Remember when Obamacare was 'saved'? It wasn't
It was only about a week ago that Democrats were celebrating the failure of the Republican repeal effort.
There was two problems with that spin.
One problem is that unsubsidized Obamacare is rapidly becoming unaffordable.
On the premium front, the early signs for 2018 are alarming. Those obtaining individual insurance via Obamacare in Florida are looking at an average premium hike of 45 percent. In neighboring Georgia, the state has approved increases of more than 50 percent based on the assumption that insurers cannot rely on getting those CSR reimbursements. Utah’s looking at a 39 percent average increase in premiums, with uncertainty over CSR again being a big factor.
This follows last year's pre-Trump 25% premium increase.
Not only are those kinds of hikes unsustainable, they are increasingly pricing out everyone not getting a government subsidy. Which make Obamacare a taxpayer wealth transfer instrument to private insurance companies.
Democrats like to say how successful Obamacare is, and that's why we can't fight for Medicare For All, because we must protect Obamacare.
But anything that is having price increases of more than 25% year after year is something that will soon implode.
The problem is the only ones defeated were Republicans in Congress.
The Trump Administration still had plenty of cards to play.
New Trump Executive Order Could Gut Obamacare Markets
As part of the executive order, Trump will exempt “association plans” from the strictures of the Affordable Care Act. This means that small businesses will be able band together to buy insurance coverage as a group, allowing them to negotiate lower prices and premiums for employees. But it also means that the health-care plans they purchase are not required to cover essential health benefits like preexisting conditions, maternity care, and other basics of Obamacare.
Trump rolls back Obamacare birth control mandate
The Trump administration will allow virtually any employer to claim a religious or moral objection to Obamacare's birth control coverage mandate under a sweeping rollback announced Friday.
Trump is now trying to destroy Obamacare by himself
The Department of Health and Human Services recently moved to significantly reduce the length of the Obamacare open enrollment period later this year...HHS also dramatically reduced the budget for Obamacare outreach programs that helped to drive enrollment for exchange plans.
...
The Trump administration has also continued to toy with the critical so-called cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments, which help offset costs to insurers that offer plans with low out-of-pocket costs to poorer Americans.
The Trump administration has been doling out the payments on a month-to-month basis without providing a long-term plan.
...
The administration has also made moves to try to prevent some states from attempting to stabilize the health law.
Democrats should be screaming about this. Obamacare won't survive three more years at this rate.
But for political reasons the Dems aren't saying much.
Comments
So what did you expect?
It was always a wealth transfer. Obamaa wanted to make it from taxpayers to the insurance companies, because no one would notice how much wealth would be transferred if it hid behind the general fund. The Republicans and Trump are now just making it clear. Nothing's changed.
On to Biden since 1973
Last year, in Feb. 2016,
my ObamaCare premium jumped to $500 /mo. (give or take). I opted not to pay it, go without insurance, and take the two month penalty (which wouldn't be applied until tax day, 2017). I doubted the penalty would be more than the $1,000 I would have paid in premiums for Feb. 2016 and Mar. 2016 until my Medicare kicked in in Apr. 2016. Since I have yet to be whacked for those two months among the uninsured my guess is I was right. And, my premium went from $500 on ObamaCare to $185 /mo. or so on Medicare. Finally! Affordable Health Care!
Of course the Ubers and Filthys (rich, oligarchy) want to kill ObamaCare - AND Medicare - becuz it fucks the poor - and they Love fucking the poor. There's nothing better in their world view than fucking the poor. It is sport for them - like Millionaires "hunting" elephants. Or whale. They can't get enough! Watching the poor bastids die a slow painful death becuz they can't afford health care? Priceless. Becuz the poor are slime? Priceless. There just is no bigger thrill for these asshats.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
The Emperor
It is time to stop this pretense. The opportunity is there for one of our
ambitious Brand Name Dems to grow a spine and tell Emperor Obama that he has no clothes. (Chris Murphy, are you listening?)
Sadly, as was with the Clintons, no such courage exists among the go along-get along set of careeer creatures that make up 'Leadership'. This culture assures our once great Democratic Party will remain locked in this death spiral. More likely, it will will remain in this Orwellian Zombie trance as long as the Corporate Cash keeps flowing.
