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Obamacare insurance can drive you to financial ruin

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was meant to keep medical expenses from driving you to financial ruin, not for medical insurance to drive you to financial ruin.

But that is what we have now, and it’s exactly what everyone here at RVO predicted years ago. If you’re middle class on a non-subsidized ACA plan, a family of four spends about $1,300 a month in premiums. The deductible for those plans is $13,000 per year. So once you pay $28,600 out-of-pocket each year, your insurance kicks in.

Look at that number again. Twenty eight thousand six hundred dollars.

Where is that $28,600 going? Insurance companies are not keeping it*. The insurance companies are using most of it – or all of it it – to pay healthcare providers for services provided to other subscribers. Most of those other subscribers are on government subsidized programs or have very expensive pre-existing conditions. Of course, they will also use it to cover health care costs you have once you’ve paid your $28,600.

Insurance companies must also cover costs and payments to healthcare providers for mandated coverage requirements. You know, mandates requiring them to insure – without question – those with extremely expensive pre-existing conditions at “normal” rates. Think about that for a moment. It’s kind of like not having insurance when you wreck your new car in the morning. No problem, walk into Progressive in the afternoon and make you first $200 monthly payment on your new policy. Then, walk out with a check for $40,000 to replace your new car.

No, it’s exactly like that.

Obamacare Risk-Corridor Payments Fall Short

Still, insurance companies are losing money and pulling out of the market. This is not unexpected and we also predicted this. The risk corridor scheme was set up to help insurance companies cover losses during the first three years. But just as they got started, the government realized they would not have enough to cover the losses.

In the end ACA insurers collectively incurred $2.87 billion in losses exceeding the risk corridor boundaries, but only ended up owing $362 million in contributions. CMS was able to pay out only $0.126 on the dollar to insurers owed payments, although it reiterated its intent to pay out the full amount owed over the life of the program. This funding shortfall resulted in severe losses for a number of insurers, and several, including a number of consumer cooperative (CO-OP) plans became insolvent.

Are you still wondering why it is failing? It’s clear, there is no “affordable” in the Affordable Care Act.

* Yes, insurance companies do use some of the funds to cover administrative costs.

Obamacare Numbers: 70% over 35-years-old, 79% received subsidies

As a disclaimer, this information is for the first three months of enrollment prior to Jan. 1, but it is directly from the Department of Health and Human Services.

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White House website countdown gives you 16 more days to sign up for Obamacare!

I visited WhiteHouse.gov this morning to do a search and found the administration actually had a countdown clock on their home page. It looks like they are giving everyone 16 more days to sign up…

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Obamacare – No dentists within 100 miles

This is just the tip of the iceberg of Obamacare problems folks, and it’s going to get worse. So far, physicians and other health care providers can not be required to participate in any specific health care insurance plan. They have the option to say “no thank you” when it comes to any plan that would reimburse them less than their costs, or what they think to be the value of their service.

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Fewer than 10% of eligible 18- to 34-year-olds signed up for Obamacare

The plan was – and still is – they need huge support from the young crowd who do not have employer-sponsored health insurance to buy into the state or federal exchanges. The goal for the first year was to have 2.8 million enrolled (out of 11.4 million), but total signups are only at 1.1 million through the end of February.

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Obama administration not tracking the number of health care uninsured?

Mary Katherine Ham over at Hot Air notes the Obama administration’s health care team does not seem to be tracking the number of people without health insurance, or the number of previously uninsured who now have coverage. You would think the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) would consider that to be an important benchmark, but they claim they have not been measuring it.

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Obamacare supporters attack people who lost health care plans they liked

“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Those were the specific words President Obama and hundreds of other politicians used to sell the Affordable Healthcare Act. They were lying, over-and-over again. Now, when good people like Julie Boonstra tell their story, they are the ones branded as liars.

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Is Obamacare becoming a laughing stock?

I received what follows from a golfer friend of mine.  Of even more interest was that my friend is, well, not exactly a conservative.  Even if you are not a golfer, please read on. Read more

Obama administration puts more pressure on health insurance companies…

… to solve the problems created by the Obama administration and Obamacare. Back on Dec. 6 I wrote about the provision in Obamacare that might leave doctors and health care providers in a position where they are told a patient has coverage, but they end up not getting paid. Now, but Obama administration is pressuring insurance companies to pay for procedures and care even if no premiums have been paid.

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“Simple mistakes” plagued Connecticut health exchange during first month

We were led to believe Access Health CT was a shining example of what was going right with the health care insurance initiative, but it turns out 2,400 enrollees were provided incorrect information about the plan they selected during the month of October. Some signed up for no-deductible plans that ended up having a $3,000 deductible.

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