White House Threatens Insurance Companies For Telling Truth About Obamacare . . . Again

Kathleen Sebelius is irate health insurance companies are exercising their first amendment right and pointing out recent hikes in health premiums are the result of mandates in President Obama's Heath Care Reform bill. Under changes taking place in the last half of 2010, parents can keep their adult children on the health insurance until age 26, more preventative coverage was mandated, lifetime limes were eliminated and pre-exiting conditions were dropped for those under 18. All these changes will insurance companies money. They are passing that along to consumers and educating the public on why this is happening. The Obama administration doesn't want consumers to know the truth and has issued a near ultimatum to insurance companies. Shut up or else.

AP reported:

President Barack Obama's top health official on Thursday warned the insurance industry that the administration won't tolerate blaming premium hikes on the new health overhaul law.

"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the insurance lobby.

"Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections," Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They'd lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide.

Source: Bluegrass Pundit

The Big Lie of Health Care Reform

This article over on American Thinker is right on all accounts in its description of our current health care system, what is wrong with it, and how the Democrat-Obama-Pelosi-Reid "Reform" Plan will not only make it much much worse, but hand over one sixth of the economy to the control of the federal government:

One-Sixth of the US Economy is threatened with a takeover by the Federal Government on the erroneous rationale that "Tens of millions of people in the US are without health care insurance, and therefore are being denied access to adequate health care." Unjust! Unfair!

This is, of course, an absolute lie. And nor do some large number of people "die every day from lack of health insurance coverage." That too is a lie.

Access to the health care providers (professional services) and medicine (products) of the best health care system in the world is already universal and available to every US Citizen, legal resident, illegal alien, prisoner, detainee, or visitor - regardless of whether anyone is covered by any insurance policy or health plan. For heaven's sake, even the illegal aliens have figured out that anyone who walks into an Emergency Room is required by law (EMTALA) to be treated, regardless of the person's ability to pay.

The Big Lie: Without health care insurance, there is no access to health care.

Health care insurance coverage is but one method of paying for health care products and services. Doctors and hospitals are quite open to accepting cash, checks, or credit cards for their services rendered and have no problem with getting paid directly -- meaning they get their money right away, don't have to fill out and file mounds of bureaucratic paperwork with insurance companies, don't have to worry about what treatments are approved and reimbursable by the insurance companies, etc.

In fact, when health care is directly paid for by a patient, then issues like preexisting conditions, escalating premium rates, denied claims, dropped policies, and all of the regularly lamented shortcomings of the health insurance industry become moot. Case in point: elective surgery such as breast augmentation is a medical procedure that isn't covered by any health insurance, but somehow there doesn't seem to be any access issues to the procedure or lack of them occurring.

And yet most people are led to believe that they simply can't afford to pay for their own health services directly. That's why they purchase health insurance, or their employer purchases it for them as an employee benefit. Actually, this too is a great misunderstanding of the problems with respect to health insurance coverage, which are completely distinct issues from access to actual health care services.

Any form of insurance (Home, Car, Flood, Health Care, etc.) is nothing more than a financial instrument used to mitigate an unacceptable potential financial risk. Insurance wouldn't work unless more people are paying into a common pool than are taking money out of it. The whole idea of insurance coverage is to spread financial risk among many people so that any one member isn't hit with some catastrophic expense should a major need occur. But in many respects, most health insurance coverage has been expanded in scope to become some kind of "Health Services Subscription Club" that pays for many services that really don't represent unacceptable financial risks by themselves.

Indeed, overpaying beyond an individual's actual needs via insurance premiums is a viable means to avoid getting hit with major medical expenses. However, that's why they invented Catastrophic Insurance Policies -- i.e. those cheaper high-deductible plans that don't kick in until direct expenses go over a few thousand dollars.

Regardless, even without any kind of health insurance policy whatsoever or ObamaCare, if someone gets in a car wreck, the ambulance will still respond and take the injured to the Emergency Room, where they will be treated regardless of their ability to pay. It's already the law.

