There has been little reporting about Obamacare in the traditional media lately. I believe it is intentional.
President Obama doesn’t want to talk about it. He has told us Obamacare is a success. The problem is he has left out the facts about its failures, costs and disruptions.
Last week a 70 plus year old woman wrote and told me that none of her brand name medicines are being covered by her high level Medicare Part D plan because of Obamacare regulations.
She said out of pocket expenses for her generic drugs have doubled in her in the past two years.
I found it hard to believe because there has been nothing reported about this in the traditional mainstream media.
Out of pocket expenses are beyond the reach of many Medicare recipients.
A big out of pocket expense for many has been the cost of signing on to a concierge medicine doctor in some cities in the country.
The most prominent city is Los Angeles. I have been told that primary care physicians will not see a patient that does not sign on to their concierge panel at a cost of $1500/year.
To my surprise Thomas B. Edsell a very liberal (progressive) United Statesjournalist and academic, best known for his weekly opinion column for the New York Times online and for his 25 years of covering national politics for the Washington Post wrote two articles about the problems with Medicare and Obamacare.
Somewhat improbably, the administration also contends that cuts of this magnitude will not reduce services to Medicare beneficiaries.”
Another President Obama lie. Seniors are already feeling the Medicare cuts by a decrease in access to care and an increase in out of pocket expenses.
Seniors have learned that they cannot trust President Obama to preserve Medicare.
“Seniors have started raising concerns about the cost of these plans — higher taxes and premiums for those with coverage, more government interference in physician choices.”
These concerns are real and present.
“Further increasing anxiety among the aged in the United States is the shift from defined benefit pensions, which guarantee payments, to defined contribution pensions, which do not.”
If Medicare shifts to a defined contribution policy, seniors are afraid if they live longer they will run out of money.
Obamacare is unsustainable. Once President Obama losses public trust any idea no matter how good it was thought to be in the past will not be supported.
The reasons for Obamacare’s failures were predictable before the bill was passed. I have written many articles giving reasons for its failures.
Now President Obama is setting up the public with excuses for its failure through these New York Times articles.
The President’s next step is to declare that Americans have to live with Obamacare because the Republicans have not come up with anything better.
President Obama does not listen to Republicans even when they come up with reasonable ideas.
This predictable step is taken to brain wash the public to accept a law that empowers the government to make the public more dependent on government and less free to make their own medical choices and decisions.
Seniors are starting to act out now because Obamacare, with its redistribution of their wealth, is hurting them economically and is not in their vested interest.
Seniors should start understanding how President Obama has given favors to the healthcare insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the hospital industry at seniors’ expense. Once they understand, seniors will not support President Obama.
Seniors are a big voting block. They represent a large threat to the Progressive Democratic Party and its foolish laws and tactics.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
Americans have forgotten the increase in taxes written into President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Act. There are 20 hidden taxes in the law that effect citizens earning less than $250,000 dollars a year.
These new taxes contradict President Obama’s promise that “anyone making under $250,000 a year will not pay a dime in new taxes.” Many of these taxes on businesses have been passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
I am not talking about the increase in taxes on capital gains and dividends that seniors rely on to survive. I am talking about all the other taxes that affect purchasing power.
The traditional media have ignored these new taxes and Mr. Norquist’s summary. No one is talking about how these taxes are hurting seniors and the middle class economically.
Since the recent Supreme Court decision has managed to keep Obamacare alive, it is vital that voters in all income brackets understand the new taxes imbedded in the law.
President Obama was not telling the truth when he said people earning under $250,000 would not pay one single dime more in taxes.
I suggest everyone watch President Obama’s lying and defending of his lies. After the first You Tube let it keep playing to hear subsequent You Tubes.
In my blog “ The Supreme Court And Obamacare” I said Obamacare is the largest tax increase in American history. As things go sour for Obamacare the government is going to have to raise taxes even further.
Taxpayers earning under $250,000 will experience the burden of the $500 billion dollar increase in their taxes.
“Obamacare contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and small businesses.
Arranged by their respective effective dates, below is the total list of all $500 billion-plus in tax hikes (over the next ten years) in Obamacare, where to find them in the bill, and how much your taxes are scheduled to go up as of today:
Taxes that took effect in 2010:
1. Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Min$/immediate): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,961-1,971.
2. Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” (Tax hike of $4.5 billion). This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 108-113.
3. “Black liquor” tax hike (Tax hike of $23.6 billion). This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 105.
4. Tax on Innovator Drug Companies ($22.2 bil/Jan 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,971-1,980.
5. Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike ($0.4 bil/Jan 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,004.
6. Tax on Indoor Tanning Services ($2.7 billion/July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,397-2,399.
Taxes that took effect in 2011:
7. Medicine Cabinet Tax ($5 bil/Jan 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957-1,959.
8. HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike ($1.4 bil/Jan 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,959.
