Obamacare: IT'S NOT WORKING.

This is pretty dramatic.

Missouri’s Governor announced last week the state will not expand Medicaid on July 1^st as demanded by the voters in a ballot measure last August.  This is because Republican state lawmakers refused to fund Medicaid expansion in the most recent budget bill.  Without a revenue source or funding authority from the state legislature, the state cannot proceed with expansion at this time, the Governor said.  A court fight is expected.

The voters demanded Medicaid expansion in Missouri, but the state couldn’t figure out a sustainable way to pay for it.  Expansion would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but nobody knew what the funding mechanism would be.

The same thing happened in Idaho and Oklahoma.  In Idaho, voters approved expansion in a referendum and the program is underway, but there is still no stable permanent funding source.  State legislators tried to stick counties with the bill.  Part of the problem is that expansion costs are way higher in Idaho than the original estimates.  Some of us warned about this, because expansion has blown up in just about every state that adopted it, and now we get to say ‘we told you so.’  Virginia is an exception so far, but only because extra COVID funding from the federal government is masking the financial fallout from enrollment being way over what they said it was going to be.

Oklahoma’s challenge is to find stable funding at a time when there is already a billion dollar budget shortfall.  Expansion cost estimates were lowballed there, too, to increase chances the voters would fall for it.  Higher hospital bills for everybody is one idea under consideration.  Another is diverting money from the tobacco settlement already slated for other uses.

If you look at Medicaid expansion overall, you find that enrollment is more than double on average in expansion states than originally estimated.  States have hit the wall financially because of it.  About the craziest idea for funding Medicaid expansion comes out of Kansas where the Governor would pay for it with marijuana taxes.

I don’t know what’s worse: the Left’s magical thinking that you can just wish expensive programs into existence without having any way to pay for them, or the complete irresponsibility of everyone who played along.  An exercise in good government this is not.  Remember that the next time mindless liberals and their politician friends want to create new programs and grow the government.

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

Anyone with half a brain could see this one coming.  Joe Biden wants to make permanent the temporary Obamacare subsidy increases passed as part of COVID relief.  Of course he does.  That’s because the motto of the Democrat Party is never let a good crisis go to waste.   Never mind that the price tag of the temporary increase is $20 billion and the cost of making the increases permanent will be far higher and ultimately prove unsustainable.

The Biden administration is taking other steps to boost Obamacare enrollment – spending $100 million on marketing, lowering the maximum enrollees have to pay out of pocket, and seeking to lift the income cap on eligibility.  Try as he might, Biden won’t succeed.

This is because Obamacare’s problems are too numerous and insurmountable.  Because of Obamacare requirements like preexisting conditions coverage and delinking premiums from risk, Obamacare has doubled the cost of individual health insurance policies.  Obamacare deductibles are so high, many people cannot afford to use their policies for medical services.   Over half of U.S. counties are down to one or two Obamacare insurers.  Despite improvements under Trump, the Obamacare exchanges in 2021 are still one-third less competitive than the individual market was before Obamacare was implemented.  Obamacare enrollees don’t have access to the best doctors and hospitals.  Medical bankruptcies are still high despite all the promises Obamacare was the magic answer to that problem.

There is no end to the problems with Obamacare.  It’s just not working.  As my Obamacare Truth Squad said ten years ago, Obamacare is a disaster in every possible way.  No wonder 62 percent of people surveyed would keep their employer coverage and only 10 percent would pick Obamacare if they lost their job.  Obamacare enrollment is still stuck at around 11 or 12 million.  Sweeten the deal all you want, you will never get to the 21 million promised when they were selling the Obamacare bill of goods to the country.  This turkey still won’t fly, and never will.

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

The failures of Obamacare are legendary.  Millions of people lost their doctors and their plans, despite President Obama’s repeated promises to the contrary.  The price of health insurance more than doubled.  People with preexisting conditions, whom Obamacare was supposed to protect, found themselves without the best care, paying stiff drug costs, or being denied coverage altogether.

Despite all this, Joe Biden and the latest COVID relief package doubled down on Obamacare.  The Democrats decided to bribe away the remaining opposition with bigger subsidies.  Now, Obamacare subsidies are available to people making 400 percent of the federal poverty level, about $100,000 for a family of four.  This means that people with six-figure incomes qualify for help from Uncle Sam.  I’m sorry, but there’s something wrong when people making that kind of money can’t function without the assistance of the federal government.

