WTF?!? Insurance industry warns of higher rates, as ObamaCare supporters see long-term fix

Insurance industry warns of higher rates, as ObamaCare supporters see long-term fix
By Eric Shawn
Published June 28, 2012 | FoxNews.com
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President Obama says the health care law makes coverage more affordable, but the insurance industry reacted to the Supreme Court decision by saying that the ruling will actually end up raising rates even more than they have climbed since the law was enacted.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s lobby group, issued a statement supporting expanding health care coverage to millions of Americans, but it said, “major provisions, such as the premium tax, will have unintended consequences of raising costs and disrupting coverage unless they are addressed.”

The group's CEO, Karen Ignagni, told Fox News that because of the increased costs, “It's time for people to roll up their sleeves and look very carefully at those provisions.”

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group, has said that the average family insurance premium in 2011 topped $15,000 -- a 9 percent increase from the year before, while premiums had climbed just 3 percent a year before the law went into effect.

AETNA, the nation's fourth largest insurer, says its polices increased from 1 to 2 percent.

"Three percent is a material increase," said Ignagni, who cited the legislation's premium tax. "That is one example of provision embedded in the legislation that will work in the wrong direction than consumer expectations.”

But others claimed the law eventually will lower insurance premiums because of the large pool of Americans who will be covered. The group FamilesUSA called the decision, "a clear, unambiguous and complete victory for long-overdue health care reform."

The group also cited the creation of state health insurance exchanges, which will give consumers choices of insurance plans. *It also said the new insurance company regulations help consumers.

"No one will be denied health coverage or charged a discriminatory premium due to a pre-existing condition, such as children with asthma or diabetes ... People with major health problems, like those in car accidents, will be protected against arbitrary lifetime or annual limits in how much insurance companies will pay for needed care," the group said.

"The premiums paid for family health care rise by more than a thousand dollars simply to pay for the costs that have not been paid by the uninsured," Ron Pollack, the executive director of FamliesUSA, told Fox News. "So as those people get coverage, our premiums will go down."

Pollack added, “Anybody who tells us that health reform is unaffordable is smoking something, because of the heart of health reform is to make our system a whole lot more efficient and effective. And when you make it more efficient and effective, it helps to bring premiums down.”

AHIP counters claims that premiums will decrease. It cited an Urban Institute study that shows insurance premiums for singles policyholders, who are 18 to 34 years old, will increase by $1,400, from $3,600 to $5,000 a year.

Policyholders who are 35 to 44 years old will see a lesser increase, by $800 -- from $4,200 to the same $5,000 rate per year.

"We are weighing these issues, talking about solutions and making sure that between now and Jan. 1, 2014, that the costs are actually affordable," the industry lobby group said.

Some studies have shown that rates could have shot up even more if the law had been tossed out. Some estimates had pegged the possible increases in insurance costs from 10 percent to 30 percent.

But the uncertainty of the decision has already had a negative impact on insurance companies. Many of *their stock prices dropped sharply Thursday.

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Any info regarding TriCare for the military and their dependents? Or Long Term Care insurance? or cancer insurance policies?

Military Being Forced to Choose Between Tricare and Obamacare

Defense budget cuts proposed by the Obama administration will cause the cost of health care to increase radically for military families. The budget cuts, however, will not affect unionized civilian defense workers.

The disparity in how these cuts will affect uniformed personnel and civilians now has the military concerned as to what the effect will be on recruiting and retaining current personnel. Now, more than a few in Washington are suggesting the budget proposal is a calculated move to force military personnel into state-run insurance exchanges under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act better known as Obamacare.

Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R–CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is among a growing number who is doubtful about the proposal. “We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills,” he said, “when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population. Speaking to the Washington Free Beacon he added, “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”

The increases to military health care payments must be approved by Congress to go into effect. If passed, the bill would take $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey defended the Pentagon’s proposed budget saying it is under a mandate to cut $487 billion over the next 10 years. The Pentagon faces another $1 trillion in reductions when automatic cuts are triggered.

“I want those of you who serve and who have served to know that we’ve heard your concerns, in particular your concern about the tiered enrollment fee structure for Tricare in retirement,” Dempsey said. “You have our commitment that we will continue to review our health care system to make it as responsive, as affordable, and as equitable as possible.”

The plan proposes increases between 30% to 78% in annual premiums for Tricare during the first year. Over the next five years rates would increase from 94% to 345%, triple the current level. That would mean a retiring Army colonel with a family would see rates increase from $460 per year to over $2000 in just five years.

It isn’t just retired military personnel that would be hard hit by the changes. Active duty personnel would immediately see their co-payments increase for pharmaceuticals and lost incentives for opting for generic drugs.

