Obamacare 2014 - Part Deux

I read a similar take today about how this might suck for GOP politicians:

Will GOP politicians build a state health insurance exchange? Or will they allow the taxes of a large number of their citizens to go up?

Remember these are tax credits their middle class citizens are losing, not Medicaid benefits their poorest citizens are not getting in the first place.

If you are Rick Scott (FL), Scott Walker (WI), John Kasich (OH), Rick Snyder (MI), or Tom Corbett (PA), all facing competitive races and important races for the long term balance in the House of Representatives, you are faced with a lose-lose proposition.

If you say, "still no exchange," you are basically forcing a large tax increase on health care- that strikes me as a pretty good issue for their Democratic opponents to run on in the fall. If you say, "ok, we'll build an exchange," you are alienating your base going into the fall- and, of course, this problem goes away for Americans in these states.

So who do GOP politicians in healthcare.gov states alienate?
* The middle class folks who fear losing their health care subsidies?
* Or the GOP base who fear the construction of a state exchange?

I can't say I'm shocked over this whatsoever.

GAO Sting Finds It Easy to Fake It, Get Obamacare Premiums

leven out of 12 fake applications for government-subsidized health insurance got through a verification process and the bogus beneficiaries are still covered, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday.

The GAO launched the sting to check to see how well the Obamacare process checks for counterfeit applications. The results were messy, GAO’s Seto Bagdoyan says in testimony prepared for a hearing Wednesday of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.

“The federal marketplace approved coverage for 11 of our 12 fictitious applicants who initially applied online, or by telephone,” Bagdoyan, who directs GAO’s Forensic Audits and Investigative Service, said in testimony obtained by NBC News. ..."

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/gao-sting-finds-it-easy-fake-it-get-obamacare-premiums-n162456

"The nation's third-largest health insurer had 720,000 people sign up for exchange coverage as of May 20, a spokesman confirmed to IBD. At the end of June, it had fewer than 600,000 paying customers. Aetna expects that to fall to "just over 500,000" by the end of the year.

That would leave Aetna's paid enrollment down as much as 30% from that May sign-up tally."

Ref: Investor's Business Daily

". . . the Obama Administration has been tight-lipped about enrollment since celebrating 8 million sign-ups in mid-April."

Hmmmm . . .

Indeed they have been

Tale of two Obamacares: States open with info, feds not much

" By the close of Obamacare's first open enrollment in mid-April, the federal government was crowing about how many people had signed up via the HealthCare.gov insurance exchange that it operates.

But nearly four months later, the federal government remains mum on several key questions about that online marketplace, which sells coverage in 36 states, and was built with hundred of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
In sharp contrast to HealthCare.gov, the 15 health insurance exchanges run by individual states and the District of Columbia are, as a group, much more forthcoming with answers when asked those same kinds of questions. ..

...HHS also would not disclose the premium rates that insurers have proposed to charge for their 2015 plans, which go on sale at HealthCare.gov when Obamacare's second enrollment season begins Nov. 15. ...n a email response to CNBC, HHS spokesman Aaron Albright suggested that all of the information requested would be disclosed in the future, but he would not specify a date.

I betcha that "sometime in the future" is also gonna be around nov 15.

Isn't it interesting that the rate increases won't be until after the election?

Another case of no transparency

jatki99 and hoops2 underestimate this Administration.

They've already delayed things like penalties if one does not buy the "mandated" insurance until 2016.

" . . . the administration said consumers with canceled plans could qualify for a hardship waiver, then could buy minimal coverage initially intended only for individuals under age 30.
The exemption was initially for one year. The administration has since extended it for two more years through October 2016.

In December [2013], a hardship application form was released that laid out the 14 exemptions. Among other things, people could avoid the penalty if a close family member had died recently, if they were facing eviction or if they had medical expenses that couldn't be paid in the last 24 months and resulted in substantial debt.

Critics have assailed one exemption for people who "experienced another hardship obtaining health insurance" as too broad. That exemption asks for documentation if possible but doesn't require it."



"Almost 90% of the nation's 30 million uninsured won't pay a penalty under the Affordable Care Act in 2016 because of a growing batch of exemptions to the health-coverage requirement.

The architects of the health law wanted most Americans to carry insurance or pay a penalty. But an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation said most of the uninsured will qualify for one or more exemptions."

Ref:
__ WallStreetJournal, Mar 2014
__ WallStreetJournal, Aug 2014

These exemptions will create a shorfall in revenue of several billion per year, adding to the growing deficit of the program

Other coverage of the same Aetna conference call:

"As many as 90%," "low to mid-80 percent range," "at least 83%." Thanks Obama.

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People dropping their individual insurance is not new or necessarily a bad thing. The country has created over a half million jobs since May. Newly employed people are likely to get an employer plan and would then no longer require individual insurance...as one example.