Tuesday, July 21, 2015

After The Dust Settled, The Affordable Care Act Now Will...

explode national, state, and individual budgets in 2016 and beyond. According to the National Inflation Association(NIA) in there study of New York State providers, they uncovered huge increases for 2016. They studied filings by the four largest health care providers in the state and the range of premium hikes is 13.35% to 17.18%. If you include all the care providers in the state, it averages around a 12.73% increase.
New York is not the exception. In Oregon the projected increases will be 16%. You won't believe what the health providers are asking in Minnesota? They want a 54% increase!
The Kaiser Family Foundation said plans rose an average of 2.2% in 2015 nationally, however they anticipate another 4.4% increase in 2016. No one offers any other projections further out.
Blue Cross said the cost to resign new enrollees with Obamacare made the company lose $141million in 2015. They want a 36% increase!
All these price increases were realized by investors back in 2013. The health care index(DJUSHC) was 465 in April 2013. Today, it stands at 826. A rocket, straight up!
They knew two things. One, millions of new enrollees and two, price hikes to cover any losses. They had the security to know price limits were not negotiated by the president's plan.
Doesn't End There...
enrollment in Medicare is also busting budgets because of the unexpected surge in new enrollees. In Kentucky the government estimated that it would get a 150,000 new patients, but they were half wrong. It was double that! They added over 311,000. Their budget allocated $34 million, but they will need $74 million. This math progression will cause the state to go bankrupt as the new estimate for 2021 calls for $363 million. That is over 10x the present budget in six years.
I have been against Obamacare since it came out. The president ran with the concept of First Payer. I endorsed that idea, but what we got is a sellout to Big Pharma. There are no price limits. For example, you check tire prices, you know the cost. Get a broken leg, and you are slaughter of the lamb. You are subject to unnecessary tests, padded bills, etc. Obamacare did not make hospitals and doctors set a fee for service which was the root of the inflationary prices in health care. In addition, the bill forces young people to purchase health insurance under plenty of law. They will become criminals for not buying something that they don't need. I could go on and on... from the concept of doctors working 36 hour straight shifts which no person could perform, to limiting student enrollments in medical colleges to keep wages high and limit costs.
Bottom Line: the Affordable Care Act is unaffordable!