This is part of a destructive pattern deployed time and again by the Democrats and the Left.  First, they screw up the system and make something enormously expensive.  Then they turn around and say, ‘oh, but we’ll HELP you,’ like they were the good guys.  They did it with college tuition – making it soar out of sight, then federalizing student loans and doling out more tuition assistance.  And they did it with healthcare – Obamacare’s guaranteed issue and community rating regulations made insurance much more expensive, but the Democrats handed out subsidies to dull the pain they themselves caused.  Now, the subsidies are even bigger, targeting the self-employed and small business owners who were hit with higher premiums from Obamacare but did not qualify for subsidies before the latest COVID relief package.  These people typically disfavored Obamacare, but now they are being bought off.

Try as the Democrats might, the bigger subsidies will not make the problems with Obamacare go away.  The subsidies will only make Obamacare more expensive and place upward pressure on insurance premiums.  The price tag is expected to be $34 billion dollars over two years, which works out to $34,000 of federal assistance for every new policyholder.  This is nuts.  We don’t have this kind of money to throw around.  This is only possible in a country that thinks it can go on deficit spending forever and the bill will never come due.

Meanwhile, the Democrats won’t talk about the bad stuff in Obamacare – the narrow networks or the fact that the program has never come close to signing up 21 million people as promised.  More bad stuff came to light, recently.  The government authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in Obamacare subsidies to keep people insured even though they should have been dropped for not paying their premiums.  A father and son from California were sentenced to prison recently in a $27 million scheme to defraud the Obamacare program in 12 states.

And here’s my favorite one from recent news:  Health insurers are inflating the claims they report paying in order to escape hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates Obamacare requires they pay consumers.  Rube Goldberg strikes again!  If Obamacare weren’t so cockamamie, this wouldn’t be happening.

If you want to reduce premiums and deductibles or give policyholders access to more doctors and hospitals, you don’t do it by increasing subsidies.  You do it by repealing Obamacare’s expensive regulations and getting the government out of healthcare.  Obamacare was the wrong direction for the country when it was passed, and it’s still the wrong direction no matter how much the Democrats make us pay to paper over the problems.

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

Hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and employers join forces to push Biden Obamacare expansion plan.  Pigs at the trough – oink! oink!

• I have witnessed the complete perversion of business in my lifetime.  Big business used to be reliable allies for freedom.  Not anymore.  It’s much easier to be handed government-guaranteed customers than it is to compete in the free market.  There’s a name for the merger of business and government.  It’s called fascism, and it doesn’t end well.

Biden plan to increase Obamacare subsidies would entitle those who make well into six figures to get taxpayer-funded health coverage

• Dems using COVID as cover to expand Obamacare subsidies now
• Making it so the middle class can’t function without the help of the federal government may buy votes for Democrats but it’s ruinous for the country

Here we go again – Biden administration spending $50 million to push Obamacare special enrollment period

Biden administration likely to roll back Trump’s expansion of short-term health plans (escape hatch from Obamacare)

• Restricting short-term plans “will deny affordable coverage to hundreds of thousands of Americans, including those that desperately need it while they’re temporarily out of work because of the pandemic”
• Individual Health Insurance Markets Improving in States that Fully Permit Short-Term Plans
  • Short-term plans not only save policyholders oodles of money, they force insurers to offer better Obamacare-compliant coverage

Trump rule allowing states to exit Obamacare exchange in 2022 might not take effect under Biden

HHS pick Xavier Becerra has a record as Obamacare’s top defender that presages more top-down control of healthcare ahead

Turns out that all those articles trumpeting how so many more people were signing up for Obamacare because of COVID were FAKE NEWS – final number lower than previous year and a far cry from the 21 million we were promised would want this turkey

Preexisting conditions whac-a-mole – this feature of Obamacare has produced backdoor discrimination: narrow networks, skimpy expensive drug coverage, and coverage drops.  People with conditions ranging from hemophilia to  hepatitis are complaining.

Why is individual health insurance so expensive?  Because of Obamacare’s community rating, essential health benefit requirements, mandated preexisting conditions coverage, and other onerous regulations, that’s why

Obamacare was a big lie: “The fact that you’re going to be able to keep your doctor; it’s going to lower your health care costs; it’s going to increase your quality — those were all lies. That did not happen. In fact, it was quite the opposite.”

