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Old 03-17-2010, 07:26   #1
Paslode
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Health Insurance Premiums Would Rise Under Obama Plan, AP ‘Fact Check’ Says

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Quote:
Health Insurance Premiums Would Rise Under Obama Plan, AP ‘Fact Check’ Says
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press


Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, holds up a copy of the proposed Senate health care bill at a Capitol Hill health care rally organized by The American Grassroots Coalition and The Tea Party Express on Tuesday, March 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Washington (AP) - Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.

Premiums are likely to keep going up even if the health care bill passes, experts say. If cost controls work as advertised, annual increases would level off with time. But don't look for a rollback. Instead, the main reason premiums would be more affordable is that new government tax credits would help cover the cost for millions of people.

Listening to Obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that's how it works.

Visiting a Cleveland suburb this week, the president described how individuals and small businesses will be able to buy coverage in a new kind of health insurance marketplace, gaining the same strength in numbers that federal employees have.

"You'll be able to buy in, or a small business will be able to buy into this pool," Obama said. "And that will lower rates, it's estimated, by up to 14 to 20 percent over what you're currently getting. That's money out of pocket."

And that's not all.

Obama asked his audience for a show of hands from people with employer-provided coverage, what most Americans have.

"Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent," said the president, "which means they could give you a raise."

A White House press spokesman later said the president misspoke; he had meant to say annual premiums would drop by $3,000.

It could be a long wait.

"There's no question premiums are still going to keep going up," said Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research clearinghouse on the health care system. "There are pieces of reform that will hopefully keep them from going up as fast. But it would be miraculous if premiums actually went down relative to where they are today."

The statistics Obama based his claims on come from two sources. In both cases, the caveats got left out.

A report for the Business Roundtable, an association of big company CEOs, was the source for the claim that employers could save $3,000 per worker on health care costs, the White House said.

Issued in November, the report looked generally at proposals that Democrats were considering to curb health care costs, concluding they had the potential to significantly reduce future increases.

But the analysis didn't consider specific legislation, much less the final language being tweaked this week. It's unclear to what degree the bill that the House is expected to vote on within days would reduce costs for employers.

An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of earlier Senate legislation suggested savings could be fairly modest.

It found that large employers would see premium savings of at most 3 percent compared with what their costs would have been without the legislation. That would be more like a few hundred dollars instead of several thousand.

The claim that people buying coverage individually would save 14 percent to 20 percent comes from the same budget office report, prepared in November for Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. But the presidential sound bite fails to convey the full picture.

The budget office concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they'd reach without the legislation. That's mainly because policies in the individual insurance market would provide more comprehensive benefits than they do today.

For most households, those added costs would be more than offset by the tax credits provided under the bill, and they would pay significantly less than they have to now.

The premium reduction of 14 percent to 20 percent that Obama cites would apply only to a portion of the people buying coverage on their own -- those who decide they want to keep the skimpier kinds of policies available today.

Their costs would go down because more young people would be joining the risk pool and because insurance company overhead costs would be lower in the more efficient system Obama wants to create.

The president usually alludes to that distinction in his health care stump speech, saying the savings would accrue to those people who continue to buy "comparable" coverage to what they have today.

But many of his listeners may not pick up on it.

"People are likely to not buy the same low-value policies they are buying now," said health economist Len Nichols of George Mason University. "If they did buy the same value plans ... the premium would be lower than it is now. This makes the White House statement true. But is it possibly misleading for some people? Sure."


(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Old 03-17-2010, 16:54   #2
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Of course the rates are going to rise. Only a fool could believe the drivel coming out of the dims mouths at this point.

Oh gee, wonder who's going to pay...

Speaking of paying, here's a letter from a mom to her kids. I give it two thumbs up.

http://townhall.com/columnists/Maryb..._four_children

An Open Letter to My Four Children:

I don't care what President Obama says, you may not remain on our health care policy until you are 26.

For the record, you also may not move into the basement and install black lights or hang Che Guevara posters (or posters of Barack Obama in the style of Che), nor may you consider our laundry room an intergenerational gathering place.

At 26, you will have been a legal adult for five years and will have obtained an education or professional training. You will have been taught to drive, cook, operate a power drill, call the cable company when the service goes down and, most important, prepare your own income-tax return.

You will be old enough to get married, enter into a binding legal contract, start a business, buy a home and even rent a car.

Twenty-six isn't terribly old, but it's old enough to know better. It is not adolescence, no matter what the American Psychological Association says.

Not to worry. We have confidence in you. Adulthood is not as hard as it looks.

Love and kisses, Mom.


Perhaps because the president's own children are still so young, he doesn't realize that success in parenting is defined by our children's independence.

Children seek independence naturally from the time they are toddlers, yelling "All by myself!" at the least interference from an adult.

They follow this instinct as adolescents by lying about their whereabouts, erasing their text messages and wearing styles that makes us cringe with embarrassment.

Nothing is as important as this innate quest for independence because it is the essential element to becoming an adult.

For the sake of our nation's future, it's an instinct whose smoldering ashes ought to be fanned, not squelched by the lure of "slackerdom."

