NYT: Insurance Experts Fear Confusing Obamacare Enrollment | Reuters: Obamacare Changes Pressuring Rural Hospitals To Close
Obamacare Train Wreck Continues!
The New York Times reports today, “The first year of enrollment under the federal health care law was marred by the troubled start of HealthCare.gov, rampant confusion among consumers and a steep learning curve for insurers and government officials alike. But insurance executives and managers of the online marketplaces are already girding for the coming open enrollment period, saying they fear it could be even more difficult than the last. One challenge facing consumers will be wide swings in prices. Some insurers are seeking double-digit price increases, while others are hoping to snare more of the market by lowering premiums for the coming year. At the same time, the Obama administration is expected to try to persuade about five million more people to sign up while also trying to ensure that eight million people who now have coverage renew for another year. Adding to the complexity is the shorter time frame for choosing a new policy: three months instead of six. ‘In some respects, it’s going to be more complicated,’ said Kevin Counihan, the former chief executive of Access Health CT, Connecticut’s online marketplace, who was just named as the head of the insurance marketplaces for the federal government. . . . ‘Part of me thinks that this year is going to make last year look like the good old days.’”
The Times writes, “[T]he upheaval in insurance markets, with new carriers entering and the price of plans changing significantly, may make the coming year no easier than the last. While federal rules allow people to renew their coverage automatically for the next year in the same plan, many customers, especially if they were eligible for federal tax credits, will want to resurvey the landscape. Just as there was an uproar when some people found out last year that their policies had been canceled, individuals this year may be surprised to find that they could be asked to pay much more for the same plan because their carrier is raising its prices or the amount of the federal tax credit they will receive is changing. . . . Exactly how the renewal process will work has not yet been determined. ‘We’re still waiting on the details of the process,’ said Paula Steiner, chief strategy officer for Health Care Service Corporation, which offers Blue Cross plans in five states. ‘We haven’t gone through any testing yet of any changes to the system for 2015.’ ‘I think there’s a possibility that there’s equal or more confusion this fall,’ she said.” And of course, as the NYT notes, “‘We are definitely seeing a lot of volatility in pricing,’ said Erica Hutchins Coe, a McKinsey expert. Some of the large insurers, like some of the Blue Cross plans, have requested steep increases. Florida Blue, for example, expects to raise its rates by an average of 17.6 percent for 2015.”
Recall that earlier this summer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Many of us predicted that these kinds of problems would be the likely outcome of giving government such expansive power over such a huge segment of our economy. Of course you’re going to have massive inefficiency. And probable fraud. And migraines for middle-class families that already have enough to deal with. Of course you’re going to see all this. It seems inevitable. . . . Obamacare is built upon the intellectually lazy idea that we can simply legislate a desirable outcome into existence; that we can tell a hulking federal bureaucracy to simply bureaucratize affordable healthcare into being. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.”
Another concern Republicans aired as Democrats were forcing Obamacare through Congress was the problems and financial pressures it would create for rural hospitals. Sure enough, Reuters writes today, “Small, rural hospitals like Linden [in East Texas] have always struggled to remain viable, but things are getting worse, fast. Rural communities are shrinking at a time when healthcare providers are being pressured to cut costs and release patients sooner. Twenty-four rural hospitals have closed across the county since the start of 2013, double the pace of the previous 20 months, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. . . . Now the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is bringing additional pressure. Obamacare is designed to fold the poor and uninsured into the healthcare system, but changes in how the federal government pays for the disadvantaged are already pressuring the hospitals that cater to them, such as rural ones. Reformers are eager to see some hospitals close, including many out in the country. . . . ‘There is a big transition happening,’ said Mark Claster, president of investment firm Carl Marks & Co and vice chairman of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System board of trustees. ‘I don't think smaller hospitals are prepared, and I don't think they can be. I don't think they have the economic wherewithal.’ . . . Implementation of the Affordable Care Act may exacerbate the problem for small facilities. ‘Revenues are coming down and expenses are not coming down as quickly,’ said George Huang, municipal securities research director at Wells Fargo Securities. ‘The smaller guys have fewer resources available to them.’ . . . One in five hospitals, over 1,000 at least, will close by 2020, forecasted Ezekiel Emanuel, a White House health policy special advisor who helped shape the Affordable Care Act. ‘Long live fewer hospitals. Welcome to the new age of digital medicine,’ Emanuel wrote in his book, Reinventing American Health Care. . . . Emanuel predicts the first hospitals to go will be smaller ones, which already operate with less than half of their beds filled.”
Reuters explains that rural hospitals were already struggling, but thanks to pressures from cuts to reimbursements and other changes in Obamacare, more are now going to be closing. And some architects of the unpopular law, like Ezekiel Emanuel, are apparently even proud of the impact, declaring, “Long live fewer hospitals.”
That certainly wasn’t part of Democrats’ sales pitch to Americans, nor were the bureaucratic snafus, technology problems, massive confusion among consumers and providers, and higher premiums which inevitably resulted from their legislation attempting to remake 1/6th of the U.S. economy.
