Obamacare premiums will rise an average of 22 percent in 2017, according to the Obama administration recently. In some states, costs will rise far higher than that. This news, coming just ahead of the presidential election, can only hurt Democrats, especially those who supported Obamacare. Remember that the program passed without a single Republican vote.
So wasn’t that timing suspect? What was behind all of that? Let’s examine this.
It’s not just the 22-percent average increase for 2017, but a cumulative 116-percent increase since the Affordable Care Act’s inception — more than doubling the pre-Obamacare premium rates over the past six years.
Related: 5 Things to Do as Obamacare Collapses
Remember when President Obama assured Americans, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan”? Except if you have a plan with one of the major insurance carriers that are rapidly dropping out of the Obamacare marketplace, that is.
Yet the number of uninsured Americans overall has dropped. So where are the newly insured getting health care coverage if the private carriers are bolting from Obamacare? Turns out most of the new Obamacare enrollment is in Medicaid — 71 percent, to be exact.
Having insurance, however, doesn’t always translate to having a doctor or access to health care. Less than half of all physicians accept Medicaid patients. Those who do often have long waits for appointments and may limit procedures due to poor Medicaid reimbursement.
Why would big business favor the financial implosion of Obamacare?
How does this play out going forward? Rising Obamacare premiums and fewer plans to choose from leave people with dwindling options. People can go without insurance and pay a penalty — or sign onto Medicaid if they qualify.
Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber favors the penalty, actually wanting a stiffer fine for those who choose to forgo insurance. He has said, “We need a larger mandate penalty.” Those who opt to pay the penalty still don’t have insurance and may not be able to afford necessary medical care.
Joining Medicaid isn’t much better. Medicaid pays physicians only two-thirds of what Medicare pays. This explains why so many physicians won’t accept it and leave their patients scrambling without a doctor or proper care.
[lz_bulleted_list title=”2016 Employers’ Expense for Workers’ Health Benefits” source=”http://www.zanebenefits.com”]$5,179 annually (83 percent of the premium) to cover a single employee|$12,591 annually (72 percent of the premium) to cover a family|This year over 90 percent of employers are seeing rate increases at renewal time, with about a quarter of them seeing double-digit premium increases[/lz_bulleted_list]
Obamacare’s vital signs are looking grim. Remember that Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, is the chosen candidate of big business, whether it’s Wall Street or the Koch Brothers. The donor classes of both parties are firmly in the #NeverTrump camp. Why would big business favor the financial implosion of Obamacare? Follow the money.
Employers pay, on average, $5,000 annually for insurance for a single employee and over $12,000 annually to cover a family. As premiums rise each year by widely variable amounts, it is difficult for businesses to plan and budget for the future. Why wouldn’t employers want to offload that cost to an Obamacare plan or Medicaid, making it much easier for them to predict future costs? Businesses love predictability.
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The perfect storm of rising premiums, insurance carriers opting out of Obamacare, fewer people signing up, limited access to doctors, and an expanding Medicaid lead to one logical conclusion: single-payer. Medicaid is one example of it. Just offload the entire mess to the government to run.
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This was the plan all along. Back in 2003, then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama said, “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program.”
It’s not possible to create this legislatively, as Vermont learned a few years ago — and as Colorado may learn on Nov. 8.
But if the existing system is overwhelmed to the point of failure, the path to single-payer becomes clear. Which is why the recent news of huge premium hikes was not suppressed at all. It’s actually a signal to the Left — the voters that Clinton needs to get into the White House — that things are progressing according to plan.
Even Jonathan Gruber acknowledges that Obamacare is “working as designed.” This is another reason the upcoming election is so important. It’s a chance to rid the country of the Obamacare monstrosity and replace it with a market-based solution via Donald Trump — that, or a smooth pivot into government-run health care via Hillary Clinton.
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., MPS, is a Denver-based physician and writer.
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