Good News: The Worst Is Yet To Come With Obamacare

Obamacare is going downhill, just as predicted. Democrats know it, which is why they’re trying to get Republicans to fix it

Because the worst is yet to come

(NY Post) Still ahead: Budget crises in the states that accepted temporary federal bribes to massively expand their Medicaid rolls. More premium hikes on the exchanges, as ever fewer healthy people sign up for coverage — prompting even lower enrollment, and more price hikes, in a sharp “death spiral.”

The “Cadillac tax” will kick in soon, too — so if your union has won great health coverage at the bargaining table, that plan will pay a penalty to Uncle Sam.

The legal challenges aren’t done yet, either.

The entire thing is unsustainable, so

Now ObamaCare is collapsing, and presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton vows to “fix” it with new spending and even more Washington control of the market. If she gets Democratic majorities in Congress, she’ll keep that promise — and the madness will grow.

The Democrats next action is to implement a public option, which they’re already calling for, as insurers limit their Exchange offerings, if not drop out altogether, as we’ve seen happening. This is not a bug of Ocare, it’s a feature. And the next stage is a full single payer system. Ocare was just a step in the direction.

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29 Responses to “Good News: The Worst Is Yet To Come With Obamacare”

  1. Dana says:

    The unfortunate part is that far too many Republicans have gotten on the “repeal and replace” bandwagon concerning Obysmalcare. If they are going to replace it, that means that they have already bought into the principle that the government is ultimately responsible for seeing to it that the individual has health care coverage, and that means all we are arguing about is how best to provide that. The option of the government not guaranteeing health care coverage seems to be off the table.

  2. Kathy says:

    Something to cheer you up? Two hot chicks model politically incorrect Halloween costumes!

    http://www.therebel.media/watch_trigger_free_trick_or_treat_guide_to_halloween_costumes

  3. o0Nighthawk0o says:

    The “Cadillac tax” will kick in soon, too — so if your union has won great health coverage at the bargaining table, that plan will pay a penalty to Uncle Sam.

    This isn’t just union plans. I am NOT union but my employer provided insurance was considered a “Cadillac Plan” and has been killed thus increasing my out of pocket expenses over 700%.

  4. drowningpuppies says:

    The absurd Republican reflex to come up with their “alternative” to ObamaCare is kind of like telling your surgeon, “Hey, wait, dude! Before you go and pull that bullet out of my brain, let’s talk about what you’re going to REPLACE it with!!…”

    Let’s trip over ourselves to try to show who can have the LEAST disastrous socialist program…

  5. Jeffery says:

    The rate of increase of healthcare inflation is still dropping. Our system is getting more and more efficient. The question is whether we continue to pass the costs to the working families of America or “confiscate” more “hard-earned” monies from the wealthy.

    The answer is clear. It was a mistake to allow the health insurance companies to profit from the ACA. We need a government option.

    The amount we spend per person on healthcare will continue to level off thanks to the efficiencies of the ACA and despite the anti-American recalcitrance of the Republicans.

  6. drowningpuppies says:


    The amount we spend per person on healthcare will continue to level off thanks to the efficiencies of the ACA

    –that little guy who lied about being in the army

    And you call other people idiots…

  7. Rev.Hoagie® says:

    Wait drowningpuppies, the cost of Obamacare is going up in every market and in some places as high as doubling but healthcare inflation is dropping? So the answer to these “dropping” costs is to confiscate steal more money from the wealthy anybody who earns more than I do. I don’t think an immoral person can justify an immoral act like stealing by calling it “confiscating” and only stealing off of people better off than he out of envy. Godless immoral bastards just want a license to steal.

  8. drowningpuppies says:


    Opposing an insane, disastrous, economically-ignorant federal clusterfuck is not “opposing affordable healthcare.”

    –David Burge

  9. drowningpuppies says:


    “Jonathan Gruber… paging Jonathan Gruber…”

  10. o0Nighthawk0o says:

    We need a government option

    Ask our veterans about this. But hurry before they die waiting for treatment.

