ObamaCare success: insurers stop writing policies for kids
posted at 8:36 am on July 24, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama has been mighty keen on rolling out the most positive aspects of ObamaCare first in order to protect vulnerable Democrats facing voters angry over the bill’s passage. One of the big wins for Obama in the bill was the mandate for insurers to allow parents to carry their kids on policies until their 26th birthday. However, that intervention has created a rather perverse set of incentives that will see fewer children insured:
Some major health insurance companies have stopped issuing certain types of policies for children, an unintended consequence of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, state officials said Friday.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said in his state UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield have stopped issuing new policies that cover children individually. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said a couple of local insurers in her state have done likewise. …
The major types of coverage for children — employer plans and government programs — are not be affected by the disruption. But a subset of policies — those that cover children as individuals — may run into problems. Even so, insurers are not canceling children’s coverage already issued, but refusing to write new policies.
Starting on September 23rd, insurers will have to allow children onto plans at any time regardless of previous insurance or pre-existing conditions. The way the law is written, after that date parents can wait until their children get sick to sign them up for individual plans at any time. Insurers can’t predict the cost of sudden additions to plans for those making immediate use of the system, and so instead just won’t make those kinds of plans available.
Perhaps Congress should have taken more time thinking through these regulations before passing them into law. Even after nine months, the unintended consequences wind up making things worse rather than better.
Blowback
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Intended consequences.
SagebrushPuppet on July 24, 2010 at 8:41 AM
It reminds me of a Popeye cartoon where he’s stuck in a factory and he muses over a lever and asks “Wonder what happens when you pull this.”
Hilarity ensues.
Tony Soprano on July 24, 2010 at 8:43 AM
There was another law of unintended consequences this week. Moody’s was refusing to let bondissuers use its ratings (presumably there is some liability for ratings agencies in FinReg). So bonds couldn’t be issued without the ratings to guide investors. The SEC has suspended this rule for six months.
Wethal on July 24, 2010 at 8:44 AM
Maybe Scooter and his minions knew exactly what they were doing. Driving this country to single payer and destroying the Health Insurance Industry.
kingsjester on July 24, 2010 at 8:44 AM
So much for,It Takes a Village!!!
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 8:44 AM
Make that “unintended” consequences.
A shortage of private insurance was not an obvious result of the government entering the market? We must have quite a crop of economic illiterates running things.
Bad leaders are a curse.
paul1149 on July 24, 2010 at 8:44 AM
They set up a law where insurance has to be given without pre-condition without providing a mechanism to prevent abuse of the law. It just means more buisness for the emergency room.
rob verdi on July 24, 2010 at 8:45 AM
Democrats have declared war on children!!!!!!
Obama,how could you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 8:45 AM
Unintended? Perhaps we’ll need a public option for those children…
Wethal on July 24, 2010 at 8:45 AM
anyone with half a brain that didn’t see this coming was a fool. Common sense says if an insurance company, which exists to cover risk, won’t cover a risk it cannot price with confidence.
Jed_Eckert on July 24, 2010 at 8:47 AM
“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
– Nancy Pelosi, 2010
versus
“I think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that there shall always be a twelve-month between the engrossing a bill and passing it…”
–Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787.
publiuspen on July 24, 2010 at 8:48 AM
obama will blame the insurance companies that are trying to make a profit for their employees & stockholders. bad, bad, bad capitalism.
kelley in virginia on July 24, 2010 at 8:49 AM
“You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids.”
M. Obama
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 8:49 AM
Fire Pelosi. Repeal Obama. November is coming.
publiuspen on July 24, 2010 at 8:50 AM
get something for nothing and your chicks for free that’s the way to do it.
unseen on July 24, 2010 at 8:51 AM
Expect to hear about the salaries and bonuses for insurance company executives next week.
Wethal on July 24, 2010 at 8:53 AM
Daddy,mommy says that the new HealthCare Bill has
a gapeing hole in it and children will fall into
it,
daddy I thought you plugged the hole……(snark).
