Thursday, February 23, 2017

Reality vs Liberal Mindset


Among other things, the Trump administration has:
  • Loosened the mandate that requires you to have insurance or pay a penalty. Checking the box on your tax forms regarding whether or not you are insured is now optional.
  • Loosened the mandate that requires every insurance plan to cover a blanket of things. Eventually the plan would be for these requirements to be set at the state, and not federal level.
By next year, there will be many places in the country where "no insurers" are planning on providing plans for the exchanges. In many other places, there is only one choice. It would seem that it's become much less likely than not, that the Obamacare exchange will actually offer you any real "choice" in what you purchase.

Of course, the entire theory of the exchanges was to provide consumers with the ability to go to one place and see multiple options. Sort of like shopping on Amazon.com. Of course mandating that every insurer sell the same three basic plans covering the same three sets of things sort of defeats the purpose of providing a competitive environment. What good would it do to go to Amazon.com to compare televisions, if every seller was selling the same exact product as everyone else.  It was almost as if people who didn't understand the basic concepts of free markets, thought an amazon.com style insurance exchange could be used as a tool to tell people what they should buy? 

Bottom line is that there are approximately eleven million people insured through the exchanges. Approximately three quarters of them receive some form of subsidy to purchase the insurance. One of the main issues moving forward will be what will happen to the ability to garner these subsidies if there are no options within the exchanges to purchase insurance (since those subsidies are currently tied to the use of the exchange). How does one go about doing that, unless those subsidies are replaced with something mobile and flexible (like a tax credit) which Obamacare supporters would never agree to? After all, that would give up government control over individual decision making (gasp!). 

The Democrats have spent the past few years pretending that none of this was happening, and offering nothing tangible to fundamentally fix the flawed system. The only answer Democrats have ever had (and this seems to hold true on almost every issue) is to spend more money on subsidies in order to keep both the sellers and buyers engaged.

Here is a hint for those who apparently failed microeconomics: if you are subsidizing the seller to sell a product, and subsidizing the buyer to purchase the product and the whole thing is still going belly up.  It's a deeply flawed idea. Of course, don't tell a Democrat that. Even after Obamacare has likely directly cost them dozens of congressional seats, cost them control of congress, and possibly even cost them the Presidency... they still stubbornly cling to the notion that the law is somehow popular, if you just read between the lines. 

33 comments:

caliphate4vr said...



As of November 2016, California has enrolled 12,209,605 individuals in Medicaid and CHIP — a net increase of 57.43% since the first Marketplace Open Enrollment Period and related Medicaid program changes in October 2013. California has adopted one or more of the targeted enrollment strategies outlined in guidance CMS issued on May 17, 2013, designed to facilitate enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP.

Yet, they want the rest of the country fix their infrastructure. 12 million on the dole that's more than 44 states populations. Please secede

Anonymous said...

Even after Obamacare has likely directly cost them dozens of congressional seats, cost them control of congress, and possibly even cost them the Presidency... they still stubbornly cling to the notion that the law is somehow popular, if you just read between the lines.
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liberals can always be counted on to adopt one particular mindset when it comes to new government programs -

if they can just get them passed, no matter how poorly implemented or doomed to failure over time (in the immediate or longer term), a government program is like herpes...

it's forever.

i've been amazed by this since i've been old enough to understand politics. no matter how bad the idea, no matter how poorly it's implemented, no matter how badly it fails, the liberal solution to their self-made disasters is always...

more government.

and the law of unintended consequences be damned.




opie said...

Still waiting for the repeal and replace.....seems to me the public might be saying otherwise. But, we all know that any of these town hall protesters are being paid and bussed in. Your side is finally squirming like the pussies you truly are. LOL

Anonymous said...

As of November 2016, California has enrolled 12,209,605 individuals in Medicaid and CHIP — a net increase of 57.43% since the first Marketplace Open Enrollment Period and related Medicaid program changes in October 2013.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

in my mind the fatal flaw in their fucked up "logic" has always been that access to insurance does not equal access to actual health care.

the fact that the left has gotten all these people enrolled hasn't helped the actual individuals. it simply has allowed liberals to feel better about themselves - as usual.

KD, OPM is running Dry said...

It is a perfect system just like the failing Social Security and the Medicare/Caid.

KD, Hi HB and Opie, hope you too are well said...

. it simply has allowed liberals to feel better about themselves - as usual." RRB

That is 99.9% of taking good hard earned money from workers and risk takers and giving it to illegals and interlopers.

To date HB and his wife have Bilked the CA tax payer for over $1,000,000 that is by his own posts.

