Guess Fenton has no clue as to how to pay for it. I guess he still believes in the fairy godmother.
Well, last time I bothered reading any of his crap, his only response was that "other countries do it", which if you look at the UK doctor strikes over pay, the French funding crash, the Greek mass hospital closures, the 3 year long wait times in Canada, and of course the massive difference in 5-Year-Survival times between the US and the rest of the world... the argument "yeah other people do it" doesn't seem to be convincing.
It's like "other people do drugs and it works for them", then pretending all the rehab centers don't exist.
I still have yet to hear him even address the fact that all those systems have almost double the taxation. If you increase your taxes by 20%, is that really a better deal than insurance premiums.
The letter from Florida Blue arrived yesterday and my insurance premiums will have a 350% increase starting this January. Affordable Care Act? Thanks Barry! Thanks Harry! Thanks Nancy! Thanks Democrats!
What the hell happened to my savings of $2,500 a year?
Hmmmm, your State has to approve any increase in rates from Florida Blue and they MUST be kept reasonable.... me thinks you need to question that 350% increase...
Whoops, see the Fla. Blue 2017 rate increases ordered taken down | Protecting Your Pocket
One of Florida’s largest health insurers says requested 2017 rate increases for four of its plans should not have been posted on healthcare.gov, but a reporter for The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday saw increases ranging from 5.22 percent to 11.61 percent.
“According to our Actuary team, what was posted were not the correct, final rates for Florida Blue – there are some adjustments that are not reflected in those numbers that were posted online,” said company spokesman Paul Kluding.
The company also known as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida says Wednesday is the deadline for plans to submit and rates should not be made public until 10 days after that. A federal spokesman had no immediate comment.
Here is what the Post saw:
BlueSelect Small Group 5.22 percent
BlueOptions Small Group 8.72 percent
BlueOptions Individual 9.83 percent
BlueSelection Individual 11.61 percent
The incident comes amid a broader discussion of what is happening to health costs. As The Post reported, U.S. officials said last week that Floridians really pay an average of $84 a month after tax credits for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans — and that’s only up from $82 last year. It’s a 2 percent rise.
more info at this link too!
Why Florida OKed higher 2017 premiums than health insurers sought
Couple of things....
First off, the whole "the state must approve rate increases" thing.
I want you to imagine a completely fictional situation. Imagine if you are governor. Imagine that your government agency rejected rate increases to the largest insurance company in the state, and that insurance company faced with having policies that did not turn a profit, but instead lost the company money, decided to instead cut the insurance plans that were not profitable.
As a result, half a million people in your state, suddenly had no insurance.
You know what that spells for you? A political blood bath, that would most certainly wipe you out, and likely take down most of the politicians from your party. I could even effect Federal Senators and Representatives.
So what are the incentives of the people in government? To basically give every cost increase to the companies they want. This is yet another reason why regulations by their vary nature don't work.
The capitalist system is far more effective at weeding out over charging companies, because competition by other companies keeps the market prices as low as possible.
If you have government in charge of pricing, well then you better give me my rate increase, or you'll have several hundred thousand pissed off natives with pitch forks and torches burning down the capital building.
In MassHealth, they actually tried at one point to refuse rate hikes on medications. The result? All the pharmaceutical companies announced plans to leave the state. They quickly reversed, and accepted the rate hikes.
Regulating pricing never works. Never. France often doesn't have the new medications that America has. People in France commonly buy medications over the internet, because they can't get them under their price controlled system. Doctors routinely do not even tell patients about medications, they knew they can't get.
Not a good plan. But socialism at it's best.
Secondly, looking at the end user costs alone, is a brutal deception.
The Obamacare act has tons of hidden costs, that while keeping the cost low on your front pocket, are driving up costs on your back pocket.
Over 1/3rd of the states are considering raising taxes to cover short fall in the budgets. Many others have already raised taxes, and many more have cut medicare and medicaid.
Lastly, many states are trying to get out of the health care exchanges.
The problem is, the Obamacare system has tons of costs to the states, that show up in different areas. The most obvious example, is the exchanges themselves are staffed by the state, and paid by the state. Well, that means you. When you hear a state is raising taxes on gasoline to pay for road repair.... well how about that $100 Million spent on the health exchange? Can't use that money for road repair now, so you have to pay more for gas.
While you sit there and say "my insurance premiums only went up by 5% after the tax credit", yeah that ignores that $100 you lost from your back pocket in other tax increases.
Finally, this also ignores higher premiums others are paying.
This is an indirect subsidy that many people don't see.
His higher costs aren't subsidizing lower-income policyholders, whose subsidy has already been paid by the government. But he is providing a subsidy in another way: The Affordable Care Act requires him to buy a policy with features he doesn't need.
"Seeing as I'm a single male with no kids or dependents, and I'm paying for pediatric dental care and maternity care, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," McLemore says.
How The Affordable Care Act Pays For Insurance Subsidies
No sir, it does not make sense. My policy covers alcoholism rehab. I don't drink. Haven't had an alcoholic drink but possibly one time in my whole life.
Make no sense at all, unless of course you want to find a way to force people to pay higher prices to insurance companies, to offset other people.
This is one of the reasons all of the insurance companies are increasing premiums faster than they had before Obamacare.
If you doubt that, just ask the insurance companies.
Final Rate Determinations | Florida Blue
- Utilization Adjustment
- Adjustment to projected claims at the metal level to account for differing utilization between benefit richness level
- Addition of coverage for Essential Health Benefits (EHBs)
- New benefit mandates under the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and other EHB expansions mandated by PPACA
Boom there it is. New benefits mandates. Doesn't matter if I'm single, I still have a "benefit mandate" that requires I have maternity coverage, even though it is impossible (baring some miracle of G-d) that I would ever use it.
