As the possibility of repeal (and the dangers of Donald Trump handing over healthcare lawmaking authority to Paul Ryan, a Republican public employee ideologue whose out-of-touch belligerence is only matched by President Obama), one thing is clear--the Democrats are out of defenses for Obamacare as evidenced by the "new" reports of "record-breaking enrollment." It's the news to distraction that also had Democrats wasting time and money talking about the Electoral College flips they hoped for ignoring the faithless elector laws of 30 states that made such conversation largely nonsensical since those laws for the most part deemed such flips as immediate resignation and would replace the rogue electors.
Same with the enrollment "news." There is NO evidence that enrollment will be significantly higher this year barring other boosts to Obamacare enrollment such as the failure to verify eligibility of people signing up, imperfect counting, or the INCREASE IN TAX PENALTY for NOT purchasing the consumer financial product of health insurance and NONE of those reasons are good for consumers.
What we do know is that this year there are fewer choices on exchanges and that plans on exchanges cost more though many enrollees will have their increases cushioned by the government's court-won right in King v. Burwell to pay out more entitlement money.
So if not FAKE news, it's IRRELEVANT news which Democrats will try to strain into "proving" how many people depend on the overpriced narrow choices on exchanges in an effort to preserve some legacy for Obama's presidency.
Instead, Democrats, you know those lovers and protectors of citizens and working citizens years ago, have chosen to ignore the facts in order to support the IDEOLOGICAL commitment they have to Obamacare, a complex set of rules designed to reduce payout costs of insurers and government payers by increasing the amounts paid by those insured with special entitlement payments to the 85 percent of the maximum number of 11.1 million people (those numbers are government provided) who utilize exchanges.
This would be less horrendous if Democrats weren't also ignoring the fact that Obamacare insurance plans have gone up in price and insurance companies have left and that regardless of how great enrollment looks to the government, insurers have expressed frustration with both the number of enrollees as too low and more significantly that they're not getting the right "kind" of enrollees, you now the ones likeliest to pay and unlikeliest to have expensive claims often in shorthand described as the young-healthies.
This deceptive focus of partisan preachers that tries to muster phony sympathy for Obamacare exchange potential enrollees as "at risk" if Obamacare is repealed--enrollees who are Americans with income which does or is fudged into falling within Obamacare income guidelines (including millionaires potentially) is not only a Dem distraction but is a cold-hearted obstinacy that will let the Republicans do their worst to Americans just to prove the point: "See, we told you so."
It is consumers who must hammer our issues home. Health insurance is TOO expensive and is providing too little coverage for NEEDED medical care and services and the available services are often inadequate. This is all we should care about when it comes to health insurance and it's the two major areas that payers use their power and partnership to avoid and that PARTISANS, public employees and their accomplices will not discuss. It's the major reason that whether we're talking public option or some botched hybrid like Obamacare, the rules must FIRST apply to public employees.
After all, if Congressmen and other public employees were being treated like their fellow citizens in the VA or on Medicare would there not have been greater incentive for them to IMPROVE the public options? And similarly if Congressmen and public employees had seen their premiums go up 24 percent and their deductibles go up 67 percent since 2010, don't you think perhaps they might have been incentivized to act more honestly and represented our population better?
These aren't made up numbers as far as I can discern. TIME INC., hardly a Republican-leaning media outlet reported in 2015, before the Obamacare exchanges were hit with the real world that during Obama's reign PREMIUMS have gone up 24 percent since 2010 and DEDUCTIBLES, "…the set amount employees must pay with their own money before insurance kicks in have increased 67% over the past five years," (http://time.com/money/4044394/average-health-deductible-premium/).
The disservice to citizens from fanboy/fangirl reporting is enormous. For years I listened to citizens blame their fellow citizens for the high cost of medical services and insurance as they blamed smokers (who actually ARE paying 50 percent MORE in premiums than anyone else) while ignoring that Obamacare back-doored charging the young-healthies more by also allowing older Americans to be charged more in premiums (up to three times more) which increased the amount young people paid since their allowable charges were changed under Obamacare from a ceiling of up to one-fifth of what older Americans pay to up to one-third of what older Americans pay. Obamacare fanboys-fangirls also ignored the single risk pool excuses which meant that we ALL pay for every person who CANNOT be charged more in health insurance premiums under Obamacare based on cost including the obese, drug users and abusers, alcoholics, those who choose to become pregnant, those with pre-existing conditions--this isn't morality it's statistics.