Taxes that took effect in 2012:
9. Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Min$/Jan 2012): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957.
Taxes that take effect in 2013:
10. Surtax on Investment Income ($123 billion/Jan. 2013): Creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income: Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 87-93.
Capital Gains
Dividends
Other*
2012
15%
15%
35%
2013+
23.8%
43.4%
43.4%
*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations. It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income. It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans. The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens.
11. Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax ($86.8 bil/Jan 2013): Current law and changes:
First $200,000 ($250,000 Married) Employer/Employee
12. Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers ($20 bil/Jan 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exempts items retailing for <$100. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,980-1,986
13. Raise "Haircut" for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI($15.2 bil/Jan 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994-1,995
14. Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax” ($13 bil/Jan 2013): Imposes cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,388-2,389
15. Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D ($4.5 bil/Jan 2013) Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994
16. $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives ($0.6 bil/Jan 2013). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,995-2,000
Taxes that took effect in 2014:
17. Individual Mandate Excise Tax (Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following
1 Adult
2 Adults
3+ Adults
2014
1% AGI/$95
1% AGI/$190
1% AGI/$285
2015
2% AGI/$325
2% AGI/$650
2% AGI/$975
2016 +
2.5% AGI/$695
2.5% AGI/$1390
2.5% AGI/$2085
Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS).Bill: PPACA; Page: 317-337
18. Employer Mandate Tax (Jan 2014): If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees. Applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer).Bill: PPACA; Page: 345-346
Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion/10 years
19. Tax on Health Insurers ($60.1 bil/Jan 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. Phases in gradually until 2018. Fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,986-1,993
Taxes that take effect in 2018:
20. Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans ($32 bil/Jan 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). Higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family) for early retirees and high-risk professions. CPI +1 percentage point indexed. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,941-1,956
Mr. Norquist left out the worst tax of all. The “tax” is under everyone’s radar. It has not been mentioned in the traditional mainstream media. It is the tax on Seniors who are on Medicare.
"The per person Medicare Insurance Premium will increase from the present Monthly Fee of $96.40, rising to:
$104.20 in 2012
$120.20 in 2013
And
$247.00 in 2014."
All seniors are means tested. This means the greater your income from any source including work income, pension income, capital gains and interest or dividend income the higher the baseline premiums become.
This “tax” had been decided by a Democratic controlled congress that had not read the bill or understood all of its consequences.
These are provisions incorporated in the Obamacare legislation, purposely delayed so as not to anger seniors during President Obama’s 2012 Re-Election Campaign.
Please send this blog to all the seniors you know and their children. It is important for them to know that President Obama is throwing seniors under the bus. Obamacare must be repealed.
Everyone must stay focused. President Obama is going to try to change the conversation.
Some of these taxes have already gone into effect. If the Republicans win the House and the Senate as well as the Presidency, Obamacare could be repealed.
Everyone interested in America’s economic future must tell a friend. President Obama has deceived Americans.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
Some have criticized me for always criticizing Obamacare. There is plenty to criticize. President Obama has asked if anyone has a better idea than Obamacare please let him know.
The question asked by some readers is where are your actionable points to repair the healthcare system.
My answer is, “you have not been reading my blog.”
Democrats and President Obama have not read my blog.
The Republicans have been searching for an alternative plan. President Obama has mocked them for not having an alternative than Obamacare.
Republican leaders have not read my blog either. If they had and really thought about my plan they would conclude it could work.
My plan aligns all the stakeholders’ incentives while reducing the cost of healthcare coverage to consumers. It also decreases secondary stakeholders’ costs and increases their profits. It is very democratic. It would provide universal care without government interference.
These actionable points have been clearly described in many of my blog posts. It is a “consumer driven healthcare plan.”The real customers in the healthcare system are consumers, not physicians, insurance companies, hospitals or the government.
Below are some of the links that provide actionable points to Repair The Healthcare System.
The first link is an overview using a slide presentation. It outlines the business model for 2020. The details of each specific point can be found in the links in the slide presentation or in the websites search engine.
Obamacare ignores many of the key points. Obamacare will fail because of the absence of these key points. Simple things must be done for an alternative to Obamacare to succeed.
The second link is My Ideal Medical Savings Account is Democratic. My ideal Medical Savings Account can cover and motivate every socioeconomic group. It provides incentives for all consumers to remain healthy and take care of their chronic disease. It promotes consumer responsibility.
Consumer self-responsibility is an essential element in the Repair of the Healthcare System.
My Medical Savings Account is different that a Health Savings Account.
Self-management of chronic diseases is a vital element necessary in a law that attempts to Repair the Healthcare System. It requires education and incorporation of all the spokes of the wheel in the link above to the slide presentation.