A congressional aide said the administration’s proposed cuts exhibits a double standard. “We all recognize that we are in a time of austerity,” this aide said. “But defense has made up to this point 50 percent of deficit reduction cuts that we agreed to, but is only 20 percent of the budget.”

The aide added that the military has already given up equipment and force levels needed for global missions. “And now they are going to them again and asking them to pay more for their health care when you’ve held the civilian workforce at DoD and across the federal government virtually harmless in all of these cuts. And it just doesn’t seem fair.”

There are problems with the proposed cuts than just the money. The cuts are conveniently scheduled to not go into effect until after this election year, obviously a ploy to avoid agitating military voters any more than possible. Critics and uniformed personnel alike noticed quickly that civilian unionized workers will not be affected at all.

Military service organizations oppose the healthcare changes and contend the Pentagon is “means-testing” benefits for service personnel as if they were a social program, and not something earned with 20 or more years of military service. Retired Navy Capt. Kathryn M. Beasley told the Free Beacon, “This is a breach of faith” for both the active duty and retiree communities.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars has called on all military personnel and the veterans’ community to block the healthcare increases. Richard L. DeNoyer, head of the 2 million-member VFW said, “Any proposal that negatively impacts any quality of life program must be defeated, and that’s why the VFW is asking everyone to join the fight and send a united voice to Congress.”

Congress must pass all the proposed changes into law. Tricare for Life, Tricare Prime, and Tricare Standard increases must be approved, as well as some of the pharmacy fee increases as current law limits Tricare fee increases to cost of living increases in retirement pay.

Seeker said:

Any info regarding TriCare for the military and their dependents? Or Long Term Care insurance? or cancer insurance policies?

Click to expand...

Here's another article from townhall
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiep...ing_medical_care_for_troops_to_push_obamacare

The Article said:

President Obama says the health care law makes coverage more affordable, but the insurance industry reacted to the Supreme Court decision by saying that the ruling will actually end up raising rates even more than they have climbed since the law was enacted.

Click to expand...

Wow. That was unexpected.

The Obama jackass has been wrong about everything in this whole deal. His plan to "bend the cost curve down" has in fact resulted in 25% increases in health care spending in just the past two years.

And now, because the assessment he tried to call a "penalty" has been deemed to be a tax, he now has to run on a platform of having massively raised taxes on the middle class, something he solemnly swore he would not do, ostensibly because there were so many "millionaires and billionaires" out there just waiting to pay more tax.

Obama's unenviable task this election season will be to defend his decision to break his covenant with the middle class.

He should check with George H. W. Bush to see how that worked out for him.

Just like auto insurance and once the law is in place the rates go up and example take South Carolina and back in the late 70s or very early 80s and I really think it was in the 70s there was no mandatory auto insurance law and I know this because my parents lived there and after the state was forced under duress to put a mandatory auto insurance law on the books a year later the rates went from about $150 every six months to $400 every six months and believe it or not it kept allot of people from driving as they could not afford to pay that $800 a year and it did not take long before the rates went up to $600 per-six months.

We shall have national healthcare in short order. The coverage of high risk people will cause prices in the current model to spike. Secondly, many companies/entities are going to just stop offering insurance. The tax they pay will be no where near what it would cost to provide a small or large group pool insurance plan. Lots of people will go to Medicaid, which will eventually become national healthcare, and income taxes will be in the 50% range. Unless those companies/employers pass their savings from offering no healthcare to the employees, that should pretty much destroy the economy for good.

Prices will spike and become unaffordable for many, while government and the insurance companies intrude on your life to contain costs and make a profit. Then the IRS will levy its tax on you for having no insurance. Now that the precedent has been set and affirmed by the Supreme Court, taxes will keep being increased by CONgress to support their NWO agenda. Welcome to the Eurozone!!

Ravekid said:

We shall have national healthcare in short order. The coverage of high risk people will cause prices in the current model to spike. Secondly, many companies/entities are going to just stop offering insurance. The tax they pay will be no where near what it would cost to provide a small or large group pool insurance plan. Lots of people will go to Medicaid, which will eventually become national healthcare, and income taxes will be in the 50% range. Unless those companies/employers pass their savings from offering no healthcare to the employees, that should pretty much destroy the economy for good.

Click to expand...

