By 2023, Obamacare is estimated to cost $1.7 trillion, all to sign up 4.2 million people, most of which already had health insurance? Extrapolating out, if my math is correct, that’s over $400,000 of spending per Obamacare enrollee. I guess that’s pretty cheap. When the government creates “jobs” it usually cost more than a million per job created. And more people have had their health insurance policies cancelled than have signed up for Obamacare.
And we’re destroying the healthcare system so 4.3 million people now have coverage?
Obama has already pissed away billions on his community organizer cronies, who supposedly signed up people for Obamacare. He’s pissed away hundreds of millions of your tax dollars on TV commercials, many so bad they could be Saturday Night Live skits.
And you haven’t seen anything yet. States that DID sign up for the Medicaid expansion are going to have to raise taxes dramatically to pay for all the new Medicaid (free health insurance and meds) recipients, because states have to kick in at least 30% of medicaid spending before they get Federal funds. No mention of this by Obama or the MSM.
Sound like a nightmare? It’s only the beginning. Just wait till after the 2014 elections…..You ain’t seen nothing yet…..
CURL: We overhauled U.S. health care — to insure 4.2 million people?
By Joseph Curl The Washington Times Sunday, March 16, 2014
The number bounced around for years — 46 million.
President Obama said it in August 2009: “I don’t have to explain to you that nearly 46 million Americans don’t have health insurance coverage today. In the wealthiest nation on Earth, 46 million of our fellow citizens have no coverage.”
He said it dozens more times, including in June 2013: “We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women and children.”
The Obama administration pumped the number with official reports. The White House Council of Economic Advisers said, “Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance.” The Census Bureau got in on the act, too, saying some 48 million Americans lacked health insurance.
It was official: Nearly 15 percent of America’s 313 million citizens had no coverage and were, as Mr. Obama loved to say over and over to hype the fear, “one illness away from financial ruin.”
So, he created Obamacare. The crux of the biscuit: The United States would completely change its entire health care system to make sure those 46 million got insured. Well, at least that’s what every rational American thought. If there are 46 million uninsured, and the president and Congress are overhauling the system, it must be to solve the whole problem — not just part of it.
But last week came word that with just 15 days left for people to enroll for federal coverage, just 4.2 million had. The math is simple: That’s just 9 percent of the supposedly 46 million uninsured.
“It will be a larger number than that by the end of March,” Mr. Obama promised in an interview with WebMD. “At this point, enough people are signing up that the Affordable Care Act is going to work.”
Still, the obvious question is: We changed the $2.7 trillion health care system to sign up 4.2 million people?
While the president has opted to press class warfare and income inequality in the weeks leading up to the Obamacare sign-up cutoff date of March 31, he has made an effort to enroll the people most needed to make the federal program work: the young.
He did an ask-me-anything on Reddit.com, popped up on “Between Two Ferns” with Zach Galifianakis, introduced a segment on the popular show “Cosmos,” even invited ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass to the White House to “discuss” health care.
But the young have not flocked to the Web page to sign up for insurance that, even with a hefty federal subsidy, will still cost them more than not paying anything. And anyone with teenagers or 20-somethings knows that they don’t do anything unless they’re absolutely forced to (Zach didn’t actually tell them to go sign up, just the pushy president, again).
What’s more, it turns out many of those signing up to the program already had insurance. “Few uninsured Americans are gaining coverage under Obamacare,” CNN reported in early March. Just 27 percent of the enrollees were previously uninsured, according to a survey conducted in February by McKinsey & Co.
To top it all off, reports have emerged that many of the enrollees are more elderly and more unhealthy, which is likely to tax the system heavily just as it gets started.
What’s surprising is how little the mainstream media cares. The White House now says it was hoping to enroll 8 million in the first year — but does anyone remember that being a big selling point as the president crisscrossed the country scaring Americans? And no one in the MSM blinked an eye when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that in 2023, Obamacare will still have left 31 million people without health insurance while adding more than $1.7 trillion in federal spending.
