HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN EVER
By FITSNEWS || There’s a great post up on Zero Hedge exposing the myth that lower gas prices will stimulate consumer spending (news flash: they haven’t). But if Americans aren’t spending the estimated $300 they will save at the pump next year on new get-ups and gadgets … where’s it going?
The answer? Obamacare. You know: The law that was passed because you’re stupid.
Years ago, we warned that U.S. president Barack Obama‘s socialized medicine monstrosity was going to be disastrous for the American economy – and we were right (see HERE, HERE and HERE). As a candidate in 2008, Obama projected annual savings of $2,500 per family by the end of his first term in office – only to close out his first four years with a $2,400 increase in insurance costs.
In other words, his campaign promise was about as accurate the oft-repeated “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” promise.
The latest evidence of Obamacare’s harmful impact on our economy? A study released by The Commonwealth Fund … which found that “premiums for family coverage increased 73 percent over the past decade.” The study also found “employees’ contributions to their premiums climbed by 93 percent over that time frame.”
That’s up 73 percent … and up 93 percent, for those of you keeping score at home.
Anyway, while annual premium increases have averaged 4.1 percent per year after the passage of Obamacare (compared to 5.1 percent per year before), this modest slackening of growth has been accompanied by shrinking incomes.
“Families are paying more in premiums and deductibles as a share of their income than ever before,” the report found, adding “It is unlikely that most families at the middle and lower end of the income distribution are able to detect or feel the premium slowdown in their pocketbooks since they are paying more in premiums and deductibles as a share of their income than ever before.”
Oh, and they’re getting crappier coverage, too …
If Obamacare had been passed in some sort of vacuum – one in which individuals and businesses didn’t have to pay for it – then it easily would have succeeded in its stated goals. Unfortunately, there is a cost. And just because Obamacare’s architects lied about it doesn’t mean it isn’t being paid, making the words of P.J. O’Rourke (“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free”) more prophetic now that ever before.
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78 comments
If you are a poor person getting smashed by this bill, keep in mind that the IRS has already stated that they don’t have enough money to properly enforce it(yet) and that the IRS very rarely audit’s people with incomes less than $100k.
My heart goes out to you if you are one of those people. You have been smashed by health insurance corps & gov’t….aka fascism.
Good post. The ‘expanded’ Medicaid (for the very poor) is a disaster in ALL states as there is either a shortage of physician’s or the reimbursement is so low for the services they provide that physician’s are not accepting new patients.
And so the Republican alternative is no coverage at all. How exactly is that better?
The employer mandate in Obamacare is sending people to Medicaid in droves. Employers laying people off and cutting hours so they don’t have to provide insurance.
Eliminate the employer mandate.
So let me get this straight. The employer mandate sends people to Medicaid. So if we get rid of that, employers won’t provide insurance, and then the employees won’t go to Medicaid. So then, wait, I’m thinking this through. So no employer insurance, and no Medicaid. Oh, I get it. So then – No Insurance for You!!!!
they don’t have enough money to properly enforce it(yet)
Enforce what? The mandate? The most they can do is drain the penalty out of your return.
“Enforce what? The mandate?”
Yes.
“The most they can do is drain the penalty out of your return.”
That’s quite a substantial sum under the right set of circumstances. There’s a window between $50k & $75k, which much of America occupies, which is simply brutal in regard to the bill, lack of subsidies, etc.
When you compound the accrued debt for those not able to pay year after year, plus interest and penalites…the amount will swell quite rapidly…they will become debt slaves to the gov’t and rest assured after time the gov’t/IRS will figure out a way to collect.
They won’t let that accrued debt languish forever due to the peculiarities of the current law….and as we all know the Republicans have come out and said they won’t repeal Obamacare.
Not to mention what will happen if you or your “navigator” incorrectly (or intentionally) direct tax credits to your carrier to subsidize your premium. Whe. Your tax return is reconciled against tax credits are paid to say BCBS of SC, to which you were n ot entitled to, or over-payed them, those tax credits will be taken out your hide by the IRS and you end up with a large tax bill, to repay Obama.
“drain the penalty”…what penalty? There’s no penalty in the ACA.
crappier coverage
No getting dropped due to preexisting conditions, no lifetime maximums… Man, that’s crappy!
