After listening to a few more days of Obamacare back and forth, I am starting to wonder if there is soon going to be an explosion. I hear the questions. I hear the outrage. I hear the answers. And I wonder whether president Obama and his people think that all Americans are total idiots. It sure seems that way.
My current focus is on the millions upon millions of folks whose policies are getting cancelled because of Obamacare. As you know, these are people who have policies that do not have all the requirements that Obamacare has now made mandatory for every insurance policy. Estimates of the number of individual policies that will have to be cancelled range from about 7 million to 15 million. If you figure that there are nearly two people covered by each of these policies on average, that means about 13 to 28 million people who are losing their insurance to Obamacare. To be clear, that is 13 to 28 million people who were perfectly satisfied with their health insurance who are now going to have to find alternate policies that will cost substantially more.
The key here is that the folks losing their current policies LIKED THOSE POLICIES. There was no need to force this change. There was no need for the people covered by this insurance to pay more for things that they did not want or do not need. Indeed, since the only place to replace the policies is on the healthcare exchange which still does not work, there is a major question whether millions of people will lose health insurance altogether due to Obamacare.
As the anger of these folks has risen due to their receipt of unexpected cancellation notices which contradict Obama's oft-repeated promise that they would be able to keep their policies, the administration and its flacks have provided their "answers" on the issue. One such "answer" came today in a piece by that say-anything-to-support-Obama lefty Sally Kohn. She wrote a piece for the CNN website called "A Cancelled Health Plan Is A Good Thing". No, really, that's the actual title of her article. We just spent five years listening to Democrats telling us that they want to get health insurance coverage for more Americans, and here is this hack telling us that a cancelled health plan is a "good" thing. Amazing!
And what is the reason that Kohn gives for just how wonderful it is to cancel health insurance for millions of folks? Simple, according to Kohn, the affected people will get better plans that may cost less. In other words, Kohn resorts to telling lies in an effort to protect Obama and his people from the anger of the public. Why does Kohn think that she knows what a "better" plan is. Suppose that I want a plan that provides coverage to pay for a health catastrophe, but the rest of the time I pay for health costs myself. Prior to Obamacare, a plan like that was readily available. If it is what I wanted, then it was the best plan for me. Now, I have to take a plan that has all the bells and whistles that the Democrats decided must be included in every plan. These are things that I may not want or need.
Then there is the question of what the plan costs. There is no way that folks are getting less expensive coverage. The premiums for similar plans are rising on average by more than 50% across the country. For some folks, subsidies may reduce the impact of that rise. But then there are the increases in deductibles. For example, right now I have a plan that has no deductible for in-network medical visits. I just pay the co-pay. The only plans available on the exchange in my state, however, have high deductibles. What good is the supposedly "better" coverage provided by a new plan, if I have to pay the first $5000 of costs just to cover the deductible. That deductible is a cost increase too, and it hits everyone.
The truth is that Obamacare has managed to screw up the health insurance of millions upon millions of Americans.
My current focus is on the millions upon millions of folks whose policies are getting cancelled because of Obamacare. As you know, these are people who have policies that do not have all the requirements that Obamacare has now made mandatory for every insurance policy. Estimates of the number of individual policies that will have to be cancelled range from about 7 million to 15 million. If you figure that there are nearly two people covered by each of these policies on average, that means about 13 to 28 million people who are losing their insurance to Obamacare. To be clear, that is 13 to 28 million people who were perfectly satisfied with their health insurance who are now going to have to find alternate policies that will cost substantially more.
The key here is that the folks losing their current policies LIKED THOSE POLICIES. There was no need to force this change. There was no need for the people covered by this insurance to pay more for things that they did not want or do not need. Indeed, since the only place to replace the policies is on the healthcare exchange which still does not work, there is a major question whether millions of people will lose health insurance altogether due to Obamacare.
As the anger of these folks has risen due to their receipt of unexpected cancellation notices which contradict Obama's oft-repeated promise that they would be able to keep their policies, the administration and its flacks have provided their "answers" on the issue. One such "answer" came today in a piece by that say-anything-to-support-Obama lefty Sally Kohn. She wrote a piece for the CNN website called "A Cancelled Health Plan Is A Good Thing". No, really, that's the actual title of her article. We just spent five years listening to Democrats telling us that they want to get health insurance coverage for more Americans, and here is this hack telling us that a cancelled health plan is a "good" thing. Amazing!
And what is the reason that Kohn gives for just how wonderful it is to cancel health insurance for millions of folks? Simple, according to Kohn, the affected people will get better plans that may cost less. In other words, Kohn resorts to telling lies in an effort to protect Obama and his people from the anger of the public. Why does Kohn think that she knows what a "better" plan is. Suppose that I want a plan that provides coverage to pay for a health catastrophe, but the rest of the time I pay for health costs myself. Prior to Obamacare, a plan like that was readily available. If it is what I wanted, then it was the best plan for me. Now, I have to take a plan that has all the bells and whistles that the Democrats decided must be included in every plan. These are things that I may not want or need.
Then there is the question of what the plan costs. There is no way that folks are getting less expensive coverage. The premiums for similar plans are rising on average by more than 50% across the country. For some folks, subsidies may reduce the impact of that rise. But then there are the increases in deductibles. For example, right now I have a plan that has no deductible for in-network medical visits. I just pay the co-pay. The only plans available on the exchange in my state, however, have high deductibles. What good is the supposedly "better" coverage provided by a new plan, if I have to pay the first $5000 of costs just to cover the deductible. That deductible is a cost increase too, and it hits everyone.
The truth is that Obamacare has managed to screw up the health insurance of millions upon millions of Americans.
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