‘The slate needs to be wiped clean’
WASHINGTON, DC – There is not much you can be sure about when it comes to Obamacare except for the fact that premiums are bound to increase, much to the continuing dismay among those who actually believed it would be “affordable,” Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, reports.
“So, it is not really going to be a November Surprise, as some have labeled it, when consumers seeking to enroll in the fall find out that a healthcare insurance policy will cost them at least 10% more, in many cases.”
According to the Kaiser Family Foundations, which keeps track of such things, premiums in some cases will increase 13 percent, 16 percent and 18 percent in Connecticut, Washington DC and New York State, and in Oregon, respectively.
It’s easy to blame the insurance companies for the ongoing premium increases, but Investor’s Business Daily says the Affordable Care Act, itself, is flawed.
In an editorial published just a few days ago, IBD wrote: “Last week Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota made a stunning announcement that it was pulling out of the state’s individual insurance market altogether, after losing $500 million. It might not be the last of the Blues to abandon Obamacare. Across the country Blue Cross affiliates are losing staggering amounts of money thanks to the law, and are putting in for premium hikes that would have been unimaginable before Obamacare. For example, Health Care Services Corp. [HCSC], which owns Blue Cross affiliates in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, lost $1.5 billion on its Obamacare-compliant plans last year.”
It should be noted that, as a result, HCSC is seeking a 60 percent rate increase in Texas and nearly 50 percent more in Oklahoma.
Cynthia Cox, a Kaiser Foundation expert on the impact of the ACA on private insurers, acknowledged the problem, admitting that Obamacare isn’t exactly working out as intended. “I don’t know if we’re at a point where it’s completely worrisome, but I think it does raise some red flags in pointing out that insurance companies need to be able to make a profit or at least cover their costs.”
“We’ve concluded that the slate needs to be wiped clean. What we need is a comprehensive healthcare insurance system such as one proposed in Congress that includes the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSA), and puts the patient in charge of their health care,” Weber concluded.
AMAC has proposed the B.E.S.T. [Bipartisan Simple Easy Timely] plan to improve health care delivery and control costs. It includes Medicaid reform which would allow states to determine work requirements for recipients who are able to work and give states more control of the program. Check out the B.E.S.T. plan at www.amac.us.
