What Did You Say?

By Chris Jacobs

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/09/25/what-hhs-didnt-tell-you-about-obamacare-exchange-plans/

Today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report regarding premiums and plan offerings in Obamacare’s exchanges for next year. Despite the Administration’s claims, premiums are going up due to Obamacare—and the quality of the “coverage” is, in many cases, going down.

In both today’s report and an earlier report released in July, HHS claims that premiums are, “lower than projected.” HHS bases its claim on a March 2012 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate stating that premiums for a family would average $15,400 per year on the exchanges. The Administration report claims that weighted average premiums are “16 percent below projections” based on that CBO report—therefore Obamacare is lowering premiums. (**  Remember, every state has it’s own Department of Insurance. Each DOI has alot to do with the premiums that are charged in that state.  With states like New York and California, both extremely high in premiums, Obamacare’s limited HMO policy will appear to be lower. In states like Arizona, even the limited HMO will be HIGHER. While it is true that numbers never lie, it is also true that numbers can be manipulated. The Obama propaganda machine is definitely manipulating the numbers they quote.)

What HHS didn’t mention is that CBO also estimated in a November 2009 analysis that individually purchased insurance premiums would go up by an average $2,100 per family, due to the increased mandates and requirements included in Obamacare. So when HHS says that premiums are “below projections,” it really means that premiums are still going up as a result of Obamacare—just by less than originally advertised.  (** Remember that when government demands an insurance company to cover certain illnesses, knowing that from day one the insurance company is buying claims, even though they have not received a single dime of premium. They are taking in a dollar of premium and paying out a hundred dollars of claim. No logical person would ever do that.)

That’s a far cry from candidate Obama’s promise that his health plan would lower premiums by $2,500 per year.  (** Because it is all propaganda smoke and mirrors.  You cannot accept anyone’s claims about insurance when they haven’t run such a company, or at least sold insurance. In order to get a license to sell insurance in any state requires certification. That requires a minimum of schooling and test that have to be passed. In that schooling you are taught how premiums are determined and how they are paid out.)

The HHS report also makes claims about a wide variety of plan offerings. What the report didn’t mention is that many of these “new” plans are Medicaid managed care plans, which insurance companies admit “will look a lot like the Medicaid plans we are currently administering.” HHS also didn’t mention that patients object to being placed in a program with low physician reimbursements and poor health outcomes—even some Medicaid patients don’t call the program “real insurance.”  (** The American public are not tald how many doctors and medical practices are no longer taking insurance of any kind. That will be the trend. You see your doctor you choose, pay him out of pocket whatever they determine to charge you and then you file a claim with the Obama approved insurance company. IF they have approved that doctor they will pay you according to what the policy says it will pay, and it will never be the same amount. IF the Obama approved insurance does NOT include your doctor in their approved doctors list, then 100% of the cost of that visit, tests and all, are out of your pocket. Joy. Joy. Joy.)

So instead of just raising premiums, Obamacare is inflicting a double whammy: forcing the American people to buy health plans costing more than what they paid previously, and providing such limited access to provider networks they may not be able to find a doctor that will treat them. It’s why Congress should act now to stop Obamacare before it starts.