Showing posts with label
political constituency building through other people's money.
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Showing posts with label
political constituency building through other people's money.
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“The Congressional Budget Office score of the American Health Care Act shows that the bill will reduce deficits by $119 billion over the next decade and result in 23 million more people being uninsured by 2026. This leaves the impression that people would be better off if Obamacare were unchanged. But a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services dispels this myth.
The DHHS report shows that premiums in the individual market exchanges increased by 105 percent in the 39 states using Healthcare.gov from 2013 to 2017. This is equivalent to $244 per month in additional premium payments for people buying insurance through the exchanges, or $2,928 over the course of a year. People not eligible for exchange subsidies are fully exposed to these increases, while taxpayers will bear the brunt in the form of higher outlays for subsidies for enrollees who are eligible.
Despite the promises that Obamacare would “cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year,” average premiums on the exchanges more than doubled over this period. In some states, such as Alabama and Alaska, the average premium more than tripled.
The high average increase is not driven by a few outliers, as 23 out of the 39 states included in the analysis experienced premium increases in excess of 105 percent. Only three states, North Dakota, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, had cumulative premium increases below 50 percent.” - Memo to CBO: Obamacare Is Unsustainable, economics21.org, 05/24/2017
Link to the entire article appears below:
https://economics21.org/html/memo-cbo-obamacare-unsustainable-2364.html
‘Taxpayers will spend $9.8 billion more on Obamacare subsidies next year than this year due to double-digit increases in premiums, according to a report from the Center for Health and Economy.
The Obama administration announced in October that Obamacare premiums were set to increase by double digits, increasing at a faster rate than they have in the past.
“For the median HealthCare.gov consumer, the benchmark second-lowest silver plan premium is increasing by 16 percent this year, before taking into account the effects of financial assistance,” the administration said. According to the center, the silver benchmark plan premiums will increase by 22 percent.
The administration rarely admits that taxpayer subsidies are increasing to cover rising costs, although they often tout those subsidies for protecting Obamacare customers from higher premiums.
Of the 11.1 million individuals enrolled in Obamacare last year, 9.4 million received tax credits averaging $291. The report estimates that $32.8 billion was spent last year on tax subsides for Obamacare premiums.
“Because of the distributions of the population in the marketplace and the lack of household income growth to match premiums, we expect the average monthly tax credit to increase by 26 percent to $367,” the report said. “If we assume that the proportion of enrollees receiving premium tax credits remains the same from 2016 to 2017, then the expected federal spending on premium tax credits for 2017 would be $42.6 billion.”- Obamacare Tax Subsidies Will Increase by $9.8 Billion Due to Premium Hikes
Tax credit spending will rise to $42.6 billion in 2017 from $32.8 billion in 2016,
freebeacon.com, 12/16/2017
Link to the entire article appears below:
http://freebeacon.com/issues/obamacare-tax-subsidies-will-increase-9-8-billion-due-premium-hikes/
‘Most Americans don’t want to get rid of Obamacare. They just don’t share its fundamental goal of universal coverage anymore.
And not only did the political benefits that Democrats thought the 2010 law would eventually bring them not materialize, opposition has only grown, according to an analysis of multiple polls taken between 2010 and last month.
“There have been backlashes, but never like this,” said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the analysis released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
That backlash doesn’t appear directed at the mechanics of the law but at its underlying core principle.
Only 47 percent of Americans agree that it’s the government’s job to make sure everyone has health coverage, down from 69 percent in 2006, the analysis found. That shift is particularly pronounced among likely voters. Of those who are most likely to show up at the polls on Nov. 4, one in four believe in this principle.
The study includes a new poll of likely voters by the Harvard School of Public Health showing that while only 31 percent want to see Obamacare repealed, 23 percent want it scaled back. This coalition of Republicans and independents could represent a mandate for congressional efforts to diminish the sweeping overhaul four years after it was enacted — and with millions of people now covered under its provisions.