President Obama has done some pilot studies using the wrong groups (political groups) to study the self-management hypothesis.
They have all failed because the administration picked the wrong groups to do the pilots.
Systems of care must be developed to teach patients to self-manage their chronic disease to decrease the complication rate of those diseases.
Eighty percent of the healthcare dollars are spent on treating the complications of chronic diseases. Twenty percent of patients have a chronic disease that is not well controlled and will lead to complications eventually. This can be solved with a properly executed Systems of Care by physicians using information technology as an extension of their care patient.
Obamacare does not seriously consider any of these vital corrections necessary to create an affordable healthcare system. The hospitals and/or physicians cannot be responsible for consumers’ behavior to avoid the complications of chronic diseases. Accountable Care Organizations are based on the fact that the hospitals and physicians are responsible for better outcomes.
Another simple action point is to provide equal tax deductibility for the individual insurance market and group insurance market.
At the moment employers providing insurance to employees can deduct premiums from revenue. An individual buying insurance for himself and his family does not get the same tax deduction. This discrepancy can easily be cured by providing the individual market with the same tax deduction as the group market.
The above links to blogs I have written are just some of the important actionable points necessary to Repair the Healthcare System.
Please study these action points in the links and try to understand how vital they are to maintaining a viable healthcare system.
Obamacare’s complicated rules and regulations have only driven the healthcare system to further dysfunction and increased costs while only having less than 10 million people really signed up after 2 years of enrollment and 6 years of increased taxes.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
The problem is Peter Orzag still believes in the Obama administration’s fiction. He quotes the Obama administration’s spin of the results as proof of Obamacare’s success. There is little valid data to back up the spin.
Obamacare has had its share of Solyndras. Solyndra was destined to fail. It had a lot of built in organizational waste.
I fear the few Obamacare experiments that we are aware of that have failed are only the tip of the Obamacare failure iceberg. There will be many more debacles that the Obama administration is probably hiding.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman at the time Kent Conrad D-N.D. called CLASS “a Ponzi scheme of the first order”. In any event the $68 billion dollar program was rammed through as part of Obamacare.
Two years later the Department of Health and Human Services determined CLASS could not be implemented in a fiscally solvent manner, and in January 2013 Congress repealed CLASS.
In 2015 the American public still does not know how much of the $68 million dollars was wasted.
The American public will never know. We will never know what we should have paid for the website or what we finally paid.
In October 2013 as soon as it was apparent that www.healthcare.gov was a train wreck the Obama administration denied all the published prices contracted for building the website.
Prices to build the website varied from $91 million dollars to $634 million dollars to over 1 trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000.00).
Americans did not know what the website should have cost. They never found out what the cost was to rebuild the website after the initial disaster.
It was never clear whether the contract to CGI was won by competitive bid. The Obama administration never answered the question of Michelle Obama’s influence in choosing CGI.
The history is clear. CGI has failed to deliver for other projects they have done in other parts of the world.
What is the truth? Why would the Obama administration pick this company? What can we do about this waste of taxpayers’ money?
I guess Americans can remain passive and pay more taxes.
debacle. The attitude of many is that it is what it is. We must go on.
All Americans are hearing or want to hear is the current website is easy to use and is working well.The important question is, Is it?
It is easy to understand why Jonathan Gruber would say Americans are stupid and the lack of transparency is a powerful tool. The implication of that statement indicates an Obama administration attitude. It is the reason the administration says they hardly knew the guy.
CoOportunity Health is a fledgling Iowa health insurance cooperative set up under Obamacare with Obamacare money. It is going bankrupt.
CoOportunity Health was set up by the Obama administration. The Obama administration granted the company $146 million dollars in funding from Obamacare funds. The idea was to provide consumers and small businesses alternative insurance in healthcare markets with limited insurance choices. It could also be thought of as a disguised “Public Option”.
The healthcare insurance industry had refused to participate in the federal and state insurance exchanges in many states. The healthcare insurance companies thought the risk was too great. They would lose money.
Just before this year’s open enrollment period President Obama activated the reinsurance provisions in Obamacare guaranteeing insurance companies that they can only make money and not lose money on providing insurance through the government health insurance exchanges.
The Healthcare insurance companies are falling all over themselves to provide healthcare insurance in high risk states now.
Where else can you sell insurance to more people at no risk?
The Obama administration knows they can now throw government funded insurance companies like CoOportunity under the bus because they have guaranteed backup companies from the healthcare industry that want to sell no risk insurance.
The CoOportunity hasn't reached insolvency yet but it doesn’t have enough money on hand to continue to run the company. It will leave 96,350 consumers uninsured with unresolved claims healthcare insurance claims. These consumers will also lose their un-used premiums.