In a wonderfully timed plea, Mr. Obama is asking Americans to give him money so that he can push his signature policy.
“Chip in before it’s too late. What we do right now determines how aggressive we can make our final push for health care this month.” You can give $15 or $5,000. But your president is begging: “Make a donation — and let’s finish what we started.”
With just 4.2 million of the 46 million uninsured Americans enrolled, it seems Obamacare is already finished before it started.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/16/curl-we-completely-overhauled-american-health-care/#ixzz2wErLXgSI
And for all the little people (the one’s with jobs), health insurance premiums are doubling and tripling….
Lets ” Make a donation????????????” Right, Donation my arse. John
Obama Punishes Putin: Secretly Enrolled Him in Obamacare
After being perceived as being a weak, limp wristed poofter on the world stage, President Obama has now truly toughened the U.S reaction to punish Russian leader Vladimir Putin for his complete disregard of international law by occupying the sovereign territory of the Ukraine.
An obviously pleased Mr. Obama with his new strategy to punish Mr. Putin, relayed to the press that he had recently been on the phone with him about the situation in the Ukraine, specifically the Russian occupation of the Crimea, which is sovereign Ukrainian territory. Mr. Obama stated that he repeatedly assured Mr. Putin at the beginning of the conversation that, “If he liked his plan, rebuilding the Soviet Union, he could keep his plan….period,” and then Mr. Obama started to snicker.
Mr. Obama further said that during the conversation he also inquired if Mr. Putin liked his current Doctor. “He said he was quite happy with his Doctor, and that he had built a long and trusting relationship with him as his primary care giver,” Mr. Obama said with a big smile on his face, “I also then asked him if his current premiums were affordable and if his deductibles were reasonable.” He told me, “Quite affordable and reasonable.”
Mr. Obama then stated that he asked Mr. Putin, just out of concern, about the state of his current health, age, if he was a smoker and some other basic questions, “I actually needed that information to complete the Obamacare enrollment process, but I wasn’t going to tell him that of course”. Mr. Obama also said he was filling out a paper Ocare application at exactly the same time he was having his phone conversation with Mr. Putin, as the website was still in his words,”having glitches”.
Mr. Obama said the phone conversation ended on a positive note with Mr. Putin being most impressed with the concern for his health that Mr. Obama had displayed. “I told Mr. Putin after our conversation that he could be expecting a nice little letter from the U.S in the next couple of weeks summarizing our conversation.” he then further stated, “Mr. Putin actually might think I am some sort of lightweight that can be pushed around, but when it comes to handing out some real pain to folks, I’m not a man to be trifled with…. just ask anybody in America’s middle class.”
Mr. Obama expects that Mr. Putin will be receiving his new Obamacare letter, healthcare insurance plan and his new premium payment notice within the next two weeks. “After he gets it, I fully expect him to be calling me madder then a tea party protester and angrily demand an exemption to be taken out of Ocare completely,” Mr. Obama then further elaborated, “it is at that point when I’ll finally have some real leverage over him and then we’ll seriously talk about his immediate withdrawal from the Ukraine”.
My husband and I currently donate over 35K a year in taxes, we’re good.
Preaching to the choir here, AWD.
Obamacare is a pile of shit, we all know that. I don’t believe it was ever intended to solve anything and I don’t believe there is a chance in hell of seeing the government hold itself together for ten more years anyway.
Your in the medical field, as are a lot of others who post here, what do you think is the real problem? How DO we fix the medical system in this country? Got any solutions?
As I’ve posted a hundred times, the solution to the healthcare problem is to make it “not for profit”, which is what it was before health insurance companies paid off the criminals in Washington.
Hospitals, pharma, health insurance companies get limited to a 6% profit margin (to cover costs and overhead), instead of the 50-100% profit margins they now have. Actually use money for healthcare for actual healthcare, instead of tens of billions in profits for parasitic middlemen. The HMO’s especially, take money for healthcare, and provide nothing, withhold care, and bankrupt people that need healthcare. It’s a crime, but they own the criminals in Washington (and wrote Obamacare).