Tags: Obamacare, confusing enrollments, rural hospitals, closing hospitals, train wreck To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
The New York Times reports today, “The first year of enrollment under the federal health care law was marred by the troubled start of HealthCare.gov, rampant confusion among consumers and a steep learning curve for insurers and government officials alike. But insurance executives and managers of the online marketplaces are already girding for the coming open enrollment period, saying they fear it could be even more difficult than the last. One challenge facing consumers will be wide swings in prices. Some insurers are seeking double-digit price increases, while others are hoping to snare more of the market by lowering premiums for the coming year. At the same time, the Obama administration is expected to try to persuade about five million more people to sign up while also trying to ensure that eight million people who now have coverage renew for another year. Adding to the complexity is the shorter time frame for choosing a new policy: three months instead of six. ‘In some respects, it’s going to be more complicated,’ said Kevin Counihan, the former chief executive of Access Health CT, Connecticut’s online marketplace, who was just named as the head of the insurance marketplaces for the federal government. . . . ‘Part of me thinks that this year is going to make last year look like the good old days.’”
The Times writes, “[T]he upheaval in insurance markets, with new carriers entering and the price of plans changing significantly, may make the coming year no easier than the last. While federal rules allow people to renew their coverage automatically for the next year in the same plan, many customers, especially if they were eligible for federal tax credits, will want to resurvey the landscape. Just as there was an uproar when some people found out last year that their policies had been canceled, individuals this year may be surprised to find that they could be asked to pay much more for the same plan because their carrier is raising its prices or the amount of the federal tax credit they will receive is changing. . . . Exactly how the renewal process will work has not yet been determined. ‘We’re still waiting on the details of the process,’ said Paula Steiner, chief strategy officer for Health Care Service Corporation, which offers Blue Cross plans in five states. ‘We haven’t gone through any testing yet of any changes to the system for 2015.’ ‘I think there’s a possibility that there’s equal or more confusion this fall,’ she said.” And of course, as the NYT notes, “‘We are definitely seeing a lot of volatility in pricing,’ said Erica Hutchins Coe, a McKinsey expert. Some of the large insurers, like some of the Blue Cross plans, have requested steep increases. Florida Blue, for example, expects to raise its rates by an average of 17.6 percent for 2015.”
Recall that earlier this summer, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Many of us predicted that these kinds of problems would be the likely outcome of giving government such expansive power over such a huge segment of our economy. Of course you’re going to have massive inefficiency. And probable fraud. And migraines for middle-class families that already have enough to deal with. Of course you’re going to see all this. It seems inevitable. . . . Obamacare is built upon the intellectually lazy idea that we can simply legislate a desirable outcome into existence; that we can tell a hulking federal bureaucracy to simply bureaucratize affordable healthcare into being. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.”
Another concern Republicans aired as Democrats were forcing Obamacare through Congress was the problems and financial pressures it would create for rural hospitals. Sure enough, Reuters writes today, “Small, rural hospitals like Linden [in East Texas] have always struggled to remain viable, but things are getting worse, fast. Rural communities are shrinking at a time when healthcare providers are being pressured to cut costs and release patients sooner. Twenty-four rural hospitals have closed across the county since the start of 2013, double the pace of the previous 20 months, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. . . . Now the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is bringing additional pressure. Obamacare is designed to fold the poor and uninsured into the healthcare system, but changes in how the federal government pays for the disadvantaged are already pressuring the hospitals that cater to them, such as rural ones. Reformers are eager to see some hospitals close, including many out in the country. . . . ‘There is a big transition happening,’ said Mark Claster, president of investment firm Carl Marks & Co and vice chairman of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System board of trustees. ‘I don't think smaller hospitals are prepared, and I don't think they can be. I don't think they have the economic wherewithal.’ . . . Implementation of the Affordable Care Act may exacerbate the problem for small facilities. ‘Revenues are coming down and expenses are not coming down as quickly,’ said George Huang, municipal securities research director at Wells Fargo Securities. ‘The smaller guys have fewer resources available to them.’ . . . One in five hospitals, over 1,000 at least, will close by 2020, forecasted Ezekiel Emanuel, a White House health policy special advisor who helped shape the Affordable Care Act. ‘Long live fewer hospitals. Welcome to the new age of digital medicine,’ Emanuel wrote in his book, Reinventing American Health Care. . . . Emanuel predicts the first hospitals to go will be smaller ones, which already operate with less than half of their beds filled.”
Reuters explains that rural hospitals were already struggling, but thanks to pressures from cuts to reimbursements and other changes in Obamacare, more are now going to be closing. And some architects of the unpopular law, like Ezekiel Emanuel, are apparently even proud of the impact, declaring, “Long live fewer hospitals.”
That certainly wasn’t part of Democrats’ sales pitch to Americans, nor were the bureaucratic snafus, technology problems, massive confusion among consumers and providers, and higher premiums which inevitably resulted from their legislation attempting to remake 1/6th of the U.S. economy.
Tags: Obamacare, confusing enrollments, rural hospitals, closing hospitals, train wreck To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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