ACA promised better coverage at lower cost.  Instead, premiums sky-rocketed, deductibles spiked, most counties went down to one or two insurers, and enrollment never reached half of what was projected

More than a thousand taxpayer-subsidized Obamacare exchange plans cover elective abortions. This violates the Hyde Amendment and means that taxpayers are funding abortions against their conscience.

Bankrupt Illinois becomes first state to give free healthcare to illegal alien seniors; no word on where the $50 million a year is supposed to come from. #Unsustainable

“If the Affordable Care Act Can’t Cover a Little Girl Battling Cancer, What the Hell Good Is It?”

• ObamaCare has continuously pushed health insurers to drop coverage for his seven‐year‐old daughter’s cancer treatment

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

There will be more Obamacare insurers next year, but participation is still below its peak in 2015 and 10 percent of counties will still only have one insurer.  #ItsNotWorking

Article pushes Medicaid expansion for a problem Obamacare was supposed to fix – health insurance remains unaffordable, so millions go without it.  #ItsNotWorking

Virginia man finds Obamacare created the worst of all possible worlds – hi premiums, hi deductibles, and far fewer choices. #ItsNotWorking

Look for Medicaid to get a whole lot more expensive in a Biden administration which plans to jump on board the Social Determinants of Health train and lard up the program with housing, transportation, and ponies for Christmas

Oklahoma voters mandated Medicaid expansion in June, but just voted down using tobacco settlement money to fund it, so the state still has no idea how it’s going to pay for it

Missouri sees a budget disaster coming; voters demanded Medicaid expansion but legislature has yet to tackle how to pay for $200 million budget hole

Medicaid expansion proving expensive for North Dakota; Governor wants to cut administrative costs and provider reimbursement levels

Federal government blowing $100 billion a year on Medicaid recipients who are not eligible

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

Join us:
– #SinglePayer most Mondays
– All the Bad News About Obamacare most weekends below and on Twitter

“My kid has cancer and ObamaCare is making everything worse” – crushing premiums, no pediatric cancer care, insurers disappearing mid-year, what a mess (see video here)

Woman hit with Obamacare clawback for leukemia treatment after she gets employer insurance

The headline for this story should have been: “Obamacare Prices Going Up in Parts of Illinois”.  Check way down in the article and you’ll see what I’m talking about. #WheresMy2500

Yet another study shows emergency room use going UP, not down, under Obamacare.  Obamacare increases demand for doctors, but supply did not go up in rural areas. #TheyWereWrongAboutEverything

Another problem Obamacare didn’t fix – catastrophically high medical expenses: high premiums and out-of-pocket costs a factor.  Doctor surprised, but he shouldn’t be, that Obamacare didn’t live up to its promises. #WeToldYouSo

Georgia dumps Obamacare exchange starting in 2023; will implement reinsurance  #ItsNotWorking

Obamacare’s Cycle of Doom (is there anything to like about this stupid law?):

• The old system would charge you more if you had major medical problems. But it was still cheaper than the cost of health insurance today. We have more “coverage,” but narrow networks. More than 90% of National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers are out of network for some or all health exchange carriers in their state.  The Affordable Care Act is on track to cost taxpayers $1.8 trillion over the next decade, much of that going to pay insurance companies for healthy enrollees who need massive subsidies to afford the coverage that the ACA made much more expensive. The only winners from ACA are health insurers. They raise their rates every year, and more and more people who are forced to pay for others who don’t have to are dropping out, creating an endless cycle of cost increases.

Deconstructing the Single Payer Narrative (tweets & analysis) –
http://www.liberato.us/single-payer.html

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

Join us:
– #SinglePayer most Mondays
– All the Bad News About Obamacare most weekends below and on Twitter

Howler of the Year – Joe Biden falsely claims no one lost health insurance under Obamacare when, in fact, millions did
https://kwwl.com/2020/10/22/biden-falsely-declares-no-one-lost-health-insurance-under-obamacare/

• the Obama administration KNEW it was going to happen – NBC and OCTS found the smoking gun memo

Obamacare enrollment among the unsubsidized fell 45 percent between 2016 and 2019.  It’s not affordable and #ItsNotWorking
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/09/politics/obamacare-enrollment-subsidies-affordable-care-act/index.html

• “This is what a death spiral looks like.” (from a health policy listserv)

