Nearly 13 years old the ACA has proven GOP dead wrong... again, again, and again.

[dblack]

In what way?

In every way. They saw the writing on the wall - the jig was up. So they leapt aboard the Romneycare bandwagon, seeking to take it federal and force everyone to buy their shitty product. Thanks Obama!

 

[g5000]

It's very simple folks.

Has the cost of health care in America gone down one iota since the ACA was enacted?

Nope. It continues to skyrocket.

Has the cost of health insurance gone down since the ACA was enacted?

Nope. It continues to skyrocket.

Obamacare is a failure. A complete and total failure.

 

[dblack]

Obamacare is a failure. A complete and total failure.

Hmmm.. not sure about "failure". That depends on what you presume its goals were. The persistent, overriding goal - from what I saw - had nothing to do with health care inflation, or helping those who couldn't afford it. The goal was to get as many people as possible on the "group insurance" bandwagon.

Of course the group insurance bandwagon is the problem - so all ACA did was make things worse. But I think it achieved its goal. I'm sure health insurance lobbyists would agree.

 

[g5000]

Hmmm.. not sure about "failure". That depends on what you presume its goals were. The persistent, overriding goal - from what I saw - had nothing to do with health care inflation, or helping those who couldn't afford it. The goal was to get as many people as possible on the "group insurance" bandwagon.

Of course the group insurance bandwagon is the problem - so all ACA did was make things worse. But I think it achieved its goal. I'm sure health insurance lobbyists would agree.

One of the chief arguments of the Obamacare proponents was that our per capita spending on health care was too much. They threw up chart after chart comparing the US per capita cost to other developed nations.

Obamacare was sold as a cost-cutting plan.

The claim was that the uninsured were costing too much to care for. So by putting them in a pool, the cost of their health care would come down.


Obamacare is a failure. A complete and total failure.

 

[debbiedowner]

citygator why did only 17 states and the District of Columbia set up state exchanges? The plan was for all fifty to take the bait of all the incentives that the ACA offered, but less than one third did.

???

Federally Facilitated Marketplace - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Nostra]

Bullshit...

Effects of the ACA on the Individual Market​

Starting in 2014, the ACA imposed a number of costly new mandates and regulations on individual-market health insurance coverage and displaced private markets by creating new government-run health insurance “exchanges” to sell insurance. Partly to offset the increased costs of its mandates, the ACA also provided income-related subsidies for plans purchased through those exchanges.

The law’s new mandates and regulations (but not its subsidies) also applied to coverage purchased outside the exchanges, though it did allow insurers to renew older policies (without all the new requirements) for a period of time. However, the design and implementation of the law had the effect of reducing the availability of those so-called grandfathered plans in subsequent years, as insurers discontinued them—either voluntarily or in response to directives from state insurance regulators.

For this analysis, we used data from the annual Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) reports—which insurers are required to file with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—to measure the effects of Obamacare on the cost of individual market coverage.3

For the MLR data public-use files, see Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “Medical Loss Ratio Data and System Resources,” Medical Loss Ratio Data and System Resources | CMS (accessed March 18, 2021).


We calculated per-member per-month (PMPM) figures for the average cost of coverage at the state and national levels by dividing total premiums earned by the total number of member months. The resulting numbers, seen in Table 1, show the average monthly premiums that enrollees actually paid for coverage.

As 2013 was the last year of the pre-ACA market, we used that as the base year, followed by each subsequent year for which MLR reports are available (through 2019).4

Insurer MLR reports for 2020 are not due until summer 2021, and data from those reports will not be publicly available until November or December 2021.

Obamacare Doubled the Cost of Individual Market Health Insurance​

As Table 1 shows, the national average monthly premium paid in the individual market in 2013 was $244, while by 2019 it was $558—more than doubling (a 129 percent increase) from 2013 to 2019. In contrast, over the same period, the average monthly premium paid in the large-group employer market increased by only 29 percent—from $363 in 2013 to $468 in 2019. (For comparison purposes, we applied the same analysis to the MLR data for the large-group employer market).

