So how much is your insurance going up due to Obamacare?

[Alan]

I agree Obama didn't lie but he was duped..... If these were things I saw as a possibility, then surely someone in the Obama admin saw it as well and made accomadations for those possibilities. But doesn't seem they did. Lied? No. Naive? Maybe.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapoth...der-obamacare/

I suppose if someone really wanted to, they could convince themselves that the President didn't intentionally mislead the country all those dozens (hundreds?) of times he told us "If you like your policy, you can keep your policy. Period!"

Personally, I have trouble buying that since it's been well documented that his administration has been aware for the past three years that an estimated 93 million people with existing policies would not be able to keep them.

So, if you want to go with the "he was duped" defense, I suppose that it's possible. He's told us on many occasions that he didn't know about most of his administrations most embarrassing revelations until he heard it on the news. I don't believe that, but who am I to disagree with his inadvertent admissions that he is out of touch?

[Rogar]

It is interesting to see the numbers the news estimates for people who will have/had cancelled policies. 93 million seems awfully high to me. That's almost a third of the country This article says 2 million. Maybe I am missing something in semantics. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/...nce-companies/ I saw other articles estimating 3.5 million and the highest one I found besides the Forbes article was 15 million.

It still doesn't get Obama off the hook, but doesn't add much credit to the Forbes article either.

[bae]

And now this - they did a bad job on the security... Who would have guessed?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_1...before-launch/

"White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "Consumers can trust that their information is protected by stringent security standards."

Lies.

[Gregg]

Lied? No. Naive? Maybe.

Apparently it is just too much to ask that our leaders be both honest and competent.

[Spartana]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapoth...der-obamacare/

I suppose if someone really wanted to, they could convince themselves that the President didn't intentionally mislead the country all those dozens (hundreds?) of times he told us "If you like your policy, you can keep your policy. Period!"

Personally, I have trouble buying that since it's been well documented that his administration has been aware for the past three years that an estimated 93 million people with existing policies would not be able to keep them.

So, if you want to go with the "he was duped" defense, I suppose that it's possible. He's told us on many occasions that he didn't know about most of his administrations most embarrassing revelations until he heard it on the news. I don't believe that, but who am I to disagree with his inadvertent admissions that he is out of touch?

While I also find it hard to believe he didn't see the potential things that could go wrong with the plan, I don't think he intentionally lied to cover up those potential problems - although Sebilius and his staff probably knew apparantly. I think he was a well-meaning and sincere guy who was just naive to the pitfalls and just assumed that for-profit insurance companies would be happy about the ACA and keeping it's current policy holders in their same plans without raising rates or eliminating those plans. Naive and over competent sure, but lied directly? I really don't think so. Of course I may actually be the naive one to believe my own spin :-) .

What I'm wondering is what happens if obamacare isn't up and running by the time all these policies are canceled? What if people can't buy policies on the exchanges, apply for possible subsidies or medicaid, or employer policies are cancelled like Greg 44's was due to increaced costs? Will people have to go without insurance enmass? Last I heard it was going to be 6 million current policies that will be cancelled not counting rate increases for employer's group policies and the potential cancellation of those policies forcing more people to buy their own policies.

[Alan]

What I'm wondering is what happens if obamacare isn't up and running by the time all these policies are canceled? What if people can't buy policies on the exchanges, apply for possible subsidies or medicaid, or employer policies are cancelled like Greg 44's was due to increaced costs? Will people have to go without insurance enmass? Last I heard it was going to be 6 million current policies that will be cancelled not counting rate increases for employer's group policies and the potential cancellation of those policies forcing more people to buy their own policies.

I read somewhere this morning that in California, insurance regulators are pressuring Blue Shield of California to extend their expiring policies through March 31st. What wasn't mentioned in the story was whether that would put Blue Shield in violation of federal law for allowing possibly non-compliant policies to remain in effect.

That situation would also bring up the possibility that extended policies with high deductibles would result in some policy holders being on the hook for large deductible payments twice during the year.

All I can say is if the law itself didn't present enough problems for some demographics, it's implementation is ensuring that as many people as possible will feel the pain.


edited to correct a mistake in my recollection. Hey, it happens...

[Spartana]

I read somewhere this morning that in California, insurance regulators are pressuring Blue Shield of California to extend their expiring policies through March 31st. What wasn't mentioned in the story was whether that would put Blue Shield in violation of federal law for allowing possibly non-compliant policies to rem in effect.

That situation would also bring up the possibility that extended policies with high deductibles would result in some policy holders being on the hook for large deductible payments twice during the year.

All I can say is if the law itself didn't present enough problems for some demographics, it's implementation is ensuring that as many people as possible will feel the pain.


edited to correct a mistake in my recollection. Hey, it happens...

I just read the same thing online in today's Wall Street Journal. Blue Shield said it will extend cancelled policies for 115,000 people in Calif until March 31, 2014

The article also said that, because the new policies will cost so much more than the current ones, that "the extention of existing policies will save those policy holders as much as $28.6 millon dollars in premiums". That's a lot of moolah for just 3 months! The article also said that other states and insurance companies are expected to have extent ions themselves. I'm sure that's a huge relief for many. Can't post the link to the article from this dang blasted tablet computer but you can Google it.

It also said that cancellation letters are expected to be sent to over 10 million people in the US - I'm one of them - over the next few weeks. So hopefully other insurers besides Blue Shield in Calif will allow extensions until things are worked out. I wonder how much money that will save if extending policies for only 115,000 policy holders saves over $28 million, imagine what extending policies for 10 million people for 3 months will save.

[Alan]

....The article also said that, because the new policies will cost so much more than the current ones, that "the extention of existing policies will save those policy holders as much as $28.6 millon dollars in premiums". That's a lot of moolah for just 3 months!...

Yeah, I saw those numbers as well. That's approximately $250 per person for one fiscal quarter. Now I'm not a rocket scientist but by my ciphering that's an average of $1000 per person over the course of a full year. What happened to the $2500 in savings we've been promised for the past couple of years?

[bae]

What happened to the $2500 in savings we've been promised for the past couple of years?

I think we spent it on missiles, bailouts for bankers, NSA spying on American citizens' emails, and other essentials.

[peggy]

If you do a little investigating, you find that many of these letters are sent out to try to get folks locked into a higher cost policy BEFORE they get a chance to compare on the exchanges. Especially those in states where the powers that be decided it was in their citizens best interest to NOT be able to comparison shop. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose, in republican held states!
The thing is, now insurance companies will be held to standards of coverage (no more junk insurance), but can rape and pillage their policy holders as much as they want UNLESS they offer policies on an exchange. See, policies offered on the exchange must meet the standards, including spending a percentage of the policy cost on actual health care.
This is why most companies have policies on the exchanges where states have set them up and policies outside the exchanges where states haven't set them up. And why you have the price differences. So, the policy holders in republican held states will see increases in costs without the benefit of an exchange. Certainly NOT Obama's fault, and completely the republicans fault. Completely!.
This is also why these insurance companies are sending out these letters now, in all states, taking advantage of ignorance of the law/rights to try to lock people into these higher cost plans (often the exact same plan that is on the exchange for less cost) before the customer knows what is what.

For those who live in red states without exchanges, please put blame where blame is due. We have the internet, we have phones, we can talk with people, friends, family, in states with exchanges. Know how you are being ripped off and WHO is to blame. It's not just a coincidence that folks in states with exchanges are largely finding their health care is coming down, as the quality of the coverage is going up.
Plus, those who had junk policies, ones that didn't really cover anything, will find that even if their costs go up a bit, the benefits do too. Several wellness tests/visits are included. You have to look at the whole package.