It's terrifying how little our representatives in government actually are aware about either Obamacare or the junk ideas they're putting forth…Actually, it's another great argument for getting rid of the public employee entitlements that we pay for, especially to Congress. You pass it, you live with it that is and remains STEP ONE.
Here's 7 of the dumbest things I've heard today:
1: Rand Paul and his "idea for health associations across state lines." Obamacare was designed to decimate group health insurance for most Americans by establishing a new minimum standard of what they could obtain from their employers and by deceiving Americans by trying to sell Obamacare membership in exchanges as group health insurance. Of course this isn't what Obamacare is and Rand Paul is building on the lies of Obamacare.
Why did Obamacare's exchanges get designed with the express purpose of decimating group health insurance? Take a look at our entitled Congress to find out why. There are people negotiating with health insurers on behalf of the entitlements provided to public employees, these negotiations take the traditional form of group health insurance---"We'll give you a promised group of enrollees and you give us a 'group rate,' a discount based on the fact that you're getting all these people."
Now do you see why Rand Paul is talking out his butt with his idea for an executive order where people can join associations? Because Obamacare's individual mandate gutted incentives for employers or groups to enter true negotiations for better plans for their "group," by telling insurers that they would have everyone as their customers since we'd all be penalized for not having health insurance via the individual mandate and deincentivized employers from negotiating on behalf of their employees by establishing minimum standards so that employers could save money by simply adopting cheaper Obamacare standard plans for their employees. Why negotiate a group rate when you're guaranteed a group by the law?
Further, insurance companies could now charge individuals higher premiums for individual plans to make up for the lesser amounts they accepted to provide the sweet deals to the few remaining group insurance negotiators, most notably unions and public employees.
2: Providing for more insurance bailouts to "stabilize" the insurance market. Are they kidding? Obamacare had three, risk corridors, risk adjustment ad reinsurance, all TEMPORARY bribes to insurance companies (which expired in 2017) so that they would participate on exchanges. The minute the bribes stopped, insurers started backing out, raising rates, etc. Now, the Republicans want to not only repeat the mistake but broaden it by making permanent payouts to INSURANCE COMPANIES to keep them stable.
First, this deincentivizes insurance companies from improving the financial consumer product of health insurance to meet the needs of customers, because after all, it's no lose. Second, this amount of money should be paid out to every non-public employee citizen of our country to use for OUR health costs, not to use our tax money to help INSURANCE COMPANIES.
Third, this deincentivizes insurance companies from going after fraud because they can just recoup that money from either the government or from consumers. This is why Obamacare's 80-20 rule was such a fiasco, because going after fraud was included in the 20 percent allowed under the law for insurers to spend on non claims related stuff including going after fraud, so guess what? They didn't. Why would they eat into their 20 percent budget when they can just charge the government or consumers for their fraud losses?
3. Continuing the federal government payouts of premium tax credits and cost sharing provided under Obamacare to people who fall within Obamacare's income amounts. These are WORKING people. If you don't meet income thresholds, you're NOT eligible for Obamacare. Those payments should be gone, replaced with what we all get, an out-of pocket deduction from our income tax for amounts paid out in health costs that currently exceed 10 percent of our household income. Remember in order to pay out these entitlements, Obama raised the payroll tax (letting a provision to keep it lower lapse) and raised the threshold for the medical deduction (which lower rate he also allowed to lapse). Obviously, once our money stops being used to pay for other working people's benefits, the former 7.5 percent threshold for medical expense and insurance expense deduction can be restored for all Americans and the payroll tax increase of 2 percent under Obama can be lowered again.
Remember, Obamacare already has hardship exemptions for the poorest Americans, either get Medicaid or go uninsured, Obamacare doesn't really care, you face no penalty because you're not part of the piggy-bank funding the federal government.
Second, if you don't repeal the idiotic entitlement premium assistance and cost sharing provisions of Obamacare, institute an assets test for such payments which currently allow millionaires or richer folk who can show "income" that falls within the parameters of Obamacare to get government payouts.
Third, audit the fraudulent payments made by the federal government such as the 11 out of 12 applicants who didn't exist that were eligible for Obamacare or the nobody knows how many who wrongfully have collected benefits.
These payouts should offend every American whose income is within Obamacare's parameters who MUST take an employer option even if that option is worse than an Obamacare plan, even if that employer option forces them into the family glitch where they cannot afford to insure their dependents AND are ineligible for Obamacare for their families.
The government doesn't KNOW how many people are uninsured and of that imaginary number, it never knew how many were uninsured by CHOICE, because the plans offered for the prices charged simply were viewed by some individuals as not worth it.
4. Worrying about the "number of uninsured." This is one of the biggest scams every perpetrated on the American people. Even as a matter of fact after Obama touted the 47 million or the 49 million, the government itself came out and said that number was higher than reality. Same thing with those eligible for expanded Medicaid. We also don't know how many people were forced onto exchanges who previously had other health insurance, so they were counted as newly insured when they weren't. This is according to the government.
5. Can't cut Medicaid. Leave Medicaid as it was BEFORE Obamacare. That means no expanded Medicaid. The Obamacare deal to pay almost 100 percent of the premium costs for new Medicaid enrollees is first of all not workable for anyone over 55, because anyone over 55 will face having their assets raided after their deaths to PAY BACK Medicaid.
Right now states CAN go after anyone's estate who collects Medicaid, but they don't because they have to split the money with the feds and there's usually a pretty small estate, so it's literally not worth it. But by making it so that people with assets can get Medicaid it encourages more state actions to go after estates. For anyone over 55 on Medicaid, the law provides the state MUST go after the estate, so expanded Medicaid was another idiotic law because it didn't change other laws and it is therefore a bad financial decision for anyone with assets.
6. I actually heard another idiot (name unrecalled) today talking about those YOUNG FOLKS WAITING TO GET INSURANCE UNTIL THEY'RE SICK. This one is a real whopper. First, Obamacare tried this, using young people as tools to finance insurance companies so that those precious flowers of insurance companies would cover everyone even…those people who make claims. Obamacare flopped.
Even the government reported that it flopped when it said that even with all the offers for silver plans that young people were still purchasing bronze plans under Obamacare because they're cheaper and that the silver plans were getting those darn people who actually might put in claims. That's right, it failed. Compelling the purchase of health insurance did not result in all the young people saying, "Let me pay more for better coverage I don't need but somebody else does."
So the idiot floating this same lie today is ignoring, first of all, that yes, people who are older usually buy better coverage (if available) because they are likelier to NEED it, that doesn't mean young people weren't buying health insurance under Obamacare. After all, there was an INDIVIDUAL MANDATE and those young folks are punished the same as everyone else if they're lucky enough to have a job. Second, the Republicans are still giving insurance companies the right to collect from everyone by allowing them, no matter how cruddy their product to force people to buy their offerings or else pay a 50 percent premium surcharge for failing to have it, this is CONTINUOUS COVERAGE.
7. Acknowledge why the government impotents Democratic and Republican in Congress like Obamacare: It promotes big government, it provides for data collection on individuals that is used by the IRS, with its low-hanging fruit coverage of checkups and its enormous restrictions on coverage for needed medical services it actually saves the government money in how much they're paying out per person (per capita payments) not how much they're wasting in government on employees, infrastructure and benefits for those employees in order to perpetuate this fraud. And, of course, it exempts Congress.
That's 7 idiotic things I heard today. No wonder we're getting nowhere.
