October, 2014 Part 6, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: Higher Premiums, Lack of Vision (Care), and More

Over the past few years, but especially over the past fourteen months, we have had to devote more and more posts each month to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. This legislation, without a doubt, is the worst piece of legislation ever passed, likely passed by the most inept and useless set of Washington politicians that this country has ever had to endure. The disasters from this law include at least the following downsides:

• It has and will continue to increase the national debt.
• It will leave tens of millions of Americans still uninsured ten years from now.
• It has restricted overall economic growth.
• It raised taxes on all Americans in dozens of ways.
• It has reduced the job growth rate in this country.
• It has turned many full time workers into part time workers or into unemployed workers.
• It has generally increased the cost of health insurance, both premiums and deductibles, over what was available in the insurance market before it was passed.
• The Constitution was violated any number of times when the Obama administration unilaterally and illegally changed components of the law without the permission of Congress or the American people.
• The American people were lied to over and over, directly by the President and Democrats in Congress, on the negative ramifications of the law.
• It has caused millions of American to lose access to the current insurance policies they had.
• It has caused millions of Americans to lose access to their preferred doctors, preferred hospitals, and in many cases, current medicine treatments.
• It has likely increased the volume of people visiting hospital emergency rooms.
• It has caused thousands of doctors to retire early or change professions in order to not deal with the bureaucracy and idiocy of the law.
• It has exposed the inability of the Federal government and various state governments to develop, launch, and operate any kind of successful program.
• It has exposed millions of Americans’ personal financial information to identity thieves.
• It never addressed, and thus, never resolved, the root causes of our escalating health care costs in this country.

I am sure that I omitted some of the negative ramifications of the legislation but you get the idea. To review past discussions of past disasters from Obama Care, enter ”the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care” in the search box above. The latest disasters start here:

1) Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican Senator, is the senior Republican on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Thus, he has had some experience and knowledge base relative to Obama Care.

He has come up with an interesting comparison relative to the cost of building the dysfunctional Federal health insurance exchange website. The cost the site exceeded the combined value of his state's three professional sports teams. Think about the effort that goes into operating and building value in the Tennessee Titans NFL football team, the NHL Nashville Predators hockey team and the Memphis Grizzlies basketbal team and realize that more value and wealth was spent on building the website than building these three large sporting organizations.

But despite the spending, the Senator correctly points out that the Obama Care website "still isn't secure, doesn't let people easily compare doctors and medications covered by each plan, and has not processed all of the applications from last year's open enrollment." he said in an e-mail from a spokeswoman.

Such a waste of time, money, and effort,in such a short time,  for a process that will never reduce the nation’s high health care costs.

2) David Hogberg, writing for Amy Ridenour’s National Center blog, recently discussed the failure of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to deliver cost savings from the nation’s health care industry. According to Mr. Hogberg, ACOs, “are supposed to be one of the great innovations in Obama Care that will save money for Medicare and improve quality for beneficiaries.” 

In theory, ACOs that create savings for Medicare are allowed to retain some of those savings as an incentive. The hope under Obama Care is that expanded use of ACOs would result in more savings for the country and its taxpayers. 

However, the Department of Health and Human Services recently released the results for several hundred existing ACOs and the results were underwhelming in the big picture. Mr. Hogberg did some simple extrapolation of the savings from the current ACOs to a national rollout and estimated that the savings on a national basis would be about one percent of Medicare’s annual budget.

While any savings is good, one percent is hardly going to “bend the cost curve” as Obama promised that Obama Care would do to reduce the cost of health care spending in this country. Thus, another primary assumption of the entire Obama Care process appears to be under delivering, much like everything else in this legislation.

3) A recent Washington Post article, that was summarized in the October 10, 2014 issue of The Week magazine, showed how Obama Care missed another opportunity to really reduce health care costs in this country. According to the Post, about 24 million American adults consume an average of 74 alcoholic drinks a week, over seven a day on average.

How much of a strain on medical and health care costs does consuming over 70 alcoholic drinks a week put on the health care system? Drunk driving injuries, liver disease, liver transplants, and other physical maladies have to eventually occur by drinking so much alcohol. Wouldn’t that $834 million (or over $2 billion depending on whose numbers you sue) wasted on the Federal Obama Care website been better spent on programs focused on reducing alcohol abuse in this country?

This is what happens when you try to problem solve but do not know what the root causes of your problem are. If you reduce the demand for health care services, e.g. get people to stop abusing their bodies with excessive alcohol consumption, you reduce the cost of health care services. Obama Care does nothing of the sort.

