Last week, the total number of failed ObamaCare-created insurance co-ops reached eight, as co-ops in Colorado and Oregon announced that they were closing doors at the end of the year.
These co-ops got a total of about $900 million in low-interest loans, most of which are unlikely to be repaid.
The administration handed out more than $2 billion in guaranteed loans to 23 co-ops, as well as additional “solvency funds” when many started suffering financial problems last year.
Now we learn that 11 of the remaining 15 co-ops could be at death’s door too, but the administration is hiding information about their health.
The Daily Caller reports that the administration has “a secret list of 11 ObamaCare health insurance co-ops they fear are on the verge of failure, but they refuse to disclose them to the public or to Congress.”
These co-ops, the Daily Caller reports, are now on “advanced oversight” by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs ObamaCare.
Earlier this year, an inspector-general audit noted that all but one of the co-ops had lost significant amounts of money in 2014, due either to lower-than-expected enrollment or because they underpriced their insurance policies.
Democrats exempted the co-ops from disclosure rules that apply to publicly traded corporations.
Oh, and the penalty for not having insurance is going to skyrocket next year too. 🙂
The math is harsh: The maximum federal penalty for having no health insurance is set to jump to $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income , and the Obama administration is being urged to highlight that cold fact to help drive its new pitch for health law sign-ups.
That means the 2016 sign-up season starting Nov. 1 could see penalties become a bigger focus to motivate millions of people who have remained eligible for coverage, but uninsured.
You Vill Comply with Herr Fuhrer!!
So what if the program you’re complying with is dying and is already a massive failure, that doesn’t even remotely matter!
Remember this is the Tax that is a Penalty that isn’t tax! 🙂 The government said so. 🙂
Just when it looked like Obamacare couldn’t get worse, new statistical evidence shows that it can, and has. Health care insurance is getting more expensive for most workers because of an increase in deductions.
Employer-provided health plans defy earlier predictions that the number of such plans would fall in the face of new Obamacare regulations. While the overall number of plans did not decrease appreciably, subscribers were hit this year with big jumps in deductions, the part of medical bills insurers won’t pay. Nearly 1 in 10 of such deductions range upward from a thousand dollars. The average worker will pay more for medical expenses than ever. The clear message is, “you’re insured, but don’t get sick.”
Gee, I thought it was “They just want you to die” at least that was what the Democrats said about The Republicans… 🙂
The increases continue a growing trend. The average deductible has more than tripled, from $303 in 2006 to $1,077 this year. This is part of the explanation of why wages have flattened. Workers have chosen medical insurance benefits instead of higher wages. These deductibles have increased more than seven times the increase in wages. Increases in medical insurance premiums have actually fallen by 1 percent over 2014, falling for the first time in a decade, though the cost of family plans are up 3 per cent.
The Affordable Care Act, the polite (DEMOCRAT) name for Obamacare, was intended to supply subsidies to offset increases in premiums. But apart from difficulties in getting these subsidies in place — state-administered funds versus federal funds — the growing difficulty for the average worker is an increase in deductibles (and co-pays) rather than more expensive premiums.
A Kaiser Family Foundation study reports the average deductible for a generous plan this year is $2,500 or more. Predictions that this would undermine company plans is now being borne out. This trend is further reinforced by the so-called employer mandate in Obamacare, which requires employers of a hundred or more employees to provide health benefits; this becomes 50 or more employees in 2016. Businessmen argue that this requirement costs jobs, and accounts in part for the growing structural unemployment even as the economy slowly sputters to life. Managers are reluctant to add workers and try to stay under those ceilings.
Another piece of bad news in the Kaiser study is that the Obamacare’s 13 percent tax on so-called “Cadillac” plans has led many companies to withdraw them. Opposition to the tax is coming as much from the Obama administration’s usually loyal unions as from business companies.
It’s tempting to say to the president and his incompetent fixers that we told you so. But we won’t. The slapdash, do-it-before-anyone-looks Obama administration’s attempt to solve the infinitely complicated shortcomings of the medical care system, comprising a sixth of the economy, with one magic pill was inevitably doomed. No one should minimize the difficulty of matching technology, expensive in its initial development, to the demands of an aging population. Critics of Obamacare who are tempted to search for another magic pill should be careful. Miracle cures are always fraught with peril. (WT and IBD)
Ideologically Driven Ones, doubly so.
Indyfromaz's Blog: The Thoughts of An Independent Arizonan 