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 8:53 AM
get something for nothing and your chicks for free that’s the way to do it.
unseen on July 24, 2010 at 8:51 AM
unseen:Hopeys little baby chicks com’n home to zee roost!:)
================================
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing + lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwDDswGsJ60
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 8:56 AM
Reasonable request. Answer from Obama admin? Same as it ever was.
journeyintothewhirlwind on July 24, 2010 at 8:56 AM
We have a president who says government pork barrel spending is “investment”, genuine tax rate cuts are “spending” that needs to be “paid for”, that tax credit transfer payments to people who pay no income tax (welfare) are actually “tax cuts”, and that forcing individual people to buy medical plans equals the government “providing insurance” to 32 million people – or whatever.
forest on July 24, 2010 at 8:57 AM
We knew that’s what this bill was all about but how do you fight something like that? Any politician that would have even steered the debate that direction would have been crucified by the press. They would have been labeled a conspiratorial crank. The right wing blogs didn’t even go there, the people that comment on them did but you didn’t here it coming from someone like Morrissey.
lowandslow on July 24, 2010 at 8:57 AM
New GOP campaign slogan:
Repeal Obamacare! … for the children!
cartooner on July 24, 2010 at 8:58 AM
It is intended, planned and anticipated. Its exactly what they were looking for.There is nothing unintended about it.
Cloward-Piven baby…
macncheez on July 24, 2010 at 8:59 AM
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor…just figure out a different way to pay him.”
Electrongod on July 24, 2010 at 9:00 AM
“unexpectedly”
JimRich on July 24, 2010 at 9:00 AM
No need to repeal Obama…Just cut off his funding.
rich801 on July 24, 2010 at 9:00 AM
Just to be clear, by pulling out of the market for individual children’s insurance plans, this company cannot be forced to issue plans to individual children in the future?
So I guess we can expect insurance companies to pull out of sub-markets one by one as the deadlines approach for them having to pay for “customers” who walk in the door already ill.
forest on July 24, 2010 at 9:02 AM
Its called “funding” now ?
I’ll cut it
for the children ofcourse
hehehehe
macncheez on July 24, 2010 at 9:02 AM
The media will just say, “See, insurance companies don’t care about kids…they are writing around them”
tomas on July 24, 2010 at 9:02 AM
If this was not intentional then it proves that Congress can NEVER do anything right.To be so smart they screw up everything they do.No wonder we need the Alvin Greene and the Tennessee clown types in office.
docflash on July 24, 2010 at 9:02 AM
Ed, surely you jest. ObamaCare was DESIGNED to fail. And it’s working.
Then the bastards can move right on to ‘single payer’.
GarandFan on July 24, 2010 at 9:04 AM
How can it be unintended, when it happens every day for 2 years straight? There is nothing unintended about this or any of the results they have given us.
jeffn21 on July 24, 2010 at 9:05 AM
congress has EARNED its 11% approval rating it seems
unseen on July 24, 2010 at 9:05 AM
lowandslow on July 24, 2010 at 8:57 AM
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/24/video-will-obamacare-drive-businesses-out-of-providing-health-insurance/
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/19/cbos-obamacare-analyses-carry-big-uncertainties/
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/10/another-tale-of-government-run-health-care-success/
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/16/dont-forget-the-other-public-option-debate/
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/23/jake-tapper-fact-checks-obama-assertion-on-public-option-campaigning/
Nope. Ed hasn’t written about single-payer at all.
kingsjester on July 24, 2010 at 9:05 AM
If this was not intentional then it proves that Congress can NEVER do anything right.To be so smart they screw up everything they do.No wonder we need the Alvin Greene and the Tennessee clown types in office.
docflash on July 24, 2010 at 9:02 AM
Now you understand what the founders were thinking when they sought to limit government.
unseen on July 24, 2010 at 9:06 AM
that seems to much like the right thing to do
cmsinaz on July 24, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Ya know what we need? Some washed up old Hollywood actress to go before Congress and scream “WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?! WHAT. ARE WE DOING. TO OUR CHILLLLLDRENNN???!!!”
Tony737 on July 24, 2010 at 9:18 AM
Well, duh!
College Prof on July 24, 2010 at 9:18 AM
A “screw up” implies something unintended.
This is all on purpose
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM
How ironic, the bill pays for abortions, but causes insurance for kids to disappear.
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Well, hopefully those pesky kids die, anyway. That’ll show ‘em for trying to be born and produce CO2.
/
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Well, duh!
College Prof on July 24, 2010 at 9:18 AM
I was trying to be subtle. Heh.
kingsjester on July 24, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Some comments from the left
#
This is no shocker. How else do you suppose the Insurance Execs will be able to take home $80 million in bonuses each year? The guy that runs United Healthcare takes home upwards of $100 million in bonuses per year. That’s a lot of denied coverage for the sick, to make that kind of scratch!