Yet last week at a rally to generate support for his sinking signature health reform bill, Mr. Obama announced with fervor that the plan includes a provision for unmarried adults up to age 26 to be covered on their parents' policies, irrespective of their educational status or employment.

The "young adults" in Mr. Obama's audience cheered as if the school principal had just told them they were getting an extra recess, while he smiled with self-satisfaction as if this act of largesse is his right to bestow.

Keep in mind that such coverage isn't really free. It just feels that way to the president and the young adults who won't be paying for it.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, a health-policy think tank, Americans age 19 to 29 account for 30 percent of the uninsured. They achieve this status by "aging out" of their parents' health insurance plans while working in jobs that don't offer health benefits.

But extending the period of dependency on their parents will only serve to further erode the already-shrinking sense of adulthood among "young adults" while offering no permanent solution to the problem of unaffordability. (Even the moniker young adults implies they're not the real thing, but rather a less capable version.)

In a free market, insurers should be able to offer health care products designed to meet the needs of consumers of all ages. Given their relative good health, a product for younger adults should be nominal and profitable. But insurers must be free to offer only the coverage this segment wants and needs, not a regulation-saturated policy that offsets their grandparent's medical bills.

Even a caveman can see that.

Given how fast and loose he plays with other people money [-] specifically the productive fruits of future generations [-] it's no surprise that Mr. Obama instead wants parents to underwrite the needs of our adult children.

Twenty-six year-olds are not "kids," as one liberal commentator on a weekend news program audaciously called them, and mandating that certain adults pay for the insurance of other able-bodied adults [-] even ones to whom we're related [-] is not a mark of a free society.

On the other hand, if Mr. Obama's audience is any indication, Generation Y is quickly turning into the first fully dependent generation in a Socialist America. Perhaps we ought to call it Generation S.

It's no wonder the "free" that made this crowd erupt was the promise of a free ride.
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Old 03-24-2010, 11:13   #3
Pete
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Tricare

I wonder if anyone has told Tricare yet that come September they'll have to keep the "kids" signed up until they hit 26?
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Old 03-24-2010, 11:53   #4
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FFT from a blog....I can't substantiate the claim, but it coincides with something my Father in law mentioned a couple months ago which was his price on Adavair when purchased domestically had gone through the roof because the manufacturer was anticipating new legislation.

At the time my FNL price on domestic sourced Adavair was $600, but he opted to get it from Denmark at the subsidized price of $175 with Free Air Shipping. Now if what I have read is true, with the new reform he won't be allowed to purchase outside the US.

Change you can believe in....




http://market-ticker.denninger.net/a...-Long.....html

Quote:

From the forum:

"So I just got a call from my health insurance provider. My family rates are going up $200/month ... $2400/year per employee effective April 1st. Didn't take long after signing to get this s**t going.

So much for the "my plan will save Americans" $2500/year in Healthcare premiums.

F***ing liar in chief. "

Yes, this law will induce people to hire, it will improve health access, and it will be positive for the consumer, economy, stock market and spending.

The market rallies on for today, as I sit back and chuckle to myself... "I told you so."

Please, buy more stocks to drive the DOW, S&P, Nasdaq and Russell higher on the mythical economic "recovery" and mythical job gains that will take hold as employers, right here and now, four full years before the "benefits" show up for adults in this bill (those very same workers) get whammied for $2,400 per year in additional costs per employee.

PS: One way or another the employees will be paying every single penny of that cost. Either directly through lower wages (which will do great things for consumer spending and the economy) or indirectly as people are either laid off or not hired in the first place.
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Old 03-24-2010, 12:28   #5
afchic
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete View Post
I wonder if anyone has told Tricare yet that come September they'll have to keep the "kids" signed up until they hit 26?
I am calling them today to see what we need to do about getting my step son (21 ) back on my tricare. He fell off in September since he wasn't going to school full time. I'll let you all know what they tell me.
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Old 04-01-2010, 07:09   #6
afchic
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TRICARE Exempt

I just got a call from my local Tricare office returning my call of last week. I had asked that now that the Health Care Reform Bill had passed, how soon can I re-enroll my son since children can be on their parent's healthcare until 26.

I was told that TRICARE is exempt, and our children will not be able to stay on past the age of 21 if they are not enrolled in school full time.

Gee another lie?????

"Currently, TRICARE is not affected by the health care reform provision to
cover dependent children in health plans up to age 26. By law, TRICARE
covers eligible dependent children up to the age of 21, or up to age 23 if
enrolled full time at an accredited institution of higher education and
reliant on the sponsor for more than 50 percent of their financial support.
Coverage ends on the child's 23rd birthday or at the end of that school
year, whichever comes first.

TRICARE leadership is committed to providing the best possible health care
plan and to keeping beneficiaries informed about any changes to the benefit.
We promise to let you and our beneficiaries know as soon as there is any
more information to release. It is too soon in the legislative process to
know if any of this affects TRICARE. Remind beneficiaries that any
programs, this reform, TRICARE, or any other legislative initiative requires
time - time to develop regulatory and policy language, implementation
guidance, funding, etc. So until more is known, the TRICARE benefit stands
as is."

Last edited by afchic; 04-01-2010 at 09:25.
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