And, of course, get government OUT of healthcare. The death of the healthcare system started with the cancer known as Medicare, then Medicaid. The government wastes even more money than the HMOs.
@AWD: As a geezer around this place, I can illustrate why “non-profit” health providers do not exist.
I’ve been treated for the last year and half for lymphoma – chemo and now a mono-clonal antibody treatment.. I see the bills as paid by Medicare and by my Medigap provider.
The Cancer Center charges $9,000 Medicare for a single 100 mg of Rituxamab, Medicare (which pays providers their actual costs + overhead) pays them 80% of “approved” charges )in this case, $4,100 for a 100 mg dose. My Medigap covers the other 20% of “approved charges.
Why does the non-profit cancer center double the charges for the drug? So it can write off the excess above and beyond the “approved” amount to insure it stays “non-profit”.
Seems I remember the Board of the “non-profit” hospital split $22,000,000.00 in bonuses last years. Between 5 people.
The entire system is total humbug but making it “non-profit” is like jumping down the rabbit hole with Alice as far as “fixing” things are concerned..
MA
I have read many a rant on the market ticker on drug prices and the like. I’ve also read numerous articles depicting Obama’s repeated attempts to prevent ANY altering of drug import laws. I have heard reports on NPR that companies in Europe sell locally for cost and sell to the US at 500% markup.
I’m under the impression that the main reason Europe can have their universal healthcare is because it gets subsidized by American healthcare. Is there any truth to this?
Is the US funding the research and development for drugs and technology so that the rest of the world can have lower prices?
Donation? Yeah good one where do I sign up for that stupid shit, what a freakin tool!
Donation? Yeah good one where do I sign up for that stupid shit, what a freakin tool!
Obamacare leaves obese baby boomer Las Vegas man owing $407,000 in doctor bills
By JENNIFER ROBISON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
The hospital bills are hitting Larry Basich’s mailbox.
That would be OK if Basich had health insurance. But he doesn’t.
Thing is, he should be covered. Basich, 62, bought a plan through the state’s Nevada Health Link insurance exchange in the fall. He’s been paying monthly premiums since November.
Yet the Las Vegan is stranded in a no-man’s-land where no carrier claims him, and his tab is mounting: Basich owes $407,000 for care received in January and February, when his policy was supposed to be in effect. Instead, he’s covered only for March and beyond.
Basich has begged for weeks for help from the exchange and its contractor, Xerox. But Basich’s insurance broker said Xerox seems more interested in lawyering up and covering its hide than in working out Basich’s problems. Nor is Basich the only client facing plan-selection errors through the exchange, she added.
Xerox, meanwhile, said it’s working every day to fix Basich’s problem, and its legal counsel is routine.
In the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and its insurance exchanges, you can find a success story for every failure. But Basich’s case is extreme.
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
Basich said he began trying to enroll on Oct. 1, the day the exchange website went live. Like many consumers, he fought technical flaws during multiple sign-up attempts. In mid-November he finally got through and chose his plan: UnitedHealthcare’s MyHPNSilver1.
“It was like reaching the third level of Doom,” Basich said of the torturous sign-up process.
Basich paid his first premium on Nov. 21, and within days the exchange withdrew the $160.77 payment from his money-market savings account. Because Basich paid a month before the Dec. 23 deadline, his coverage was to begin Jan. 1.
Weeks ticked by, but Basich received nothing to confirm he had insurance. Nevada Health Link kept telling him he was enrolled, but UnitedHealthcare said he wasn’t in their system.
Basich’s predicament went critical on Dec. 31, when he had a heart attack. His treatment, which included a triple bypass on Jan. 3, resulted in $407,000 in medical bills in January and February that no insurer is covering
How many Basichs are out there with how many $M in claims? This should keep the courts busy for years. At least until the collapse, and the insurance companies will be sitting pretty, having diversified their investments across the strata. Why isn’t investment income used to lower insurance premiums?
No one will argue the system could be tweaked to work for everyone, and no one will argue it has been tweaked to work only for the elite, and the FSA, depending on how far you want to take the analogy.