  11. john says:

    http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/21/insurance-premiums-is-100-the-next-obamacare-hurdle.html

    It’s all about the “Benjamins” for many current and potential Obamacare customers.

    A customer sits with an insurance advisor with UniVista Insurance company, as he signs up for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, before the February 15th deadline on February 5, 2015 in Miami, Florida.
    Getty Images
    A customer sits with an insurance advisor with UniVista Insurance company, as he signs up for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, before the February 15th deadline on February 5, 2015 in Miami, Florida.
    A large majority of adults say “$100 a month or less” is the highest monthly premium they can afford to pay for health insurance in 2016, according to a survey released Wednesday.

    The HealthPocket.com report found that 57 percent of respondents named that price range when asked about coverage affordability. The second-most common answer was $200 per month, which was the response of just 17 percent of respondents.

    Cost, or perceived cost, is a prime reason that the remaining uninsured people give when asked why they do not purchase health insurance, even as the Affordable Care Act has brought the uninsured rate down to record lows. And Obamacare plans routinely cost more than $100 per month before the federal subsidies available to many enrollees are factored into the price.

    Those subsidies are available to people with low and moderate incomes — but only if they buy plans on government-run insurance exchanges such as HealthCare.gov. About 85 percent of exchange customers qualify for such financial aid.

    However, people with higher incomes, or those who buy outside the exchange, cannot get subsidies. And many uninsured people remain confused about how the subsidies work, or are unaware of their existence.

    “The results of this nationwide survey have very different implications for those who are unsubsidized in their health insurance purchases, versus those who are subsidized,” said Kev Coleman, head of research at HealthPocket.com. The insurance comparison site surveyed 1,137 people.

    Time to get that health insurance Time to get that health insurance
    Tuesday, 20 Oct 2015 | 10:00 AM ET | 00:30
    Coleman said that the average nonsubsidized plan on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange was $364 per month in 2015. The average premium for an individual receiving a subsidy was $101 per month, he said.
    Federal officials noted that most customers on HealthCare.gov can and do buy plans that cost them less than $100 per month after subsidy. Almost 8 in 10 marketplace consumers had access to a plan for less than $100 after tax credits, according to a spokesman with the Department of Health and Human Services.

    But Coleman, in a report on its survey, said, “For the subsidized, the average marketplace premiums align well with popular perspectives on health insurance affordability. For the unsubsidized, average marketplace premiums are above the highest affordable premium for more than 4 out of 5 people surveyed.”

    “In fact, the unsubsidized premiums are over two-and-a-half times more expensive than what most consumers claim is the maximum they can afford to pay for health insurance.”

    The HealthPocket.com survey also found that young adults ages 18 to 34 were more likely than others to say $100 or less was the most they could pay for health insurance each month. Young adults as a group are disproportionately more likely than others to lack insurance. And young adults are much desired by insurance plans because they are less apt to make claims for benefits even as they pay premiums that help cover others’ medical coverage.
    “These results also help explain why the government has had a tough time reaching enrollment targets for young adults,” Coleman said.

    An agent from Sunshine Life and Health Advisors offers insight to potential enrollees in Miami about the plans available last year under the Affordable Care Act.
    Feds lower sights on 2016 Obamacare enrollment
    The survey’s results come less than two weeks before open enrollment in Obamacare plans is set to begin, on Nov. 1, and before final prices of 2016 policies have been announced.
    Coleman noted that HealthPocket’s research has previously shown that the prices of Obamacare plans would grow by an average of 12 percent, presubsidy, if they were approved as requested by insurers.

    “The question is, how much of this is going to get approved,” Coleman said.

    The survey comes a week after the Obama administration announced a modest forecast for how many people are expected to be enrolled in health plans sold on government-run exchanges by the end of 2016.