The 96,350 should be able to get insurance through the federal health insurance exchange in their state.
The federal government as banker has simply cut CoOportunity’s credit and took a $146 million dollar loss.
I wonder how many other Obamacare funded insurance companies are out there?
I wonder how many other Solyndra like experiments Obamacare has. I can think of at least 4 or 5.
I wonder how much money Obamacare is losing on experiments and bureaucratic waste?
It is making medical care more expensive for taxpayers and for patients with increased out of pocket expenses.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
Open Enrollment for Obamacare started November 15th rather than October 1st. Open Enrollment for Health Insurance Exchanges was originally going start October 1,2014 to run until December 15,2014 for enrollees to have insurance on January 1,2015.
It think the open enrollment dates were delayed to prevent negative publicity for Democrats in the midterm elections. The date to close open enrollment has been moved to March 15th or March 31st2015 instead of December 31,2014.
President Obama is changing dates at will without congressional approval. It is creating confusion. Americans are giving up on following changes in the law.
President Obama probably believes, as Jonathon Gruber, that the American public is too stupid to follow all of his maneuvers.
It is impossible to know when open enrollment ends by following the mainstream media. I think it will end when the Obama administration has something to brag about despite what the law demands.
Early in 2014 it became clear to health insurance consultants that the healthcare insurance industry would raise Obamacare 2015 premiums by double digits (15-30%). The demographic of 2014 enrollees was actuarially unsound according to the healthcare insurance industry.
The Obama administration expressed fear that the healthcare insurance industry would not participate in the health insurance exchanges because they were destined to loss money.
The Obama administration is presently boasting that the average premiums are going to rise only slightly in 2015.
Healthcare insurance companies are flocking to sell insurance in more markets rather than quitting the health insurance exchanges.
The Obama administration claims that Obamacare has created a competitive atmosphere for the healthcare insurance industry.
You bet it has. It has done the by creating subsidies for the healthcare insurance industry so it takes on no risk along with increased profit. This is the reason all the companies are fighting to get into the health insurance exchange market.
President Obama has offered to bail out the healthcare insurance companies if they do not make an adequate profit in the health insurance exchange.
The mainstream traditional media has not reported that Obamacare provided insurance company subsidies, nor have the subsidies been connected to the dampening of extreme increases predicted for premiums in 2015.
However, the decreases that are being reported by the Obama administration are deceptive.
Below is a CMS provided map of states and counties with either increases or decreases in premiums.
In about a fifth of the counties in states using the federal insurance exchange, premiums for the lowest-priced silver plans will increase by 10 percent or more. But rates for the same plans will decrease in all of Maine, Montana and New Hampshire, and most parts of Mississippi and South Dakota. NOV. 14, 2014
Largest decrease: -28.0%
Greatest increase: +29.5%
Minneapolis, Honolulu, Seattle, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis, New Orleans , Dallas, Boston, Tampa, Philadelphia Detroit, Anchorage, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. New York all are experiencing increases in premiums.
Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
The published map belies the Obama administration’s claim that premiums have been, on the average, lowered. It does not take into account population density in counties where premiums are lowered or raised.
The premiums in some states could be lowered. However, the high deductibles included in these health insurance plans have not been lowered. The high deductibles are out of pocket expenses. The high deductibles continue to be unaffordable to many even thought these enrollees might receive sizable “tax credits? subsidies?” to help them pay for the premiums.
It is similar to the deception “If you like your insurance you can keep it. If you like you doctor you can keep him/her.”
Last week we learned that the insurance company bailout was built into the original bill passed in 2010. The President knew about this bailout before Obamacare was passed.
Did the congressional members who passed the bill know about the built in bailout?
If they did they should all be voted out of office. If the Democrats needed to pass Obamacare did not know about the bailout they should have and they should all be voted out.
It should be recalled that this was a Democrat controlled House and Senate. There was not a single Republican vote included in the passage of Obamacare.
The American people did not know about the built in bailout at taxpayers’ expense.
Private insurance plans bought through the health insurance exchanges are not private health insurance plans. They are plans that are subsidized by the government if the insurance bill goes over $45,000.
Who pays this government subsidy?
The taxpayers, by having their taxes increased.
Who makes the profit from this subsidy?
The healthcare insurance industry makes the profit because the insurance policies have been priced at high risk (Increased deductibles, and increased premiums for consumers not eligible for government subsidies).
"The reinsurance program has done and will continue to do what it was intended to do; help attract and keep more carriers in Obamacare than might have otherwise come." Thus, Obamacare is being aided by having taxpayers subsidize big insurance companies' business expenses.”
This is the way the “Risk Corridor Program” works. The healthcare insurance company submits its expected costs to the government for a particular year.