Flag
Like Reply Reply
#
Yavo [Moderator] 32 minutes ago
Denying care to children. Now that’s the health care you can believe in. We the People need health care now.
The private sector fails and it sucks. The private sector’s mission is to take your money and give you no service in exchange.
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edayres [Moderator] Yesterday 10:41 PM
1 person liked this.
This is really not a bad thing. The more these profit-driven health insurance companies do stuff like this they force the Federal government to step in and cover them. They are driving nails into their own coffins, and moving us toward single-payer.
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Joe_Steel [Moderator] Today 03:26 AM in reply to edayres
Right. Let them be as nasty as they want to be. It’s just more reason to create universal, single-payer.
Flag
Like Reply Reply
#
BeccaM [Moderator] Yesterday 09:01 PM
2 people liked this.
What a bunch of soulless, monstrous parasites these insurance companies are.
But is anyone at all surprised they’ll pull stuff like this? Does anyone really believe that come 2014, everybody will be able magically to buy an individual insurance policy? Or afford it? I mean, really — just because there’ll be this big Exchange at state and federal levels, what’s to stop every single insurance company from deciding simply not to offer any policies on it?
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#
damnadamzama [Moderator] Yesterday 10:22 PM in reply to BeccaM
You said it, sister!
Flag
Like Reply Reply
#
azafvet [Moderator] Yesterday 07:48 PM
1 person liked this.
Fuck the insurance companies, medicare for all. I’m tired of having to live by their rules.
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Like Reply Reply
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cr66 [Moderator] Yesterday 07:19 PM
1 person liked this.
they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.
tomas on July 24, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Some Comments from the left
This is no shocker. How else do you suppose the Insurance Execs will be able to take home $80 million in bonuses each year? The guy that runs United Healthcare takes home upwards of $100 million in bonuses per year. That’s a lot of denied coverage for the sick, to make that kind of scratch!
Denying care to children. Now that’s the health care you can believe in. We the People need health care now.
The private sector fails and it sucks. The private sector’s mission is to take your money and give you no service in exchange.
This is really not a bad thing. The more these profit-driven health insurance companies do stuff like this they force the Federal government to step in and cover them. They are driving nails into their own coffins, and moving us toward single-payer.
Right. Let them be as nasty as they want to be. It’s just more reason to create universal, single-payer.
What a bunch of soulless, monstrous parasites these insurance companies are.
But is anyone at all surprised they’ll pull stuff like this? Does anyone really believe that come 2014, everybody will be able magically to buy an individual insurance policy? Or afford it? I mean, really — just because there’ll be this big Exchange at state and federal levels, what’s to stop every single insurance company from deciding simply not to offer any policies on it?
they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction.
tomas on July 24, 2010 at 9:28 AM
How ironic, the bill pays for abortions, but causes insurance for kids to disappear.
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM
blatantblue: Smacks of the Mengele Effect,ahem!!:)
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 9:29 AM
Nope. Ed hasn’t written about single-payer at all.
kingsjester on July 24, 2010 at 9:05 AM
kingsjester: Dam* those Hot Air Archives!!!!!!!!:)
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 9:31 AM
Indeed.
Then the moron lefties expect insurance companies to dole out policies for free.
We have such a mentally bankrupt society.
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 9:32 AM
Perhaps soon we will hear the Left proclaiming that “it’s all the fault of women who don’t have abortions!” From Pelosi, if not Michelle and Obama.
Lourdes on July 24, 2010 at 9:34 AM
Isn’t this just another attempt at making the insurance companies out to be villains who are only interested in their bottom line. Thereby requiring the government to take over and we become a single payer nation. I have to decide if these guys are stupid or devious and it’s a very hard choice. Regardless, it took them 2700 pages to be either or both.
