As any 6 year-old with simple math skills would have predicted, the basic economics behind Obamacare were not sound and thus the main policy initiative of America’s Modern Messiah was doomed to failure. Richard Epstein, of the Hoover Institution, gives the details in this podcast.
Many more facts about this ill conceived program can be found here:
And what the insurers who have left the program have made clear is that they believe that, absent changes, the losses will go on forever. “The vast majority of payers have experienced continued financial stress within their individual public exchange business,” Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said about the decision. In a call with investors last year, a representative from UnitedHealth said the company “saw no indication of anything actually improving” inside the exchanges. “We cannot sustain these losses,” UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley said on that call. “We can’t really subsidize a marketplace that doesn’t appear at the moment to be sustaining itself.”
As with all Leftist failures, expect no apologies or mea culpas. They’re incapable of it. With an endless stream of supporters whose memories are shorter than that of a gnat, they will just move on, setting their eyes on the next part of the economy to destroy.
“…they will just move on, setting their eyes on the next part of the economy to destroy.”
Progressives think that they are part of a perpetual motion mechanism where there is no end to growing leviathan, until its failures, increasingly bringing more repressive iterations, eventually result in the same old destination of blood in the streets.
A more inter sting question is what made the Insurers think that they could survive a business model of attempting to insure the uninsurable.
Nice. The Yanks are getting a taste of the Canadian Honest Crap Steal system. Hope they enjoy it.
Of course this is the result – it was the goal from the begining. Socialist don’t want private insurers at all, they want a completely gov’t controlled program. To get it, they need to make the nasty capitalist system completely break down.
It was never meant to work. It was designed to fail and the private companies were set up to be the scapegoat. This was phase one of a move to government run universal health care. Health care was always Hillary’s pet cause. She’ll be in charge of phase two if she steals the presidency.
Frenchie, We must have been typing at the same time. Great minds think alike. 😉
Once it becomes nationalized, there’s no going back.
I remember how government-run auto insurance was inflicted on B. C. shortly after Dave Barrett’ NDP were elected. It was a mess. The Dippers were booted out by Mini-WAC Bennett’s Socreds and part of ICBC was turned over to the private sector. One still had to buy the basic coverage through the government but extended coverage was available privately.
It appears that’s no longer the case. Not having lived in B. C. since 1980, I’m not sure why.
ICBC has been a part of life in that province for nearly 45 years. That’s one reason I don’t want to move back there.
“As with all Leftist failures, expect no apologies or mea culpas.”
Leftist Apology, iF they gave one:
-Sorry if you’re not happy with the Affordable Care Act.
-Sorry that it’s neither Affordable …nor do we Care, however our biggest supporters were Actors.
-Sorry we lied to you, but we’d lie to you again about the ACA, and the fact is we are currently lying to you about a host of issues, also we plan to lie to you about other issues on our socialist agenda that our media stooges haven’t yet told you we are going to make issues. Keep voting for us and you’ll find out. Everyone loves surprises.
We lied to you for your own good because we’re Smart and you’re selfish retarded children who make it necessary.
-Again, sorry that you aren’t happy.
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“The goal of socialism is communism.”
~V.I. Lenin
Goverments run insurance as socialist welfare:
From each according to his ability (to pay) to each according to his need (and voting block).
Real Insurance is different:
From each according to his risk pool, to each according to his contract bought.
Huge difference.
That is why government “insurance” always has exorbitant costs and political payouts.
ICBC assessed me 50% at fault for my motorcycle falling over on the back of a flat bed tow truck while crossing a train track at speed. After initially telling me that OBVIOUSLY I was blameless and that I would not be charged the $500 deductible, they ended up making me pay it.
The driver had 30 years experience AND owned a motorcycle.
He had some trouble securing the vehicle.
I had made one suggestion which he took. I did not TELL him to do this, making it very clear that I had zero experience securing a motorcycle on a truck.
My first mistake was saying ANYTHING to the driver.
My second mistake was telling the truth to ICBC when they questioned me on the phone.
Conclusion:
They represent both sides.
One side has two vehicles. The other dozens.
I HATE ICBC with a white-hot passion.
I had some dealings with SGI in Saskatchewan, the last time being infuriating.
I drove from Edmonton to Saskatoon for a wedding. Soon after I arrived, I was driving along a street and changed lanes, passing by a Jeep. I had to stop at a red light and a few seconds after I came to a halt, that Jeep back-ended me.
I was mad not just because of the accident but I had bought my car brand-new less than a year earlier. When I hollered at the kid who was driving, he looked like he was about to wet his pants.
The police officer who investigated said it wasn’t my fault and I accepted his assessment. I called my insurance company the next day and explained what happened.
When I got back to Edmonton, the fun started. Having the damage inspected and then repaired was the easy part. The final settlement proved to be a headache.
According to SGI, the kid claimed that he had no choice but to run into me because I apparently “cut him off”. (I’m sure his buddy who was with him in the Jeep backed him up.) There was a witness waiting to cross the street at the intersection but, surprise! surprise!, he didn’t “see anything”. On top of that, there was apparently some issue about how the officer had filled out his report.
I knew the kid was lying. If I cut him off, he would have had to brake suddenly and there was no evidence of that. In addition, the kid’s initial reaction was more like “Oh, crap!” than in being mad at me for having left him little room.
My insurance company couldn’t be bothered with pursuing it further. I could have taken it up in court, but I would have had to go to Saskatoon for that and I couldn’t afford to take time off from work for that, not to mention having to pay any associated legal fees.
I decided I was better off eating the cost of the deductible. The punk fibbed and got away with it while I was out the extra money I had to pay.
Thanks for nothing, SGI.
private insurance ain’t no better, my “toy” is sitting behind my shop since beginning of May. I threw a wrench into thing when I said I wanted to buy back, as it is a write off, and those idiots are still trying figure that one out.
Health care is obama’s legacy….
Haven’t heard much yet but red rachael might just introduce government auto insurance here in Alberta. Why not it’s a blue chip ndp standard.
the Canadian health system would bankrupt the US. if Canada had a comparable population the Canadian system would collapse on itself. he ll in most places it already is. fund raising for hospitals and equipment, fund raising for diseases, money being sucked up by bureaucrats and paper pushers, taxes that never go down, the Canadian system does not work for every Canadian.