    The administration estimates that 10 million people will be enrolled by that time. That’s less than 1 million more than the number of people it projects will be enrolled as of the end of this year. Overall, the administration expects that more than 1 in 4 eligible currently uninsured people will sign up on the exchange.

    “We’re starting this year with significantly fewer” eligible people, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said last week. “And they’re a little harder to reach.”
    An HHS official on Tuesday acknowledged to CNBC that many of the uninsured don’t know about the financial assistance available to them and said the agency has focused for three years on “educating Americans about financial help” that they can get.

    Nearly 80 percent of the uninsured have less than $1,000 in savings, HHS noted. And nearly 60 percent are confused about subsidies available to help lower the cost of insurance or don’t even know that such assistance is available.

    Demonstrator Elodie Huttner holds a sign in support of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, Obamacare, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on Wednesday, March 4, 2015.
    If GOP wins White House, what next for Obamacare?
    Federal officials, when asked about the HealthPocket.com survey, pointed to data that show how millions of people who purchase insurance on the federal Obamacare exchange pay less than $100 per month in premiums.

    Of 7.7 million HealthCare.gov customers who were eligible for subsidies as of last spring, 77 percent could have selected a plan that cost them $50 or less per month in premium after their subsidy was factored in, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates that exchange. A total of 38 percent of those eligible customers actually selected such a plan.

    And 89 percent of subsidy-eligible customers could have selected a plan that would have cost them $100 maximum after the financial assistance, CMS said. A total of 63 percent of eligible customers actually selected such plans.

    The same people who are having hissy fits now are the same ones who said that Obama was going to kill all the grannies with “death panels”

  12. john says:

    Is there ANYONE posting here that actually has had a bad experience with ACA or is this more of ” heard some bad things about ObamaCare”_?

  13. Dana says:

    Oh, good grief! Jeffrey wrote:

    The answer is clear. It was a mistake to allow the health insurance companies to profit from the ACA.

    And now, the truth: private health insurers have lost nearly $2 billion this year alone . . . and the year isn’t over yet.

    Only a leftist would think that insurance companies would be pulling out of profitable businesses and markets.

  14. Dana says:

    Another part of the truth: insurers losing almost $2 billion on ACA policies this year alone means that the private insurance companies have been, in effect, subsidizing the ACA plans. Once they quit doing that, you’ll see both premiums and government expenses rise to make up for that lost subsidy.

  15. Dana says:

    And more of the truth: all of those good people getting government ‘subsidies’ to help pay for their Obysmalcare premiums? From where does that money come? Yup, you guessed it: it’s coming from the federal government, which means it’s coming from the tax dollars of more productive people, tax dollars from people who actually work for a living. I’m having to work harder, so that more of the fruits of my labor can be taxed away, to subsidize someone else’s health insurance.

    Let’s face facts: the subsidies are just one more part of less productive people sticking their filthy hands into the pockets of harder working people.

    Most people are appalled at armed robbery, but at least when you get mugged, it’s a one-time thing. Under Obaminablecare, you are getting mugged every payday.

  16. Liam Thomas says:

    John all your pointing out is that WITH SUBSIDIES ACA is cheap….well yeah anything is cheap if somebody else pays 90 percent of it…..

    for the middle class….ACA is not cheap so stop pretending your for the MIddle class….the middle class is getting hammered by ACA because they get no subsidies and companies are opting out of offering insurance and just giving a family a credit towards buying their own.

    The ACA is a disaster for all but those poor people who never had insurance to start with and even then….many poor cant even afford 50 dollars a month.

  17. Liam Thomas says:

    Is there ANYONE posting here that actually has had a bad experience with ACA or is this more of ” heard some bad things about ObamaCare”_?

