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.
“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamaCare, is to the law of unintended consequences what Newton’s apple was to the law of gravity: the illustration that bonks us on the head with its obviousness. Practically every week since its passage has added a new dimension of mirth to Nancy Pelosi’s punchline for the ages, that we had to pass the bill to find out what is in it. Out of the mouths of babes and clueless politicians . . .”
“ObamaCare is not that better way. In its attempt to reform healthcare, the administration has created overlapping layers of laws and regulations intended to anticipate everything that could go wrong and prevent it. Every problem—the uninsured, rising insurance premiums, ineffective and expensive care—is addressed. Every solution further centralizes power and decision making in Washington. The promises do not come cheap.”
“Still, as we reach this six-month milestone, there is one thing about health-care reform that we can celebrate. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 61 percent of Americans want the law repealed. The president probably won’t mention that, either.”