Where the break down occurs is when the elite assume they can act with impunity, and their will be no consequences. When exploitation of the earth’s resources has reached it’s zenith, what then?
“As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:36-37 ESV)
Given a choice, I will take my chances with the Lord God Almighty, and in the power of his might. Tough choice, right. It’s easy when you have nothing to lose. It’s tougher when you’re in a position of power and you have a difficult decision to make between right and wrong. At least Edward Snowden, and PFC Bradley Manning made the right decisions.
[Queue theme from Cops]
Someone commented that many who post here are in the healthcare field. I am not.
Regardless, we will NEVER get healthcare costs under control for two reasons :
1. People who eat too much, eat the wrong things, and don’t exercise even moderately every day. This is a majority of citizens – excluding those with preexisting conditions.
2. Even if almost everyone in our country miraculously did all the right things and got themselves in shape, the big HMO’s would still demand their profits – and would keep rates high anyway to reach their profits targets to please investors, pump up stock values, etc. They will always get their way thanks to our political puppets known as democrats and republicans bought and paid for.
It really isn’t any more complicated than this is it?
Report: Premiums rising faster than eight years before Obamacare COMBINED
2:28 PM 03/18/2014
Health insurance premiums have risen more after Obamacare than the average premium increases over the eight years before it became law, according to the private health exchange eHealthInsurance.
The individual market for health insurance has seen premiums rise by 39 percent since February 2013, eHealth reports. Without a subsidy, the average individual premium is now $274 a month. Families have been hit even harder with an average increase of 56 percent over the same period — average premiums are now $663 per family, over $426 last year.
Between 2005 and 2013, average premiums for individual plans increased 37 percent and average family premiums were upped 31 percent. So they have risen faster under Obamacare than in the previous eight years.
An important caveat is that eHealth’s prices don’t include subsidies, so the prices for anyone earning between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level will be lower. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has repeatedly claimed patients will pay as little as $18 per month, without noting the taxpayer cost.
Premiums are being hiked across the board for several reasons, but the biggest contributor is the Obama administration’s highly touted “essential health benefits,” services that insurers on and off exchanges must provide.
Some benefits, such as emergency and laboratory services, are uncontroversial. But others, like maternity, newborn and pediatric services, are causing headaches for huge swaths of the population that don’t need them. Anyone past childbearing age, single men, the infertile, even nuns — their premiums are rising as well, because their plans must, by law, provide more services.
But premiums aren’t the only key to health care costs — deductibles and out-of-pocket costs like co-pays are also rising. When it comes to employer health plans alone, four out of five U.S. companies have increased deductibles or are considering doing so.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/18/report-premiums-rising-faster-than-eight-years-before-obamacare-combined/#ixzz2wLYypft6
Went to a meeting today, and found out yet another Obamacare scheme
They going to use the ’80s DRG scheme, that was a catastrophic failure, but this time they’re going to use it for hospitals. So, they’ll pay a lump sum to a hospital, which will be responsible for the care of people in a defined geographical area. The less care the hospital gives, the more money they keep. The more care they give, the less money they keep. So, like in the 80’s, it pits the hospital against those that need care, to see who can use or keep the most dollars. It’s mind boggling. People end up dying under this scheme.
And, there are big changes coming in rationing care. The government is thinking of limiting the number of CT scanners, MRI machines and other tests per geographical area. So, you’ll have to wait for 6-9 months to get a scan done. It’s going to be much worse than even I thought.
Spoiler alert:
If you need any medical procedures done, or anything medical, you’d better have it done NOW while you still can, because you may not be able to get it done later.
Congresswoman: Obama admin rule change lets insurance companies keep more profits, pay less for care
03/18/2014 Patrick Howley
Republican Tennessee Rep. Diane Black says that the Obama administration’s most recent Obamacare rule change will result in insurance companies keeping more profits while paying less for customers’ health care needs.