For years, like sheep we've been led to point our fingers at one another as THE REASON for higher charges ignoring the problems with what we're charged by providers to what we're charged from insurers to what we get for those payments ignoring the failed logic of an argument that blamed those in need of medical services and care for the high cost of the product and services that only exist because of people needing medical services and care--After all, would you buy health insurance if you were not required to by law and you knew that you wouldn't need medical services in a particular year?
Payers focus on enrollment because that was the deal of Obamacare--Partner government with insurance companies and government will force people to purchase health insurance under penalty of law and insurers would keep their rates low. The government has kept its promise to insurance companies and has fined citizens for non-enrollment, the insurance companies have not. They've blamed the young-healthies for not signing up for their more expensive plans with their government partner Obama Administration cooperating in two ways to further force those young-healthies to purchase more expensive health insurance, first by allowing greater increases in price of cheaper plans than the increases of more expensive plans in 2015 and then this summer, CMS further restricting the availability of short-term health insurance plans specifically citing that young-healthies avoided purchasing the Obamacare exchange plans because of the availability of those plans.
For those who mourn the defeat of Hillary Clinton, remember Clinton proposed changing Obamacare's "citizen" requirement to allow illegals to purchase Obamacare plans to help further boost "enrollment," and further pacify insurance companies. There were also Democratic advocates for INCREASING the penalty fine for not having health insurance to make sure everyone enrolled. There were also Democratic recommendations to INCREASE the entitlement payments for those who somehow fit into Obamacare income parameters to increase enrollment. All of which we KNOW haven't and can't work because insurers STILL don't want those needing medical services or care among their enrollees. We also know this because the ONLY thing that kept insurers on the exchanges were the TEMPORARY payments by the government under risk corridors and risk reinsurance that guaranteed a no-lose situation to insurers which expired for this benefits year and…Yep, insurers left the exchanges.
So instead of touting enrollment accompanied by exclamation point punctuation to make it seem dramatic, perhaps the Democrats can start early and address Paul Ryan and his Republican gang rather than sacrifice the American people to more years of partisan ideology? Not likely without a consumer groundswell.
So for 2017, all public employees should live under the same rules as other public option plans since our taxpayer dollars pay for their benefits so that they are incentivized to improve those public options of Medicare and VA benefits in a meaningful way. And if they choose a private option, public employees must face the same 24 percent increase in premiums and 67 percent increase in deductibles that the rest of us pay--No more superior benefits for public employees.
Next, balance billing prohibitions should be part of a national law, not left to the states so that no person faces "out of network" charges for anything unless they choose an out-of-network provider and that kickbacks from non-participating providers brought in by participating providers who then get a portion of the increased rates of the out-of-network guys is actively reported and prosecuted criminally.
Next, continuous coverage provisions, which are a privatized version of the individual mandate that permits insurers to charge more to people with a lapse in coverage must be prohibited--choosing whether or not to buy the consumer financial product of health insurance is a necessary incentive for insurers to offer plans that consumers want.
Next, preventive care should NOT be included in insurance plans and must NEVER be mandatory, especially when Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US--checkups are a finite cost and it is well documented that finite costs go up when insurance pays for them. The only reason that checkups were ever included is because insurance companies want that info, therefore, if they want that info they should pay for it not include it and then use it as an excuse that they can't cover needed medical services and care as well.
Our out of pocket maximums must stop being raised by CMS every year unless that applies to public employees as well (see number one) in which case you can be sure it will stop going up every year.
Eradicating fraud, a billions-dollar-business should be incentivized instead of discouraged as it is under Obamacare's 80-20 (or 85-15) rule which insurers have already found workarounds for which requires that 80 or 85 percent of premium money be spent on health care and "quality improvements," leaving the other 20 or 15 percent for "administrative, overhead, and marketing costs" which means that insurers eat into their own salaries when they pursue fraud so they don't pursue it and instead keep raising rates. In fact, since insurers are "demanding" lower taxes, hinge their fraud recoveries to a governmental reward of lower taxes. Further, fraud recoveries MUST be reflected and passed onto consumers in the form of premium savings.
Instead, today, the public employees are doing the usual, and Paul Ryan like his ideologue Democrat counterpart, will focus on all the wrong things for consumers.
For 2017, instead of each public employee side gloating that their partisan counterparts have made things worse, let's demand they make things better for Americans and end the government payer insurance company payer partnership that brought us Obamacare.