Cindy Munford on July 24, 2010 at 9:34 AM
It might be fun finding flaws in Obamacare but it really doesn’t matter. The intent of the back stabbing liberals in Congress was to ruin our present health care and force us into single payer Obamacare. It’s like going to a cheap magic show where half the fun is catching the magician doing his tricks. Only in our case the cheap magician is Congress and we aren’t having any fun.
inspectorudy on July 24, 2010 at 9:34 AM
Just write another bill to make insurers cover kids. Greedy Bastards!
elfman on July 24, 2010 at 9:34 AM
What do those blog posts have to do with real intentions of Obama and the Democrats? Those are nothing but Morrissey stating the obvious, that Obama supports the single payer and single payer has problems. He doesn’t attack the true intentions of the bill that passed, the closest he comes is analyzing some CBO report. He still doesn’t address the real motives. Instead it’s “unintended consequences”.
lowandslow on July 24, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Bingo! You’ve identified the *magic* of the Pelosi/Obama health care monster.
Lourdes on July 24, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Meaning, I don’t think this is an “unintended consequence.”
Lourdes on July 24, 2010 at 9:36 AM
And if the insures go out of business, just write another bill to make tax payers cover kids. Greedy taxpayer Bastards!
elfman on July 24, 2010 at 9:36 AM
Absolutely. The whole idea behind piling all these onerous dictates onto insurance providers & medical practitioners is to incrementally collapse the private health care delivery system in order to incrementally effect a complete takeover by the federal government until they’ve achieved the complete expropriation of the entire HC industry. Many Democratic elected officials have freely apprised their far-left base of this strategy on the record!
The mandate absurdly transforming 26 year old men & women into ‘kids’ is performing exactly as calculated by Obama & his fellow leftwing statists in his party. It’s utter fantasy to believe that they were stupid enough not to know perfectly well that this ‘means’ would result in precisely that ‘end’.
leilani on July 24, 2010 at 9:37 AM
And if the taxpayers revolt, just hold a gun to their heads. Greedy Slaves!
elfman on July 24, 2010 at 9:38 AM
What I think, too.
Lourdes on July 24, 2010 at 9:40 AM
They did that long ago. Why else would they be so obsessed with making sure that getting an abortion was as easy as getting a government approved salt and sugar free snack from the cupboard. They have no problems with allowing babies to die on storeroom shelves but they want to make damn sure you don’t have any of that evil salt and sugar in your cupboards. It’s for the children, dontchaknow…
OT-Another charming effect of Obamacare just hit my sister this week. She has worked for a very small company for the last 25 years and they notified all their employees that they were going to stop providing health insurance because, thanks to that POS Obamacare bill that the Corruptocrats rammed through, it would be more cost effective to just pay the fine for not providing coverage then to have to pay the fines for providing “Cadillac coverage” along with all the associated paperwork that would go along with that. It is the only way they can stay afloat.
She has Crohn’s Disease and has nowhere to turn to now thanks to the Corruptocrats. Under Obamacare she would be considered “too old” for the government to justify the cost of treatment-they would just give her a pile of pain pills and tell her to essentially crawl off into a hole and die. Seeing as she actually works she is not eligible for Medicare and even if she was that won’t cover 90% of what the cost of treatment is and besides that it probably won’t be around much longer because the feds kicked the alot of the cost of that to the states and the states can’t afford it.
Seeing as the “wonders” of Obamacare have not kicked in (except for the upcoming taxes and making sure everyone and their dog can get an abortion, of course) the cost of trying to obtain private insurance is out of reach for her and her husband financially considering her “preexisting conditions”. They worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes and paid their bills on time. They just paid off their house (it is nothing fancy and they have lived in it for 30 years) and I am going to guess that they will soon have to try to sell it in order to pay for her medical care.
My sister rarely cries, but she was crying when she told me what happened. She knows this is essentially a death sentence for her and to make matters worse they will end up losing everything her and her husband worked so hard for before it happens.
Nahanni on July 24, 2010 at 9:40 AM
Seem to remember that the state insurance programs for kids had DESIGNATED enrollment periods at least to start off the program. Why was that? To make it orderly for the state and make sure the ones in most desperate need were covered before the funding limit was reached? Then, if there was extra money the deadline was extended? Why can’t they extend the same courtesy to private companies?
journeyintothewhirlwind on July 24, 2010 at 9:43 AM
Shocking…..so if I read this right, there will be no “individual” plans available..period, for anyone under 26. Only family plans, so the 18-25 year old who has no immediate family is back where he started and unable to get, even if he wished to get, insurance. The Government obviously needs to step in and create a type of government insurance that will cover these folks!!