The large-group employer market is not subject to most of Obamacare’s new insurance regulations. It is also more stable than the individual market, with less customer turnover and less change over time to the risk pool. By definition, any customer exits and entrances in that market involve groups of 50 or more enrollees, and the diversity of health status among the members of each group means that groups leaving or entering that market have little effect on the composition of the overall risk pool. Thus, changes over time in average monthly premiums paid for large-group employer insurance primarily reflect system-wide changes in the underlying cost of medical care (such as medical price inflation and the introduction of new therapies).

Obamacare Has Doubled the Cost of Individual Health Insurance

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, produced major dislocations in the individual (non-group) health insurance market by imposing a raft of new mandates and regulations, coupled with new income-related coverage subsidies. The results have been not only reduced insurer choice and...

www.heritage.org

Bump.

 

[citygator]

In every way. They saw the writing on the wall - the jig was up. So they leapt aboard the Romneycare bandwagon, seeking to take it federal and force everyone to buy their shitty product. Thanks Obama!

That makes no sense. It’s weird how you guys think it’s a team sport and just use random buzzwords to not make a point.

 

[mudwhistle]

Oh... dont come at me with your mother-in-law's sisters cousin's barber who has a neighbor who is now paying more for insurance... no shit. Everything goes up over time. The question is did it raise prices faster than before? NO. Did it insure more Americans than before? YES.

When the ACA went into effect I paid 3 times what I paid for insurance before it.
Now that I'm on Medicare I pay 5 times as much.

 

[Seymour Flops]

citygator why did only 17 states and the District of Columbia set up state exchanges? The plan was for all fifty to take the bait of all the incentives that the ACA offered, but less than one third did.

???

Federally Facilitated Marketplace - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If there is something in that wiki article that answers my question, free free to quote it.

 

[citygator]

When the ACA went into effect I paid 3 times what I paid for insurance before it.
Now that I'm on Medicare I pay 5 times as much.

Mother in law stories. Great.

Look at the statistics dude. No cost increase that wasn’t already happening. It rose the same amount before ACA as after. In fact it slowed down after.

 

[dblack]

That makes no sense. It’s weird how you guys think it’s a team sport and just use random buzzwords to not make a point.

"You guys"? Who are you trying to lump me in with? Seems you're the one convinced it's a "team sport"!

ACA was a sellout, regardless of which "side" you think you're on. Lobbyists wrote it and their employers profited from it.

 

[debbiedowner]

If there is something in that wiki article that answers my question, free free to quote it.

All states until this day had or can set up their own exchanges, the states (mostly non medicaid) opted into the FFM. I don't remember but a couple of the states that set up their own eventually went to the FFM. I suppose it was cost that the majority of states decided against setting their own exchange up and maintaining it. There is another forum member, I believe that was in a state with their own exchange at that time. I am in a state with FFM (healthcare.gov)

 

[debbiedowner]

When the ACA went into effect I paid 3 times what I paid for insurance before it.
Now that I'm on Medicare I pay 5 times as much.

Something is not right here considering you were a lifer in the Army and supposedly still active duty when ACA went into effect. Wasn't it just last year or year before you said you retired?

 

[mudwhistle]

Something is not right here considering you were a lifer in the Army and supposedly still active duty when ACA went into effect. Wasn't it just last year or year before you said you retired?

I retired over 2 years ago from the Department of The Army as a Civil Service employee.
I retired from active-duty 28 years ago.

 

[mudwhistle]

Mother in law stories. Great.

Look at the statistics dude. No cost increase that wasn’t already happening. It rose the same amount before ACA as after. In fact it slowed down after.

Oh.....so now you're claiming that Obama never promised to cut insurance costs under the ACA?
Wasn't it up to $2500/yr?

Barack Obama​

"I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year."​

​

Obameter: | PolitiFact

www.politifact.com

​

Instead my premiums doubled. $93 - $190.00/mo.
Now that I'm retired I have to pay $750.00 every 3 months for Medicare even though I have Tri-Care.
I had to apply for Medicare when I hit age 65 yrs or lose my Tri-Care.