“I am writing to express my concern with the proposed rule change released on Friday, March 14th that would allow insurance companies to keep an additional two percent of premiums for purposes other than medical care…your department is now proposing to increase the amount of money that insurance companies will be allowed to retain for profit,” Black wrote in a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, which was obtained by The Daily Caller.
HHS’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly introduced the new rule Friday, which relieves insurance companies of some of the damage about to be levied on them by Obamacare-related administrative costs.
“In the proposed rules, you have indicated that this adjustment in the ‘medical loss ratio’, or 80/20 rule, is due to the possibility of increased administrative costs in 2015. However, adjusting the percentage that insurance providers are required to spend on medical care by two percent would have the combined impact of reducing the amount that insurance providers will be required to pay for people’s medical care while increasing the amount that insurance companies are allowed to retain for profit and for executive pay,” Black wrote.
“This is deeply concerning, as it could result in higher out of pocket costs for consumers solely for the benefit of the insurance industry.”
“If this rule were to take effect for 2015, what reasonable expectation can consumers have that it would be reversed in 2016 or later years?” Black wrote.
“At a time when public approval of the health care law is so low, do you believe that giving insurance companies a greater percentage of American consumers’ money for their profits will negatively impact enrollment? Do you believe it is fair to force Americans through tax penalties to give insurance companies an even greater percentage of their premiums for costs not related to medical care?” Black wrote.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/18/congresswoman-obama-admin-rule-change-lets-insurance-companies-keep-more-profits-while-paying-less-for-customers-care/#ixzz2wLcB0scV
Obama to Hispanics: We won’t deport relatives because you enroll in ObamaCare
By Jonathan Easley March 18, 2014
President Obama on Tuesday sought to assure legal immigrants that they can sign up for ObamaCare without worrying that “the immigration people” will come for family members who are in the country illegally.
In an interview with Univision Deportes, a Spanish-language sports radio show, Obama said immigration officials won’t have access to the personal information that consumers provide when signing up for healthcare on the new exchanges.
“Well, the main thing for people to know is that any information you get, you know, asked with respect to buying insurance, does not have anything to do with … the rules governing immigration,” Obama said. “And you know, you can qualify if you’re a legal resident, if you are … legally present in the United States. You know, if you have a family where some people are citizens or legally here, and others are not documented, the immigration people will never get that information.”
The administration has made this point before, but Hispanics have been slow to enroll under ObamaCare, and some believe mixed-status families might be staying away from the exchanges out of fear it will jeopardize family members in the country illegally.
“You know, you will qualify, you know, regardless of what your family’s status is,” Obama said on Tuesday. “So, you know, people should not hold back just because they’re in a mixed-family status.”
The White House has said there are 10.2 million uninsured Hispanics eligible for ObamaCare in the country, and about 8.1 million are likely eligible for tax credits. Hispanics have the highest rate of uninsured of any ethnic group in the country.
The administration has focused on Hispanics in its final enrollment push through initiatives like the Latino Enrollment Week of Action, and in its partnership with Spanish-language media.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/201076-obama-makes-o-care-pitch-to-hispanics-the#ixzz2wLhX9q5m
Pastor Diagnosed With Cancer: ‘No Compassion in the Affordable Care Act’
Obamacare ‘anything but affordable.’
Mar 18, 2014 • By DANIEL HALPER
A pastor recently diagnosed with cancer, and who is covered under Obamacare, tells a local Iowa reporter that there’s “no compassion in the Affordable Care Act.”
“Back in January, Pastor Angran was diagnosed with stage three cancer of the esophagus. He had insurance, but because of a previous heart condition, it did not cover the treatments he needed for his cancer. He found that out just minutes before receiving life-saving chemo,” says the local reporter.
The pastor says, “One of the workers came and said let me talk to you. And so I went to talk to her. She says that we found out that your insurance does not include chemo.”
“Over the past two months, the Angrans have emptied their savings account and racked up $50,000 in debt. They signed up for the Affordable Care Act,” says the local reporter, “but found it to be anything but affordable. It will cost the couple more than $800 per month, money they just don’t have.”