    IF YOU WOULD ACTUALLY READ ANYONES POST…….i posted a week or so back that 1. Ive been waiting for rotator cuff surgery for almost 3 years now….Im continually being forced into therapy and drugs while they wait for me to fall under medicare and dont have to pay.
    2. My daughter was diagnosed with a brain mass….her insurnace company is arguing with the neurosurgeon over an operation…claiming that medicine will fix what ails here…..seriously…….1-150 people respond to medicine which could actually dissolve the mass…..the neurrsurgeon says no the insurance company says yes…and oh btw you cant do a pet scan but once a year to find out if its working…..cause those are expensive….you have to do less reliable MRI’s which are far more cheaper…….

    News flash…boy genius under obamacare….were all gonna die but not to worry…they will prescribe aspirins and send you home and the great news!!!…………NO COPAYS!!!

  18. Rev.Hoagie® says:

    I was just five minutes ago typing a comment at Patterico when my phone went off with a “Notice of review and determination” from IBX (Independence Blue Cross) about a 60% rise in our group policy. I am directed to the web site for information about disputes. I went to look and got off before I went nuts. Being 4:45 pm I think I’ll wait till tomorrow to log on and get pissed off.

  19. Jeffery says:

    Laim,

    My condolences on your troubles. I didn’t know you and your daughter had signed up for Obamacare.

  20. Jl says:

    If only there had been some way to know that this was going to be such a disaster……

  21. Liam Thomas says:

    My condolences on your troubles. I didn’t know you and your daughter had signed up for Obamacare.

    Cute….but this is more reason why your no ceo of a corporation or you would know this stuff.

    The company Insurance policy is the same corporation that is in the pool of ACA companies….in order to keep their costs down they are passing along the good news to everyone. Meaning for bright janitors like you they have to cover the poor and sickly along with those they have contracted to cover via company insurance plans.

    Incidently 10 years ago our insurance paid 80 percent of expenses….20 years ago it paid 90 percent. Today its 50 percent and the cost to the employer has steadily gone up meaning that pay raises have steadily declined in the last 20 years.

    Now I dont blame ACA for that as much as I do the ACA….I believe that we need a good solid health care program in the USA but universal health care or medicare for all is going to bankrupt America….

    DISBAND THE MILITARY and plow that 600 billion into healthcare and you still wont touch the deficits Universal health care will create.

    Additionally…..As Ive said before Universal health care will force nationalizing of the healthcare industry because your simply going to put nearly every health care company in the USA out of business by paying peanuts on the dollar.

  22. Liam Thomas says:

    Now I dont blame ACA for that as much as I do the ACA

    As much as I do the health care industry and insurance companies.

    To wit….look at how much it costs to paint a car nowadays…..7-12 thousand dollars….

    RE-Fuking-TARDED….but why can they charge that much? Because probably 95 percent of their business is paid for by insurance companies who simply pay whatever the dealer wants….and in return they just keep jacking up the rates of customers to keep paying for it…..Same with the Healthcare industry….they charge 25 bucks for an aspirin…np…they just pass it along to the customer….

    Well NOW the ACA has forced insurance agencies to simply CUT BENEFITS while RAISING prices….

    Its as you say…economics 101….and Universal health care in this country will be a monumental disaster.

  23. Jeffery says:

    Universal healthcare has been successful in almost every advanced nation on Earth, covering all their residents for about half what the US pays per person. How can Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland… etc etc do something that the greatest nation in the history of nations cannot manage?

    What’s interesting is that these nations take different routes to insure all their residents for much less than we pay. Japan is different from England is different from France is different from Israel, yet they all have found a way.

    For some reason we prefer to exact a trillion dollar a year “tax” on our citizens, redistributing money from the working classes to the leisure classes. But of course we know why. Every policy we enact rewards the wealthy at the expense of the working classes. It’s the conservative way.

  24. drowningpuppies says:


    … yet they all have found a way.

    –that little guy who lied about joining the army

    They’ve never had to deal with that economic clusterfuck called Obamacare.

  25. drowningpuppies says:


    ObamaCare is quickly becoming such a disaster that the president wants to be called Barry Soetoro again.

