Obamacare: Anatomy of a Fraud

[nannygovtsucks]

If you think the Democrat accounting isn't deceptive, you are a fool. If you think we can add 30 million people to Medicare and save money, you are a fool or a liar. Obamacare is a fiscal train wreck.

Wait a minute. Why do we need to add 30 million people to Medicare when it was the insurance companies fault that there were never any policies for them in the first place? If Obamacare is such a train wreck why didn't the insurance companies step in and innovate fixes so that Obamacare needn't be proposed at all? If government can never be responsible for fixing anything, why did they ignore this problem for over 15 years since the Hillarycare debacle? This problem could be repaired tomorrow if they wanted it to, but no one is going to ask them are they? Better the cost come out of your pocket instead of the insurance companies, stop whining, this is a problem completely self inflicted, get over it.

It's always the insurance companies fault I guess. For they should have provided money losing policies all along to heavy smokers, drinkers, and drug addicts, just to see if it would affect their bottom line.

Since the New deal the US Gov't has attempted to tax and spend their way out of trillions of dollars of problems - yet the left cries every day for more money.

Wake up and smell the coffee - the party's over - the entitlements are taking this train over the cliff, and the liberals want to add more debt will solve the problem.

A year ago, the insurance companies had a golden opportunity to influence future legislation and come up with a plan that would solve this problem once and for all. They elected instead to spend billions lobbying a defeat for Obama's plan and continue with what we had. They refuse to dip into their pockets to solve this problem and instead, making your checkbook accessible to the government. If you haven't noticed this is the same as the banks, just a different name, same people get screwed. Now remind me once more who are the real bad guys here?

Ask yourself why there is a problem with medical insurance in the first place. Why not with auto insurance, or fire insurance, or life insurance, or flood insurance? Can you answer that question? If you can, you will have the answer as to what needs to be done. Hint: It does not involve more fucking government in your life.

 

[Jim M]

If you think the Democrat accounting isn't deceptive, you are a fool. If you think we can add 30 million people to Medicare and save money, you are a fool or a liar. Obamacare is a fiscal train wreck.

Wait a minute. Why do we need to add 30 million people to Medicare when it was the insurance companies fault that there were never any policies for them in the first place? If Obamacare is such a train wreck why didn't the insurance companies step in and innovate fixes so that Obamacare needn't be proposed at all? If government can never be responsible for fixing anything, why did they ignore this problem for over 15 years since the Hillarycare debacle? This problem could be repaired tomorrow if they wanted it to, but no one is going to ask them are they? Better the cost come out of your pocket instead of the insurance companies, stop whining, this is a problem completely self inflicted, get over it.

It's always the insurance companies fault I guess. For they should have provided money losing policies all along to heavy smokers, drinkers, and drug addicts, just to see if it would affect their bottom line.

Since the New deal the US Gov't has attempted to tax and spend their way out of trillions of dollars of problems - yet the left cries every day for more money.

Wake up and smell the coffee - the party's over - the entitlements are taking this train over the cliff, and the liberals want to add more debt will solve the problem.

A year ago, the insurance companies had a golden opportunity to influence future legislation and come up with a plan that would solve this problem once and for all. They elected instead to spend billions lobbying a defeat for Obama's plan and continue with what we had. They refuse to dip into their pockets to solve this problem and instead, making your checkbook accessible to the government. If you haven't noticed this is the same as the banks, just a different name, same people get screwed. Now remind me once more who are the real bad guys here?

Ask yourself why there is a problem with medical insurance in the first place. Why not with auto insurance, or fire insurance, or life insurance, or flood insurance? Can you answer that question? If you can, you will have the answer as to what needs to be done. Hint: It does not involve more fucking government in your life.

Is there a problem with medical insurance if they can post profits in excess of $200,000,000,000 per year? Tell me where the line is and where its OK for you to start paying for this stuff out of your own pocket? Oh, and with our regulatory Capitalist system when private enterprise fails to step to the plate to solve societies problems, it falls to government to step in and fix it. Wouldn't have ever happened otherwise.

 

[Regatta Dog]

Is there a problem with medical insurance if they can post profits in excess of $200,000,000,000 per year? Tell me where the line is and where its OK for you to start paying for this stuff out of your own pocket? Oh, and with our regulatory Capitalist system when private enterprise fails to step to the plate to solve societies problems, it falls to government to step in and fix it. Wouldn't have ever happened otherwise.

