Where’s The Money Going To Come From?
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
Where is the money coming from to pay for Obamacare? Enrollment has been terrible from October 1st 2013 to December 31st 2013.
The Obama administration has been bragging that 2.1 million consumers who have signed up for Obamacare.
The Obama administration originally estimated Obamacare needed 7.2 million consumers to sign up on the health insurance exchanges to make Obamacare viable. Of the 7.2 million people, the administration needs at least 2.7 million people to be young and healthy 18-34 year olds. These young, healthy people are needed to pay for the sicker, older people who are likely to use the healthcare dollars.
I believe 7.2 million is a low estimate of the necessary participants to make Obamacare viable.
As a result of Obamacare, employers have been converting many employees to part time workers. The employers’ goal is to avoid paying for healthcare insurance while avoiding Obamacare penalties. This has resulted in an undisclosed number of uninsured people.
The cancelation of 6.5 million healthcare policies in the individual marketplace due to non-compliant Obamacare mandated coverage will further increase the number of uninsured.
The Obama administration has spun the numbers to look favorable even though they are terrible.
Kathleen Sebelius released the Obamacare participation numbers for the first two month last week.
- Nearly 2.2 million (2,153,421) people selected Marketplace plans from Oct. 1 through Dec. 28, 2013
- These signups in the state and federal marketplaces represent a nearly five-fold increase from October-November, including nearly 1.8 million (1,788,739) people who selected a plan in December (compared with the previous two-month cumulative total of 364,682 through Nov. 30, 2013).
- Of the almost 2.2. million:
- 54 percent are female and 46 percent are male;
- 30 percent are age 34 and under;
- 24 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34, and;
- 60 percent selected a Silver plan, while 20 percent selected a Bronze plan; and
- 79 percent selected a plan with Financial Assistance.”
- Today’s report also details state-by-state information where available. In some cases, only partial datasets were available for state marketplaces.
- The report features cumulative data for the three-month period because some people apply, shop, and select a plan across monthly reporting periods. Enrollment is measured as those who selected a plan.
To read the complete report visit: http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2014/MarketPlaceEnrollment/Jan2014/ib_2014jan_enrollment.pdf
There are several problems not emphasized by the report.
How many of the 2.1 million applied and were approved and receive insurance?
How many actually received an insurance card?
How many paid the first month’s premium?
How many applying for insurance lost their insurance as a result of the Obamacare change in insurance requirements?
How many of these people have a pre-existing illness and are an expensive health risk?
What is the average amount of financial assistance the 79% will receive?
The young healthy people have not applied because most are facing at least a 50% increase in the cost of insurance premiums along with higher deductibles.
They feel they are being ripped off by Obamacare and refuse to join. Many simply cannot afford it.
“No group has been hit as hard by the Obama economy and Obamacare as America’s young people. After seeing massive premium increases and failed bureaucracy in the Obama administration, it’s no wonder they are staying away,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
House Speaker John Boehner’s office said the figures prove the health law has been “a bust so far.” “When they see that Obamacare offers high costs for limited access to doctors — if the enrollment goes through at all — it’s no surprise that young people aren’t rushing to sign up,” said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck.
How many have tried to apply for healthcare insurance only to have their application kicked back without explanation?
Moises is a case in point. He is a U.S. citizen with a wife and two kids. His kids have SCHIP. He and his wife do not have Medicaid or other insurance.
I volunteered to fill out his application for him. He said he did not want to bother me. He has a friend who knows someone who will complete the application for free.
He friend works for an insurance company. The company has navigators that will complete the application for free for him.
It took 3 weeks to complete the application. How many hours was the government billed to complete his application at $48 an hour?
The October 31st deadline passed for Moises and his wife to have insurance November 1St.
He and his wife contracted what sounded like a viral illness on October 30th. They went to the doctor on November 2nd. They had some lab tests done and were given a “real expensive antibiotic.”
The encounter cost him $200 that he could not afford. I would guess the same transaction would have cost the insurance company $50.
The navigator promised him she would have the application in by November 15th so that he would have insurance on December 1st. On November 21st the application has yet to be accepted by healthcare.gov.
There has been no explanation by the navigator as to why his application did not go through. He has called the navigator at least 15 times. She says she will keep trying.How many more people has this happened to as they have tried to apply for Obamacare?
Last week the Washington Examiner said that the IRS has started bullying young people to sign up.
This bizarre commercial to "Get Covered" by Obamacare received 72,000 hits on You Tube. How many of those 72,000 applied for Obamacare? We will never know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJQXkIEqMMA
Other “Get Covered” bizarre commercials can be seen at the completion of the above video.
Is this a good use of taxpayers’ dollars?
President Obama is spending money like a “drunken sailor.”
After receiving the Obama administration’s original numbers, the CBO’s estimate predicted Obamacare would save $114 billion dollars over the next 10 years.
In May 2013 the CBO revised its estimate of the Obamacare costs. The graph below shows that Obamacare will cost over $140 billion dollars per year over the next 10 years. The net budgetary impact will be $1.4 trillion dollars. The deficit represents an increase more than $1.54 trillion dollars over the cost savings of $114 billion dollars in the original estimate.
This estimate is not even close to what the eventual net budgetary impact will be.
The real cost will skyrocket because of all the defects in the law, terrible implementation of the law, the fraud and abuse that will occur because of implementation of the law and the entire skewed enrollment that is going to take place.
America ought to face reality and ignore President Obama’s rhetoric now before disaster occurs and America is bankrupt.
Americans should insist that Obamacare be repealed now before it is too late!
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.
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