Government Health Care Cost To You …. $4000 more!

This is an insurance industry study, and it has its own agenda (see below) but it is making waves. Understandable. Four thousand dollars more per year by 2019. That’s $4000 dollars more than you are paying now. That’s $4000 more than if they did nothing. Kinda remind you of the stimulus, huh? (From Hot Air)

After months of collaboration on President Obama’s attempt to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected.

The critique, coming one day before a critical Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year’s health-care reform drama.

Detente? The report goes on to make clear you will see your health care costs rise. Period. End of story … unless … your healthy kids start footing the bill. I know, how selfish of me.

“The report makes clear that several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system,” Karen Ignagni, AHIP’s president and chief executive, wrote to board members Sunday. “Between 2010 and 2019 the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy under this reform proposal will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system.”

At the heart of the argument is whether the Finance Committee bill does enough to draw young, healthy people into the insurance risk pool. By postponing and reducing penalties on people who do not sign up for health insurance, industry analysts predict it would attract less-healthy patients who would drive up costs.

Time to revisit the Robert Reich soundbite from 2007. and that’s why the last graph bothers me so much. The insurance industry is unhappy because Baucus watered down the penalty for not having insurance, exempting some and reducing the dollar amount for others. That means fewer people will buy insurance. Everyone in the pool, please.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsojqMK3_r4

So you see … they’re not unhappy with the government control of health care. They are all about it if it means more for them. The minute it looked like it would not mean more, they weaseled out. Make everyone jump into the pool, they’ll be back. In the meantime, we still get either very crummy, or very expensive care.

One last point, there is absolutely no evidence that requiring everyone to buy health insurance, costs will decline. It’s what Baucus tells us, Obama tells us, Murphy, Courtney, et al, tell us. Just take a quick look at Massachusetts. Nuff said.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

2 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on October 13, 2009 at 2:29 am

    Judging by the speed with which the Obamaroids reacted, they knew the truth and knew this was coming.  It is a primary tenet of damage control: get in quickly with your counter argument before anyone can really understand the debate (remember "bimbo eruptions"?).  Everyone thinks it is typical bickering rather than valid criticism.  Just wait for the "evil insurance company" screed to ramp up now.

     

    To quote a certain person: "the chickens are coming home to roost."  People have to keep pounding home the fact that the Democrat's proposals are highly flawed, and the fact that they won't let people see it beforehand, and plan to ram it through without at least 60 Senate votes simple proves this.



  2. thomas_shawn on October 16, 2009 at 7:26 am

    $4000 tax increases for families of 4 .. oh well, they need to make up for the "evil Bush tax cuts" somehow … especially the $1000/child tax credit for those under $90,000.  That one really burns their arse.

    You see, an analysis of Sen John Kerry's 2004 campaign tax plan revealed that the "rich" were actually anyone making more than $60,000 combined.

    Viewed through a Democrat prism, you can see how the $60,000 crowd are viewed as the "rich", as a "threat."  The Democrats support the illegals, the illiterates, the losers, while viciously fighting a rearguard action preventing anyone any social mobility via capitalism  (the only non-zero sum game  in town.)

     



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