Cite that, please. It is utter uber bull shit.

Thanks.

 

[Regatta Dog]

A year ago, the insurance companies had a golden opportunity to influence future legislation and come up with a plan that would solve this problem once and for all. They elected instead to spend billions lobbying a defeat for Obama's plan and continue with what we had. They refuse to dip into their pockets to solve this problem and instead, making your checkbook accessible to the government. If you haven't noticed this is the same as the banks, just a different name, same people get screwed. Now remind me once more who are the real bad guys here?

Back that one up too. If you stopped making shit up, you might gain a bit of credibility. Right now, you are in a total dreamworld of a losing argument.

 

[whitehall]

Is there a problem with medical insurance if they can post profits in excess of $200,000,000,000 per year? Tell me where the line is and where its OK for you to start paying for this stuff out of your own pocket? Oh, and with our regulatory Capitalist system when private enterprise fails to step to the plate to solve societies problems, it falls to government to step in and fix it. Wouldn't have ever happened otherwise.

Cite that, please. It is utter uber bull shit.

Thanks.

Hold on a sec, RD. I think Latitude is referring to Congressional Math...

308 Million US residents, legal or otherwise.

$7700 average medical cost per person, per year (2008 Estimates).

$2,371,600,000,000 total US medical expense per year...

3.3% average medical plan profit margins according to this 2009 graph (found on the web, like Latitude's numbers, thus true)

Round up, call $80 Billion net profit

Less actual profit, of course, since 50 Million don't have or chose not to buy insurance last year. But WTF. This is SA. Play along...

Times two, because we are talking Congressional Math. $80 Billion profits plus another $80 billion in political bribes donations...

For a grand total of $166 Billion profit, including $6 Billion Evil CEO bonuses.

Rut row...still not $200 Billion.

Ah yes, almost forgot. Gots to add Tanning Industry Profits, clearly tied to health insurers...

$3.46 Tanning Industry Profits (1975-Present, excluding upgrades to fluorescent tanning bulbs)

Adjusted grand total of $166,000,000,003.46 health insurance/tanning profits.

Reminds me, Regatta. I still have to send you directions to that BCBS tanning salon downtown Chicago, just off Lower Wacker. Front desk babes aren't quite as hot, loose, oily, or orange as the ones at Allstate and State Farm salons over on Wabash but they operate on only 1.5% margin and pass savings on to YOU, their loyal customers, so it all evens out).

Rut row....still missing $34 Billion.

Hell, we're talking Congressional Math here. Lets just toss in Medtronic's total $48 Billion annual profit (4X most recent quarterly profit), minus $10 Billion floating debt, carry the one, round to the nearest billion, and adjourn for the day. They have "Med" in their name, after all. Close enough for government work.

$200 Billion net profit. Got it, Latitude.

 

[GRUMPY]

Subtle message from O re healthcare....

 

[Mark K]

Is there a problem with medical insurance if they can post profits in excess of $200,000,000,000 per year? Tell me where the line is and where its OK for you to start paying for this stuff out of your own pocket? Oh, and with our regulatory Capitalist system when private enterprise fails to step to the plate to solve societies problems, it falls to government to step in and fix it. Wouldn't have ever happened otherwise.

Cite that, please. It is utter uber bull shit.

Thanks.

Agree. They only racked up a paltry $12 billion in profits in 2009, not 200. Next year should be much better though.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/06/more-small-businesses-offering-health-care-to-employees-thanks-to-obamacare/

 

[Saorsa]

Is there a problem with medical insurance if they can post profits in excess of $200,000,000,000 per year? Tell me where the line is and where its OK for you to start paying for this stuff out of your own pocket? Oh, and with our regulatory Capitalist system when private enterprise fails to step to the plate to solve societies problems, it falls to government to step in and fix it. Wouldn't have ever happened otherwise.

Cite that, please. It is utter uber bull shit.

Thanks.