Higher deductibles (which means more out of pocket), less choice of doctors and hospitals, less choices to be able to use a HSA account on (which gets monitored by the IRS, btw)…need I go on?
There is nothing in the ACA that causes any of that. Are you getting this info from the Fake News Network?
The first thing that was eliminated when the bill went into effect were changes to what HSA accounts could be used on. It basically got boiled down to one could only use it on prescribed medicine, bills, and co-payments, once the ACA went into effect. As for higher deductibles, look at any of the plans on any of the exchanges, and tell me if those deductibles aren’t exceedingly high. Listen to all of the people talking about how they lost their doctor due to the ACA. The only good out of the ACA might be the pre-existing condition clause, but that’s it. Reform needed to happen at the cost of medical care level, not the cost of medical insurance level. They passed it just to say they passed something, not to actually do any good with it.
Since only 5% get their insurance on the exchange – many of those folks aren’t paying “higher” deductibles than before. Because before they didn’t have any insurance. So whilest the deductible may seem higher, it’s better than being uninsured.
The exchanges are for people who had no insurance before the ACA or very high deductible private insurance. The loss of doctors is crap. I have an exchange policy. My deductible is lower than the private policy I had before and my premium is the same. Is it great, no. Is it better than I had before yes.
The problem is people with group insurance have no clue what small business people and people without group insurance go through. We have had very high deductibles for ten years for years. Not to mention living under the constant threat of losing insurance. So to many something was better than nothing.
My deductible did go up, but my employer helps pay into a HSA that offsets that, and the increase in deductible was minimal and amounted to what I would normally pay in co-pays during the course of the year. So essentially it was about a wash.
No what’s crappy, it didn’t take 2,000 pages of law and 18,000 pages of regulations for that those things to happen.
“No what’s crappy, it didn’t take 2,000 pages of law and 18,000 pages of regulations for that those things to happen.”
Really? So why hadn’t they happened already, Einstein? Do you even realize how stupid your comment makes you appear?
If you like your gas station, you can keep your gas station.
That is funny!!!!! Oh my!!!
How is obtaining insurance through a private insurance company socialized medicine? Can someone explain that to me?
Because the taxpayer is funding it.
Taxpayers aren’t funding it the penalties are, that is until the Obama Administration argued it was a tax and not a penalty in front of SCOTUS. The most transparent administration ever.
Who pays the penalties? Oh, that’s right, people paying taxes…
Are you telling me taxpayers pay for everything the government does, I don’t believe it.
Its not. Republicans call anything they don’t like Socialism. They apparently have no idea what Socialism is. The cost of health insurance is not going up any faster now than it did before the ACA. Health Care costs last year increased the least they had in years.
The truth is the ACA is a bit of mish mash that resulted because Republicans fought so hard to avoid any changes at all. The insurance companies did not want any change and they paid Republicans to fight it. But the claims of this article are BS. Republicans have never put forth one viable alternative to the ACA.
That’s an outright lie. The Republicans offered many alternatives to what was being offered and not one was considered because Obama wanted his way as he continues to do. You go ahead and keep repeating the lie that no alternative was offered, but it’s still a lie.
No Chris – that’s a lie. Grasley and his staff (including the GOP Health Insurance staff) were deeply involved in working out the deal until early September 2009, when there were ordered by Mitchy the Turtle to disengage. And BTW – all the GOP staff were then layed off. They had no input because they elected to not negotiate. I’m sorry, but you cannot refuse to participate and then cry foul. Like you walked off with your team down 2 in the 6th inning, forfieted the game, and then cried because you didn’t win.
Name at least three alternatives proposed by the Republicans (be specific)other than repealing the ACA 40 plus times.
Eliminate a citizens right to seek recourse against hospitals that accidently remove the wrong leg.
What were the viable alternatives, and who offered them?
No “alternative, are you sure, there are only 380 plus house bills on Harry’s desk.
What were the viable alternatives and who offered them?
Why don’t you tell what’s in all those 380 plus house bills on Harry’s desk. Alternatives are there, just because you think they are not viable means absolutely nothing, it’s just your opinion.