 

[g5000]

NHE Fact Sheet | CMS

Quick summary of NHE Facts

www.cms.gov

• National health spending is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.4 percent for 2019-28 and to reach $6.2 trillion by 2028.
• Because national health expenditures are projected to grow 1.1 percentage points faster than gross domestic product per year on average over 2019–28, the health share of the economy is projected to rise from 17.7 percent in 2018 to 19.7 percent in 2028.
• Price growth for medical goods and services (as measured by the personal health care deflator) is projected to accelerate, averaging 2.4 percent per year for 2019–28, partly reflecting faster expected growth in health sector wages.
• Among major payers, Medicare is expected to experience the fastest spending growth (7.6 percent per year over 2019-28), largely as a result of having the highest projected enrollment growth.
• The insured share of the population is expected to fall from 90.6 percent in 2018 to 89.4 percent by 2028.

TOTAL! FAILURE!

 

[g5000]

You know why the percent of insured falls?

Because with rising costs, you fucking price people out of the ability to afford insurance.


TOTAL! FAILURE!

 

[Greenbeard]

NHE Fact Sheet | CMS

Quick summary of NHE Facts

www.cms.gov

• National health spending is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.4 percent for 2019-28 and to reach $6.2 trillion by 2028.
• Because national health expenditures are projected to grow 1.1 percentage points faster than gross domestic product per year on average over 2019–28, the health share of the economy is projected to rise from 17.7 percent in 2018 to 19.7 percent in 2028.
• Price growth for medical goods and services (as measured by the personal health care deflator) is projected to accelerate, averaging 2.4 percent per year for 2019–28, partly reflecting faster expected growth in health sector wages.
• Among major payers, Medicare is expected to experience the fastest spending growth (7.6 percent per year over 2019-28), largely as a result of having the highest projected enrollment growth.
• The insured share of the population is expected to fall from 90.6 percent in 2018 to 89.4 percent by 2028.

TOTAL! FAILURE!

If you want to see the ACA effect, just look at the same page from a decade ago and compare to what actually happened (in red):

Projected NHE, 2009-2019:

• Growth in NHE is expected to increase 5.7 percent in 2009 and average 6.1 percent per year over the projection period (2009-2019). [Actual average growth per year: 4.2%]
• The health share of GDP is projected to reach 17.3 percent in 2009 and 19.3 percent by 2019. [Actual share of GDP in 2019: 17.6%]
• Medicare spending is projected to grow 8.1% in 2009 and average 6.9% per year over the projection period. [Actual average growth per year: 5.0%]
• Medicaid spending is projected to grow 9.9% in 2009 and average 7.9% per year over the projection period. [Actual average growth per year: 5.5%]
• Private spending is projected to grow 3.0% in 2009 and average 5.2% per year over the projection period. [Actual average growth per year: 3.8%]
• Spending on hospital services is projected to grow 5.9% in 2009 to $761 billion. Average growth of 6.1% per year is expected for the entire projection period. [Actual average growth per year: 4.7%]
• Spending on physician and clinical services is projected to grow 6.3% in 2009 to $528 billion. Average growth of 5.4% per year is expected for the entire projection period. [Actual average growth per year: 4.3%]
• Spending on prescription drugs is projected to grow 5.2% in 2009 to $246 billion. Average growth of 6.3% per year is expected for the entire projection period. [Actual average growth per year: 3.1%]

Trimming almost 2 percent points from annual health care cost growth for a decade (while simultaneously insuring tens of millions of additional Americans) gets you trillions of dollars in cumulative savings over that period. Tens years of the population aging, vast expansions of coverage, and (low but non-zero) price increases, yet health care right now is estimated to make up a smaller portion of GDP than it did the day the ACA passed. Wild.

 

[dblack]

If you want to see the ACA effect, just look at the same page from a decade ago and compare to what actually happened (in red):


Trimming almost 2 percent points from annual health care cost growth for a decade (while simultaneously insuring tens of millions of additional Americans) gets you trillions of dollars in cumulative savings over that period. Tens years of the population aging, vast expansions of coverage, and (low but non-zero) price increases, yet health care right now is estimated to make up a smaller portion of GDP than it did the day the ACA passed. Wild.

Kaching.

How's the shilling going? How are insurance company profits looking these days?