall health care spending, reconsider. Policy analysts ranging from the neutral Congressional Budget Office to the HMO lobby see no abatement in the growth rate of health care spending.
That sector of the economy is growing at a 7.4% annual rate, says actuarial firm Milliman. Medicare’s chief actuary, Richard Foster, thinks the Senate bill would expand health spending by $234 billion above current projections.
The premium hikes will result from cost shifting, better known as passing the buck.
III) In 2010, Reason magazine determined:
…contrary to what the administration and its supporters claim, under ObamaCare, insurance would probably get more expensive, and any decrease in rates for some would come at taxpayer expense.
Meanwhile, President Obama was telling people they would see a 3,000 percent drop in the cost of their premiums, and probably get a raise!
IV) Fast forward to today according to Liberty News:
Some people purchasing new insurance policies for themselves this fall could see premiums rise because of requirements in the health-care law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Tuesday.
Ms. Sebelius’s remarks come weeks before insurers are expected to begin releasing rates for plans that start on Jan. 1, 2014, when key provisions of the health law kick in.
Premiums have been a sensitive subject for the Obama administration, which is counting on elements in the health law designed to increase competition among insurers to keep rates in check. The administration has pointed to subsidies that will be available for many lower-income Americans to help them with the cost of coverage
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“…could see premiums rise as a result of the health care law.” This was not supposed to happen folks but it took the Washington political class three years to see this disaster, as witnessed by the prime implementer of the legislation, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, whereas many Americans saw this happening as far back as 2009.
When you claim that something will reduce costs and then turn around and openly admit it will increase costs, there is no other word to describe your efforts than “Failure.”
2) Mike Ruff owns eight Five Guys burger franchises that employ 150 people, many of them full time employees. At a Heritage Foundation event in early March, this small business owner pointed out the likely impacts on his business and employees:
- The many added costs of the Obama Care legislation are going to have to be passed on to his customers in the form of higher food costs.
- He estimates that Obama Care will take the ENTIRE profit of one of his restaurants to pay for Obama Care‘s impact.
- He is also holding off on opening three new Five Guys franchises until the Obama Care regulations are fully understood and he understands if this can be done profitably.
- He may be forced to transition many of his full-time burger cooks and other employees to part time status if the health care insurance premiums become too onerous and unaffordable under Obama Care regulations.
- He estimates that additional healthcare insurance costs under Obamacare could total $60,000 annually for his small business.
The video where Mr. Ruff explains this reality can be accessed at:
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/03/12/five-guys-owner-burger-prices-will-go-up-due-to-obamacare-55197
3) Consider a different but similar story of a small business owner relative to Obama Care, as reported in the March 20, 2013 issue of the Washington Post:
- Jody Manor has operated a small cafe and catering company for nearly three decades in Old Town Alexandria.
- Six years ago he purchased an adjoining building, and recently he started searching for a second location for expansion.
- Whether he moves forward with expansion depends on the price tag of the health care insurance requirements mandated by Obama Care.
- Manor’s company employs 45 people. If he brings in just five more, his business would soon be subject to new minimum coverage standards under the 2010 law and he does not know whether his current health plan would meet this threshold of coverage or how his insurance premiums might skyrocket.
- “These changes are less than a year away, and I still have no information about how much our premiums are going to cost,” said Manor, owner of Bittersweet Catering, Cafe and Bakery. “It definitely gives me pause when thinking about adding another location.
But the steady beat of stupidity and fiasco continues on tomorrow where we review even more of the disgrace, disaster, and disappointment that is Obama Care, possibly the worst piece of legislation ever written in the history of America. Hopefully, one more post will finally get all of the disgraces, disasters, and disappointments up to date, at least for now.
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