Nevada wants to spend millions convincing people Obamacare is a great deal and they should sign up for it.  But if Obamacare were so great, P.R. wouldn’t be necessary; people would flock to it.
https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/15082/2020-10-22/nevada-issues-32m-rfp-for-obamacare-pr.html

Obamacare has failed in reducing the net number of uninsured, unless you consider putting 13 million people on welfare (Medicaid expansion) a success
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/09/23/the-disappointing-affordable-care-act/#50a43aa84d99

Obamacare protects people with preexisting conditions? Ha! Skyrocketing premiums placed coverage outside the reach of everyday Americans, including countless with preexisting conditions.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/obamacares-illusion-of-pre-existing-condition-protections/

Hi-risk pools a better way than Obamacare to address the preexisting conditions problem.  Easily done, unlike Obamacare which disrupted the individual insurance market and stuck the government’s nose into lots of things it shouldn’t have
https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/pre-existing-conditions-can-be-handled-without-obamacare

Trump health plan largely brings back catastrophic insurance – short-term insurance that costs 60 percent less and can be customized to individual needs
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-america-first-healthcare-plan/

• “CBO politely but firmly rejects House Democrats’ claim that short terms plans are ‘junk.’”
  https://twitter.com/DeanClancy/status/1311336401833725956

Another stupid Obamacare idea still in place: the moratorium on physician-owned hospitals
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2020/09/30/yes-we-can-get-rid-of-obamacare/

‘Oops, we didn’t need the individual mandate, after all.’  Remember that the next time Progressive genius masterminds try to sell you a crazy idea with dazzling rhetoric.  #BendTheHyperboleCurveDown
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/upshot/obamacare-mandate-republicans.html

Deconstructing the Single Payer Narrative (tweets & analysis) –
http://www.liberato.us/single-payer.html

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

Join us:
– #SinglePayer most Mondays
– All the Bad News About Obamacare most Saturdays below and on Twitter

Excuse me, but a federal takeover of healthcare (aka Obamacare) was not the only answer to preexisting conditions.  Most states had hi-risk pools and the ACA had one, too (115,000 people signed up).  A one-page bill was all that was necessary, if federalization is your thing.
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2020/08/18/arizonans-share-health-care-struggles-in-democratic-convention-speeches/

Dems admit failure, want another shot at ‘fixing’ healthcare once and for all, after their Obamacare failed to fix  healthcare once and for all
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/democrats-promise-to-fix-healthcare-again-after-obamacare-crashed-and-burned

• The Dems got everything they wanted and they’re still complaining.  What makes you think their next ‘fix’ for healthcare will be better than their previous fixes?

Obamacare premiums to go up as much as 5 percent in Montana next year.  This is not what we were promised.  #WheresMy2500
https://missoulacurrent.com/business/2020/08/policy-rates-steady/

Dem Hill staffers could not be more wrong about short-term plans: “Eliminating this option would force those enrolled in short-term plans to choose between paying much higher premiums for ACA-compliant coverage and becoming uninsured.”
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200813.226193/full/

• “In 2017, Balvin purchased an STLDI plan from UnitedHealthcare for $274 per month. It covered the entire cost of her emergency surgery for diverticulitis, minus a $2,500 deductible. Had she purchased an ACA plan, her premium would have been three times as high and her deductible in the range of $6,000.”

Medicaid expansion initiative passes in Missouri without a funding mechanism; where will the state get the extra $200-349 million it will have to pay every year?  Nobody knows.
http://www.maryvilleforum.com/opinion/capitol-report-medicaid-expansion-approved-leaders-concerned-about-budget/article_d884ab72-dcac-11ea-b0ec-cbf17983fadb.html

• Missouri now in the same boat as Idaho and Oklahoma

Maine – a Medicaid expansion state – facing $1.4B budget shortfall over next 3 years, hoping for a federal Medicaid bailout.  Hoping you can mooch off Washington – good plan! #StupidGovernment
https://bangordailynews.com/2020/08/19/politics/as-maine-confronts-spending-cuts-advocates-hope-for-federal-aid-to-spare-medicaid/

House bill would dump more money on Medicaid, but more fraud and waste would be the result
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/expand-medicaid-democrat-plan-expand-waste-sally-pipes

Medicaid expansion driving higher Medicaid enrollment in Ohio. #Unsustainable
https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/07/ohio-medicaid-rolls-climbing-toward-3-million-again.html