The whole ObamaCare health care reform debate isn't really about people who already have health insurance; rather, it's supposedly being crafted for the benefit of all those who are without coverage, who need it, but can't afford it. Nevertheless, if tomorrow the government bought health insurance policies for everyone who doesn't have one, that wouldn't make access to health care services any more available than they already are.

To the contrary, the law of supply and demand dictates that if 30 million or more new customers are added to a market place (the demand), and there is no proportional increase in the number of service providers (the supply), then prices will go up as service availability goes down -- which means the whole system gets worse for everyone -- not better.

The real issue is that there are those who wish to argue that, despite all the adverse (if not catastrophic) consequences of ObamaCare to the system, health care is a "basic human right" and therefore the basis for a massive new government entitlement program. But health care isn't an "inalienable right" -- it's a basic human necessity -- just like food, clothing and shelter. All of these basic human necessities are bought and sold every day in the free market in the context of the goods and services that they really are.

The simple reality is this: there are those in our society who can afford these necessities, and there are those in our society who can't. For those who can't afford the basic human necessity of proper health care -- just like food, clothing, and shelter -- that need becomes the basis of voluntary charity and aid.

Conversely, the government version of involuntary charity via taxation is called "Welfare." So whether it's private charity or a government welfare program that helps people buy something they otherwise couldn't afford but need, that's fine; just recognize that's the issue -- not an entitled right, not an access or availability problem, not a lack of insurance policies.

Now if making health care more affordable for everyone is really the goal, to thereby lower the threshold of who can readily pay for it directly and/or indirectly via an insurance policy, and thus reduce the necessity of charity and/or welfare for those who need assistance, then free market business forces, scientific and technological advances, along with increased competition -- not intrusive government forces -- are the answers.

Consider one mathematical fact: the purchase of 30 million new insurance policies that cost $5,000 each is only $150 billion, which is a fraction of the real price tag of ObamaCare.

One can therefore reasonably conclude that ObamaCare isn't really about making health care more available or affordable to those who need it and can't afford it. It isn't about lowering insurance costs or reducing the federal deficit -- what has been proposed achieves none of these objectives.

ObamaCare is simply a leviathan of a lie, whose only practical impact for generations to come will be increased welfare state dependency on government, greater government intrusion, and control over people's personal lives and privacy, reduced availability of health care providers as more of them are driven from their professions -- all of which translates to higher and higher costs, which only accelerates the country's financial death spiral.

But that's to be expected: most grandiose plans predicated on lies don't end well.

Robert Gelinas

Howard Dean: Healthcare bill will hurt America

This audio clip from Howard Dean (most famous for his career-breaking "Yeeeeaaahhhhhhgggg!!!", but he is also a medical doctor and was the former Democrat National Committee Chairman), has shocked both sides of the aisle with his recent, revealing comments on the current Obama-Pelosi-Reid-backed Healthcare Reform Legislation.

He admits that "There isn't any insurance reform left in [the current Healthcare Reform bills in the House and Senate] to speak of." He admits that they are nothing more than a Trillion Dollar bail out of insurance companies that will begin un-insuring Americans, make them pay three times as much for healthcare as they do today, and foot our children with the bill for decades to come.

From his own words:

"There isn't any insurance reform left in this bill to speak of." [...]

"What this is is a giant bail out. This is a bail out that makes AIG look cheap. $60 Billion goes to the insurance companies under this bill. Now, if we can get a public option, I think that's okay. But if you don't have a public option, why would we want to stick the tax payers with yet another bail out? They bailed out the banks, they bailed out AIG; this is a TRILLION DOLLAR BAIL OUT." [...]

"I would vote to kill this bill if it does not have a public option, because that is doing harm to the nation....This is a harmful bill to the nation if it does not have a public option because its going to take $Trillions over several decades from our kids. The Republicans are right about the rhetoric of the bill....You're gradually going to start uninsuring people because we're not going to have the money to maintain the system. This does nothing to control costs. "

Listen to the interview here:

I think it's also very revealing that he is very willing to pass this self-described destructive legislation if it gives government control over the healthcare industry. He's concerned when Democrats get nothing out of it, but when they get more POWER, he is willing to stick it to Americans and their children as collateral for empowering his friends in the government. Don't you see what is going on America?!

