I’ve heard a barrage of laments that insurance companies are “finding ways around” the alleged intentions of Obamacare, such as raising premiums or even exiting the marketplace. Why? Because they are “greedy”.
I say, “Nonsense”.
Regulations determine what companies can, can’t, and must do. There’s no way anyone can say this would not happen. The CBO knew it long before it was passed and now we find that the administration and legislators expected it too, contrary to promises made.
The law itself says the payouts must be 90% of premiums collected by an HMO, so to say they are raising premiums that aren’t simply covering costs is ridiculous. Simple math and common sense is in line with what was predicted and now observed.
Of course the HMO’s aren’t blameless — heck, they pretty much wrote the law themselves — but it’s the law that brings us these (to some of us obvious) consequences, not some corporate action that we can pretend to be surprised about as if the law couldn’t have accounted for it.
We need to start dealing with the train wreck and make the best of it by additional changes or repeals instead of denying and blaming the same entities this was supposedly going to “bring in line”. Either way, the law clearly failed.
Now to be clear, single-payer or not being better, I’d get rid of HMOs. No one can deny the way things were was an obsolete and corrupt system, moreso by current corporatism.
The law didn’t fix any of this. It was a band aid for some while hurting everyone else. The ACA made permanent the status quo, put it on steroids by force of law, and now no one is happy on either side of the aisle.
I don’t blame Obama, or Romney, or the pseudo-free-market. But I certainly can’t defend what is possibly the most destructive legislation of our lifetime.
