1) We have covered many, many examples of Americans seeing their lives completely screwed up as a result of Obama Care. Recently, a local television station covered another example out in California. Apparently, a young Marine veteran in California cannot locate a doctor who will accept his Anthem Blue Cross insurance plan, an insurance plan he purchased through Covered California, the state's Obama Care exchange.
Local TV station KPIX reported that the Marine, named Kyle, claims he was on the phone for two hours with Anthem, trying to find a doctor within a 20-mile radius of his home, with no luck. "Finally a supervisor said, 'Sir, we have to go. we have other people to help. And [they] advised me I need to cancel my plan."
Unbelievable treatment of an American in so many ways. First, Obama Care sold him a plan that was useless. Second, the customer service department of the company that sold him the plan was useless. And third, rather than handle the situation, they told him to cancel his plan and basically lose any money he had already put into the pockets of the insurance company for absolutely nothing.
But for Obama Care, often par for the course. Lousy, or in this case, no insurance coverage, lousy or no access to medical care under the Obama Care policy, and horrible customer support and lack of respect to the customer.
To access the TV report, go to:
2) Politico reported on May 20, 2014 that the state of Nevada would be joining a number of other states in scrapping its Obama Care state health exchange system since it has been such an unmitigated failure. Those in charge decided that the current systems used for the state exchange could not be fixed by November, the start of the next enrollment season and that Nevada residents would have to use the Federal Obama Care exchange until further notice.
Thus, Nevada joins Oregon, Maryland, and Massachusetts as states whose politicians and government bureaucracies could not build and manage a website process for Obama Care. Nevada had awarded the original contract to Xerox at a cost of $73 million. For that $73 million, Nevada was expected to enroll 118,000 people by March 31.
However, severe tech problems with the web based exchange forced state officials in January to slash the projection to 50,000 as the Nevada exchange spit out incorrect subsidy information for enrollees among other problems. As of May 10, just 35,000 state residents had officially enrolled in Nevada online for Obama Care, less than 30% of the original expectations.
Certainly a failure by any measurement or set of expectations.
3) But as we just said, Nevada is not the exception in the Oabma Care world, it is almost becoming the rule. Consider the widespread failures of Obama Care’s state exchanges, as compiled by a recent analysis done by the Heritage Foundation:
- In the case of three states that have called it quits relative to their own state exchange for Obama Care, Oregon received more than $300 million in Federal taxpayer money, Massachusetts received $179 million, and Maryland received a little more than $171 million.
- That’s more than $655 million in Federal taxpayer-provided money for absolutely nothing in return.
- Additionally, although it already has admitted failure relative to its exchange site, Massachusetts wants another $120 million to try again.
- But it gets worse. State managed Obama Care exchanges in Nevada, Hawaii, Vermont and Minnesota are all also failing to deliver what they were supposed to deliver, beginning last October.
- In total, Federal taxpayers have spent $834 million in just six states that collectively enrolled 270,000 people. That’s more than whopping $3,000 dollars per enrollee.
- For those costs, we would have been better to just write a check to each of them for over $3,000 and have them apply it to any insurance coverage they could find on theri own.
- As we discussed in previous posts, Oregon takes the prize for the worst. Despite spending $305 million dollars, not one person during the 2014 enrollment period was registered successfully online via Oregon’s Obama Care exchange.
- Hawaii spent almost $25,000 for every enrollee who signed up during the Obama Care enrollment period ontheir state exchange website.
- And in Colorado, the Obama Care exchange website has not come close to hitting is sign up objective, it’s managers have consistently fought against an audit attempting to track how the exchange used its millions of dollars, and in the ultimate insult, are now proposing the $13 million in user fees be assessed on the health insurance policies of state residents who do NOT get their insurance via Obama Care in order to subsidize those that do get their policies via Obama Care’s processes.
As a result of these many state Obama Care exchanges collapsing into a pile of trash and the disaster of a rollout of the Federal exchange, do we really think that allowing the political class, and their ineffective and inefficient government bureaucracies they operate across the country, are the people you want to entrust your health care to?
If they cannot build and maintain simple web based programs after spending over three years and probably over a billion dollars to try and do so, maybe they are not the ones to manage the nation’s health care issues. Since they have not been able to fix our failing public schools, win the war on drugs, develop and deploy a strategic energy policy, secure our borders, etc., the probability of them being successful in this area is next to nil.
4) This item is a new one to me so I am not really sure how it works except for the fact it will increase the cost of health insurance for every person and every company, small or large, in the United States. It is called the Health Insurance Tax and a consulting group, Oliver Wyman, has completed an analysis which examines and estimates the effect of the new “HIT” tax on insurance market segments and public programs:
- Impact on individual market consumers: Increase premiums over a ten-year period for single coverage by an average $2,150, and for family coverage an average $5,080.
- Impact on small employers: Increase premiums over a ten-year period for single coverage by an average $2,760, and for family coverage an average $6,830.
- Impact on large employers: Increase premiums over a ten-year period for single coverage by an average $2,610, and for family coverage an average $7,130.
- Impact on Medicare Advantage beneficiaries: Increase costs $16 to $20 per member per month in 2014 and will increase to between $32 and $42 by 2023. The average expected increase in the cost of Medicare Advantage coverage over ten years is $3,590.
- Impact on Part D beneficiaries: Increase average premiums by $9 in 2014 and by $20 in 2023 for a total increase of $161 over ten years.
- Impact on Medicaid managed care beneficiaries: Increase the average costs of Medicaid coverage by about $1,530 per enrollee between 2014 and 2023.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over a ten year period, the HIT tax will take about $100 billion out of the economy and hand it over to the Federal government. This is $100 billion thast cannot be used efficiently by the economy to build economic growth and job opportunity. Given what we just discussed regarding the incompetence of the political class in buidling simple websites, it is doubtful that the Washington politicians will be able to use this $100 billion efficiently or effectively.
But again the bigger issue is the deception and lying of the President when he boldly stated that the average American family will see their annual health insurance costs go down around $2,500 a year. Tough to do when just this single Obama Care tax is likely to increase those same costs upwards of $700 a year. Pathetic leadership from a pathetic Washington.
That will do it for today but we probably need at least one more day to update everyone on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.
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