Democrat Health Care Reform: Support Drops the More You Know About It

There is some surprising information hidden in a recent AP poll. Overall, the poll found 43 percent oppose the health care plans being discussed in Congress, while 41 percent are in support. However, when the consequences of these choices were put in the poll questions, the results dramatically changed.

When poll questions were framed broadly, the answers seemed to indicate ample support for Obama's goals. When required trade-offs were brought into the equation, opinions shifted — sometimes dramatically.

In one striking finding, the poll indicated that public support for banning insurance practices that discriminate against those in poor health may not be as solid as it seems.

A ban on denial of coverage because of pre-existing medical problems has been one of the most popular consumer protections in the health care debate. Some 82 percent said they favored the ban, according to a Pew Research Center poll in October.

In the AP poll, when told that such a ban would probably cause most people to pay more for health insurance, 43 percent said they would still support doing away with pre-existing condition denials, but 31 percent said they would oppose it.

Support for banning coverage because of pre-existing medical problems declined by almost 40% when it was explained to people that their health insurance costs would likely increase because of this change. Support for mandatory health insurance coverage flipped when people understood there would be a federal penalty for those who failed to take insurance.

For example, asked if everyone should be required to have at least some health insurance, 67 percent agreed and 27 percent said no.

The responses flipped when people were asked about requiring everybody to carry insurance or face a federal penalty: 64 percent said they would be opposed, while 28 percent favored that.

Both the House and Senate bills would require all Americans to get health insurance, either through an employer, a government program or by buying their own coverage. Subsidies would be provided for low-income people, as well as many middle-class households.

This poll seems to indicate the public is poorly informed about the consequences of passing Obamacare. Once the trade-off are made clear, support for the Democrats health care reform bill collapses. Unfortunately, the state run media will continue to shill for Obamacare and do a poor job of educating the public.

[Reposted from Bluegrass Pundit]

Single Payer, or Public Option? Where Obama's "Competative" Healthcare Bill is Going

This video from verumserum reveals the truth about the "public option" promised in the Healthcare Reform ("Obamacare") bill being pushed through congress.


http://www.youtube.com/v/7p_mUwzoYcc&hl=en&fs=1&

More here . . .

Baucus Bill to Skyrocket Insurance Premiums

Health Insurance companies engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to examine the impact of the Baucus Health Care reform bill on private insurance premiums. The results are startling. The audit examined the impact of four key changes in the health care reform legislation and found private health insurance premiums will rise by 111% over the next 10 years if these provisions are enacted.


Here is what this means in dollar values.

This analysis shows that the cost of the average family coverage is approximately $12,300 today and could be expected to increase to approximately:

• $15,500 in 2013 under current law and to $17,200 if these provisions are implemented.

• $18,400 in 2016 under current law and to $21,300 if these provisions are implemented.

• $21,900 in 2019 under current law and to $25,900 if these provisions are implemented.

This analysis shows that the cost of the average single coverage is $4,600 today and could be expected to increase to:

• $5,800 in 2013 under current law and to $6,400 if these provisions are implemented.

• $6,900 in 2016 under current law and to $7,900 if these provisions are implemented.

• $8,200 in 2019 under current law and to $9,700 if these provisions are implemented.

Democrats and the White House claim this analysis is unfair because it does not consider subsidies to the poor and lower middle class. Of course, not everyone will receive these subsidies. The insurance industry responds that subsidies don't change the fact prices will increase.

Effects of Obamacare on Medicare Censored : Humana ordered to stop telling seniors how their benefits will be cut under Obama's health care plan.

Humana recently sent out mailers to their senior clients, warning them that the obvious result of the government's planned $500 billion in medicare cuts will be a reduction in their benefits. The Humana mailer focused squarely on the Medicare Advantage program.

"While these programs need to be made more efficient, if the proposed funding cut levels become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable," it said.

It urged seniors to sign up with Humana for regular updates on the health care legislation, and encouraged them to contact their lawmakers in Washington.