As I suspected you can name a viable alternative presented by Republicans; because there are none. Most of the ACA was base on ideas that were originally Republican. Remember Mitt.
Mitt claimed he wanted to repeal and replace the ACA, but when asked what he proposed to replace it with, his response was I will let you know after I am elected.
Repeal is a viable alternative you may not think so but it is. Since only Democrats voted “Yes” on the nontransparent ACA they must be the stupid voters Gruber was referring too.
Yes, going back to the old system is what the insurance companies and large companies who did not provide group insurance want, and I have no doubt are paying Republicans to do.
My question was what alternatives the Republicans offered to solve the problems with the old system. You continue to support me in my position there were none, because Republicans did not care what happened to uninsured people and people being bankrupted by health care costs, and small business people. They were all in the 42% Mitt said Republicans would ignore.
Sorry Tom your question was “viable alternative” and I conclude that repeal is a viable alternative, so no, I don’t support your position.
Why do you keep bring up “Mitt” it’s as if that is the only thing you have to hang your hat on. Tell me all about the transparency in the ACA and that there was no deception in it’s passage? Why have there been so many executive orders related to the ACE?
Repeal was not a viable alternative to the ACA, because there was no ACA. The questions was do something or do nothing and let poor people, people with preexisting conditions, small business people, and others without access to group insurance to continue to suffer.
Do I think the ACA was the best plan? No. Do I think it was better than doing nothing, yes. Nothing was what Republicans offered, and a return to the nothing they offered is what you are proposing. I still believe the ACA is better than what we had before.
As for Mitt, I bring him up to make my point that much of the ACA was a Republican idea. Just like the insurance mandate was Charles Grassley’s idea. Republicans abandoned those positions when McConnell decided his only goal was to make Obama a one term president.
You say it’s not I say it is.
Have a nice day.
Most of them tacked on the defund Obamacare items so they knew the bills would die in the Senate.
Who is this? Baghdad Bob?
Costs not going up..lulz
Get your face out of Rupert Murdoch’s ass. Look at the numbers. The rate of increase in the cost of health insurance is no higher since the ACA than it was before the ACA. The increase in the cost of health care in the US last year was lower than it has been in years.
Of course the cost of health care is going up. It has been forever. But no faster than it was before the ACA was enacted.
If you remember, Obamacare was supposed to lower costs…not increase them.
You mean we didn’t get the $2,500 Obama promised?
Yep, just found out that my employer-provided insurance is going up 16% on premium, but it also means a 100% increase in contribution from employees. The “Affordable” Care Act is definitely anything but affordable.
Sorry about the shit job mate, mine is still 100% covered by my company. Thanks Obamacare!
Actually, mine was 100% covered, but thanks to Obamacare, employees are having to start paying into premiums, hence the 100% increase.
Once again that has nothing to do with the ACA.. There is noting in the ACA that would cause that. If your company says so they are just using that as an excuse to cut your benefits.
There’s hundreds of pages of a mostly unread bill that causes that.
The bill has been read millions of times by now. Every insurance company, every lobbyist, and health care consultant, knows exactly what it says. Just typical Fake News Network garbage. If you don’t have the facts make them up.
Actually, I rarely pay attention to Fox News or any of the MSM, for that matter, except may snippets…The fact is that the ACA is mostly an un-American piece of garbage. It strips Americans of their liberties by forcing them to buy something whether they can afford it or not, whether they’re healthy or not, etc. It has caused rates to go up because of compliance issues. It costs more and more money every time a new regulation is issued and the ACA causes more regulations to go into effect every year, hence the continued rise in health insurance premiums every year. That, and health care costs continue to rise, also causing premiums to rise. If you continue to buy the liberal garbage that the ACA has caused premiums to go down, then your head is in the sand on this one. I work for a small business that is nearly one step away from having to send people to the exchanges to get their health insurance, and that is the point of the ACA. It’s main goal is to make insurance so unaffordable for businesses (particularly small businesses), that eventually everyone would be on government-mandated insurance. And that, is completely un-American and anti-everything that our founding fathers wished for this country.