The debate is now “about whether or not you believe you want to get everybody covered,” Blendon said. “Something happened on the way to the forum here that made that a much more controversial value.”’ - Obamacare brings Democrats backlash, not benefits, politico.com, 10/29/2014
Link to the entire article appears below:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=E93E6E38-06EE-49CA-894A-7C42C716C143
“WASHINGTON — White House officials sought valuable primetime air for a rare, impromptu Tuesday night address to tout the accomplishment of signing up more than 7 million people under the Affordable Care Act.
But network officials refused to make the kind of accommodation they did previously for the announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, for instance, and Obama was left instead cutting into the much smaller audiences of Ellen and other daytime shows.
Three sources familiar with the request confirmed the White House asked for the primetime slot in their effort both to emphasize a bright moment following the challenging roll out and, more important, to try to reintroduce the country to a law that remains unpopular. One top White House official referred BuzzFeed to another top official for comment on the conversation with networks, but the second official did not respond to a request for comment.
People familiar with the request declined to reveal which network blocked the primetime address, but broadcast networks have traditionally been much more reluctant than cable networks to provide the White House with evening air time.
Instead of the primetime speaking slot the White House wanted, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden lauded the accomplishment in a less formal Rose Garden address that was alternately celebratory and hard-edged.” - Networks Snub Obama On Primetime Health Care Address, buzzfeed.com, 04/03/2014
Link to entire article appears below:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/the-white-house-tried-to-get-network-primetime-on
‘WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's healthcare law could have a "meltdown" and make it difficult for his Democratic Party to keep control of the U.S. Senate next year if ongoing problems with the program are not resolved, a Democratic senator said on Sunday.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has urged delaying a penalty for people who do not enroll for health insurance in 2014 under the law, told CNN that a transitional year was needed for the complex healthcare program, commonly known as Obamacare, to work.
"If it's so much more expensive than what we anticipated and if the coverage is not as good as what we had, you've got a complete meltdown at that time," Manchin told CNN's "State of the Union" program.
"It falls of its own weight, if basically the cost becomes more than we can absorb, absolutely."‘
‘Manchin said Senate Democrats who are up for re-election next year are "feeling the weight" of the program's woes and could have trouble keeping their majority in the chamber.’
‘"It needs to turn around," Manchin said of Obamacare. "I'm not going to say that I think we will lose it (the Senate). It's going to be extremely challenging. We have some very good people who are truly there, I believe, for the right reason. They're going to be challenged for the wrong reason."‘ - Democratic senator says Obamacare could have 'meltdown,' hurt party, 12/22/2013, Yahoo.com
Link to the entire article appears below:
http://news.yahoo.com/democratic-senator-says-obamacare-could-39-meltdown-39-172125028.html
Observation: If one reads the article then reflects upon its content, one comes away with a second, alternate impression. How so? Manchin is basically stating that Obamacare's intention was not insurance. Rather, Obamacare's intention was/is a political constituency building exercise with other people's money. The political constituency building exercise is backfiring and hence a liability to those depending on the political constituency building exercise, to in fact, build constituency. The backfire is: This particular political constituency building exercise is building constituency for competing politicos.
‘WASHINGTON — Already under fierce attack from Republicans over the new health care law, President Obama now faces broad and mounting Democratic concerns that the troubled start of the insurance program will cut into the political benefit the party received from the government shutdown and cost Democratic candidates in next year’s mid-term elections.’
‘ “I don’t think there’s confidence by anyone in the room,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat up for re-election next year, as he emerged from the closed-door meeting in the Capitol. “This is more a show-me moment.”
The anxious include not only senators and House members facing hotly contested races but those whose seats are considered safe, as well as lawmakers in states with Republican governors who have done nothing to promote the health care law and in states with Democratic governors who have created state-run websites and made every effort to sign up the uninsured.’
‘McDonough promised that the president would keep up the messaging war with the law’s opponents, and to be back in three weeks for another session.’ - Troubled Start for Health Law Has Democrats Feeling Anxious, NYT, 10/31/2013
Link to the entire article appears below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/us/politics/troubled-start-for-health-law-has-democrats-feeling-anxious.html?_r=0