If the expected costs of the insurance exceed 102%, the government will pay the healthcare insurance company 80% of the difference above 102% at taxpayers’ expense.
"If the health plan has costs at 110% of the medical cost target [the costs that the insurer expects to accrue], it will be responsible for only 102.4% of the target (a 2.4% shortfall)-only about a quarter of its losses.”
There is little risk to the healthcare insurance company for being involved in the healthcare insurance exchanges.
The key point is President Obama had this written into Obamacare without telling taxpayers about it. I wonder if the CBO knew about it and calculated it into the original cost estimates of Obamacare.
There are many other deceptions that lie ahead. Now that the Jonathan Gruber controversy has increased the American public’s awareness of Obamacare deceptions Americans will begin to shout about the costs and rationing of care.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.
However, if you tell a lie enough times it becomes the truth. This is especially true if you have enough traditional media coverage of the lie.
The reality is consumers cannot keep their own doctor, access to care is decreasing, and you cannot keep your healthcare insurance plan if you liked your plan because of Obamacare’s imposed rules and regulations.
Healthcare insurance premiums are increasing despite President Obama’s proclamation that healthcare insurance premiums are affordable. Consumers’ out of pocket costs are increasing despite President Obama’s claims.
The narrow and ultra-narrow new networks on the federal health insurance exchanges are decreasing consumer choice of physicians. The access to quality healthcare at a reasonable price is vanishing.
President Obama wishing that Obamacare is working does not make it so. He cannot simply decree lower prices. He cannot simply say I want better quality. Neither happens out of thin air. Obamacare’s rules and regulations are disastrous.
The reality is government cannot do a thing about the negative affects Obamacare is having on consumers except repeal it.
Neither federal nor state government can tweak Obamacare and fix the negative affects. These affects are here already. Federal and state government cannot hide the avalanche of negative affects that are coming.
The mid-term elections are two days away and the progressives Democrats are trying to make Obamacare better with propositions on the mid-term ballot.
They are trying to improve Obamacare in their states and disguise its goal of increasing government control of healthcare. Increasing the rules and regulations in order to control the healthcare system does not work.
In the process, progressive in various states are contradicting each other. The bottom line is none of the propositions will work.
Progressives have become prisoners of Obamacare as well as prisoners of their own thinking.
California liberals (progressives) are always the leaders in progressive propositions that make no sense. On Tuesday November 4th California’s propositions 45 and 46 stand out.
Prop. 45 would give the healthcare insurance commissioner the power to reject rates he deems “unreasonable,” with no reference to actuarial or solvency standards.
Anthem Blue Cross is raising small healthcare insurance group premiums 9.8% in 2015. This is happening even though Obamacare guarantees the healthcare insurance industry an adequate profit through the federal government’s reinsurance plan for healthcare insurance carriers.
Who is paying for this guarantee and this rate increase? Consumers are through higher taxes. The California commissioner is going to try to reduce the increase to 2.1% through added power given to him by Prop. 45.
What is the commissioner going to do about it? Nothing! If he does not permit the raise the exchange will not have healthcare insurance companies providing administrative services for its healthcare coverage. The government cannot provide administrative services. Any attempt at price control has not worked in the past and will not work in the future.
The healthcare insurance industry’s alternative is to have narrower networks and less coverage. The consumer will have to cover the cost of better coverage.
Proposition 45 also gives trial lawyers the right to challenge rates in court. It is a good deal for trial lawyers on both sides of the price control issue. It is a terrible deal for taxpayers on both sides of the issue. It will increase the cost of healthcare resulting in higher taxes.
A logical proposition would be to develop a competitive system for consumers and insurance companies so that insurance companies fight for consumers’ business rather than impose the bureaucratic practice of selective contracting. The bureaucracy provides a list of demands and then picks a few compliant winners. The losers are excluded from the federally subsidized exchange.
Why wouldn’t you let consumers decide what they want rather than bureaucrats telling consumers what healthcare policy they can have?
Proposition 46 is another disastrous proposition.
In 1975 the then Governor Jerry Brown limited medical malpractice awards to $250,000 for non-economic injury. It decreased the medical malpractice business for lawyers in California. Lawyers would not take cases that did not make them enough money.
Proposition 46 is proposing to lift the $250,000 restrictions for non-economic damages on medical malpractice awards to $1.1 million dollars. The affect will be more medical malpractice lawsuits because lawyers once again can make some serious money from frivolous malpractice suits with minimal effort.
Physicians’ malpractice premiums will rise once again, and once again doctors will be forced to raise their fees or leave the state. The availability of physicians will decrease. Consumers will suffer again suffer from a proposition that was not thought out.
It does not make sense. I hope the citizens of California are paying attention to the implications of these two propositions.
The common denominator is the propositions are great for trial lawyers and terrible for consumers. The propositions will not be effective in making Obamacare better for consumers.