It might be the reason HB and Opium are leaving not a penny in inheritance to their kids , not paying for their college and teach them that taking money from the hands of those that work is good for the country, IF y our a liberal .


Losing so badly in the NOV election has the liberal cockroaches out in the light of day.

KD, Winning Today , can't wait said...

How long before Opium and HB start trashing this smart hard working Lady?

"Deputy White House chief of staff Katie Walsh rocketed to the top and is now — at just 32 years old — the woman who holds down the fort in the White House. Alongside other strong women on President Donald J. Trump’s team, like director of strategic communications, Hope Hicks, or counselor to the president, Kelly Anne Conway, Walsh is instrumental in making the White House function."

Loretta said...

An all around nice guy...

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/23/alan-colmes-dies-66

opie said...

KD, Winning Today , can't wait said...
How long before Opium and HB start trashing this smart hard working Lady?

As soon as she says something stupid, which shouldn't be long......Any one have pictures of busses at town halls? Or evidence of someone organizing and being paid to protest at town halls or is it just made up shit like the rest of the crap spewing around like all the polls are now fake. LOLOLOL

KD, Yuge Win Trump Ending leftist programs said...

An all around nice guy..." Ette


Yep, a honest liberal and a fair reporter of facts.

There are no more like him in the leftist media.

KD said...


How long before Opium and HB start trashing this smart hard working Lady?"

Opie you did it in less then 30 minutes , you must be so proud, this is the third woman you trashed in the last three days, why is it that powerful woman tick you off.


You have kids right?

Commonsense said...

An all around nice guy...

The kind of guy you wish all liberals could be.

opie said...

Trash,,,,you are as dumb as the goats you service. !!!!!!! Please explain exactly how waiting for her to say something dumb is trashing......Still waiting for proof that someone has been paid...not wearing a hat....hell I got 3 NRA hats, remington hats....Busch hats....I guess that must mean I support the NRA, shoot people and drink the crappiest beer made....Next.

Commonsense said...

No Indy hat?

C.H. Truth said...

crappiest beer made

Clearly someone has not tasted "Old Milwaukee beer".

Commonsense said...

Na, PBR made "Old Milwaukee" taste like the champagne of beers.

caliphate4vr said...

PBR is the hipster go to beer.

Skinny jeans, beards, glasses you don't need and PBR

C.H. Truth said...

Yes, cause nothing says good beer, like a beer that tastes something like champagne.

Grain Belt Premium is making a come back around here. Personally I have never drank much beer either way. But when I do it's generally tap and generally a micro brew.

Indy Voter said...

Plenty of precedent for not enforcing laws or rules. Just look at the last administration and its nonenforcement of federal pot laws. Doesn't mean it's good policy though to not enforce the penalty provisions of PPACA. Just means that the private insurers are going to have a higher percentage of sick people on their rolls, which means those costs will be passed on to the insured as higher premiums.

Anonymous said...

Just means that the private insurers are going to have a higher percentage of sick people on their rolls, which means those costs will be passed on to the insured as higher premiums.
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that's assuming there are going to be any private insurers left. they're jumping ship like crazy.

if all that's left for the poor is medicaid coverage, and that coverage does not equate to actual access, we'll be right back where we started with overcrowded ER's and the taxpayers getting stuck with the bill.

the ACA, like virtually all liberal legislation was built upon a pile of lies. it was inevitable that the lies would unravel and the whole scheme would turn to shit. and that's where we are now.



Who's profiting from Obamacare?

There's no question many insurers are losing big money on Obamacare. Costs exceeded income by 5% in 2014, and that figure doubled the following year, according to McKinsey's Center for U.S. Health System Reform. Losses are expected to grow this year.

Only 30% of insurers ran profitable individual divisions in 2014. That share slipped to about a quarter last year, according to McKinsey.
Insurers that have fared better on the exchanges typically offer more restrictive policies. They have more limited networks of doctors and hospitals and manage their enrollees' health care usage more tightly.

Take Molina Healthcare (MOH), which has a profitable exchange business that targets lower-income customers who qualify for both premium and out-of-pocket subsidies. A Molina executive noted on a conference call last month that it doesn't offer its policy holders access to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a prestigious Los Angeles hospital. That helps it keep its rates down.

"Not that they're not a fine institution, but they're priced way above what we and our population we're targeting can afford," said John Molina, the insurer's chief financial officer.

Bigger insurers, like Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana, on the other hand, have traditionally specialized in the employer market, which typically demands more choice and control.

"Their traditional products are not working for this population," Corlette said.


National carriers aren't the only ones struggling with higher-than-expected costs on the exchanges. Many Blue Cross Blue Shield companies, which have insured individuals for years, and smaller players are also suffering, said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a consulting firm.

