patrick.net

"Obamacare's 2017 Insurer Rate Requests Are Starting to Stream in, and the Figures Are Scary
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UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), the largest insurer in the U.S., recently announced that it would be vacating a majority of the 34 states it's currently operating in beginning in 2017... Also, more than half of all of Obamacare's approved healthcare cooperatives closed up shop heading into 2016 due to unsustainable losses and an insufficiently funded risk corridor, which was designed to protect money-losing insurers by taking money from insurers that were raking in the dough hand over fist.
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Recently, two states -- Virginia and Oregon -- lifted the covers on preliminary rate requests from insurers in 2017. Note the emphasis on "preliminary", as double-digit percentage rate hike requests will need to be approved by each state's respective Office of the Insurance Commissioner.
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Virginia's rate request data is still trickling in, and it very well could change many times over prior to the start of open enrollment -- but according to Obamacare data aggregators ACASignUps.net, the weighted average of the 13 received rate requests is nearly 18%.
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Oregon...released proposed health insurance rate requests earlier this month...three health plans comprise practically three-quarters of all enrollees in Oregon's individual Obamacare marketplace, implying a weighted average increase per ACASignUps.net of 27%!"

Obamneycare boosters chanted talking points about "double-digit" annual increases from a decade ago, claiming Obamneycare would end that. In reality, the legislation was designed to increase prices, and it is operating as designed. "Winning!"

curious2 says

etter results for people, including better value for money, would be possible if even one of the two major parties prioritized that. Neither does

Trump does:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/healthcare-reform

jazz music says

it's...it's

1) Please learn the difference between "it's" and "its"
2) Free market reforms could help enormously for everything other than vaccines and true emergencies, which add up to less than 10% of annual medical spending. What I don't see in Donald Trump's proposal is how to handle vaccines and true emergencies, where we tend to see market failure because (a) vaccines are mostly a public good, like national defense, and (b) true emergencies don't allow time to shop around.

I would really like to see an honest debate between serious candidates proposing real solutions, but instead we get political theater more like reality TV than actual reality. Candidates campaign on reality TV and, if elected, govern in actual reality. Donald Trump's reality TV background helped him get the nomination, but pretending he's nothing other than "a rich guy" or a reality TV star doesn't help. The real question is, what would he do about vaccines and true emergencies? We've experienced Hillary's Plan, and we've heard Bernie's (arguably better but more expensive), but what would Donald's plan be? If it's only "free market," then that probably won't work in those two areas.

Also, his tax deductions (aka tax subsidies) for "insurance" remind me of the mortgage interest deduction (MID), which mainly enables sellers to charge higher prices, especially in markets where supply is restricted. If legislators can continue to tack on an endless list of disproven chronic treatments for "health maintenance" that insurance must cover, then their corporate sponsors will continue to capture the benefit of the deduction (aka tax subsidy). Even if we allow insurance companies to sell true insurance, i.e. coverage against true emergencies, their corporate sponsors will continue to capture any "benefit" from the tax deduction (aka tax subsidy) as long as they can continue to charge unlimited prices for emergencies. I would like to see that issue debated as well, though I doubt that will happen, because neither side would dare question the MID.

http://i.imgur.com/CNjg3cP.jpg

In 2008, Americans elected Democrats to control both houses of Congress and the White House. In 2010, Democrats enacted this disaster. Now, Democrats have lost everything.

I feel truly sorry to have failed to persuade Democrats to reconsider. In my defense, we live in a partisan era of "safe zones," where people recite their preferred partisan narrative and ignore facts that might "trigger" them.

Republicans campaigned on repealing this legislation, and won. Democrats campaigned on keeping it, and lost.

We will see what America loses along with it.

Hillary was the worse possible candidate period. Nobody wanted another Bush or Clinton. She reeked of corruption.