On the foreign-policy front, he is the anti-Reagan for certain. Reagan defeated Soviet communism and left us a safer world; Obama presided over the rise and metastasis of the Islamic State and left us a far more dangerous one.
Domestically, Ronald Reagan told the American people: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’ ” Obama wanted to convince Americans that they were not terrifying. And the way he was going to do it was through the only great liberal legislative achievement of his presidency: Obamacare.
He failed. Even before he leaves office, Obamacare has begun unraveling.
The law was passed over the objections of a majority of Americans, it is still opposed by a majority of Americans — and their opposition has been vindicated. Last week, UnitedHealth Group announced that, after estimated losses of more than $1 billion for 2015 and 2016 under Obamacare, the company was pulling out of most of its ill-fated exchanges.
In fact, commercial insurers across the country are hemorrhaging money on Obamacare at alarming rates. Health Care Service Corp. (which owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas) has lost “well north of $2 billion” in its first two years — twice as much as UnitedHealth. Highmark, the nation’s fourth-largest Blue Cross plan, lost nearly $600 million in 2015. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has projected it will lose more than $400 million in the first two years, and the company has said it may leave the exchanges entirely next year.
The president promised these insurers taxpayer bailouts if they lost money, but Congress in its wisdom passed legislation barring the use of taxpayer dollars to prop up the insurers. Without the bailouts, commercial insurers are being forced to eat their losses — while more than half of the Obamacare nonprofit insurance cooperatives created under the law failed.
So what happens now? Because commercial insurers are not going to keep bleeding cash to prop up Obamacare, they have three choices: 1) scale back coverage, 2) raise prices or 3) get out of the exchanges entirely. More and more are going to choose option 3.
Does this mean that Obamacare is finally entering its “death spiral”? Not exactly. As my American Enterprise Institute colleague Scott Gottlieb explains, while commercial insurers are starting to leave Obamacare, they are being replaced by Medicaid health maintenance organizations (HMOs) offering skimpy plans that mirror what they offer in Medicaid — our nation’s emergency health insurance program for the poorest of the poor.
This is a catastrophe for people stuck in Obamacare. According to a 2014 McKinsey survey, about three-quarters of those in the exchanges were previously insured on commercial plans, either through their employers or the individual market. They were doing fine without taxpayer-subsidized insurance but were pushed into Obamacare. They now face rising premiums and smaller provider networks — and as commercial insurers flee, they will increasingly be stuck in horrible, Medicaid-style plans.
This is not what the president promised when he sold Obamacare to the American people.
The president promised Obamacare would provide “more choice, more competition, lower costs.” Instead, Americans have less choice, less competition and higher costs. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, if UnitedHealth “were to leave the exchange market overall, 1.8 million Marketplace enrollees would be left with two insurers, and another 1.1 million would be left with one insurer.” As more commercial insurers do the same, there will be even less competition — and higher premiums.
The president promised “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” But commercial insurers who stay in Obamacare are responding to massive losses by narrowing provider networks, with fewer doctors and hospitals to choose from. And those that quit are being replaced by Medicaid HMOs with even less doctor choice.
The president promised Obamacare would “lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” But insurers are raising premiums instead to cover the massive losses, and even Marilyn Tavenner — the former Obama administration official who ran Obamacare — has predicted premiums will rise even further next year.
As they do, young, healthy individuals will be priced out of the exchanges — and the only people who will be able to afford Obamacare will be high-risk patients who qualify for federal subsidies. Without enough healthy people in the exchanges to pay for the sick ones, taxpayers will be stuck with more and more of the costs over time — a situation that is unsustainable in the long run.
With Obamacare, Obama wanted to restore America’s faith in big government. Instead, the opposite has happened. Today, 69 percent of Americans say big government is “the biggest threat to the country in the future” (ahead of big business or big labor). That figure, which is slightly down from 72 percent in 2013, is higher under Obama than it has been since Gallup began asking the question about 50 years ago. Obamacare has done more to discredit big government than 1,000 Reagan speeches ever did.
That, in the end, will be Obama’s enduring domestic legacy.
Read more from Marc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
A teacher asked her 6th grade class how many of them were Obama fans. Not really knowing what an Obama fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny.
The teacher asked Little Johnny why he has decided to be different… again. Little Johnny said, “Because I’m not an Obama fan.” The teacher asked, “Why aren’t you a fan of Obama?” Johnny said, “Because I’m a Republican.” The teacher asked him why he’s a Republican. Little Johnny answered, “Well, my Mom’s a Republican and my Dad’s a Republican, so I’m a Republican.”
Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, “If your mom were a moron and your dad were an idiot, what would that make you?” With a big smile, Little Johnny replied, “That would make me an Obama fan.”
The democrat politician has but one obvious solution, raise the fines to unaffordable levels for not participating in this abortion of a heath care plan.
His legacy will be fine, it’s raysict to think otherwise.
I love the picture – old and older Asian women, the perfect US citizen.