Obama's HHS office took offense at Humana exercising their free speech rights with the truth and ordered the company to immediately halt any such mailings, and remove any related materials from its Web site. In the letter, the government also said it may take other action against Humana.

Here is a screen shot of the mailer. Click image for a larger view.

PDF of full mailer is here.

Although there is nothing misleading about this mailer, HHS alleged that seniors were so senile they would mistake the mailer for an official Medicare communication.

The HHS did not, however, have any problems with AARP's bulletin to their members that incorrectly claims that Medicare benefits will not be affected.

Not only is this a blatant disregard of the first amendment, but it is an example of the Obama administration abusing its power by silencing the counter-arguments of its critics. If Obama and the Democrat's plan really is better, it should stand up to the scrutiny and debate of both sides. Silencing the arguments of one's opponents is a tactic of a totalitarian government, not a democracy.

Alternative to Obamacare: HR 3400

You probably don't know this, but there actually is an alternative bill to the unpopular Health Care Reform bill Obama and the Democrats in congress and trying to push on the American people. Democrat leadership has stalled the bill in committee so they can keep falsely accusing Republicans of having "no better alternatives."

Empowering Patients First Act - HR 3400

Bill Status: Referred to House Committee (stuck in committee)

Bill Summary: Introduced in House 7/30/09

The Empowering Patients First Act (H.R. 3400) would allow:

• Individuals to choose their health insurance (no mandates)
• Deductibility of health insurance premiums regardless of who pays
• Employers to provide flexible health insurance options to employees
• Health insurance coverage for low-income families (300 percent of the federal poverty level)
• Health insurance for high-risk individuals (pre-existing conditions)
• Sale of health insurance across state lines
• Expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
• Individual membership association health insurance plan
• Association Health Insurance Plans
• Medical liability limitations (Tort reform)

Bill Text: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3400ih.txt.pdf

Shhhh! There’s a Republican Alternative to Democrat-Care; Don’t Let Anyone Know!

August 31, 2009
By Herman Cain

The Republican alternative to Democrat-care, which liberals don’t want you to know about, has been hijacked. They don’t want people to know about it because the Astroturf, un-American crazies might like it.

The “Empowering Patients First Act” (H.R 3400) was introduced by Representative Tom Price (R-GA) and 27 co-sponsors on July 30, 2009 prior to the congressional recess. It was then referred to eight House committees.

The head hijacker is Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As Congressman Price pointed out during a radio interview with me last week, the rules in the House assert that bills will remain in committees “for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker.” Thank you Nancy!

[Read the whole article]

Part II: More Health Care Problems

In Part I: America's Health Care Problems I talked about the problems we have with health care in America today. Too much bureaucracy in insurance plans causes too much of your money paid in as premiums and fees to be wasted on company over-head, worker salaries and executive profits. As I said, "The dirty secret is that if you saved up all the money you pay the insurance company in a savings account and paid for your health care from it, you would save a lot of money over your life." I also talked about how the government health care programs are exponentially worse because they do things a private insurance company would go to jail for doing: They unconscionably deny and ration care to cut costs, give free treatment to court the vote of groups that don't pay into the system and borrow billions from China to delay the inevitable collapse of their pyramid scheme. Finally, we debunked the claim that $50 million Americans are without health insurance and showed the figure to be more around $5 million.

I will now discuss a few more problems that are driving up health care costs in America.

Problem 4: Trial Lawyer Profiteering

Lawyers are some of the richest, most powerful special interest groups in America. Their interest includes suing doctors for exceptionally large settlements so that they can keep a large chunk of the cash. This has two main effects: 1) Doctors must pay for extremely expensive malpractice insurance to cover themselves if they get sued--between $70k and $275k per year (source), depending on where and what they practice. 2) Doctors routinely order unnecessary tests and xrays to cover themselves if they need to go to court. These costs are all, of course, passed on to the fees that doctors and hospitals charge to their patients. While "Tort Reform" has been widely pushed, it has never been taken seriously by politicians because of the incredible lobbying power of trial lawyers.

