Be very clear on ONE THING: If you aren't on an Obamacare exchange you will pay MORE than ever for health insurance with Hillary Clinton. We cannot afford to be dense or coaxed or manipulated into believing otherwise.
You can see her ideas at https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/health-care/. All you need do is go down to her bullet point entitled: "Make premiums more affordable and lessen out-of-pocket expenses for consumers purchasing health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges," where we're told she wants to dump more money into Obamacare exchange plans by creating a TAX CREDIT that permits those already receiving Obamacare entitlements (premium assistance and cost sharing) to also get a government created tax credit for "up to $5,000 per family to offset a portion of excessive out-of-pocket and premium costs…[and] ensure that all families purchasing on the exchange will not spend more than 8.5 percent of their income for premiums."
Did you notice it? Her plans are for those "purchasing on the exchange" (yeah, we've given up pretending it's anything but a Federal government exchange rather than the state exchanges referred to in the Affordable Care Act).
Immediately ask yourself: "If I am an employee with employer-sponsored health insurance what can I expect in terms of relief from the increase costs of my insurance premiums, coinsurance, copayment, and deductible expenses?" The answer is NOTHING except higher prices.
Did you notice it? People enrolling in "exchange" plans already are protected by costs that cannot exceed "…8.5 percent of their income for premiums." Those receiving employer-sponsored health insurance are ALREADY paying one percent more (9.5 percent). Any proposal to lower how much employees with employer-sponsored health insurance can spend by one percent to make their options as good as exchange options? Nope.
Did you notice it? Hillary Clinton intends to create a tax CREDIT of $5,000 for EXCHANGE enrollees "…to offset a portion of excessive out-of-pocket and premium costs." Is there relief for employees receiving employer-sponsored health insurance to receive the same $5,000 credit? Nope.
Any recommendation to implement an assets test so that millionaires who can "show" that they fall within income only requirements of the Affordable Care Act will not receive the entitlement plus the Clinton enhancements? Nope. So those whose assets including stocks, real estate, etc. can get the Obama entitlement payments if they prove they fall within income limits? Yep, and they would get the new "enhance" benefits of lower out of pocket expenses and the tax credit too.
Any recommendation that employees who would pay out less on an exchange plan should have the option to do so? Nope. Only the same old Obamacare restriction that if as employees if you get an employee only plan offer that does not cost less in premiums than 9.5 percent of your income THEN you can try to get an exchange plan.
Any recommendation to limit the arbitrary out-of-pocket increases annually determined by the IRS? Nope. Those amounts will keep going up as they have every year under Obamacare.
Any recommendation to stop the superior benefits to the government class which is the only remaining middle class of yore with superior benefits, reliable employment, pensions? Nope.
So how's Hillary Clinton going to pay for these new Obamacare entitlements for those who purchase health insurance on exchanges? It should be obvious…Obamacare is a one-idea plan that has failed thus far using the promise to insurers to get them more enrollees as a tradeoff for keeping their plans affordable on the exchanges.
We KNOW this hasn't worked since once they got everyone to be forced to purchase health insurance (the individual mandate) insurers still whined that they weren't making enough money off the exchanges EVEN WITH the EXTRA MONEY insurers were paid to participate in the form of risk reassurance and risk corridor payments which are set to expire in 2017 --see http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-obamacare-shot-itself-in-foot.html. And we saw Obamacare plans jump in price this year even with these payoffs to insurance companies.
So what will Hillary Clinton do about the utter failure to satisfy health insurers with the FORCED PURCHASE OF THEIR PRODUCT ALREADY IMPOSED ON AMERICAN CITIZENS? Ah, she's got an answer--get NONCITIZEN ILLEGALS to buy in, "She believes we should let families—regardless of immigration status—buy into the Affordable Care Act exchanges," https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/health-care/. This is a maneuver to buy some time from health insurers by promising them even more purchasers of their product, allowing the government to fudge more numbers of fantastic "ENROLLMENT," except unlike legal citizens, illegally present individuals get a CHOICE to buy in or not.
What will Hillary Clinton's plan mean? It means Obamacare even worse and that worse will hit Obamacare exchange enrollees too. Why? Because insurance companies are NOT satisfied, they want more money and providers are not satisfied they want more money and Obamacare places NO MEANINGFUL LIMITS on this chasing the dollar mentality with NO governmental rules. Everyone's forced to buy in and it STILL wasn't enough for insurers to threaten to not participate (see United Health, BC/BS). Everyone's forced to pay more out of pocket and it still isn't profitable enough…COSTS TO INDIVIDUALS ARE UP. Everyone is forced to jump through defensive medicine and billing opportunities of excessive testing and it STILL ISN'T ENOUGH.
I don't like predictions, but there is a reality out there and one thing is obvious--for employees Hillary Clinton will further erode the middle class while further increasing the gap between rich and poor, already at record levels thanks to Obama's actions.