Koa on July 24, 2010 at 9:43 AM
Friedrich Holderlin
blatantblue on July 24, 2010 at 9:44 AM
Barack Obama’s Healthcare Full Plan
Uploaded:10/04/2008
———————-
Tens of millions of Americans are uninsured because of rising costs. Over 45 million Americans5— including over 8 million children-lack health insurance.
5) REQUIRE COVERAGE OF CHILDREN. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require that all children have health care coverage. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand the number of options for young adults to get coverage by allowing young people up to age 25 to continue coverage through their parents’ plans.
Healthy environments
include sidewalks, biking paths and walking trails; local grocery stores with fruits and vegetables; restricted
advertising for tobacco and alcohol to children; and wellness and educational campaigns
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6385377/Barack-Obamas-Healthcare-Full-Plan
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 9:45 AM
Oh, I cannot wait until Election Day in November!
That is when the Democrats are going to see what HOPE and CHANGE really are all about!
And it ain’t about THEM!!!!!
pilamaye on July 24, 2010 at 9:45 AM
The only thing unintended about this is that the insurance companies are doing everything they can to remain profitable a little longer.
lowandslow on July 24, 2010 at 9:46 AM
I work at a health insurance company. My favorite one is “free” routine services. Which means no deductible and co-pay for any patient seeking preventative care. Sounds lovely right?
Well, it ain’t free because no doctor, lab or hospital is working for free so your premiums go up to pay for these “free” services. The morons in the government basically refuse to specify to us what constitutes routine care. For example, immunizations, annual visits, certain labs I can agree are routine/preventative. But what about colonoscopies, mammograms, etc, etc? They are billed as routine so are they also “free”? What about the doctors and providers who commit fraud at the drop of a hat? They would be EVERYTHING under that and we would have NO recourse. Because the government in all their infinite “wisdom” won’t give us any specifics…..
And honestly, the amount of people actually pre-ex’d on any plan is between 10 to 15%. Some of them can be real expensive, but this isn’t going to change much for most people. Except increase their premiums and taxes.
Good times, good times.
mjk on July 24, 2010 at 9:49 AM
Yep, Our big profit last year of a whole 0.2%!!! And the last seven years our big profit of… Oh wait, we lost money….
God, we’re good.
mjk on July 24, 2010 at 9:52 AM
My sister rarely cries, but she was crying when she told me what happened. She knows this is essentially a death sentence for her and to make matters worse they will end up losing everything her and her husband worked so hard for before it happens.
Nahanni on July 24, 2010 at 9:40 AM
Nahanni: Wow,sorry to hear your sister has to be put through this debackle from Obama,abd especially the
fine bullsh*t for not having insurance!!!:)
==============================================
June 15, 2010, 9:00 am
What’s the Penalty for Not Having Insurance?
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/whats-the-penalty-for-not-having-insurance/
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 9:54 AM
Well, no-one can say they weren’t warned. Obama made it clear, during the campaign, that his goal was single payer.
OldEnglish on July 24, 2010 at 10:02 AM
I guess I should have said, stay in business a little longer.
lowandslow on July 24, 2010 at 10:09 AM
I have another weird one. I have to be on a medication for the next five years. The cost to me for a 90 supply through the mail is $65. That’s great, zero complaints. The medication just became available as a generic, now my cost is $0. How stupid is that? It can’t be free. I know it seems stupid to complain about this but it just seems irresponsible.
Cindy Munford on July 24, 2010 at 10:10 AM
I guess it’s illegal for a bunch of citizens to get together and try to get group insurance?
Cindy Munford on July 24, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Ed, Ed, Ed… You STILL think these consequences are UNINTENDED? C’mon man! Believe what your eyes can see, not what you hope is true based on previous notions of politics as usual.
This destruction is INTENTIONAL. It is NECESSARY for him to accomplish his desire to usher in a universal taxpayer funded health care system. He stated point blank as a candidate that this was his goal, but that he didn’t think it could be accomplished immediately. If I remember the YouTube clip correctly, he said it might take 5 or 10 years, but he most definitely promised the Leftists he was speaking to that his goal was universal taxpayer funded health care.
How would he accomplish this goal without first destroying the health care system, and making people so miserable that they would swallow what the government is feeding them?
C’mon ED! We need people like you to wake up and smell the coffee! This usurper of America cannot be given the benefit of the doubt on ANYTHING.