Problem 5: Coverage Denials due to Pre-Existing Conditions

Because insurance reduces down to a simple function of money in and less money out, most insurance companies deny applicants with pre-existing conditions. This is because it makes no sense and is not fair to everyone else to pay for the expensive medical care of a newcomer, who has paid nothing into the system, with the money of everyone else, who has been paying in all their lives. (Remember, insurance doesn't create money, it just makes your money available when you need it.) One possible way around this problem is for insurance companies to create policies that will cover everything but the pre-existing condition, thereby putting you on the same playing field as everyone else. Unfortunatley, that is currently illegal. As for the people who cannot pay for treatment of their pre-exisitng condition and haven't been paying into a plan all their lives, they are left to the "mercy" of medicare, medicaid and possibly SSI, all on the tab of hard-working taxpayers.

Problem 6: Government Supported Insurance Monopolies

Not only does the government require insurance companies to charge individuals and families for services they don't need--pediatrics for the elderly, geriatrics for young people, general care for people who pay for their own out-of-pocket--many states don't let you buy insurance from companies outside of the state. Recently the Wall Street Journal discovered that an insurance policy that costs $5,880 per year in New Jersey only costs $1000 in Kentucky. The lack of free-market competition in health care insurance allows favored companies to over-charge their customers because the law prevents them from taking their business elsewhere.

Part I: America's Health Care Problems

Problem 1: Health Insurance Plans

Only 87% of the premiums you pay to the insurance company goes to pay for healthcare costs. The rest goes to pay for the company’s administrative costs and profit. (source) And the truth is, much less than 87% pays for your health care because the money is not paid out evenly for each policy. The guy having brain surgery is using much more than his share than you are.

If you think about it you will realize it is true: You could not possibly get your money’s worth out of your insurance company or they could never stay in business. They have to make sure they pay out less money then you pay in one of three ways: raising your premiums and fees, denying certain procedures, paying doctors and hospitals less. That’s why your insurance probably only lets you go to certain doctors: they’ve cut a deal with these doctors to pay them less for their services. What they don’t tell you is that you end up paying more than the amount they save paying the doctor. The dirty secret is that if you saved up all the money you pay the insurance company in a savings account and paid for your health care from it, you would save a lot of money over your life.


Problem 2: Government Health Care Programs

As messed up as Health Insurance seems, it has nothing on government health care programs. Medicare has all of the problems of private Health Insurance companies, compounded exponentially by the unfortunate fact that they are the government and feel they are above the laws and rules of normal businesses. The government automatically seizes your “premiums” for medicare, whether you plan on using it or not. They then take your money and spend it on whatever they want: paying bloated government salaries, pet environmental and social programs, etc. To court the vote of minorities, they give healthcare to people who pay little or nothing into the pot.

The situation is so bad, the government would never dream of releasing where all the money goes like insurance companies are required to do.  By 2012 it is estimated that medicare will eat up one in five tax dollars.  By 2030, Medicare will claim one in three dollars and by 2050, that number rises to one in every two tax dollars. Obviously, our government’s health care spending spree cannot last forever; we cannot afford to spend half of our tax dollars on people’s medical bills!

The government has notoriously already begun the necessary steps to keep the scheme going: raising taxes, denying/rationing more and more procedures, slashing reimbursements to doctors and hospitals (to the point where many are going out of business) and borrowing massive amounts of money from China. At least private insurance companies have to follow the laws: the government can confiscate your money and offers no guarantee of health care benefits.


Problem 3: The Uninsured

Obama and Democrats keep touting the statistic that 46.6 million Americans were without health care insurance in 2005. First of all, this statistic is disingenuously misleading. After subtracting out the 37% of these people who make over $50k and could afford health insurance if they wanted, the 20% who are not US citizens and therefore do not pay into the system, and the 33% who are already being covered by existing government programs, there only about $4 million left who are without health insurance and in need. However, even these people receive free medical care in emergency rooms and charity clinics. (source)

That being said, the uninsured in America are causing us problems because the government provides them high quality health care with your money!  Illegal immigrants and criminals in prison are given great health care even though they pay nothing of their own money towards it! And then there are our government employees themselves: Providing themselves with the finest health plans the world has ever seen while they talk of rationing care for the public.