Maybe next time use a picture of white men, who work, and pay the taxes, for this bullshit.
If you like your neegrow you can keep your neegrow. White male taxpayers are now the neegrow.
Thus is the beauty of the two party system, even a colossal failure like Obamacare will never be regarded as such. The apologists will simply blame the “evil Republicans” for thwarting the program in ruinous ways. Of course, the “evil Republicans” have done nothing to oppose Obama, in fact they have rubber stamped his agenda from the start, through the “leadership” of John Tearstain Boehner and now Paul Omnibus Ryan. But this fact is lost on die hard liberals, most of whom get their political news from late night comedians via Youtube clips.
Obamacare’s real legacy: the first time in national history the population accepted being fined for NOT buying a product or service.
Ronald Reagan doubled the sentences of drug users, initiated the practice of civil asset forfeiture and tripled the federal debt after promising to bring small government to America. What a colossal liar.
The way things are looking Obamacare won’t be Obama’s real legacy, WWIII or Civil War will.
We’ll be fortunate indeed if the Obamacare fiasco is the worst we can expect to result from his administration.
OBama congress big pharma must all be on ocare no exceptions.Next each audited,no exceptions.Then trials for looting taxpayers-no exceptions.Next Leavenworth,no exceptions.
The Obamacare apologists say more people need to join for it to work. How is it that we have more enrolled this year than last year but the program is an even bigger failure?
The Republicans will flap their arms, proclaim there will be no bailout then allow a bailout to be tied to a defense spending bill. Supporting Trump is a waste of time if we have the same 535 cunts conning us.
the tumbleweed,
I don’t see it as a two party system. We have a two party cartel. “System” is their word to make it sound institutionalized and permanent.
The failure of Obamacare is the result of a vast right wing conspiracy. – HC
Why would it matter to the robot, the Manchurian candidate? He (it) is geo sorry soros’s plaything.
BTW, for some very good info on this sort of thing, Please listen to the videos by Ken O’Keefe
Over at youtube. He is very possibly the finest MAN on the planet. He speaks only truth.
Jack Lovett
UnitedHealth is withdrawing from most of the 34 ObamaCare Exchanges in which it currently sells, citing losses of $650 million in 2016. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report indicates UnitedHealth’s departure will leave consumers on Oklahoma’s Exchange with only one choice of insurance carriers. Were UnitedHealth to exit all 34 states, the share of counties with only one or two carriers on the Exchange would rise from 36% to 52%, while the share of enrollees with only one or two carriers from which to choose would nearly double from 15% to 29%.
The Obama administration dismissed the news as unimportant. A spokesman professed “full confidence, based on data, that the marketplaces will continue to thrive for years ahead.” Like what, two years? Another assured there is “absolutely not” any chance, whatsoever, that the Exchanges will collapse.
ObamaCare hasn’t yet collapsed in a ball of flames. But UnitedHealth’s withdrawal from ObamaCare’s Exchanges is more ominous than the administration wants you to know.
1. UnitedHealth’s departure shows ObamaCare is suffering from self-induced adverse selection.
Last month, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, whose members are the largest players in the Exchanges, reported that Exchange enrollees are costlier than those with employer-based coverage, consuming on average 22% more care.
UnitedHealth generally didn’t have the lowest-cost premiums in the Exchanges. The fact that it still lost money provides further evidence of significant adverse selection. It suggests high-cost patients are shopping for the most comprehensive benefits, regardless of premium; that UnitedHealth offered coverage that was attractive to the sick; and the company thus attracted a particularly costly group of enrollees.
Meanwhile, UnitedHealth’s enrollment projections provide evidence that healthy people consider ObamaCare a bad deal. The company expects enrollment in its ObamaCare plans will fall 18% over the course of 2016, from 795,000 to 650,000. Some of the attrition will be due to people who leave Exchanges when they become eligible for employer-sponsored coverage, Medicaid or Medicare. Presumably, however, people who lose employer coverage, become ineligible for Medicaid, or leave their parents’ plans would offset those losses. Much of that projected attrition is likely healthy people deciding ObamaCare coverage isn’t worth the cost.
2. UnitedHealth’s departure is bad news for other carriers.
Carriers are already suffering “unsustainable” losses under ObamaCare. Even after the government threw all the subsidies it had at Exchange carriers, 70% still reported losses, according to the consulting firm McKinsey. The average profit margin was negative in 41 states.
When UnitedHealth’s apparently sicker-than-average enrollees begin to enroll in whichever of the remaining plans offer the most comprehensive coverage, those carriers’ losses will mount.
3. UnitedHealth’s departure shows ObamaCare premiums will continue to rise.
Analysts are already predicting ObamaCare premiums will rise in 2017. UnitedHealth’s action will cause them to rise even more.
