March, 2014 The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care, Part 6: Costs Going Up, More Lies, Rating The Disasters, and More

This is our sixth post this month on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. Unfortunately, it will not be our last. As quickly as we post the latest insanity from this horrid law, more heartache, ineptness, and wasteful spending comes to the surface to prove again that this is the worst piece of Washington legislation ever enacted by the most inept set of Washington politicians ever.

1) The wonderful website, Bankrupting America, recently did a nice compilation of the many disasters that have come out of Obama Care, asking readers to vote on which ones they think were worse in head to head competition:

• What is worse: the fact that Obama Care has already caused almost 5 million Americans to lose access to their current insurance policies or that government Medicare officials now estimate that 11 million Americans will see higher insurance premiums as a result of Obama Care?
• What is worse: the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of companies, have to cut workers hours to below 30 hours a week in order to financially survive the requirements of Obama Care or the fact that the Director of the Congressional Budget office recently stated that providing “heavily subsidized health insurance to people with very low income, and withdrawing those subsidies as income rises, creates a disincentive for people to work.”?
• Which is worse: the continual lie from the President that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan” or the continual lie from the President that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor?” 
• What is worse: the fact that the Obama Care health exchange website was launched without sufficient testing, resulting in a whopping 60% down time in the first month or the fact that even after the administration claimed the website was fixed, cyber security experts were still adamant that Americans’ private information was still at risk to identity thieves since fundamental safeguards were still lacking in the Obama Care information systems’ processes?
• What is worse: the fact that an average family of four will see its annual health insurance bills go up over $7,000 a year or that the fact that the President recently blamed Americans for not doing a good job prioritizing their household expenses relative to health insurance, suggesting they give up their cell phone or cable TV service just to afford the high cost of Obama Care policies?

There are other interesting, and depressing comparisons and head to head competitions, at their website.

2) The Washington Free Beacon recently ran an article about a Florida family that found it next to impossible to cancel their Obama Care insurance policy. When reading the following frustrations about that family, keep in mind that the President promised that interacting with Obama Care would be as simple as going online to buy airline tickets or a product from a company like Amazon. This family found that promise to be the furthest thing from the truth:

• Melissa Battles was a single, unemployed mother who needed health care insurance for herself and her sons. 
• She went online to find a policy via the Obama Care Federal health exchange marketplace but found that process of enrollment to be a mess: “When I tried to enroll my entire family- I enrolled online- it is very convoluted and it takes a very long time to enroll…” she told WOFL-FL.
• She was told she qualified for a subsidy for her Obama Care policy, but was bounced around regarding the extent of care available for her Autistic son.
• When she tried to enroll her son in HealthyKids, she was met with more red tape.
• The good news is that soon after enrolling in an Obama Care policy, she got a full time job that offered health care insurance, eliminating her need for the Obama Care policy .
• She contacted her Obama Care insurer, Florida Health Care Plans, to terminate her policy. But they told her she could not disenroll from her policy with them, instructing her to do it via the toll free government number for Obama Care.
• The first time she called the toll free number, she was placed on hold for 49 minutes. When a call rep finally came on the line, Battles was told that they could not resolve her problem, transferring her to a so-called specialist. 
• The specialist was also not able to disenroll her and referred her to an Event Resolution Center. 
• Unfortunately, according to Battles and the article, the Center did not have an email address, direct number, or address to file a complaint- only a 1-800 number.
• She was eventually able to reach healthcare.gov and was told that the only way she could terminate her policy would be after her other coverage began, which forced her to pay twice for insurance.
• Her advice for other Americans, after the extra burden of payment and long list of hassles and frustrations: “I hate to say it, but if you don’t have to go through the [Obama Care] marketplace, don’t,” Battles warned Americans in the article.

This story and the Bankrupting America story above are just two more examples of the Federal government and Obama administration incompetence in this area. They had three years, tens of billions of dollars, national attention, and the support of the President and half of Congress for this ill fated and ill thought out effort. The results of their efforts at the end of the whole process was a disaster, an embarrassment, a hassle for millions of Americans, and an economic nightmare.

3) A March 19, 2014 article from The Hill did not have good news for those with Obama Care policies from a financial perspective. The article quotes health insurance industry executives who say Obama Care-related premiums will possibly double in some parts of the country by 2015, countering claims recently made by the administration.

The expected Obama Care insurance rate hikes will be announced in the coming months. The industry predictions come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tried to dampen concerns about rising health insurance premiums for Obama Care policies. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past (more on this hypocritical comment below). 

The article points to four main drivers of the anticipated increases:

• Delays and changes in Obama Care’s rollout are a primary driver of anticipated rate hikes. 
• The Obama administration, after a massive public outcry, changed and eased the Obama Care requirements to allow people to keep their old health plans, which kept some healthy people in place, instead of making them jump into the new exchanges where they would be subsidizing other Obama Care customers and helping the bottom line of the insurance companies.
• Federal health officials have limited the amount of money the government can spend to help insurers cover the cost of new, sick patients, reducing health insurance company profits. 
• Most important, insurers’ younger, healthier people only make up about one-quarter of the enrollees in plans through the Obama Care insurance exchanges, which now have a higher percentage of older sicker people that cost insurance companies more to service. Many insurers to not expect that ratio to change by the end of the month when the current enrollment period for Obama Care ends.

Regarding the Sebelius comment before Congress that health insurance premium costs will go up in the future but not as much as historically: didn’t the President promise that insurance rates would go DOWN as a result of Obama Care? Didn’t the President promise that insurance rates would go DOWN about $2,500 a year for the average American family? When did lower growth rates mean insurance rates are going DOWN? 

A number of high ranking insiders from the administration are quoted the article, trying to deflect the reality that insurance rates for Obama Care policy holders are likely to go up in the face of the Presidential promise that health care insurance would be less expensive.

However, health insurance company spokespersons disagree with the administration’s assertion:

• “We’re exasperated,” said one unnamed senior insurance official. “All of these major delays on very significant portions of the law are going to change what it’s going to cost.” 
• “My gut tells me that, for some people, these increases will be significant,” said Bill Hoagland, a former executive at Cigna and current senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 
• “It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity. The official said expects to triple its rates next year on the Obama Care exchange.

Sop who you going to believe? Insurance officals who have been int eh industry for a long time and understand how the industry works or anyone from this Presidential administration which has lied on just about every facet of Obama Care, from you can keep your doctor to you can keep your insirance policy to the website is easy to use to…..

4) One last piece of insanity for today relative to Obama Care. It builds on the previous discussion from The Hill on how Obama Care insurance rates are likely to go up substantially relatively soon. The following chart is based on an in-depth analysis that the Society of Actuaries did last year. 

Actuaries are very smart, analytical people that understand the reality of the numbers within any facet of the insurance industry. As you can see, the vast majority of states will see the cost of health insurance for the citizens of those states increase significantly as a result of Obama Care, a bottom line finding that is certainly in line with what the insurance executives are telling The Hill. 

45 states should expect to see higher insurance premiums with two states, Illinois and Wisconsin, experiencing increases that are a whopping 80% and higher. So much for being the “Affordable” Health Care Act.

The disasters will continue tomorrow.

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