The same analogy could be done for smokers. Smoking results in a whole slew of diseases and health care problems that increase the demand and thus, the cost for medical and health care needs. Reduce the demand, get people to stop smoking, and you reduce the cost of health care for everyone.

3) The more you find out about Obama Care’s tenets, the more holes you find in its reasoning and logic. In the past week, for example, we reported on how a family that might other wise qualify for Federal subsidies to buy health insurance are not eligible for the subsidies if one member of the family get their health insurance from their employer, even if that employer‘s health insurance plan does not cover spouses.

A recent Businessweek article exposed another hole in the whole legislation. While Obama Care plans must cover medical vision care like cataract surgery and pay for eye exams and glasses for children, those same health insurance plans are not required to cover glasses or contact lens or vision exams for adults. To make matters worse, Federal subsidies help cannot be used to purchase an additional policy that would cover those basic vision care needs. 

Now ask yourself: how many more people are likely to need new glasses, or eye exams vs. those that are going to need cataract surgery? But unfortunately, Obama Care decided that covering the condition that will affect a very small minority of Americans was more important to cover than the condition and needs that will affect much more Americans. Just another piece of faulty insanity from those that wrote the law.

4) One last piece of Obama Care insanity for today. According to an article by Jennifer Van Laar that recently appeared on the Independent Journal Review website, those with Obama Care bronze plans could get a mighty large sticker shock when they actually see their 2015 Obama Care insurance premiums, depending on where they live.

Fifteen states have now officially published their 2015 Obama Care rate information, and according to an analysis by Investor’s Business Daily, the premium news is not good across much of the country:

While some policy holders will see a decrease in their bronze plan rates, mostly policy holders in smaller metro areas, bronze policy holders in many major, large metro areas will see double digit increases in their insurance premium costs. The average across the sixteen metro areas that were examined comes out to a whopping 14% average increase. So much for the President’s empty promise that an average American family will see a $2,500 DECREASE in its annual health insurance costs.

That will do it for today. Bronze policy costs going up, cost reduction initiatives that fizzle, gaping holes in vision care coverage, and missing the root causes of high health care costs. Very depressing. We will depress you one more time tomorrow as we wrap up this month’s unfolding disasters from Obama Care.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

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It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
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Year End Review: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Today = The Good

As 2009 approaches an end, I thought it would be a good idea to review what we have been discussing the past six months since the publication of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." I have entitled the review "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", based on an old western movie starring Clint Eastwood. Today I will review some of the good things we discussed as it related to the political class (the good), tomorrow we will review some of the ugly things the political class has done to the country and its citizens (the bad) and the next day we will review the incredible wasted of taxpayer dollars and government resources the political class has wasted. Each day I will pick the very best good, the very best bad and the very best ugly.

Before we start, please note two things. First, all of the instances of political activity I will review have already been discussed and analyzed in previous posts to this blog. Thus, for more detail on anything listed and discussed in the next three days you can review the past posts. Second, everything discussed in the next three posts come from credible news sources, these are not facts and stories I made up or are coming from highly partisan sources. Typical sources include CNN, the Associated Press, the New York Times, The Week Magazine, Reason magazine and other news sources. While I will not identify the sources again in these review posts, you can refer to the original posts to get the date and source referenced for the information.

Tonight I will review the good things the political class has done in my opinion in the past six months. Unfortunately, I was able to only come up with three instances of success, i.e. the actions of the political class members involved had the taxpayer and fellow citizens in mind when they executed their actions:

1) The first example is based on personal experience. I live in Pinellas county in Florida and over the past four years my property taxes have gone down on a year over year basis. They have gone down so much that I now pay about 40% in less in property taxes today than I paid four years ago. There are probably a number of factors, both political and non-political, that have gone into this decrease but the bottom line is that they have gone down significantly. And here is the good news: I still have police protection, I still have fire protection, the schools are still open, the parks are still open, most of the libraries are still open and the roads and traffic lights are still in good shape. This is proof to me, on a very local level, that excess waste can be taken out of government without substantial reduction in essential protection and services. The primary word in that previous sentence is essential.

2) The second example comes from the U.S. Senate and it was a suggestion and formal proposal to the Senate from Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee. His reasoning: since the Federal government paid about $60 billion of U.S. taxpayer money to acquire a 60% share of General Motors and theoretically save it from bankruptcy, shouldn't each American taxpayer get stock certificates and partial ownership of GM rather than the Washington bureaucrats? After all, government is able to function only because it takes money from taxpayers, if government acquires ownership in a private company, doesn't that mean that the taxpayers own the company since it was their money? Senator Alexander was the single politician this year that showed he understood the relationship between paying taxes and government spending. Giving individual citizens those shares of GM would ensure more interest in how GM performed going forward since each citizen would have had a stake in its survival, probably giving GM a better shot at survival than it has with government ownership.