The goal should be to lower the cost of healthcare for consumers not increase it.
South Dakota has a proposition (Prop IM-17) which, rather than limiting networks expands networks.
Prop IM-17 is trying to regulate back into existence the access to medical providers that ObamaCare destroyed.
Patients expecting to keep the doctor they liked continue to discover that the narrow networks offered on the exchanges resemble the standard of care in Medicaid.
“IM-17’s cure is worse than the Obamacare disease.”
Healthcare prices will increase. Healthcare insurance premiums will increase. The conflicts among providers will intensify. Consumers’ access to care will be diminished.
The Obama administration has tried its best to keep Obamacare’s failures away from the people. However, it has been almost as difficult as putting toothpaste back in the tube. The reasons are clear to me.
People are paying attention now because most are personally affected by the failures of Obamacare.
These failures along with President Obama’s other policy failures such as the IRS scandal, Benghazi scandal, Fast and Furious, border control failures, immigration failures, foreign policy failures, NSA privacy intrusions and his lying about those intrusions, attempts at Internet takeover, and unconstitutional unilateral changing of laws through executive orders have lead the American people to lose confidence and trust in whatever President Obama and the Obama administration say.
The traditional mass media has tried mightily to protect President Obama. They have tried to help him keep Obamacare’s failures out of the news.
They have been unsuccessful. If our only source for news was the traditional news media we could be fooled.
Americans must work to stay informed in order to maintain our freedoms.
I will list some of Obamacare’s failures of the last few months.
These failures have had little coverage in the traditional media. Obamacare has continued to move forward to hobble and then destroy the medical care system in America.
President Obama’s goal is to prove that a free market healthcare system does not work. He has disregarded the fact that the healthcare system is not a free market system.
“Forty-six percent of doctors give President Obama's healthcare law a "D" or an "F," according to a new survey from the Physicians Foundation. In contrast, just 25 percent of those surveyed gave the law an "A" or a "B."
A large number of physicians complained about the vast new bureaucracy that has been added to the medical profession.
A physician comment read, "I'm a Canadian physician practicing in the United States. The politicians and policy makers need to understand that government involvement in healthcare never works."
The 7.3 million figure is also fiction. At least 115,000 additional enrollees have not validated their citizenship or legal status. The validation must be completed by September 30,2014.
An additional 360,000 could lose their Obamacare subsidies because of discrepancies over their income. Eighty-five percent of the enrollees are receiving government subsides for healthcare coverage.
Most do not pay taxes because they make less than forty thousand dollars a year. They will not be able to afford the overpriced premiums.
How many of the 8 million have not continued to pay the premiums? No one knows or is telling. Enrollees have a three-month grace period.
By my calculations less than three million of the forty-eight (48) million people who were uninsured pre Obamacare became insured. An additional 7 million people lost their healthcare insurance in the individual market.
President Obama provided the American public with a grossly overestimated enrollment figure.
Ms. Tavenner had to put a positive spin on this latest revelation of the fictional enrollment numbers by saying,
"We are encouraged by the number of consumers who paid their premiums."
No one is buying this explanation.
She didn't provide answers to important details for these latest enrollment figures.
How many who dropped out were young and healthy?
How many have signed up through the so-called special enrollment process?
How many are keeping up with premiums?
How sturdy are the back-office computer programs in order to detect enrollment misinformation?
How will the government collect the money due to it from these non-paying enrollees?
Is the November 15th open enrollment period going to go smoothly?
Kevin Counihan, the former chief executive of Access Health CT, Connecticut’s online marketplace, was just named head of the insurance marketplaces for the federal government.
The front end of the web site looks like it will run smoothly. The back end of the web site still needs work. The government is still trying to see if the links to the IRS, the healthcare insurance industry and social security are functioning properly.
There were not enough healthy young subscribers to keep the insurance rates low. The premiums were too high for many young and healthy uninsured people.
This year the healthcare insurance premiums will be up at least 20%. Healthcare insurers fear it could be even more difficult to sign up young healthy people than it was last year.
Adding to the problem is that the sign up period for choosing a new policy this year will be shorter than last. It will be 3 months instead of six months.
President Obama will probably break the law again and extend the signup period an additional 3 months.
This year it should be more difficult to receive subsidies than last year.
People will drop out of the pool because of the increase in insurance rates. The renewal procedure has not been worked out yet.
Andrew Slavitt, principal deputy administrator for Medicare said they are working hard to make the process as easy as possible.
“We’re putting in place the simplest path for consumers this year to renew their coverage.”
This is another Obamacare smokescreen.
I predict it will be a price disaster.
Obamacare And Zeke Emanuel Setting Us Up For Rationing
Dr. Emanuel, one of Obamacare’s authors, gives all the reasons why he doesn’t want to live past 75 years old.