Feel free to add your own. - BG


http://endoftheamericandream.com/ar...cision-is-a-mind-blowing-disaster-for-america


15 Reasons Why The Obamacare Decision Is A Mind Blowing Disaster For America

You can almost always count on the Supreme Court to do the wrong thing. In fact, just about every major decision by the U.S. Supreme Court over the last 40 years has been bad for America. Many were hoping that the Supreme Court would strike down Obamacare, but the truth is that we all should have known better than to expect them to get something right. So now America is headed for a complete and total disaster as Obamacare is fully implemented over the next several years. Obamacare is going to absolutely shred the infrastructure of our medical system, it is going to send health insurance premiums soaring, it is going to dramatically expand the size and the scope of government, it is going to fundamentally alter the relationships between doctors and their patients and it is one of the largest tax increases in U.S. history. Not only that, it is also going to add about a trillion dollars to our national debt over the next decade. So no, the Obamacare decision is not good news. Obamacare was one of the worst pieces of legislation in American history, and now we are stuck with it.

It was a 5-4 decision to uphold Obamacare, and the swing vote was Chief Justice John Roberts who was appointed by George W. Bush.

After the vote today, it is hard to have any faith in the U.S. Supreme Court. Many constitutional conservatives kept voting for Republicans in the hope that the direction of the Supreme Court would change, but it hasn't.

Prior to the Obama administration, Republicans controlled the White House for 20 out of 28 years. If Republicans were going to fundamentally change the nature of the Supreme Court, that was their opportunity.

But it didn't happen.

Instead, what we have is a Supreme Court that is dominated by judges that have very little respect for the U.S. Constitution. When I was in law school I got to study the Supreme Court pretty closely and I quickly realized that most of the time they simply do whatever they want to do and they make up whatever reasons they can to justify their decisions.

That sounds really bad, but that is the truth.

And thanks to the Supreme Court, we are stuck with Obamacare - at least for now.

The following are 15 reasons why the Obamacare decision is a mind blowing disaster for America....

#1 According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government has the power to force you to buy private goods and services. Now that this door has been opened, what else will we be forced to buy in the future?

#2 Obamacare is another step away from individual liberty and another step toward a "nanny state" where the government dominates our lives from the cradle to the grave.

#3 The IRS is now going to be given the task of hunting down and penalizing millions of Americans that do not have any health insurance. In fact, the Obama administration has given the IRS 500 million extra dollars "outside the normal appropriations process" to help them enforce the provisions of Obamacare that they are in charge of overseeing.

#4 Obamacare imposes more than 20 new taxes on the American people. You can find a comprehensive list of Obamacare taxes right here. If you love paying higher taxes, then you are going to absolutely love Obamacare once it is fully implemented.

#5 In an attempt to "control costs" and "promote efficiency", Obamacare limits the treatment options that doctors and patients can consider. This is likely to result in a decrease in life expectancy in the United States.

#6 Obamacare is going to impose nightmarish paperwork burdens on doctors, hospitals and the rest of the healthcare system. This is going to significantly increase our healthcare costs as a nation.

#7 Obamacare is going to send health insurance premiums soaring. This is especially true for younger Americans.

#8 Many small businesses are going to be absolutely crushed by the provisions in Obamacare that require them to provide expensive health insurance coverage for their employees. This is going to make them even less competitive with companies in other countries where businesses are not required to provide healthcare for their workers. This is also going to make it even less attractive for businesses to hire new employees.

#9 Obamacare is going to make the emerging doctor shortage in America a lot worse. Surveys have found that we could potentially see hundreds of thousands of doctors leave the medical profession because of Obamacare.

#10 Obamacare has already forced the cancellation of dozens of doctor-owned hospitals.

#11 Obamacare is going to result in a much bigger federal government. In order to fully implement all of the provisions of Obamacare, hordes of new government bureaucrats will be required.

#12 Thanks to Obamacare, you are going to have to wait much longer to see a doctor. Just look at what happened once Romneycare was implemented in Massachusetts....

In fact, we have already seen the start of this process in Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney’s health care reforms were nearly identical to President Obama’s. Romney’s reforms increased the demand for health care but did nothing to expand the supply of physicians. In fact, by cracking down on insurance premiums, Massachusetts pushed insurers to reduce their payments to providers, making it less worthwhile for doctors to expand their practices. As a result, the average wait to get an appointment with a doctor grew from 33 days to over 55 days.

#13 Obamacare contains all kinds of insidious little provisions that most people don't even know about. The following is one example from the Alliance Defense Fund....

"Did you know that with ObamaCare you will have to pay for life-saving drugs, but life-ending drugs are free. One hundred percent free. If this plan were really about health care wouldn't it be the other way around?"

#14 As if the U.S. government was not facing enough of a crisis with entitlement spending, it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls. You and I will be paying for all of this.

#15 The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Obamacare will add more than a trillion dollars to government spending over the next decade. Considering the fact that the U.S. government is already drowning in debt, how in the world can we afford this?

when one of my sons was working at one of the top 3 third party administrator (health insurance)companies recently, they were projecting a 40-60% increase if Obamacare passed....