Thanks to ObamaCare, My Insurance Was Canceled
I provide the full cost of health insurance for my full-time staff and pay the cost for my family. In August I received a notice that my insurance would cease as of January 2014 due the basic set of requirements under ObamaCare.
I do not need fertility services or many of the other requirements.
Today I met with the insurance brokers, who informed me that I will have to pay about 45% more for similar coverage. The cost for my staff will increase also.
About 19 million individuals and small businesses purchase health insurance for themselves and staff. These people are not required under ObamaCare to provide insurance since they have fewer than 50 employees. Unfortunately, because of the rate increases and requirements, up to 16 million will lose their present policies. Therefore, more people will lose insurance than gain it from the cooperatives established by the government.
Three weeks ago, the press, Democrats, and some Republicans opposed the House Republicans and Senators Lee and Cruz. They were called terrorists and other epithets. Now over six Democratic senators want to delay the individual mandate. These Democrats want to save ObamaCare so it can be implemented more fully.
It might be time to rethink delaying the implementation at this time. The effort to end ObamaCare has the best chance for success now. Waiting for two to four years to gain the White House and Senate is a serious mistake. This is a cancer on the body politic of America and must be stopped now.
The private health insurance system is being eroded as we argue. Insurers are abandoning markets where they fear the outcome.
ObamaCare will find support among some who are subsidized -- the same people who increase the cost of the new system. Republicans must do everything to end the system now. They must stand strong, something they are afraid to do often. Time is not on our side. We thought that the Supreme Court would save us. Mitt Romney was unable to garner the votes to save us. We must now take a stand before is too late.
Delay of the individual mandate buys time for the White House to fix the website. The crucial question is how to show that too few people are signing up for the insurance on the exchanges. Those who lose their insurance now will not get it back. They will blame ObamaCare initially, but then they will blame Republicans if they don't fix the problem.
Why does the White House want this website to fail? It knew by Oct. 1 that it was not working and chose not to delay implementation of the individual mandate when the Republicans offered this avenue three weeks ago. Now they offer a 6-week delay in the sign-up deadline. They look magnanimous, but something is amiss. They have pointed to HHS, but Secretary Sebelius has not been fired. None of her high-ranking staff have been fired. They blame the private contractors, hired at about $600 million. However, someone at HHS made the decision on the contracts, so the blame is squarely with the administration.
We were informed that the president was told only on Oct. 1 of the problems. Therefore, he can't be blamed for these issues. Yet for two weeks he chose to call the problem a "glitch" due to heavy demand. This is ridiculous. Now the cost has been shown to be over $1 billion by Bloomberg Government. Will there be any accountability? The Republicans are weak, and the press is slanted toward the president's benefit.
The exchanges require about 7 million purchasers to break even with the subsidies. About two and a half million must be young, healthy adults. With a law that allows anyone to remain insured under parents until age 26, a vast portion of that market is already covered. As younger persons find the higher premiums needed to subsidize older people under the law, they will refuse to buy coverage. After all, they can get it when needed, since there is no limitation against pre-existing conditions in the law.
The president promised to lower premiums by $2,500 per family. In fact, the average increase will be about $7,500 per family of four. All but four states will experience an increase in premiums. Can we believe that the president is unaware of the change? Can we believe that the president is unaware of the numbers of doctors opting out of ObamaCare insurers?
Now the Republicans must offer an alternative: portability, coverage for pre-existing conditions (perhaps at a higher rate), purchase across state lines, coverage (at higher rates) for single children past 21 years of age, and variety of options are a few of the popular issues that would help overturn ObamaCare. Proactive efforts would form the basis for ending the present system rather than saving it as some Democrats aim to accomplish.
ObamaCare is the greatest job-destroyer in the country. Delaying the employer mandate allows companies another year before they will eliminate insurance for employees or reduce hours below 30. My efforts to access the website were disappointing. Who but an ill and desperate person would give personal information prior to getting pricing on policies? This is data-mining at the highest level. Daily I receive fraudulent requests for such personal information from websites for jobs and lottery winnings from overseas. It makes one wonder. Undoubtedly, some at HHS thought that they should calculate the subsidy prior to giving the premium cost to avoid sticker shock.
Supporters of the plan refuse to accept that there are many broken promises. As the plan is shown to be fraudulent, supporters will argue that the bugs will be fixed. Yesterday, Press Secretary Carney suggested that the poor website had to be opened to give care to ill people. If it does not work, then how do you help these people?
This logic underlies the failure of ObamaCare: results count less than intentions. Republicans, on the other hand, are results-oriented, since capitalism requires success or the entity goes out of business.
So Republicans have the advantage here. They'd better use it.