His argument is why should you live longer since you probably are not useful to society.
You have contributed all you are going to contribute. After 75 years old affliction will accumulate and disabilities will make life less pleasant.
It is apparent to me that he is setting us up for government rationing of healthcare for seniors.
The government controls Medicare. It is cheaper for the government not to pay for procedures such as hip replacements, knee replacements, for coronary artery surgery or cardiac pacemakers. All these procedures will extend the life of seniors over 75 years old who need them.
We have also heard rumors that this bureaucratic thinking is already in progress.
Don’t we live in a free country?
Isn’t it up to individuals to make their own life decisions?
Should we leave these decisions up to the government and bureaucrats?
Should they decide our choose of treatment for us?
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.
It took the mainstream media four months to discover the new executive order waivers for the mandate.
The Supreme Court didn’t repeal the mandate to buy insurance. The Supreme Court called the mandate a tax.
President Obama insisted the mandate was not a tax. His campaign promise was any family making less than $250,000 a year would not experience a penny of increases in new taxes.
This campaign has clearly been a lie. President Obama felt victorious about the Supreme Court decision. The traditional media gave President Obama a pass on its social, political and economic implications.
In fours years of delays in implementing Obamacare’s deadlines imposes by the law have been changed by executive orders and collecting the laws new supportive taxes on time, no one has questioned what Americans have gotten for these new taxes.
President Obama has changed many aspects of the law without the consent of congress.
No one in congress has challenged him.
The new mandate waivers were predicted to be the death knell for Obamacare's most controversial component. We had been told that the individual mandate was crucial to the survival of Obamacare.
Very few know about the new waivers. The new waivers allow anyone to skirt the mandate in the individual market. Almost no one has to buy insurance or pay a penalty. The waivers made through executive order, essentially exempts everyone from the mandate to buy insurance or pay a penalty.
“There already had been 13 distinct exemptions, but this document added one more — apparently it was added in late December. “
The problem is no one was made aware of the waivers by either the government or the traditional media.
“The most recent exemption was included in an ObamaCare application document. The document said that individuals can now qualify for a "hardship exemption" — meaning they would not have to pay a penalty for not buying insurance — if they "experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance."
The document does not define what "another hardship" means, and suggests the administration might not be a stickler when it comes to proof either. It says anyone seeking this exemption should "submit documentation if possible."
New waiver, number 14, was quietly extended through 2016 on March 14th 2014. The mandate is to go into affect 2017.
The first 13 exemptions were created for people who are homeless, who filed for bankruptcy, who experienced a fire and who dealt with other financial emergencies. These exemptions covered millions of people.
believes that the available plan options are more expensive than the plan that was not renewed."
Patients only have to claim they believe that the available plans are too expensive for them to buy.
The wavier is not well known. It is advertised on purpose by the Obama administration. It has not been picked up by the traditional mainstream media.
The then Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the "hardship exemptions" and blamed them on Republican governors who did not expand Medicaid.
This attack is the typical progressive attack against the enemy and is meant to act as a diversion.
"It's been really aimed at people who could not afford coverage one way or the other," she said. She noted that the list includes people who live in states that did not expand eligibility for Medicaid.”
Kathleen Sibelius statement is meaningless. The list of states include those states that expanded Medicaid.
To date the federal government has not processed 3 million applications. Republicans have not called out the Obama administration on the unprocessed applications.
Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office under the George W. Bush administration, said,
Adverse selection of patients is certain to be the result in the independent insurance market. Only people with preexisting illnesses or people making less than $50,000 a year have bought the health insurance exchange insurance. The later group receives a large subsidies.
The problem will be compounded whenever small business waivers expire.
In any event all American will experience double-digit increases in healthcare insurance premiums as a result of Obamacare and its unlawful waivers.
All Americans are paying higher taxes for Obamacare since 2010. Taxes to fund Obamacare have been increasing yearly for the last 4 years.
Obamacare was supposed to be fully implement in 2014. It has been minimally implemented so far.
Obamacare taxes have been implemented. Therefore, increased taxes should produce a decrease in the budget deficit.
Nevertheless the budget deficit has continued to increase yearly by over $1 trillion dollars a year.
There is something wrong with the math unless Obamacare is generating bureaucratic waste.
A reader wrote
"Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment"
Will Rogers
A reader sent me this list of increased taxes starting January 1,2014
In case you didn't notice > > > Here is what happened on > January 1, 2014: > > > > Top Medicare tax went > from 1.45% to 2.35% > > Top Income tax bracket > went from 35% to 39.6% > > Top Income payroll tax > went from 37.4% to 52.2% > > Capital Gains tax went > from 15% to 28% > > Dividends tax went from > 15% to 39.6% > > Estate tax went from 0% > to 55% > > Remember this fact: > These taxes were all passed only with democrat votes, > no republicans voted for these taxes. > > > These taxes were all > passed under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. > >
Is Obamacare worth the increase in taxes?