Agree. They only racked up a paltry $12 billion in profits in 2009, not 200. Next year should be much better though.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/06/more-small-businesses-offering-health-care-to-employees-thanks-to-obamacare/

That's fucking bizarre. Since it's a tax credit, you can either pay the money to the government in taxes or pay a health insurer. If you pay the health insurer more than your company is making, you get it back as a refund whether you made a profit or not. Basically, it taxpayer funded insurance. No risk to the company. That's claiming that the companies are buying it when, in fact, they are simply acting as the agents of the government.

 

[silent bob]

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free.

 

[Regatta Dog]

Oops!

Medicare official doubts health care law savings
(AP) – 37 minutes ago
 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of the central promises of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law are unlikely to be fulfilled, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday.
 
The landmark legislation probably won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it, Chief Actuary Richard Foster told the House Budget Committee. His office is responsible for independent long-range cost estimates.
 
Foster's assessment came a day after Obama in his State of the Union message told lawmakers that he's open to improvements in the law, but unwilling to rehash the health care debate of the past two years. Republicans want to repeal the landmark legislation that provides coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, but lack the votes.
 
Foster was asked by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., for a simple true or false response on two of the main assertions made by supporters of the law: that it will bring down unsustainable medical costs and will let people keep their current health insurance if they like it.
 
On the costs issue, "I would say false, more so than true," Foster responded.
 
As for people getting to keep their coverage, "not true in all cases."
 
Foster was a thorn in the side to the administration throughout the health care debate, doubting that Medicare cuts would prove to be politically sustainable and raising other questions. An equal opportunity skeptic, he was also a bane to the George W. Bush administration during the debate that led to creation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003. Obama White House officials dispute his analysis and predict that he will be proven wrong about the health care law. Republicans hang on his every word.
 
The comments Wednesday were unusually direct because Foster generally delivers his analysis in complicated technical memos.
 
Foster says analysis by his office shows that the health care law will raise the nation's health care tab modestly because newly insured people will be getting medical services they would have otherwise gone without.
 
Costs could also increase if Medicare cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies turn out to be politically unsustainable over the years. The actuary's office has projected those cuts would eventually force about 15 percent of providers into the red. The health care law funnels savings from the Medicare cuts to provide coverage to uninsured workers and their families.
 
As for people getting to keep their health insurance plan, Foster's office is projecting that more than 7 million Medicare recipients in private Medicare Advantage plans will eventually have to find other coverage, cutting enrollment in the plans by about half.
 
The health care law gradually cuts generous government payments to the plans, so insurers are expected to raise premiums or even drop out. And the main reason seniors have flocked to the private plans is that they offer lower out-of-pocket costs.
 
Medicare recipients who lose private coverage would still be guaranteed coverage in the traditional program, but they would likely have to take out a supplementary insurance plan for gaps in their coverage.
 
Link

 

[nannygovtsucks]

Are you surprised? Everything they said about Obamacare was a lie, and not just the numbers.

From the Washington Examiner:

Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, we know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations:

 

» Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.

 

» As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge.

 

» Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.

 

» Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.

 

» Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.

 

» Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means.

 

» Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure.

 

» Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.

 

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/examiner-editorial-obamacare-even-worse-critics-thought#ixzz1CAiuwjXp

 

[nannygovtsucks]

Are you surprised? Everything they said about Obamacare was a lie, and not just the numbers.

From the Washington Examiner:

Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, we know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations:

 

» Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.

 

» As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge.

 

» Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.



» Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.

 

» Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.

 

» Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means.

 

» Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure.

 

» Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.

 

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexa...t#ixzz1CAiuwjXp

And to add insult to injury:

In November 2010 it was first reported that the Obama Administration had handed out Obamacare waivers to special US companies… And, they hid this information from the American public. It took 6 clicks to find out this information on the government's health care website.

 

Unfortunately, if you're a small business or you don't have the right connections you can't get a waiver for your company from Team Obama. The bottom line is that democrats did not create a law that benefits all of us. And, now they can pick the winners and losers – who will have to follow their new law and who will get a pass.

 

The House Energy and Commerce Committee last Thursday asked the Department of Health and Human Services to provide detailed information on the over 200 groups requesting and receiving one-year waivers from Obamacare.

 

But, it's worse than we thought. The Obamacare waivers jumped from 229 to 729 this month covering over 2.2 million employees. At least three SEIU Chapters, including one in Chicago, are included on the list.

 

I run a small business. Where is my waiver?