ObamaCare Comes Up Short

Get ready for major hikes in health-insurance premiums — despite all the promises from "The One."

From Obamacare shorts health insurers $2.5 billion:

Insurers will get far less money than promised from the federal government this year — and a few billion dollars less than they requested — to help pay for their sickest customers.

Insurers learned late Thursday [October 1, 2015] that they'll receive just $362 million out of the $2.9 billion in requested for 2014 for the program, according to an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services.

That's because a program created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act hasn't brought in nearly as much money as it needs to pay out. As insurers enrolled more older, sicker Americans under the new healthcare law, they were promised some federal money to help cover their new costs, through a program known as risk corridors.

This shortage in funding ObamaCare was totally predictable, of course.

 People with chronic health conditions typically cost more in healthcare dollars.

The cycle of life.

All the utopianism in the world can't change the natural order of the universe.

Obamacare's Second Year

On June 26, 2014, this article by Amy Goldstein appeared in the Washington Post.

Another round of registering for ObamaCare? It seems that some people who obtained their health insurance through the federal exchange may have to repeat the registration process because the ACA didn't make the proper provisions for automatic re-enrollment.

Complete article below the fold — emphases mine in red and a few of my own comments in blue:

Yet Another ObamaCare Delay

If true, it figures! [Update: The delay has been announced and extends into 2017]

Another admission of the failure of ObamaCare and more politicization of Obama's "signature legislation."

From The Hill:

Nincompoopery — And Worse

(Weekend roundup post.   For the definition of nincompoop, see THIS in the Urban Dictionary. Commenters are encouraged to post links that tell of more nincompoopery)

Links to read (more possibly added as the weekend progresses):

Susan Rice admits Benghazi information was not '100 per cent correct' but has no regrets

Google ordered to remove anti-Islamic film from YouTube

Google Warns 'Muslims' Ruling Will Create Hollywood Chaos

Muslims kill more people per year than 350 yrs of the Spanish Inquisition

The Bureaucratic Hydra

Unbelievable!

From "When squirrels attack! There’s a medical code for that," a recent article in the Washington Post:

Ethnicity And Race Designations Required?

I admit that I had my doubts about this October 20, 2013 story, "Obamacare seeks to segregate patients, doctors by race" — until I visited my neurologist on December 9. Before that date, I last saw my neurologist on June 17, 2013.

What You See...

...may not be what you get. When it comes to premiums quote on the ObamaCare web site, that is.

The CBS News video "ObamaCare Website Dramatically Underestimating Costs For Consumers":

Brutal Honesty

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

From the author of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003) comes So Much for That, a 2010 novel about the effects of devastating illnesses upon two middle-class families: the Knackers and the Burdinas.  Both families, the married couples longtime best friends, are struggling with the emotional and financial burdens of combating life-and-death illnesses.

Shep Knacker, entrepreneur of Knack of All Trades, has worked for decades with a particular goal in mind — a goal that he calls "The Afterlife":

Obamacare Fail

(Two posts today. Please scroll down)


Forget the hope of those high-risk pools for health insurance:

ObamaCare Realities

Let us understand some of what ObamaCare requires by 2014, unless, of course, one chooses to pay the tax instead of ponying up for health insurance.

 I did research on the topic of availing this household of the "cheap ObamaCare policies" in 2010, shortly after ObamaCare was thrust upon our nation by Congress and the Obama administration. At that point in time, Mr. AOW was paying $584/month, and I, in the same age bracket, was paying $256/month for our separate private policies. The difference in those premiums is attributable to Mr. AOW's having pre-existing conditions even before his stroke [We have had health insurance all of our married lives, some 40 years], whereas I do not have any pre-existing conditions. Each of our policies at that time had an in-network deductible of $2500/year with a maximum of $5000/year in-network out of pocket. No prescription coverage whatsoever was included. 

Those ever-touted-by-the-Left "cheap" health insurance policies" mandated by ObamaCare and subsidized by the government in 2010 went begging, that is, people were not signing up.  It's easy to understand why if one considers the above.

So, how do those "cheap ObamaCare" policies scheduled to go in force in 2014 work?  Below the fold is what I have gleaned so far about taking preemptive action in advance of 2014.

ObamaCare At SCOTUS

(Two posts today. Please scroll down for the other post)

Link below the fold and worth your time.

The Broken Promises Of ObamaCare

With a hat tip to Adrienne's Corner:

About Sandra Fluke

(For material of a non-political nature, please scroll down to today's other post)

From Pastorius at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS:

Obama Refuses To Budge

(A follow-up to this previous post. Settle in for one of my long posts)

According to this source:

Despite renewed statements of concern by Catholic leaders and lawmakers, the Obama administration is done negotiating and will finalize its plan requiring insurance companies to provide free contraception to women working and studying at religious institutions, President Obama’s chief of staff said Sunday....

What Obama has done is this: by forcing all insurance companies to provide contraception free of charge to insureds, these institutions, including hospitals, will have to (1) knuckle under, (2) stop providing any employer-based health insurance (They may not legally be able to do so), or (3) close their doors. Obama's mandate goes into effect on August 1, 2012.

Suppose you and I worked for one of these institutions? Would we stay as employees if there were no health insurance offered by our employer? Could we stay? Individual policies are expensive beyond belief and offer coverage more limited than that of group plans.

How Is This A Compromise?

(Two posts today. Please scroll down)


Another bluff from the Administration of Smoke and Mirrors!

According to "Obama Revamps Contraceptive Policy":

FEATURED QUESTION: Healthcare Reform

(This post stuck here for a few days. Please scroll down for other material)

Recently Ann Coulter wrote "Three Cheers for Romneycare!" She stated:

...Until Obamacare, mandatory private health insurance was considered the free-market alternative to the Democrats' piecemeal socialization of the entire medical industry....

Read the entire essay HERE.

How does any kind of insurance work?

The Medicare Maze

I spent most of yesterday trying to understand and navigate the complexities of Medigap coverage.

You see, this week Mr. AOW's Medicare card arrived in the mail.