What are we getting for the increase in taxes?
What it is doing to the economy?
Why are Republicans afraid to say anything? Who should say something?
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone. Please have a friend subscribe
I received a note from a reader last week. I debated with myself whether or not to publish it. Americans have discovered, and are continuing to discover, President Obama’s many lies/deceptions about Obamacare.
He kept telling us that the law would only tax families earning over $250,000 a year. People earning less than $200,000 per individual and $250,000 per family will not pay a dime more in taxes.
"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."
It has become apparent that President Obama and his administration have told the American people many lies during his administration. The lies are at best half-truths. President Obama promised us an administration that would be totally transparent and truthful.
Americans trusted him to live up to his promise.
Many believed him only to find out he was not telling the truth.
The traditional media has supported many of President Obama’s lies. This same media had zero tolerance for George H Bush’s (41) lie.
There are at least ten hidden taxes imbedded in Obamacare.
In the last few weeks we learned that an insurance industry bailout was imbedded in Obamacare. President Obama knew about the bailout at the time Obamacare was passed.
Nancy Pelosi was correct. “We won’t know what is in the bill until we passed it.”
Americans used to trust their leaders. This administration has made us very cynical.
There is something called a “Medical Device Excise Tax.” This medical device excise tax is in the original Obamacare legislation. The 2.3% tax is imposed on the manufacturers of the medical device.
The 2.3% is ultimately passed on to all, both the rich and the poor.
The reader sent me the following:
"The 2.3% Medical Excise Tax that began on January 1st, 2013 as part of Obamacare’s tax structure is supposed to be "hidden" from the consumer, but it's been brought to the public's attention by hunting and fishing store Cabela's who have refused to hide it and are showing it as a separate line item tax on their receipts, the email states.
I did some research and found directly from the IRS 's website information that PROVES this to be true and an accurate portrayal of something hidden in Obamacare that I was not aware of! Now being skeptical of this I went to the IRS website and found this!"
"Q1. What is the medical device excise tax? A1. Section 4191 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on the sale of certain medical devices by the manufacturer or importer of the devicesales of taxable medical devices after Dec. 31, 2012.
Q3. How much is the tax? A3. The tax is 2.3 percent of the sale price of the taxable medical device.
"I think we have definitely been fooled, if we believe that the Affordable Care Act is all about health care. It truly does appear to be nothing more than a bill laden with a whole lot of taxes that we the people have yet to be aware of."
"Please pass this on. I am still incredulous that this can go on.
Where is our press ?
What is next? What else is there we do not know about? God help us ."
This is not the first time we have not been told the truth by this administration.
However I did my own fact checking and discovered that the author misread Chapter 5 of IRS Publication 510 Excise Taxes, and Notice IRS Publication 510.
The publication deals with all things subject to excise taxes. Chapter 5 covers “manufacturers taxes” of which the medical devices excise price 2.3% is a part of.
The anonymous author found the list of items including fishing equipment, bows and cars. Some of these excise taxes existed pre Obamacare. Some of the manufacturers excise taxes are a result of Obamacare. They are all separate from the medical device excise tax.
Cabela was wrong in adding 2.3% to the final bill. It misread the law. The sporting goods store realized its error the first week adding stopped adding the excise tax. Cabela repaid customers who were charged the excise tax.
One must think of the increase in price of an item to all consumers for the manufacturers’ tax is in reality a hidden tax to the middle class. It reduces the consumers’ purchasing power.
This is true for the tax on tanning bed salons also.
1. Obamacare Home Sales Tax increases taxes on unearned income by 3.8%.
2. Obamacare increases the medical expense deduction threshold. Unreimbursed medical expense deductions will now be available only for those medical expenses in excess of 10% of AGI, which has been raised from 7.5%.
3. Starting in 2018, the new health care law imposes a 40% excise tax on the portion of most employer-sponsored health coverage that exceed $10,200 a year and $27,500 for families.
Unions who have negotiated these healthcare plans for its members are upset because the tax will severely affect its membership. Members might elect to quit the union.
Democrats now admit after going through the new Obamacare taxes line by line that those taxes will increase the tax burden and decrease the purchasing power of the middle class.
President Obama has promised that Obamacare will help all Americans get access to quality affordable healthcare and new benefits, rights and protections.
So far Americans have seen the opposite occur.
The reaction to the Cabela incident is simply an indication of the middle class’ cynicism. President Obama promised people making less than $250,000 a year will not pay one dime more in taxes.
It is clear he knew that was a false promise at the time.
Americans do not trust President Obama anymore.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.