The reporter adds, “As a pastor, Angran has devoted his life to helping others, to being compassionate. He says, ‘There’s no compassion in the Affordable Care Act.'”
Got Obamacare? better not get cancer. Wish HZK would comment.
Concerns about cancer centers under Obamacare health law
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of America’s best cancer hospitals are off-limits to many of the people now signing up for coverage under the nation’s new health care program.
Doctors and administrators say they’re concerned. So are some state insurance regulators.
An Associated Press survey found examples coast to coast. Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is excluded by five out of eight insurers in Washington’s insurance exchange. MD Anderson Cancer Center says it’s in less than half of the plans in the Houston area. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is included by two of nine insurers in New York City and has out-of-network agreements with two more.
In all, only four of 19 nationally recognized comprehensive cancer centers that responded to AP’s survey said patients have access through all the insurance companies in their states’ exchanges.
Not too long ago insurance companies would have been vying to offer access to renowned cancer centers, said Dan Mendelson, CEO of the market research firm Avalere Health. Now the focus is on costs.
“This is a marked deterioration of access to the premier cancer centers for people who are signing up for these plans,” Mendelson said.
Those patients may not be able get the most advanced treatment, including clinical trials of new medications.
And there’s another problem: it’s not easy for consumers shopping online in the new insurance markets to tell if top-level institutions are included in a plan. That takes additional digging by the people applying.
“The challenges of this are going to become evident … as cancer cases start to arrive,” said Norman Hubbard, executive vice president of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Before President Barack Obama’s health care law, a cancer diagnosis could make you uninsurable. Now, insurers can’t turn away people with health problems or charge them more. Lifetime dollar limits on policies, once a financial trap-door for cancer patients, are also banned.
Free market system is always the answer
Send Admin $19.95 and get one ten-pak of obamacare buttons to pass out to all your friends. Hurry while supplies last, they are going quick!,
I have a customer, who is a die hard liberal, that asks me every time I show up if I’ve gotten health insurance yet. Every time I give the same answer. No, just gonna pay the fine.
It’s not that I can’t afford it.
It’s not that I think I’m invincible.
It’s because I don’t believe that the health insurance business model is viable. Not without the medical system being fixed. Costs are too damn high and continue to grow, more and more people getting sicker and sicker, the problems that required the ACA “reform” still persist.
I’m 34. My expected health care costs for the next decade are close to zero. If I purchase health insurance now, I will be paying into the system for a decade or more before I expect to start pulling benefits. Will my health insurance be around to pay for my medical bills by then? I don’t think so.
Today she suggested that I just get a little “catastrophic coverage”, because she worries about me driving around without insurance. I didn’t bother to tell her those are “substandard plans” and are being / have been phased out.
At this point I’d be happy if O just didn’t screw anything else up. Probably too late, but trying to make the best of what we got left.
Don’t expect the bought off liberal MSM to tell the truth about Obamacare, or what’s coming. It’s disgraceful. People are dying and going hundreds of thousands in debt because of Obamacare’s failures, and not a peep out of the dipshits whose job it is to keep the public informed.
ABC’s ‘Nightline’ Skipped ObamaCare for 123 Days, Gossips Over ‘Bootleg Butt Injections’
By Scott Whitlock | March 18, 2014 | 17:30
How do the journalists at Nightline define news? On Monday night, co-host Dan Harris and reporter Mariana van Zeller spent an astonishing nine minutes and 33 seconds on the salacious, gossipy phenomenon of “bootleg butt injections.” Yet, it’s been 123 days, 17 and a half weeks, since the show’s hosts have focused on ObamaCare and the problems with the law’s implementation.
Harris educated his audience: “In the iconic rap song, Baby Got Back, Sir-Mix-A-Lot professes his love for women with large rear ends.” He continued, “Since that song came out in 1992, the world’s obsession with plus-size backsides has only intensified…” Yes, the once-prestigious Nightline investigated why some women “are risking it all on bootleg butt injections.”
Journalist van Zeller traveled to Caracas, Venezuela, noting, “We’re looking for a doctor who runs a backroom butt clinic out of his apartment.”