It is not liberal garbage to speak the truth. Health insurance premiums have not gone up any faster since the ACA than they were going up before the ACA. Look at the numbers. They are objective, not subjective. Health care costs as a whole went up less last year than they have in years.
Am I saying the ACA caused the lower increase in costs? No, I don’t know what caused the lower increase. All I can say for sure is the costs are no higher than they were before. If history is any indication those costs would have gone up the same or more than they did, even if the ACA had not been passed.
The argument the main goal of the ACA was to make insurance unaffordable for business is just stupid. If you company can’t afford its group plan, it would not have been able to afford it if the ACA had not been enacted. The only difference is the employees losing their coverage would have had no alternatives. I not only work for a small business I run one. My health insurance costs suck. They have for years. They have gone up every year for the last decade.
Then again, they mainly died around the age of 63.
Small businesses can benefit from ACA. They have a program called SHOP that includes tax credits. Tell your bosses to check it out.
The site doesn’t work….
“knows exactly what it says”…is that why it’s going before SCOTUS again?
“”knows exactly what it says”…is that why it’s going before SCOTUS again?”
LOL You don’t know why it is going before SCOTUS again – and will again and again – do you know who is behind these lawsuits? Instead of lecturing everyone on here you ought to educate yourself.
“educate yourself”…you mean like the Dems that didn’t know what was in it because they didn’t read it before they voted for it?
Did you forget you got to pass it to know what is in it?
“Did you forget, you got to pass it to know what is in it?”
LOL You are so clueless that it is pathetic but you spout your nonsense over and over and over on here.
Your company must have government contracts.
“Yep, just found out that my employer-provided . . . ”
Sorry – I do not believe you.
Oddly, in response to this article – published today –
(Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending advanced at a brisk clip in November as lower
gasoline prices gave the holiday shopping season a boost, offering the latest
sign of underlying momentum in the economy.
The Commerce Department said on Thursday retail sales excluding automobiles,
gasoline, building materials and food services, increased 0.6 percent last month
after rising 0.5 percent in October.
It’s Zero Hedge, they have to slant it somehow, to make you believe their nutty narrative.
Anyway, while annual premium increases have averaged 4.1 percent per year after the passage of Obamacare (compared to 5.1 percent per year before), this modest slackening of growth has been accompanied by shrinking incomes.
So basically, millions more are covered, and the rate of increase in health care has gone DOWN. Sounds like it is working. No wonder the GOP has given up on repeal.
You bet it’s working, when you rob Peter to pay Paul you can always count on the support of Paul…18 trillion and rising.
The deficit is falling. It is less than half a trillion a year now.
Yes, the deficit is falling but it’s still deficit spending and the debt is still rising, the government is spending too much it’s as simple as that. You and I can’t do it and survive.
And a happy meal now costs more than ten bucks.
There’s also the issue of doctor availability, quality of service, etc. The ACA problems are just starting and not foreseen…only after time will the issues become more pronounced and clear.
I suspect they the US gov’t will have to do what Canada does and make doctors taking cash for treatment illegal eventually…and then it will be just like Canada with long wait times and an exacerbation of doctor shortages.
People are equating sign ups (which are mandated), with success…which is a foolish notion.
… and those death panels …
That’s a fact, Jack.
A study released by The Commonwealth Fund … which found that “premiums for family coverage increased 73 percent over the past decade.”
Yeah, 70% between 2004 and 2010 – 3% between 2011 and 2014
Your numbers from the Cw Club do not take into account the extra taxes, lost work wages because of shorter hours, dumbing down of the economy, decreased buying power caused by government induced inflation, lost manufacturing jobs, et al, …
Our did you miss that bit about the U. S. Supreme Court declaring that BummerCare IS A TAX?
Wal-Mart has been steadily raising prices over the past year. That’s where a bigger portion the gas savings have been going.
I remember the good ol days when health care costs never increased!
What?You don’t remember those days?
You damn Socialist!
That was before 1913.
If you want to blame someone blame,Nikki Haley.Her refusal to accept that huge wad of Medicaid money is why things aren’t going smoothly in SC. ACA is working in other states. I’ve talked to plenty of people. Anyone who calls ACA ‘socialized medicine’ is an idiot,and shouldn’t be listened to…