Obamacare-What lies ahead

[TC]

What's the point of killing thousands of people if you can't also insider trade on it?

[Deleted]

Kaiser claiming according to their analysis markets are stabilizing...

Concerns about the stability of the individual insurance market under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been raised in the past year following exits of several insurers from the exchange markets, and again with renewed intensity in recent months as debate over repeal of the health law has picked up. Our earlier analysis of premium and claims data from 2011 – 2016 found that insurer financial performance indeed worsened in 2014 and 2015 with the opening of the exchange markets, but showed signs of improving in 2016. A similar analysis by S&P looking at a subset of Blue Cross Blue Shield plans found a comparable pattern.

In this brief, we look at recently-released first quarter financial data from 2017 to examine whether recent premium increases were sufficient to bring insurer performance back to pre-ACA levels. These new data offer more evidence that the individual market has been stabilizing and insurers are regaining profitability.

[SSHoya]

As Congress returns and as leaders of the Senate and House continue their desperate search for ways to pass their health and budget proposals, I have one simple question for those whose votes will decide these matters: Is this really why you came to Washington, to take health care from the sick and food from the hungry?

www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2017/07/10/senators-did-you-come-washington-take-health-care-sick-and-food-hungry

[Deleted]

Despite doomsday rhetoric, Obamacare markets are stabilizing

First quarter results suggest insurers are on a path to profitability.

www.politico.com/story/2017/07/13/obamacare-markets-health-care-240487

“Obamacare is dead,” President Donald Trump frequently declares.

But reports of its demise appear to be premature. For the first time ever this year, insurers selling plans in Obamacare’s markets appear to be on a path toward profitability. And despite the drumbeat of headlines about fleeing insurers, only about 25,000 Obamacare customers live in communities facing the prospect of having no insurer next year.

Insurers in the Obamacare marketplaces spent 75 percent of premiums on medical claims in this year's first quarter, an indication the market is stabilizing and insurers are regaining profitability, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study released this week. By comparison, in the prior two years, insurers spent more than 85 percent of premiums on medical costs during the same period, which translated into huge losses.

“We’re not seeing any evidence of a death spiral or a market collapse,” said Cynthia Cox, Kaiser’s associate director of health reform and private insurance. “Rather, what it looks like is insurers are on track to have their best year since the [Affordable Care Act] began.”

[hoyarooter]

Jul 13, 2017 7:21:19 GMT -5 @yaboynyp said:

Despite doomsday rhetoric, Obamacare markets are stabilizing

First quarter results suggest insurers are on a path to profitability.

www.politico.com/story/2017/07/13/obamacare-markets-health-care-240487

“Obamacare is dead,” President Donald Trump frequently declares.

But reports of its demise appear to be premature. For the first time ever this year, insurers selling plans in Obamacare’s markets appear to be on a path toward profitability. And despite the drumbeat of headlines about fleeing insurers, only about 25,000 Obamacare customers live in communities facing the prospect of having no insurer next year.

Insurers in the Obamacare marketplaces spent 75 percent of premiums on medical claims in this year's first quarter, an indication the market is stabilizing and insurers are regaining profitability, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study released this week. By comparison, in the prior two years, insurers spent more than 85 percent of premiums on medical costs during the same period, which translated into huge losses.

“We’re not seeing any evidence of a death spiral or a market collapse,” said Cynthia Cox, Kaiser’s associate director of health reform and private insurance. “Rather, what it looks like is insurers are on track to have their best year since the [Affordable Care Act] began.”

Nope, more fake news. If Trump says Obamacare is dead, then Obamacare must be dead.

[Deleted]

Why does Pence lie so much?

Why did Pence expand medicaid when he was Governor of Indiana?

Why have Republicans exempted their own insurance from Obamacare rollback?

[Elvado]

A pox on all their houses. I do not favor ACA but the first order of business should be to make any health care law apply to Congress.

[Deleted]

[SSHoya]

Trump is divorced from reality.