Virginia’s Medicaid expansion enrollment has exceeded projections ever since December 2019 and is still rising – 400K max projected, versus 452K now (up 11,000 from 4 weeks ago).
http://www.dmas.virginia.gov/#/dashboard

Medicaid expansion would not be ‘free’ to North Carolina – state would have to pay 10 percent, healthcare prices in the state would increase due to private insurance crowd-out, and the federal debt would rise
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/opinion/95576/jordan-roberts-medicaid-expansion-isnt-free-to-the-state

Medicaid expansion does not reduce black/white breast cancer mortality dispariy; disparity went UP in expansion states.
https://www.docwirenews.com/abstracts/journal-abstracts/evaluating-the-effect-of-medicaid-expansion-on-black-white-breast-cancer-mortality-disparities-a-difference-in-difference-analysis/

Initial increase in annual diabaetes eye exams after Medicaid expansion has dissipated; exam rate now higher in non-expansion states
https://www.newswise.com/articles/simply-expanding-medicaid-coverage-can-t-solve-this-leading-public-health-challenge

This is laughable – “Kansas could be at disadvantage for attracting talented doctors unless it passes Medicaid expansion”.  You mean to tell me that doctors would be clamoring to get into a state where there would be more patients paying less than insurance, Medicare, and private payer rates?  That’s absurd.
http://wyandottedaily.com/kansas-could-be-at-disadvantage-for-attracting-talented-doctors-unless-it-passes-medicaid-expansion-according-to-kha-executive/

Hospital charity care goes DOWN after Medicaid expansion. With less ‘community benefit’, tell me again why hospitals should get Medicaid expansion AND fat tax breaks?  That’s too good a deal. #OinkOink
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/spending-charity-care-stalled-medicaid-expanded

Deconstructing the Single Payer Narrative (tweets & analysis) –
http://www.liberato.us/single-payer.html

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!

Join us:
– #SinglePayer most Mondays
– All the Bad News About Obamacare most Saturdays below and on Twitter

Dad unable to find Obamacare plan for 7-year-old daughter’s leukemia treatment
https://www.cato.org/events/does-affordable-care-act-discriminate-against-sick

10 Colorado counties down to one Obamacare insurer for 2021
http://www.realvail.com/eagle-county-among-unlucky-10-colorado-counties-with-just-one-aca-insurance-plan/a8765/

Obamacare premiums set to go up in California (again).  This is not what we were promised. #WheresMy2500
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/california-obamacare-rates-to-see-lowest-increase-in-2021

ACA risk adjustment program a flop; reduces competition, increases premiums, and disincentivizes plans from enrolling healthy people. #RubeGoldbergsRevenge
https://galen.org/assets/The_ACAs_Risk_Adjustment_Program_Needs_Adjusting.pdf
+
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/509630-a-commonsense-step-to-help-the-individual-health-insurance-market

States out $479 million in Obamacare fees they paid to the federal government, per appeals court ruling. #RubeGoldbergsRevenge
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-obamacare-states/states-lose-appeals-bid-to-recoup-479-million-in-obamacare-fees-idUSL2N2F22I1

Insurers ordinarily can’t change Obamacare premiums during a benefit year. #RubeGoldbergsRevenge
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/insurers-can-trim-obamacare-premiums-federal-regulators-say

Another stupid Obamacare idea (since repealed) – taxing health insurance to make it more affordable.  The next time someone tells you they’re a genius mastermind, run for the hills!
https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/07/tax-health-insurance-coverage-to-make-it-more-affordable-thats-greek-to-me-mulshine.html

Law firm that won ACA risk corridor case wants $185 million in fees.  Your read that right – $185 MILLION.  Obamacare never was about healthcare.  Ca-ching, ca-ching!
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/quinn-emanuel-seeks-185-million-for-obamacare-payments-case

Biden doubles down on failed Obamacare – wants increased subsidies and a no-deductible public option despite program’s cost of $69,000 per newly insured person in the first six years
https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/commentary/obamacare-20-bill-would-be-windfall-pyrrhic-victory-insurance-lobby

Deconstructing the Single Payer Narrative (tweets & analysis) –
http://www.liberato.us/single-payer.html

REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW!
– legalize true catastrophic insurance
– return Medicaid to a poverty program

END THE OBAMACARE CONGRESSIONAL EXEMPTION!