The reporter proceeded to spend almost ten minutes on butts, why women opt for larger rear ends and why men notice them. The show’s journalists attempted to attach a “serious” angle to this story, the health risks associated with excess butt surgeries and injections.
However, the lengthy story also featured repeated shots of female backsides.
In contrast, Nightline has demonstrated little interest for the myriad problems facing ObamaCare. It was way back on November 14, 2013 that Harris discussed the “epic failures” of the health care law. On that date, he could only manage two minutes on it.
After all, ObamaCare’s impact on America doesn’t rise to the level of “bootleg butts.”
Full disclosure, I’m an idiot. Just ask any of my family or friends. While I never voted for O, I’ve always tried to support him, give him the benefit of the doubt and all that. My 94 year old father, somewhat senile and rarely political, was right. He said electing O was spelling big trouble.
Punk in Drublic says: I have a customer, who is a die hard liberal, that asks me every time I show up if I’ve gotten health insurance yet. Every time I give the same answer. No, just gonna pay the fine.
Punk is going to end up in Obamacare jail. Don’t worry punk we’ll send you cigarettes.
Only if I need to go to the hospital. I’ll have to drive over to AWD’s house for my colonoscopy.
Punk – I remember how Smokey used to give you one of those every week. You should be good for a while yet.
Threatened to jam an 11,5 inch python up there if I didn’t get my act together. And I stuck my head up there on the race realism thread… So far so good.
Ever since that gutter scum LBJ they have all been bad to various degrees but that fucking Bush Monkey was the worst……….that is until we got the Ojackulator who now has out Bushed the Bush Monkey for doing stupid anti human evil things at every level except maybe to the top .0001%
Think things are bad now? Just wait until we get the next guy. Think no one can be worse than Ofucker. Think again. You’ll know their name soon enough. But rest assured every nation on earth and every person who lives under a centrally planned order of some kind is fucked right along with us.
Maybe there is no solution and no way to fix all the nasty governments infesting the planet. That’s probably the case. So then the only thing to do is abolish them, destroy them, forbid them and replace them with nothing. This is 2014 already. We have excellent ways to trade, communicate and organize to solve problems with out the burden and expense of central planning and the tyrannical enforcement of centrally planed one size fits all idiocy. But that’s idealistic. A fantasy that will never happen.
So what can we do? Nothing……… because Anarchy is the way of the future. When the shit hits the fan it will be a natural. Every one will play if they want to or not. The idol watching Facebook addicted morons, the obese, the sick, the very old, the very young, the system dependent and cow faced sheeple will die out fast except for the few who are the beneficiaries of fortunate circumstance. …………and they’re gone. What will be left is the long grim struggle between the gangs, the outlaws and the goon groups against everyone one else that’s left. How that all works out is anybody’s guess. But its unlikely to lead to some kind of new golden age. Most probable is that we Mad Max our way into oblivion.
We can see it all unfolding before our very eyes. Economic problems that if one can do a little math are sure to blow apart like a nuke at some point. Social unrest all over the world for the past few years and growing in size and frequency. Changing climatic conditions that no one is actually planning for or adapting to other than finding ways to tax the problem like that will make it go away.
Now add in a little famine, starving populations, bloody battle like riots, racial and religious conflict, the to big to fail meeting the not afraid to die, redneck rampages, murderous TPTB hunting and the blow back from that, fanatical freak outs with war mongering and tyrannical law making doing business as usual like everything will get better by military force or political decree. Plus we can mix in the occasional man made and natural disasters that no one is prepared for or can afford to deal with.
On top of all that we have the mega billions in places like China and India eating up all the food and using up all the resources everyone else needs like they were fat over consuming Americans or something. There’s lots more bad shit to add, the list is very long. But this is the basic volatile mix we have in the world right now just waiting for some sparks. Its like mankind has built a dam to hold back a little pond of headaches and expects it to hold back an ocean of problems. And the waves of that ocean grow by the day. That dam is surely going to burst. It might be that only some kind of modern day techno Noah or rambo type Ut- napishtim might survive it.