That's because there are too many sick people in the risk pools and not enough healthy ones to offset the costs. And the situation is getting worse, he said.
"The government will have to get involved," Mendelson said. "The exchanges are viable in the long-term, but only if the government stabilizes the risk pools."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/17/news/economy/obamacare-insurers/


so if you're poor and covered by the ACA you have no access to high quality care. you're forced to deal with the kermit gosnell's of the world for treatment. how fucked up is that?


caliphate4vr said...

Take Molina Healthcare (MOH), which has a profitable exchange business that targets lower-income customers who qualify for both premium and out-of-pocket subsidies. A Molina executive noted on a conference call last month that it doesn't offer its policy holders access to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a prestigious Los Angeles hospital. That helps it keep its rates down.

That was August rat, look at this week

Yet more bad news for Obamacare this week: Molina Healthcare lost $110 million on the exchanges last year, and the CEO told investors, “There are simply too many unknowns with the marketplace program to commit to our participation beyond 2017.”

the 'skinny' plans are losing their ass

Anonymous said...



so the reality is that the GOP really needs to do nothing regarding the ACA other than oppose any back$top via legislation to ensure that the shitpile really does collapse, and us taxpayers aren't left holding the bag.

shut down uncle sugar and his big bag of "free money", and the whole thing dies on the vine.


“If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.”

― P.J. O'Rourke

Anonymous said...



also, via the examiner:


Molina Healthcare, a big Obamacare success story, isn't committing to offering plans in 2018.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bad-news-piling-up-for-obamacare/article/2614962


not committing because there's no guarantee the government will stabilize the risk pools.

opie said...


also, via the examiner:

Maybe they should commit you. LOLOL

KD said...

us taxpayers aren't left holding the bag."

We the tax payers have already been handed the Bag called ObimboCare.

It was designed to fail, that is clear .

KD, Obama Won, on this for sure said...

When SS was passed it had a payroll tax attached to pay for it.


When Medicare was passed it had the same.

When ONLY Dems passed obimbocare, it had nada in real funding, it was designed to fail.

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

Reality show, not Trumpism.

Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted on Thursday that a full repeal and replace of Obamacare is “not what’s going to happen” and that Republicans will instead just make some fixes to the health care law.

Boehner, who retired in 2015 amid unrest among conservatives, said at an Orlando healthcare conference that GOP lawmakers were too optimistic in their talk of quickly repealing and then replacing Obamacare.

“They’ll fix Obamacare, and I shouldn’t have called it repeal and replace because that’s not what’s going to happen. They’re basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it,” Boehner said.

The former speaker’s frank comments capture the conundrum that many Republicans find themselves in as they try to deliver on pledges to axe Obamacare but struggle to coalesce around an alternative.

Republican lawmakers across the country this week are facing angry constituents at town halls worried that Obamacare will be yanked away without a suitable replacement.

President Donald Trump has said in recent days that he will release a plan by early to mid-March on how the administration plans to move forward on repeal-and-replace.

But so far, no clear path has emerged.

This is another example of promises that he won't do.


The list would fill this window.

Coldheartedtruth Teller said...

CH, the best beer I ever drank, was a German lager, Weihenstiphamer Lager. Spelling is probably wrong, but if you can find it, you will thank me.

opie said...

Ever have a brew from Alcase named Cardinal???? If you enjoy french wine.....that brew will really surprise you.

caliphate4vr said...

They’re basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it,” Boehner said.

In other words gut the liberal Utopian nightmare and do something fiscally responsible that works.

As i always predicted, Bumblecare in its current state will not be woven into the fabric of our society.

LOL

opie said...

e will not be woven into the fabric of our society.

LOL...That ain't repeal and replace like you predicted either....

opie said...

What numbnutz of atlanta failed to read......LOLOL Idiot

And here’s the kicker. “Most of the framework of the Affordable Care Act … that’s going to be there,” Boehner said. He went on to say that he thought everyone covered by Medicaid now would keep their Medicaid coverage.

Thanx for your BS prediction.

opie said...

Seems the pendulum has swung around, pauline.....'

Americans are learning to love the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

As the law faces possible repeal and replacement by Republicans, a new poll from the Pew Research Center shows that the ACA's popularity is soaring and has hit its highest point since it was passed.

54% of respondents in Pew's survey said they approve of the law, with just 43% disapproving. This is better than the 48% approve, 47% disapprove margin from December 2016.

Additionally, of the 43% against the law, only 17% of people the total surveyed want Republicans to repeal the way entirely while 25% want the law modified