3) The final example comes form a small town in south Florida, Miami Gardens. In the past year, Miami Gardens city government took the following actions:

• The city payroll grew. Most everywhere else in the country unemployment increased.
• City employees still got cost of living raises and merit raises. Most everywhere else in the country salaries and wages were frozen or reduced.
• The city increased its financial reserves by about $300,000. Most everywhere else in the country, local and state governments dipped into their reserves to cover operating costs.
• The city upgraded 17 parks and 4 schools. Most other government entities were reducing or eliminating maintenance projects.

How was Miami Gardens able to do all of these positive things in light of a very, very deep recession and the fact that they are not a city of wealthy residents? According to interviews with city officials:

• City employees share both personnel resources and other resources.
• The city hires only those people they actually need to do the work needed to be done.
• City officials claim they have the ability and backbone to say "No" to non-essential projects and programs, claiming that they cannot be everything to everybody.

Thus, much like my first example above, the Miami Gardens politicians have shown that running a lean, efficient operation is possible if you are respectful of taxpayers' dollars.

And the winner of "The Good" award is....... Miami Gardens city government. I applaud Senator Alexander's creative thinking and understanding that government exists only because it collects taxes, not because it itself generates wealth. However, his wise idea was never implemented. And while my personal property taxes have gone down without a detrimental effect on government services, I believe a number of factors were involved, including declining real estate values, not just government actions. Thus, while I am grateful for the reduction, not all of it was the work of the political class.

Miami Gardens city government, however, demonstrated that by respecting the taxpayers and the taxes that are paid, government can be run smoothly, efficiently, and effectively. All it takes is a little planning and the ability to just say No.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

Almost A Good Idea

Although it does not happen often, a member of the political class sometimes has a good idea and it should be recognized. It has come to my attention recently that Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander recently proposed a bill that demonstrated some real outside of the box thinking and would have done a little good in restoring some freedom to this country's citizens. As you all know, the Federal government took over $60 billion of our taxpayer money and used it to bailout GM and Chrysler. In a previous blog we discussed this insanity in detail and how it was a total waste of our hard earned dollars. The result of this bailout and the accompanying bankruptcy proceedings has left the Federal government with about 60% ownership of GM.

Senator Alexander's idea is very simple: given that the American taxpayers paid for this bailout, the American taxpayer should own the 60% via a GM company stock distribution process, i.e. all of us who paid for the bailout would own stock in the new GM. Seems only fair, we paid for it, we should own it. Unfortunately, his proposal was defeated in the Senate. Apparently, the political class wants to hold onto the power of ownership even though they had nothing to do with financing the bailout.

Distributing shares to Americans would have a number of advantages:

1. First, it is only fair since we paid for it (the government did not pay for it, it just took our tax dollars and bought the companies). Our dollars, it should be our reward if the stock actually is worth anything in the future.
2. Second, being owned by many, many Americans would force GM management to be solely focused on running the company efficiently and profitably for the shareholders and not have to worry about the political class interfering in that drive for profitability by having the executives of GM and Chrysler scurrying off to Washington every time some vain politician wants to get his or her name in the paper. The company executives would be accountable to the shareholders, all Americans, and not the whims of the political class.
3. Third, do not think for a minute that the political class will not interfere with company activities. Consider two quotes from Obama in the SAME press conference regarding government ownership of GM as reported on Earthlink's news page on June 1, 2009:

• " What I am not saying, what I have no interest in doing, is running GM." He want on to say that auto executives "will call and make the decisions about turning the company around."
• Later in the press conference he said, "looking ahead, GM will be prodded at every juncture by the administration's top officials"."

HUH? In the same breathe he says he does not want to run GM and the executives will make the decisions and that GM will be prodded at every juncture. Makes no sense. You can bet that this administration will meddle in the ongoing efforts of GM, advocating and pressing its position for GM to make small, fuel efficient cars. Unfortunately, a whole lot of America does not want small, fuel efficient cars. Thus, in short order GM will fail again because it did not listen to the needs of the market (first time because of its own shortsightedness and second time because of political class dictates that were not consistent with market needs ands desires) and our billions of tax dollars spent on the bailouts will be wasted.

Nice try Senator Alexander, you gave it a shot for freedom, fairness, and sanity, too bad the rest of your cohorts did not see it that way.