It’s a lot worse than you thought and then a lot more worse than that. No matter if it be the hand of God, a natural event or one human fuck up too many that set’s things off we are doomed and doomed real fucking hard. Then we will be doomed some more and rat fucked daily by the events after we’ve been doomed.
But have a great day today because that is still entirely possible, opportunity still abounds, and the spring sun shine still warms your back. As for me I’m going to unfurl the Jolly Rodger in the morning just as I have been everyday since last summer and plunder a rich and as of yet unguarded shore over yonder. Life is good until it’s not, your dead or doomed..
O-Care premiums to skyrocket
By Elise Viebeck March 19, 2014, 06:00 am
Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.
The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.
The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.
“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year.
“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 insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.
The hikes are expected to vary substantially by region, state and carrier.
Areas of the country with older, sicker or smaller populations are likely to be hit hardest, while others might not see substantial increases at all.
Several major companies have been bullish on the healthcare law as a growth opportunity. With investors, especially, the firms downplay the consequences of more older, sicker enrollees in the risk pool.
Much will depend on how firms are coping with the healthcare law’s raft of new fees and regulatory restrictions, according to another industry official.
Some insurers initially underpriced their policies to begin with, expecting to raise rates in the second year.
Others, especially in larger states, will continue to hold rates low in order to remain competitive.
But insurance officials are quick to emphasize that any spikes would be a consequence of delays and changes in ObamaCare’s rollout.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/201136-obamacare-premiums-are-about-to-skyrocket#ixzz2wQIMMSon
Insurers on Obamacare: Expect Premium Prices to Soar
The Fiscal Times By Brianna Ehley
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Health insurance premiums will likely skyrocket next year, despite the Obama administration’s consistent assurance that consumers will not experience sticker shock under the president’s health care law.
That’s according to industry insiders who told The Hill that they are expecting the price of monthly premiums to increase significantly. In some states, rates could increase by as much as 300 percent.
Related: Obamacare Sticker Shock Found in Deductibles, Not Premiums
“There is extensive concern about rate increases next year,” said Avalere Health’s Vice President Caroline Pearson. “Particularly since early exchange enrollment is skewed toward older enrollees, some are concerned that plans will need to raise prices in 2015.”
Rates won’t be announced until the fall, however, and Pearson cautioned that it’s still too early to know what they are likely to be since the enrollment period for this year is still ongoing.
The industry’s concerns of rising premiums are largely out of step with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s comments at a congressional hearing last week, where the secretary downplayed any potential sticker shock.
“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” Sebelius said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Related: Consumers Hit With Surprise Tax in Obamacare Premium
But insurers say a combination of Obamacare’s new taxes and fees, as well as rule changes and delays announced to cope with the rocky rollout, will likely contribute to higher than expected rates.
For instance, the administration’s decision to allow people to keep their old policies likely means that fewer people than anticipated are enrolling on the new exchanges.
This is bad news for the Obama administration, which has routinely pointed out that premiums on the exchanges are less expensive than comparable employer-based policies. While premiums may be cheaper, out of pocket costs on exchange plans tend to be higher. A survey by HealthPocket.com found the deductibles on the exchange plans were 42 percent higher than employer based policies. But now, insurers say Obamacare consumers can expect to experience sticker shock from both premiums and deductibles.
Still, administration officials as well as health policy experts say the rising cost of premiums and deductibles were an issue even before the law took effect.
“The bottom line is that we just don’t know. Premiums were rising 7 to 10 percent a year before the law. So the question is whether we will see a continuation of that sort of single digit increase, as Sebelius said, or whether it will be larger,” MIT professor and one of the architects of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber told The Hill.
Insurers say not everyone will see premiums rise significantly. That’s because the rates vary depending on the region and carriers available in the area.
For instance, counties that have a population that skews older or have only one major hospital system in the area will likely be hit with higher premiums. In contrast, places with a mix of healthier younger people and more competition for providers will likely see lower premiums.