But it became quickly apparent that GOP leaders, who were caught off guard by defections of their members Monday night, lacked the votes to abolish parts of the 2010 law outright. Three centrist Republican senators — Susan Collins (Maine), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — all said they would oppose any vote to proceed with an immediate repeal of the law.

www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-suggests-republicans-will-let-aca-market-collapse-then-rewrite-health-law/2017/07/18/5e79a3ec-6bac-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-banner-main_healthcare-844am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0dc811df0026

[SSHoya]

The larger lesson of this sorry episode is that nobody—not McConnell, or Trump, or House Speaker Paul Ryan—can resolve the contradictions of today’s Republican Party. Once the political arm of the Rotary Club and the affluent suburbs, the Party is increasingly one of middle-class and working-class voters, many of whom are big beneficiaries of federal programs, such as Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidies for the purchase of private insurance. But the G.O.P. remains beholden to its richest, most conservative donors, many of whom espouse a doctrine of rolling back the government and cutting taxes, especially taxes applicable to themselves and other very rich people. It was the donors and ideologues, with Ryan as their front man, who led the assault on the Affordable Care Act.

www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-republican-health-care-meltdown?mbid=nl_170718_Daily&CNDID=49123534&spMailingID=11502041&spUserID=MTgzNzEwODU2NDI3S0&spJobID=1201646236&spReportId=MTIwMTY0NjIzNgS2

[Elvado]

Jul 18, 2017 13:38:22 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

The larger lesson of this sorry episode is that nobody—not McConnell, or Trump, or House Speaker Paul Ryan—can resolve the contradictions of today’s Republican Party. Once the political arm of the Rotary Club and the affluent suburbs, the Party is increasingly one of middle-class and working-class voters, many of whom are big beneficiaries of federal programs, such as Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidies for the purchase of private insurance. But the G.O.P. remains beholden to its richest, most conservative donors, many of whom espouse a doctrine of rolling back the government and cutting taxes, especially taxes applicable to themselves and other very rich people. It was the donors and ideologues, with Ryan as their front man, who led the assault on the Affordable Care Act.

www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-republican-health-care-meltdown?mbid=nl_170718_Daily&CNDID=49123534&spMailingID=11502041&spUserID=MTgzNzEwODU2NDI3S0&spJobID=1201646236&spReportId=MTIwMTY0NjIzNgS2

All valid points. Let us not also lose sight of how many of those working class Americans are getting whacked with runaway premium costs under ACA.

These Republican efforts have been cartoonish at best but don't think for one minute that the ACA is good legislation.

[Deleted]

It's the best we got, and certainly better than what we had pre ACA....

Would be nice if they worked to improve it, since it doesn't look like it's going away...

[hoyarooter]

Jul 18, 2017 12:42:25 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Trump is divorced from reality.

But it became quickly apparent that GOP leaders, who were caught off guard by defections of their members Monday night, lacked the votes to abolish parts of the 2010 law outright. Three centrist Republican senators — Susan Collins (Maine), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — all said they would oppose any vote to proceed with an immediate repeal of the law.

www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-suggests-republicans-will-let-aca-market-collapse-then-rewrite-health-law/2017/07/18/5e79a3ec-6bac-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-banner-main_healthcare-844am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0dc811df0026

Wimmen rule.

[Deleted]

12 dollars a year for insurance..

Ok bud....

Trump administration used Obamacare promotional money to run a major PR effort against the law

www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-used-obamacare-money-to-run-ads-against-it


The Trump administration has spent taxpayer money meant to encourage enrollment in the Affordable Care Act on a public relations campaign aimed at methodically strangling it.

The effort, which involves a multi-pronged social media push as well as video testimonials designed at damaging public opinion of President Obama’s health care law, is far more robust and sustained than has been publicly revealed or realized.

____
Kind of hard to say you want to make sure more people get insured when your actively spending tax dollars to make sure that does not happen..

[Deleted]

We don't know what bill they will vote on yet, but passing a bill that will result in 22-32 million people losing health insurance is a victory for the modern Republican party...

___

Unhappy GOP senators complain about voting on ObamaCare repeal bill without knowing its details: hill.cm/v9glaX1

To be fair the President needs a W, so who really cares.

___

Not a single hearing, no markup, crafted in secret, and no actual final bill just hours before a vote. Republicans are gearing up to walk the plank for a Potus with a sub 40% approval rating, who thinks health insurance costs 12 dollars a year...

[Deleted]

www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2017/04/26/anthems-profits-soar-but-wont-commit-to-obamacare-beyond-this-year/#1dc4220d3cdb

Anthem's Profits Soar But Won't Commit To Obamacare Beyond This Year


Anthem’s profits soared 44% to $1 billion in the first quarter, but wouldn’t rule out reducing its individual product offerings under the Affordable Care Act if the Trump administration and Republican-led Congress don’t fund cost-sharing reductions.

On Wednesday, one avenue for cost-sharing reductions hit a roadblock when House Speaker Paul Ryan said they wouldn't be in an April spending bill , several reports indicate.

AnthemANTM -2.11%, which operates under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield brand in 14 states, remains a major player offering individual coverage under the ACA. Anthem has 1.1 million individual members who purchased policies on public exchanges and is one of the nation’s largest providers of Obamacare, the company said in its first-quarter earnings report.