You have hit upon the strategic dilemma facing those who wish to lead our party into the future. Only those who have the courage and the mettle to brave the institutional political repercussions will be the ones to rise and replace.
Only the penitent shall pass.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGTyndJC1w]
Pithy quote about Obamacare
"We might compare ObamaCare to a child born with no immune system, that could only have survived within the liberal bubble within which it was created; in the real world, it’s not surprising that it’s succumbing to opportunistic infections." -- Lambert Strether
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
All part of the plan.
Obamacare was nothing but a wealth transfer to private insurance anyway. Truth is, what few people it helped, for a short period of time, was never worth the cost.
By November we'll find out what the increases are
and what areas of the country won't be served. The ACA is doomed, yet it always was.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
It's the one thing I admire about republicans
is their relentless drive, their willingness to move their agenda forward. Didn't win today...there will be a next time. The dems......can't ask for too much too soon, baby steps, and if they lose it's run away, run away.
They are the designated losers. Not a good bet at all.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
losing is better
they get to posture and STILL get paid the same without having to do anything.
And while they're running away . . .
they'll send out a fundraising email proclaiming victory and telling you how much worse the Republicans would have done if they hadn't been there.Please dig deep when you contribute so they can keep up the good work.
Gradualism.
This is what happens when you force the (not really) tranquilizing drug of gradualism down people's throats. Nothing gets accomplished and the people pushing it look like junkies desperate for their next policy band-aid. And honestly, that band-aid needs to be ripped the hell off.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Oh gee, Obama care isn't (and NEVER
WAS) all it was 'cracked up to be'? Awwww, how can that be true? Why several people, including myself, got kicked off a certain website for saying that very same shit just around the time Max Baucus was having doctor's and nurses thrown into jail for standing up and saying the same damn thing. People who pointed out inconvenient facts were called every name in the book because we were 'haters'. Not just there but everywhere.
Granted, the 'demise' of this cobbled together crap give-away to Big Pharma and the healthcare insurance industry took longer to self-destruct than I thought it would. Especially after the employer 'mandate' got dumped to make certain employers happy. This was such a waste. It was also a totally cynical and typically dishonest move by that guy who advertised himself as being all Hopey-Changey. I will NEVER understand how that guy was able to make so many support so much that was (and still is) against our own best interests.
I voted for the Empty Suit twice. It was based (as with so many of us) on the LOTE's premise. That was when it finally dawned on me why we keep getting such corrupt, self-serving greedy bastids for candidates.
Because we vote for them anyway. I did.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
The mandate and Cadillac plan tax needs to be repealed.
I was hoping they would repeal ObamaCare. As is, who can afford it anyway. What people are saving in premiums and co-pays probably comes closer to covering medical costs for most people. Drug prices are a huge problem and addressed by no one.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Well, that's sure not going to be fun for me.
45% increase? Not that I'm surprised.
Of course, Obamacare is catastrophic insurance for me anyway, because a $6,000 deductible means that unless I have a heart attack, get hit by a car or lightning, or get cancer, I'll never get any benefit from it.
Unfortunately, I'm now 49, not 29, and probably will continue to pay for it as long as I can. Which, if this trend keeps going, will probably be till about 2019/2020.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The ACA is Like a Life Insurance Policy. nt
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Sad to say
I'm now happy we kept my wife's old COBRA insurance rather than try the exchanges last year.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
@Steven D I had no choice. Pre
I had no choice. Pre-existing condition and all that.
Who knew that getting diagnosed for something could put your health in danger?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
We got out of Utah just in time.
No way could we afford that kind of increase on what I was making when we left. How do they think people who can't even afford a car payment can cough up more money for insurance premiums? Not to mention jacking up rent year after year. Now we have Medical Assistance; at least MN gives half a shit about its poor people.
This shit is bananas.
It is not just the people that do not get subsidies
Who can't afford it. In 2014 my adult bipolar daughter's premium was about $45 a month, in 2015 it was $50, in 2016 it was $60, in 2017 it was $110 and for 2018 we have been notified by the carrier that it will be over $300 a month.
$300 a month is not affordable to a person who barely makes over $1100 a month.
Obamacare is dying from a back door assault.