1) Harry Reid recently and falsely claimed that no one in the country was paying more in health care insurance costs as a result of Obama Care. This is just one in a series of lies that the good Senator from Nevada has perpetrated on the country over the past few years. We know there are millions of people that have either lost their insurance and are stuck paying more for replacement insurance policies or who kept their policies but have been told by their insurance companies that their rates are going up as a result of Obama Care.
Just to prove again the Reid was either grossly wrong or grossly lying, consider the plight of a regular American, a Marine veteran, who saw his insurance costs more than double as a result of Obama Care:
It is interesting that one of his state’s Senators also came out and more or less implied that this former Marine was lying. It is pretty sad when so-called leaders of this country have to resort to lies and deceptions and the slandering of American citizens to cover-up their ineptness on this legislation.
2) One of the huge and disgraceful bets within the Obama Care legislation was whether or not the President and his allies could convince younger, healthier Americans to sign up for health insurance plans that most would never need in order to take their money to support the needs of older, less healthy insurance customers. The business case financials depended on the intergenerational transfer of wealth from younger/healthier to older/sick citizens.
Early surveys and analyses of those that actually did sign up for health care insurance have indicated, as we have reported, that this bet was lost. Rather than getting almost a 40% level of younger and healthier, the signup profile shows that less than 30% were younger and healthier Obama Care customers. If that is indeed the case, than those insurance companies that participated in the Obama Care exchanges will have to raise their premiums and deductibles in 2015 to make up the difference.
We have already reported on the fact that Humana is leaning towards a substantial increase in premiums in 2015 to make up for the shortfall in younger and healthier that they are starting to see. And last week, Aetna, America’s third-largest health insurer said that its customers should expect to see 2015 premium spikes that in some states will be “over double digits” as a result of the Obama administration’s endless “on the fly” Obama Care changes.
The company’s CEO, Mark Bertolini, told reporters that while his company prefers to stay at its current level of Obama Care participation in just 17 states, customers can expect health insurance premiums to climb in 2014 despite Obama Care. Specifically, Bertolini said that, depending on a customer’s state and the mix of sick versus healthy patients, customers will see insurance hikes ranging from “the very low single digits” to “some that will be over double digits.” So much for the President’s promise that the average American family would see their annual health insurance costs go down by $2,500. Going down $2,500 is not consistent with the reality of going up “over double digits.”
3) One of the problems the President has relative to his signature legislation is that no one except his die hard fans believe anything he says anymore. Remember, even the Obama-friendly Washington Post awarded him the biggest lie of the year for 2013 and included three of his promises in the top ten lies for 2013, a very dubious achievement for the leader of the country.
A quick review of his lies and deceptions include, but are not limited to the following:
- If you like your current insurance policy you can keep it under Obama Care. No, respected estimates show that anywhere from 5 to 6 million Americans lost their insurance coverage because of Obama Care.
- If you like your current doctor and hospital, you can keep your access to your current doctor and hospital. No, we now know that Obama Care policies are showing much tighter and narrower access to doctors, and hospitals, meaning that millions of Americans have lost access to their preferred doctors and hospitals.
- The average annual insurance policy costs for the average American family will go down by $2,500 a year. No, in 45 states, the average costs of health insurance premiums are going up and generally going up a lot, according to a study and analysis done by the Society of Actuaries.
Other lies in other areas include:
- He was going to cut the annual deficit in half by the middle of his first term. Instead, he has recorded record deficits for every year of his Presidency.
- He would immediately shut down the prisoner camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. More than five years into his Presidency and the camp is still open.
- He was going to run the most transparent Presidency in the history of the country. Instead, we have the most opaque administration ever.
- He was going to unite the country and get everyone to work together. Instead, he has stood by as his political allies have attacked and slandered his political opponents, ordinary Americans, and media people who dare to question his policies.
- He was going to support the Constitution and execute the laws of the land. Instead, he has operated the most lawless Presidency in the history of the country, from the illegal gun running of Fast and Furious to using the IRS to harass his political opponents and critics to spying on every American, Congress, foreign leaders, and the media, etc.
Nevertheless, lets assume that 8 million is reality, although we doubt it based on the trck record of lies, and do some simple math:
- Given that reputable sources estimate the 5 to 6 million Americans lost access to their preferred insurance policies as a result of Obama Care, the net gain in insured Americans is not 8 million, it is only 2 to 3 million. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and go with 3 million NET new Americans enrolled on insurance policies.
- But that 8 million is not the number of people that actually have new, valid, paid for insurance policies, it is the number of Americans who indicated that they were going to sign up, not the number who actually paid their first premium payment. Estimates of non-payers range from 10% to 50%. Again, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that 90% of those interested actually paid for their policies, reducing the number of actual, newly insured Americans from 3 million to 2.7 million Americans.
- What is not known is how many of those 2.7 million Americans would have signed up for health care insurance anyway in the absence of Obama Care. If we assume/guess that 10% would have purchased insurance anyway, that 2.7 million becomes 2.4 million, best case, most optimistic case.
But not an expected performance. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that less than half of uninsured Americans will have health insurance coverage in ten years, severely missing the President’s intent to have every uninsured American covered.
What also is not covered by the above numbers is what happens when Aetna, Humana, and other Obama Care insurance partners come into 2015 with insurance policy costs that are double digit and triple digit percent higher than in 2014? How many of those 2.4 million Obama Care enrollees will opt out of their Obama Care policy because it got too expensive to keep? A further reduction in the 2.4 net newly insured.
For a detailed look at other factors that will further reduce the phantom 8 million enrolled number, go to an interesting analysis at:
This author uncovers more lies relative to Obama Care including some that are properly designated as “whoppers.”
4) And remember, the number is really not that all important. Whether it is 8 million or 2.4 million, at the end of the day, Americans will still be eating too much of the wrong kinds of unhealthy foods, Americans will still not be exercising enough and will still be the most overweight and obese country on the planet, Americans will still smoke too much, the government will still be subsidizing tobacco growers and corn growers whose product ends up as high fructose corn syrup throughout the food chain, there will be no concentrated effort to tame the growing problem of aging diseases, etc. The true root causes will still be driving up health care costs regardless of ‘the number.” Obama Care creates the number but does not create the right solutions.
That will do it for today and for this series. Likely bogus numbers from the administration on signups, costs of Obama Care policies likely to skyrocket in 2015, and Washington Senators call Americans liars. Just another day in the bizarre world of Obama Care. More disasters have been piling up over the past eight days or so but they will have to wait for next month. There are many other facets of polticial class insanity to cover and they cannot wait any longer, starting tomorrow.
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