The Obama administration claims the impact on premiums will be small because UnitedHealth accounts for just 6% of Exchange enrollments and didn’t price its products competitively. Yet the KFF estimates that without UnitedHealth, premiums would have been 1% higher in 2016–and that’s before we include the most important effect of the company’s withdrawal.
UnitedHealth’s costlier-than-average enrollees aren’t going away. They will enroll with other carriers. Again, they will choose whatever carriers offer the most comprehensive coverage still on the market. When those carriers see their losses mount, they will have to increase premiums even more.
4. There will be more exits.
If those carriers’ losses are too great, or if the government blocks them from increasing premiums sufficiently, those carriers will exit the Exchanges, just like UnitedHealth has.
I am willing to make a prediction. The next carriers to leave the Exchanges, like UnitedHealth, will not be the ones offering low-priced plans, but those offering the most comprehensive coverage (at moderate or high premiums).
5. UnitedHealth’s departure shows quality of coverage under ObamaCare will continue to fall.
Astute observers will notice what is happening. ObamaCare will keep punishing whatever insurance company offers the best coverage. The law is literally rigged to create a race to the bottom. That’s why so many carriers are offering plans with high cost-sharing and narrow networks.
This is why opponents fight ObamaCare. The law makes it harder, not easier, to have secure, high-quality health coverage.
the tumbleweed says: The apologists will simply blame the “evil Republicans” for thwarting the program in ruinous ways. Of course, the “evil Republicans” have done nothing to oppose Obama, in fact they have rubber stamped his agenda from the start, …
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Not ONE republican voted for the ACA (Obummercare).
Rise Up says:
the tumbleweed says: The apologists will simply blame the “evil Republicans” for thwarting the program in ruinous ways. Of course, the “evil Republicans” have done nothing to oppose Obama, in fact they have rubber stamped his agenda from the start, …
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Not ONE republican voted for the ACA (Obummercare).
The ” evil republicans”, since 2010 , have funded the ACA 100% ,even though
they were elected to stop the madness. Seems they lost their way. Not only NOT opposing Obama they keep his gravy train fully funded.
The bastards don’t even pass regular budgets anymore,despite promises from Speaker Ryan.
It would be trivially easy for the House to de- fund anything they wanted to,right?
Hell,just the appropriations committee could stop Obama’s bullshit.
The Republicans have a 30 to 21 majority there,it only takes 22 votes to zero out almost anything.
The plain fact is they don’t want to,or they would have by now,6 years on.
A zero is a powerful thing,Obama can’t add to it,He can only veto it.Veto a zero.
I have one of those UnitedHealthcare Obamacare exchange policies that is probably going to be cancelled at the end of the year.
I can’t wait to find out how much my premium for 2017 will be going up. /sarc
Obama is a worthless piece of shit and I have a feeling that Hitlery is going to be even worse.
Some believe that Obamacare was deliberately set up to be bad-nasty, allowing a totally governmental medical system. Can you imagine a national setup with the care and compassion of the Veterans Administration?
(Tip of the hat to http://www.weaponsman.com. Search his archives.)
Shit, it wasn’t as if ALL of this hadn’t been predicted the moment those fucking “Liberals” allowed us to read through that huge pile of actuarially untenable shit they slammed together in secret back in 2010.
Anybody else familiar with Kipling’s “The Old Issue”?
=====================
He shall mark our goings, question whence we came,
Set his guards about us, as in Freedom’s name.
He shall take a tribute, toll of all our ware;
He shall change our gold for arms–arms we may not bear.
He shall break his Judges if they cross his word;
He shall rule above the Law calling on the Lord.
He shall peep and mutter; and the night shall bring
Watchers ‘neath our window, lest we mock the King —
Hate and all division; hosts of hurrying spies;
Money poured in secret, carrion breeding flies.
Strangers of his counsel, hirelings of his pay,
These shall deal our Justice: sell-deny-delay.
We shall drink dishonour, we shall eat abuse
For the Land we look to–for the Tongue we use.
We shall take our station, dirt beneath his feet,
While his hired captains jeer us in the street.
Cruel in the shadow, crafty in the sun,
Far beyond his borders shall his teachings run.
Sloven, sullen, savage, secret, uncontrolled,
Laying on a new land evil of the old–
Long-forgotten bondage, dwarfing heart and brain–
All our fathers died to loose he shall bind again.
Here is nought at venture, random nor untrue
Swings the wheel full-circle, brims the cup anew.
Here is naught unproven, here is nothing hid:
Step for step and word for word–so the old Kings did!
Step by step, and word by word: who is ruled may read.
Suffer not the old Kings: for we know the breed–
All the right they promise–all the wrong they bring.
Stewards of the Judgment, suffer not this King !
Thanks for posting that Tucci. It made it worth rereading the comments one last time before the thread disappeared. I had it going to a hip hop beat in my head.
Mesomorph – Oh, you don’t do “The Old Issue” to a hip hop beat. You do it to Leslie Fish’s melody. See her *Lock & Load* album.
[http://www.lesliefish.com/cds.htm ]