    WH PRESS SECRETARY
    @weknowwhatsbest

  26. Dana says:

    Jeffrey wrote:

    Universal healthcare has been successful in almost every advanced nation on Earth, covering all their residents for about half what the US pays per person. How can Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland… etc etc do something that the greatest nation in the history of nations cannot manage?

    Successful? I s’pose it depends on how you look at it. Yeah, Japan and Canada and the UK all have ‘free’ medical care, but they are taking the same steps our VA took to reduce costs, delaying appointments, stretching out care, negatively impacting the quality of care because they have to provide more quantity of care.

    Here in the US, people who can pay for medical care get good medical care, prompt medical care, better medical care than anywhere else. I do not want to trade my good medical care for the crap care of Canada just so that people who can’t pay for care can get it, and I do not want to shell out more of what I earn to support lazy scumbags who will not work.

  27. Dana says:

    This is the basic problem with liberal “thought.” Somehow, the left believe that just because a person is here, he somehow has the right to stick his hands in other people’s pockets, to take the fruits of other people’s work to support the indolent and indigent.

    The Thirteenth Amendment supposedly ended slavery, but the left would make all of us who work the slaves of those who will not, to feed, clothe and shelter them.

  28. Jeffery says:

    LOL. Boohoo, rich people are the real slaves!

    We all understand your bizarre beliefs about how the nation pays its obligations. Right after WWII when our national debt was greater than now, were the wealthy enslaved by the top marginal rate of 90%? Should we even have borrowed money to defeat the Nazis and Japanese in the first place? You probably favor a stupid balanced budget amendment.

    Between WWII and 1980 we paid off a huge debt while also building massive infrastructure and a burgeoning and optimistic middle class.

    Talk to Aussies or Scots or Canadians about their healthcare. Healthcare in those nations is not free but is paid for from the tax base and is regulated such that 1) everyone is covered, regardless and 2) private profit is taken out of the system.

  29. Liam Thomas says:

    Jeffery what you still fail to grasp about switching to universal health care is:

    1. This is a nation who has trillions and trillions of dollars of private infrastructure health care in place manned by millions of workers.

    2. The countries you point to have always had universal health care and their base of citizens is quite a bit smaller then the USA….there is a saying in England that healthcare sank the British Navy….you wont find that on the internet….you have to talk to actual British citizens which I have quite regularly not only in England but in other places around the world.

    3. Instituting universal health care will drive massive amounts of companies out of business and thus dissolving jobs…..Because they will treat it like medicare…..An example of this is my Mother was billed 243.00 for an office visit….Medicare paid 37.00 and her Supplemental insurance paid 7.40 for a whopping 44.40….her blood draw was 128.00 of which Medicare paid 8.90 and the supplemental paid 3.19 for a whopping 12.09. Pretty easy to see how NO private doctors or hospitals can pay for big clean buildings and pay a huge staff high dollar jobs with benefits when they are getting paid peanuts.

    4. The government will be forced to nationalize the healthcare industry….putting millions out of work…forcing doctors to become dentists.

    5. The age old argument is why would a heart surgeon ever spend 16 years and 500,000.00 in student loans to become a heart surgeon just to be paid 250,000.00 per year…or hell lets say the government goes all exorbitant on us….500k. Compared to a GP making 188,000.00 per year….using VA numbers here.

    6. And even harder Doctor Job that is highly compensated is an ER Surgeon who can tackle nearly any life and death situation from a broken toe to a crushed skull…..Why are they going to spend 16 years of training to EARN the same thing as a GP.

    7. Transitioning to Universal health care in a system in which Doctors are used to making big bucks in the near to long term is going to create a massive Doctor shortage and if anyone on this planet deserves a high paying job its a DOCTOR not a fuking lawyer or politician.

    So that said…enjoy your retirement because the first time you have a serious illness…guess what……2 aspirins and call me in 6 months.

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