IronDioPriest on July 24, 2010 at 10:16 AM
Probably, but who really knows? I think the HHS secretary has been given the power to just make up rules as this disaster unfolds.
forest on July 24, 2010 at 10:18 AM
Yep, and they have achieved many of these goals. Stimulus bucks pay for sidewalks to nowhere in Rhode Island; Michelle Obama is now the Grocer-in-Chief, and so forth. The only thing missing from Obamatopia are stimulus bucks to make signs of the Obama logo, unicorns, and rainbows to decorate the bike paths and walking trails.
Buy Danish on July 24, 2010 at 10:22 AM
I say it’s naive to think that these are ‘unintended consequences’. The socialists failed in their initial drive for single-payer government healthcare. No matter, the backup plan is to make the rules so onerous, the benefits so lavish, yet disallowing premium increases, that the insurance companies stop writing policies or go bankrupt. Over a period of years, people trickle into government programs until it’s all over. All the while, the socialists will be ranting about ‘eeeeevil corporations’, ‘putting profit before people’, etc. Meanwhile the fat greedy unions get millions of new members.
Alternately, insurers keep writing policies that they can’t make money on. They end up in financial trouble. The feddle gummint takes them over because they are ‘too big to fail’. Blue Cross becomes Bammie Cross, the General Motors of healthcare.
The socialists know exactly what they want, and we can get there fast or slow, they’ll take it either way. They don’t need non-believers in concentration camps, they can just make the whole country a concentration camp. That way fewer people see what’s happening.
slickwillie2001 on July 24, 2010 at 10:26 AM
If Planned Parenthood got more funding it would be a non-issue.
/
katy the mean old lady on July 24, 2010 at 10:29 AM
This just proves that we need MORE state intervention to take care of “the children”.
-Nanny Piglosi
Laura in Maryland on July 24, 2010 at 10:30 AM
Walls do not a prison,make.
OldEnglish on July 24, 2010 at 10:32 AM
That’s what I got out of an interview with Rick Santorum on Bill Bennett’s show. A ton of “to be determined by…..”. How does it take 2700 pages to say that and why isn’t illegal for an individual not elected by the people to be making law?
Cindy Munford on July 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM
“The children” being, of course, those who managed to escape the first solution.
OldEnglish on July 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM
That is indeed an horrific story about your sister and cautionary tale of what many people are going to have to face. I hope your sister and family will be able to get through this better than imagined.
I heard Rush talking with someone yesterday about a similar situation in that the GOAL of these b@stards is to take what you have, because you’ve had it long enough, and let someone else have a chance of having more.
Instead of working hard to succeed, we all will have our standard of living lowered. The only people that are allowed the better things in life is the ruling class – all the while the misery index (already has passed Carter years) will continue to ratchet up.
It’s all part of the plan.
tru2tx on July 24, 2010 at 10:47 AM
Wow, that’s pretty crappy.I was on an individual plan when I was a teenager because I was an only child and it made no sense for my mom to pay 500/month for a family plan instead of 300/month for two individual plans for her and myself.
I guess that just made too much sense, so Obama killed it.
Vera on July 24, 2010 at 10:56 AM
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 9:45 AM
=================
Yep, and they have achieved many of these goals.
Buy Danish on July 24, 2010 at 10:22 AM
Buy Danish:Just wow,talking about p*ssing away tax payer
money,great catch BD!!:)
canopfor on July 24, 2010 at 11:02 AM
Solution…
There Obama, now where’s my money ?
Jeff2161 on July 24, 2010 at 11:08 AM
‘dats okay, ‘dem children don’t need no healthcare after weez take all ‘dem sugared drinks out of ‘dem schools.
jbh45 on July 24, 2010 at 11:10 AM
They took plenty of time and this was intended. The stated goal of the left is to drive private insurers out of business or out of reach for the average consumer.
I’m sure there are more than a few economically illiterate or terminally stupid congressional Democrats who thought otherwise, but let’s not kid ourselves that this wasn’t the plan all along.
RadClown on July 24, 2010 at 11:23 AM
The CHIP program(s) is being hugely subsidised by the Federal and State governments.
One reason they are dropping the policies is that the government has a program that costs significantly less because of these subsidies. The only children that can benefit from a private policy is if they needed a VERY high limit because of a significant illness.
