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You have to break some healthcare plans to make an Obamacare

You have to break some healthcare plans to make an Obamacare

You can run, but you can’t hide from Obamacare (on second thought, you can’t even run)

Who really cares about those much-maligned kulak individual health insurance market policy holders?

Hell, depending upon how you count them, they could number 15 million, or maybe as low as 6 million. You know who else didn’t care about … oh, never mind.

Just because you are not one of the much-maligned, don’t think you can run from Obamacare, which stalks each of us like the Grim … oh, never mind.

Second wave of health-insurance disruption affects small businesses (h/t Charles Cooke):

When millions of health-insurance plans were canceled last fall, the Obama administration tried to be reassuring, saying the terminations affected only the small minority of Americans who bought individual policies.

But according to industry analysts, insurers and state regulators, the disruption will be far greater, potentially affecting millions of people who receive insurance through small employers by the end of 2014.

While some cancellation notices already have gone out, insurers say the bulk of the letters will be sent in October, shortly before the next open-enrollment period begins. The timing — right before the midterm elections — could be difficult for Democrats who are already fending off Republican attacks about the Affordable Care Act and its troubled rollout.

Some of the small-business cancellations are occurring because the policies don’t meet the law’s basic coverage requirements. But many are related only indirectly to the law; insurers are trying to move customers to new plans designed to offset the financial and administrative risks associated with the health-care overhaul. As part of that, they are consolidating their plan offerings to maximize profits and streamline how they manage them….

Stephen Lohman, owner of Allegheny Plant Services, a trucking company in Pittsburgh, said the Aetna PPO plan he offers his 38 employees will be discontinued at the end of this year. He said he has been offered a new Aetna policy with premiums that are 40 percent higher, and that other insurers’ rates are similar.

“We were very surprised,” he said, adding that it is “important to me personally” to offer insurance to his employees, but he is not sure he can afford the premium increase.

Well, don’t expect any sympathy from the administration, small business plan kulaks.

You have to break some healthcare plans to make an Obamacare.

You know who else said you have to break some … to make an … oh, never mind.

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Comments

This administration can take its health insurance and shove it! they solved nothing. They lied. They now have a karmic debt to pay and pay they will.

Another Voice | January 12, 2014 at 3:58 pm

Prof., Wrapping down or perhaps gearing up, this is a great afternoon to have a couple glasses of vino….oh, never mind! Make that a bottle!

Not A Member of Any Organized Political | January 12, 2014 at 4:02 pm

For whom does the ObamaCare Death Bell Toll?
For Thee Democrat Party, for Thee.

The plan is working the way it was intended. Make private health insurance unaffordable to force everyone onto Medidon’tcare.

Midwest Rhino | January 12, 2014 at 5:02 pm

It is bad enough that government wants to be our parents/owners … but they are very bad parents. They break everything they touch … bad touch bad touch. GO AWAY.

You should stop being so cynical. The fact that things are turning out to be harder than expected does not change the fact that Obama, Pelosi, etc are good people trying to do the right thing for all the little people who aren’t lucky enough to understand all the …

Oh, never mind.

Yes, this is the second wave. There will be cancellations forcing people who were covered at work into the exchanges (at double the price for similar coverage, the average 40% hike mentioned is for coverage with higher deductibles and copays in almost every case), employees who will have to pony up a large amount to keep coverage (this option limited by state laws on group insurance, if the % of eligible employees don’t sign up, it doesn’t qualify), or employers will have to take it out of profit, putting off expansion plans and employee raises.

The final wave will be the big employers. When they find their costs skyrocketing, many will opt to pay the fine and give employees a “voucher” for the balance of what is currently spent on coverage to go to the exchanges.

All this isn’t some unforeseen circumstances, either. It IS the plan and was from the start.

From here on in, if Obama-Care works as intended, it will multiply the pain and suffering and disruption.

As I recall, back in the ’90s when Hillarycare was proposed, someone pointed out that many small businesses couldn’t afford it. She replied that she was not responsible for all the undercapitalized businesses in the country.

Obama obviously feels the same way.

‘Bad apple insurance companies’and big banks will pay for the piss-your-pants Obamacare. And that means that we, including Rachel Maddcow, the consumer & voter will pay the differential cost – over and over and over.

In six months 40% increases in premiums will be seen as ‘moderate’.

After all, the insurers are about to take large losses in the first round of ObamaCare as they see that only the old and sick signed up for those bronze plans (parenthetically, did ANYone sign for a ‘platinum’ plan?). Because the young and healthy either aren’t signing up or weren’t able to navigate the mess, the insurers are getting hurt. A lot less money is coming in and they’re going to have to make that up.

Yes, they could get money from Congress and the administration in the ‘backstop’ arrangements that were made, but those are going to become toxic for them given the sure negative publicity. So the next round of premiums are going to be way, way higher.

    Henry Hawkins in reply to stevewhitemd. | January 12, 2014 at 9:58 pm

    I read somewhere that less than 60% of the people who enrolled have actually paid their first premium.

    Obamacare has turned my typically apolitical 34 yr old son into a conservative. He’s says he’ll go to jail before he’ll pay over $500 per month and still have to pay the first $5,800 every year (his new deductible if he enrolled). He’s never paid $5,000 in medical costs in a single year in his life. Basically, they cancelled his catastrophic plan because it was a catastrophic plan, then replaced it with a catastrophic plan with far higher costs and worse terms than his original catastrophic plan. It’s insanity.

      JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Henry Hawkins. | January 12, 2014 at 11:06 pm

      I hope that every uninformed half-wit who walked into a voting booth and nevertheless punched the ticket for obastard, and every libtard who did so with conviction or because obastard is (half) black, loses their insurance or ends up paying half their income for lousy coverage.