Health Premiums Rise on Those Least Able to Afford It

But that’s not how the law was supposed to work out! Well, how about that. From the New York Times today:

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.

Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.

Anonymous

Ya don’t say. Surely SOMEBODY predicted this…
Anthony

If you look at the comments section though, this is not stopping the calls for a single payer system. “We can’t just have a little bit of socialism/fascism we must have it all out” is the impression you get from reading the comments.
Dave in Ann Arbor

Like I told all my state-worshipping friends back when Congress was on the verge of dropping this turd: “If you think the cost of medicine is high now, wait untiil it’s ‘affordable’!”
Phenry

Nothing new here, those with a functioning intellect know the “big” idea in Obama’s philosophy is to get everyone under as much government control as possible. One path on that road is to push health insurance costs for the individual prohibitively high in order to drive them straight towards Mama Gubermint’s teat.
I am already seeing the hit on my wallet.
Anonymous

I was hoping the article would have at least a smidgen of pro-market, but alas, they seem to suggest the only way to fix the problem is giving all the state governments the ability to deny rate increases.

I’ve had this thought before, but I haven’t really found anything else talking about it.. Does anyone else think they are trying to bankrupt the insurance companies so we can finally have fully-socialized healthcare?
Anonymous

Eeyew! You made me go to the NYT site! Now I have to take a shower or somethin’.
Franklin

It’s not about them wanting “socialized healthcare”, per se.
It’s not about market vs. government.
It’s not about poor or rich or middle class, nor is it about social justice vs. liberty or, to mouth banal buzzwords, ensuring a social conscience whilst sustaining the engine of commerce, and yada, yada, blah, blah, blah.
It’s about getting one more vote than your opponent, using all means necessary.
It is nothing more than that.
Patty Hankins

Franklin, I believe you are entirely correct that it is not about any of the ideologies used to justify it. However, I believe it is about information technology. I have followed several links to parts of the actual mandate, as well as analysis concerning the real agenda, and it seems that the real issue is getting the information tech in place on all Americans.
Tucked away in the bill are references to RFID chips to contain the entire medical record of the patient. I’m sure at some point mission creep will insure that the patient’s financial information will be included as well.
Following that thread is scary indeed. Comprehensive medical records, which used to be a sacred trust between doctor and patient, under Obamacare will be available in digital form to anyone in the “public/private” healthcare loop. I’ve seen how secure our emails and cell phone calls are. This is only going one direction, and that is toward total control. The National Security Agency is completing a 2 billion dollar “data collection” facility in Bluffdale, Utah, this year. They are collecting every bit of data from every source on every citizen. The “Total Information Awareness” project that the American people rejected and the Senate voted down in 2003 is proceeding under the radar. The director of research at the NSA, William Binney, actually flushed his career over this and resigned in protest. The complete medical records of every American were a missing component of this project. Obamacare will provide this. The NSA Total Information Awareness project, now renamed Stellar Wind, will achieve the complete inversion of the “government transparency and citizen privacy” that is necessary for liberty.
I believe the mistake we make in dissecting Obamacare is assuming that government is benign. That idea goes against history. Governments who are bent on expanding and centralizing their power do not do so to “help” their citizens. Quite the opposite.
Also, under Obamacare, medical decisions will be made not by doctors who have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but by bureaucrats doing cost/benefit analysis. Read the parts of the Mandate that address “death counseling” and “comfort care” and “hospice care” instead of actual medical care when the guidelines show that you are “too old” or “too sick” to justify surgery or other expensive interventions. This is an old story. When the State starts throwing individuals under the bus for “the greater good”, then you are moving away from a republic created by the consent of the governed, and toward a totalitarian dystopia.
ChrisKABA

Employee “provided” insurance is getting worse too.

I can’t even afford that this year since my employer wants me to pay 40% of my pay for an overpriced PPO that still wants me to pay an insane amount in co-insurance…
Dr John

Prices just fell substantially for medical lab tests provided by a private cash only co-op that I belong to! Just goes to show that free market capitalism works, and government regulated systems like medical insurance do not.
Dr John

There was a dr on Peter schiff show recently who offers unlimited access to his services for a nominal fee of $50 per month! It’s called concierge medicine. It’s the way things are heading unless Obamacare outlaws paying out-of-pocket for health care.

The dr said he works less and makes more than his buddies in managed care! He caps his patients at 500, whereas GP docs who contract with insurance have up to 3,000 patients under their care at any given time! He saves a fortune on low overhead costs since he doesn’t have to hire a billing department!