Like holding a pillow over someones face and saying: See, they're having a hard time breathing...

[hoyainspirit]

Trump and Republicans treat their voters like morons

In an interview with Elaina Plott of Washingtonian magazine, former House majority leader Eric Cantor, who was defeated in a primary in 2014 by a tea party extremist, explains that Republicans knew they were lying to their base about their ability to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they just couldn’t help themselves:

“To give the impression that if Republicans were in control of the House and Senate, that we could do that when Obama was still in office . . . .” His voice trails off and he shakes his head. “I never believed it.”

He says he wasn’t the only one aware of the charade: “We sort of all got what was going on, that there was this disconnect in terms of communication, because no one wanted to take the time out in the general public to even think about ‘Wait a minute—that can’t happen.’ ” But, he adds, “if you’ve got that anger working for you, you’re gonna let it be.”

It’s a stunning admission from a former member of the party leadership—that the linchpin of GOP electoral strategy for the better part of a decade was a fantasy, a flame continually fanned solely because, when it came to midterm elections, it worked. (Barring, of course, his own.)

So now they find themselves with a bill that nearly everyone hates. If it passes (in whatever form), it will be a disaster for the health-care system and will be a political disaster for them as well. But they’ve convinced themselves that the only thing worse politically would be to not pass anything, because that would incur the wrath of those same base voters. In other words, their current position is, “We know how catastrophic this bill would be. But we got here by lying to these knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers for years, and if we don’t follow through, they’ll punish us.” They believe that their voters will say, “Okay, so I lost my health coverage because of you, but you’ll get my vote again because you kept your promise.”

That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of outright malice in what Republicans are doing, because there is. Their contempt for people who struggle economically is boundless. They’ve wanted to destroy Medicaid for decades, and they just might be able to do it. But their strongest motivation right now is fear, fear of the voters they regard as too dim-witted to be able to make a rational judgment about the most consequential policy question one can imagine.

[tashoya]

Jul 26, 2017 10:48:18 GMT -5 @yaboynyp said:

www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2017/04/26/anthems-profits-soar-but-wont-commit-to-obamacare-beyond-this-year/#1dc4220d3cdb

Anthem's Profits Soar But Won't Commit To Obamacare Beyond This Year


Anthem’s profits soared 44% to $1 billion in the first quarter, but wouldn’t rule out reducing its individual product offerings under the Affordable Care Act if the Trump administration and Republican-led Congress don’t fund cost-sharing reductions.

On Wednesday, one avenue for cost-sharing reductions hit a roadblock when House Speaker Paul Ryan said they wouldn't be in an April spending bill , several reports indicate.

AnthemANTM -2.11%, which operates under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield brand in 14 states, remains a major player offering individual coverage under the ACA. Anthem has 1.1 million individual members who purchased policies on public exchanges and is one of the nation’s largest providers of Obamacare, the company said in its first-quarter earnings report.

Like holding a pillow over someones face and saying: See, they're having a hard time breathing...

This from members of the pro-life, Christian, family values party. How many times does this administration have to speak and act in direct opposition to their professed values for their supporters that actually do value those things to abandon them? How soon Paul Ryan has forgotten that he was able to attend college in part due to Social Security survivors' benefits.

Pro-life, in the eyes of Republican politicians, apparently continues to end at birth. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. They'll do their best to keep you tired, even poorer and, if you need help breathing, they're going to charge you up the wazoo. MAGA, indeed. These people are neither Democrats nor Republicans. They're just horrible people that don't deserve to be called representatives of any American, regardless of party affiliation.

[Deleted]

Shot:

Trump's Interior sec called Murkowski to say her No on health would damage the state's standing with the admin: www.adn.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-administration-signals-that-murkowskis-health-care-vote-could-have-energy-repercussions-for-alaska/ …

Trump administration signals that Murkowski’s health care vote could have energy repercussions for Alaska


Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a "troubling message."

"I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," Sullivan said.

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. … We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear," Sullivan said

Nice state you have there....

In normal times Zinke would be investigated by the Inspector General and maybe the Department of Justice for making such a threat... In Trump world we call this, Wednesday...

[Deleted]

Chaser:

They still don't know what's in the bill... They still don't have a clue what they are voting for... It still effects 1/6 of the economy. Even more troubling, judging by the quote below, they don't care what's in it...

What's in our bill is "Not the point" the point is to pass anything with "repeal" in the name regardless of impact... Sweet deal for Americans worried about their coverage...