Back in 2012, Mitt Romney had a solution to illegal immigration which was self-deportation. Romney was going to make employers follow the law and give jobs only to people who are here legally in the expectation that the economics would force the illegal aliens to leave the country by choice. Romney was mocked for his position. Now, however, it seems that Obamacare has come to a similar point. The cost of an Obamacare policy is so high that millions of Americans are choosing to forego health insurance despite all those Obamacare subsidies. The latest prediction is that during the open enrollment this year, there will be only a net gain of one million people buying policies. That will bring the total to something like 11 million people with individual policies purchased on the exchanges. When Obamacare was passed, the Congressional Budget Office projected that by this year, there would be twenty million policies of this sort sold. So by the end of this year, Obamacare will be short 9 million policies; it will be missing its goal by 45%.
Think about what that means. First, let's consider the costs. If the average policy costs $400 per month, those missing 9 million people should be paying premiums totaling $3.6 billion per month. That's about $44 billion per year that is missing from the insurance system. Remember, the absence of all these people does not cut the cost of medical care by very much. The people who are sick and need medical costly medical attention for the most part all have policies (or they are on Medicaid or Medicare.) It's the healthy people who are choosing not to get insurance. So costs are down slightly, if at all, but revenues are down by $44 billion from what was predicted. For the insurance companies, it is a disaster. That is why premiums keep rocketing upward. It is also why about half of the cooperative companies formed just to issue Obamacare policies have gone under; they cannot come close to breaking even.
Second, think about the net change regarding who is insured. The eleven million Obamacare policies that will be sold on the exchanges this year are not really all gains for coverage. We have to keep in mind that when Obamacare first went into effect there were roughly seven to nine million people who lost their policies because of the requirements of the new law. I know; I was one of those people. I was bumped off my group plan because of Obamacare requirements. The point is that in measuring the increase in coverage, we need to look at the net number. There are 11 million policies being issued, but something like 9 million of those just replace other insurance that Obamacare invalidated. That's a gain of 2 million only. America is spending over two trillion dollars over the decade and we picked up 2 million policies. That's one million dollars per new policy. Okay, I know that there are also new people on Medicaid, but we surely didn't need to spend all this money to put a few extra people on Medicaid.
What is happening is that Obamacare is causing its own demise. It is self-repealing. By the time we get a Congress and president willing to repeal this massive mistake, there may not be much left.
Think about what that means. First, let's consider the costs. If the average policy costs $400 per month, those missing 9 million people should be paying premiums totaling $3.6 billion per month. That's about $44 billion per year that is missing from the insurance system. Remember, the absence of all these people does not cut the cost of medical care by very much. The people who are sick and need medical costly medical attention for the most part all have policies (or they are on Medicaid or Medicare.) It's the healthy people who are choosing not to get insurance. So costs are down slightly, if at all, but revenues are down by $44 billion from what was predicted. For the insurance companies, it is a disaster. That is why premiums keep rocketing upward. It is also why about half of the cooperative companies formed just to issue Obamacare policies have gone under; they cannot come close to breaking even.
Second, think about the net change regarding who is insured. The eleven million Obamacare policies that will be sold on the exchanges this year are not really all gains for coverage. We have to keep in mind that when Obamacare first went into effect there were roughly seven to nine million people who lost their policies because of the requirements of the new law. I know; I was one of those people. I was bumped off my group plan because of Obamacare requirements. The point is that in measuring the increase in coverage, we need to look at the net number. There are 11 million policies being issued, but something like 9 million of those just replace other insurance that Obamacare invalidated. That's a gain of 2 million only. America is spending over two trillion dollars over the decade and we picked up 2 million policies. That's one million dollars per new policy. Okay, I know that there are also new people on Medicaid, but we surely didn't need to spend all this money to put a few extra people on Medicaid.
What is happening is that Obamacare is causing its own demise. It is self-repealing. By the time we get a Congress and president willing to repeal this massive mistake, there may not be much left.
No comments:
Post a Comment