“The provisions that are going into effect this year aren’t central to the law’s significant changes to American health care. Repeal is resonating with a large segment of the population because much more sweeping changes are in the works, changes that will redistribute wealth, disrupt insurance arrangements that most people find perfectly acceptable today, and create risks for the quality of American health care. Those concerns are not going away anytime soon.”
ObamaCare’s Medicare Advantage cuts will especially hit the Latino community. “In fact, according to my colleagues’ estimates, nearly 300,000 Hispanics will lose or be dropped from their Medicare Advantage plan, or find that the plan they were in is no longer financially attractive, facing an estimated $2.2 billion loss in annual benefits. Plus, approximately 56 percent of New York seniors would lose their Medicare Advantage plans. So much for the President’s repeated promise that we would be able to keep our current health coverage if we liked it.”
“The Obama administration has a dilemma. On the one hand, it wants to be seen as the champion of preventive care — because these are the only tangible services that touch the lives of the 80 percent of the population that is basically healthy. On the other hand, a vast increase in insurance coverage for such services will only increase health care costs and crowd out access to care for those who have more serious medical needs.”
Businesses are unable to plan for ObamaCare’s new mandates and taxes, because of the regulatory complexity. “But at this point, the answer is just not knowable, since regulators still have to write so many regulations, including what health services employers will be required to cover under mandatory insurance.”
“These are the enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans, health plans operated by private insurers (Cigna, Aetna, United Health, etc.) that provide extra benefits to the elderly and the disabled on top of standard Medicare coverage. The price they will pay for health reform will be a double whammy: less spending on Medicare coupled with reduced subsidies for their Medicare Advantage plans. In many areas, Medicare Advantage enrollees will lose about one-third or more of their health-insurance benefits.”
A new ObamaCare calculator from The Heritage Foundation lets you analyze how the costs of the bill would change if certain assumptions used by the Congressional Budget Office are incorrect.
“It’s now been six months since Congress passed Obamacare — not a long time given the sweeping nature of the legislation and the long phase-in schedule for its most significant provisions. Even so, it is already abundantly clear that Obamacare’s critics were dead right: The new health law has set in motion a government takeover of American health care, and a very hostile one at that. The Obama administration’s clumsy and overbearing behavior since its passage proves the point.”
Research shows that firms are paying more to insure their employees because of ObamaCare. Despite presidential promises to lower premiums for businesses and families, premiums will jump 8.8% in 2011. “While health care reform cannot be blamed entirely for employers’ increasing cost, the incremental expense of complying with the new law adds fuel to the fire, at least for the short term.”
According to a study from Hewitt Associates, average workers will see the amount they spend on employer-sponsored health care jump by almost $500 next year. That includes both premiums and out-of-pocket costs. This is despite the promise that ObamaCare would lower premiums by $2500 for families.
A Massachusetts insurer is canceling a Medicare Advantage plan because it will no longer viable after ObamaCare’s draconian cuts to the program. Thus 22,000 seniors are going to lose the plan they currently have.