I have sold insurance. I have had people ask me why the insurance company won’t knowingly price their coverage below what they are currently paying out of pocket per month. Most businesses cannot stay in business if they provide services at a price below their cost. If they are mandated to take children or anyone with pre-existing conditions at a loss, the only ones that will buy are those that they will lose money on. Wait until you are diagnosed with cancer and THEN buy the policy, until then pay for a minimal policy or the fine.
barnone on July 24, 2010 at 11:31 AM
Exactly.
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” metaphor sprang to my mind somewhere in 2008.
This is just another example of it.
If you wanted to kill private health care, but not all in one fast swoop, this is how you’d do it. It’s totally obvious, and has been totally obvious from the start.
The fact that everybody goes around not daring to state the totally obvious is why we basically don’t deserve to keep nice things like capitalism, free enterprise, our country, etc.
This business of people being too polite to mention stuff surely has to end some day. But of course by then, it will be a day late and a trillion dollars short.
Alana on July 24, 2010 at 11:55 AM
Is this just until the mandate kicks in?
I don’t think people, even the bloggers/journalists really are answering questions about how this will work.
AnninCA on July 24, 2010 at 12:25 PM
At this point, I think we’re giving the dems too much credit to say they planned this out.
They just react without thinking (“I won’t tolerate inaction”!!) and then spin the bad results after they start to kick in.
The whole point of every dem program is to make the dems feel good, because “at least they did something.”
Weird mind-set, but its seems to fit most of what they do.
LASue on July 24, 2010 at 12:32 PM
This is an intended consequence. The entire goal is to destroy private healthcare and make everyone beholden to the state with the ultimate desired result being government is the supreme arbiter of who lives, who dies and who can breed.
This has been on the Progressive Wish List since the glory days of the early 20th Century. Think they decided it was a no go and crossed it off the list as a bad idea? Does a Polar Bear crap in the desert? Hell no!
Holger on July 24, 2010 at 12:33 PM
Barack Obama hates children.
Obviously.
ButterflyDragon on July 24, 2010 at 12:35 PM
This is an unreasonable position to take.
After all, they had to pass it before they could know what was in it.
Sayan Neviot on July 24, 2010 at 12:37 PM
Dammit Mr Morrissey, are you DENSE? INtended Consequence. The entire thrust of the Obamacare legislation is to BREAK the private insurance system and FORCE everyone onto national, socialized medicine. ‘Public option’. Sector by sector if need be, but break it all the same. And it’s WORKING because of the gullibility and rote assumption of good faith in others that folks like you hold.
The legislation greases the skids for turning our representative republic into a totalitarian-socialist hellhole. And YOU are sitting there with your thumb up, trying to make nice with these would-be facists instead of stomping their ever-loving guts out.
rayra on July 24, 2010 at 12:53 PM
Affirmative. It is all part of the Obamacare strategy.
Drive the health insurance industry like a herd of cattle to the edge of the cliff, and over the side. Then as the insurance companies and/or their viable services die off one by one, the Public Option becomes not only a viable option for many American families, but an absolute necessity.
And as Barney Frank said a year ago this month, the Public Option is then the very best way to get to the socialism version of healthcare that is currently failing from Canada to Europe, Single Payer.
That directly contradicts what Barackus Caesar told us a year ago last month.
We’re being played for chumps, and there is nothing we can do about it. Anyone who can’t see that is surely blind. Anyone who won’t admit that we’re being played for chumps is simply one of Barackus Caesar’s brain-dead zombie minion.
Dhurka Dhurka on July 24, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Obama the Unexpected. That should be his middle name cause for such a supposedly bright person all of his policies seem to have these unexpected dire consequences. Thus Obama and his team are idiots who can’t see the natural consequences of their policies (or don’t care); Obama is a bright person and knows that his policies will cause dire social and economic consequences but knows the media will cover for him with terms like unexpected or will try to shift the blame for those consequences to republicans and/or to the former President; Obama doesn’t care whether the media covers for him and his socialist policies, he just wants to do as much damage as quickly as possible and saddle the country with an unalterable socialist framework.
eaglewingz08 on July 24, 2010 at 1:25 PM
Sweet. So it won’t effect unions or government plans but, instead, the self-employed. What happened to “party of the little guy?”
The fact that so many Americans believe that the Democrat party is “looking out for the little guy” or that it gives a crap about them at all just proves how woefully uneducated our country is.
29Victor on July 24, 2010 at 1:43 PM
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