Political pressure on the budget showdown will mount.
ACA Plan Costs Expected to Jump
The Wall Street Journal discusses ACA Costs and Subsidies
Premiums for ACA plans are expected to increase steeply in most states next year, with many insurers hiking rates 20% or more, due largely to higher spending on patients’ care.
If the enhanced payments end, fewer enrollees will get help from subsidies, and the sums will shrink for those who still qualify for them. KFF, a health-research nonprofit, estimates that average annual out-of-pocket premium payments could more than double next year, to $1,904 from $888.
Democrats say they won’t budge on their demand that Republicans support the higher federal subsidies they first passed in 2021, which hold down costs for people with ACA plans. It is a core issue for the party’s base, and Democrats hope their stance will help them score points with voters like Wallace, whose monthly health-insurance bill would likely rise sharply if the enhanced payments lapse.
Republican lawmakers have warned of unsustainable government spending. Over the years, they have repeatedly taken aim at the signature health law of former President Barack Obama. But some congressional Republicans have privately voiced concern that the GOP will bear the blame if healthcare costs sharply increase as midterm elections loom.
The stakes are high because in the 15 years since its passage, the ACA, often nicknamed Obamacare, has become ingrained in the American healthcare system. The marketplace insurance now covers more than 24 million people.
The number of people receiving a subsidy jumped from 10 million to over 22 million as as result of Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Want more of something? Subsidize it.
Democrats made the enhanced tax credits “temporary” to disguise the true costs.
We are about to rediscover the definition of “temporary”.
When Will Republicans Cave on Democrat’s Government Shutdown Demands?
On October 3, I asked How Quickly Will Republicans Cave on Democrat’s Government Shutdown Demands?
Democrats’ Strategy
If Democrats can hang on for the rest of the month, healthcare premium notices will be sent.
Consumers can start shopping for next year’s coverage on November 1. Some ACA participants have already started receiving notifications about next year’s premium increases.
About 24 million people are enrolled in ACA (Obamacare) coverage. Roughly that many people will not be happy with sticker shock.
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Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, has been waiting for this moment.
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Tariffs backfired on US agricultural exports.
October 2, 2025: ADP Private Jobs Decline by 32,000 in September, Huge Negative Revisions
ADP revised August from +54,000 to -3,000 making 2 straight months of declines.
I’d be ecstatic if I only had to pay $2000 out of pocket for the miserly coverage I have. I’m required to pay $2300 every 2 months to Medicare for Medicare B. The IRS provides your tax returns to Medicare and for two years I had higher than normal income, and so I was “means tested” into paying, now, 25% of my income for minimal coverage. I have to move out of the country. Gotta love our government. Send the billions to Ukraine, and let the citizens starve here at home.
healthcare–a “for profit” sector where the biggest profits stick with the payer–the insurers
insurance process gets 30% of every dollar spent on healthcare
Had Obama been slightly less corrupt, and included a public option (buying into Medicare) as was originally intended, non of this nonsense would be happening and we would be well on our way to a much more efficient, single-payer system. The public option was dropped a the last minute, due to insurance industry pressure (bribery).
This is a perfect illustration of why the Democratic tactic of being slightly less corrupt version of Republicans is not a viable long term political strategy.
At least people are getting something (some degree of medical care) for this spending. My HDHP (bronze) is an unsubsidized $815/mo premium this year and will go up 5% next. For many, that is untenable (never mind “affordable”) without subsidy.
As to fees – the negotiated fees with doctors are in general reasonable. Where they are very out of whack is for PT and hospital/surgery related.
Read what our transnational regime is doing to Europe.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/europes-walls-tremble-as-political
Trump is their man in D.C. The more damage he does, the lower the bar set for the next D. Another round of “blue no matter who”, because people “just want the pain to stop”. (Who could blame them?). And round and round we go down the drain.
Meanwhile, the people who plan this operate with Barnum’s famous quote: Never give a sucker an even break.
…
Shit, my bleak prose even disturbs me…I need some sunshine. Tata!
I believe your quote was actually by W.C Fields.
Noted! Thanks.
I have an Obamacare plan. My monthly premium is $0 for myself and my wife. And I pay out of pocket up to the first $18,200 of medical costs ($9100 each). My insurer negotiates prices with my providers. Here’s what I learned: doctors, even specialists, are pretty cheap. I pay my doctor $120 per visit, which is maybe twice a year. The first, a general checkup, is free. X-rays and other usual items not covered by my PCP are pretty cheap too, running from around $150 – $450 depending on service. Lab work runs me under $20/year. I estimate I’ll spend around $1200 out of pocket for my wife and myself this year, including pharma. What’s expensive? Hospitals. Why? Because they are generally local monopolies. And when you need them, you generally don’t have time to research anything. But most Republicans hate the idea of putting any controls on monopolies, so they are free to rip people off. The government pays my insurer about $22k/per year for what is essentially insurance against my going to a hospital.
The Obamacare fight is really just this: Republicans want hospitals and insurance companies to be able to charge monopoly prices making insurance unaffordable for middle-class Americans. Democrats want middle-income people to be able to have health insurance in a Republican, health monopoly world. Obamacare is that compromise. There are many choices here: continue Obamacare with some tweaks, get rid of it and leave the middle-class reliant on having a full time job with a large employer, or put price constraints on monopoly suppliers. The last one, of course, must not be discussed.
With all due respect,If your monthly premium is zero that means your income is very low. And thats fine, if it is, you are getting what the law says you are entitled to. I have no problem with that
Your ranting on about blaming Trump for the state of our healthcare system is just plain foolish.
I see you are part of todays culture that blames Trump for everything bad known to mankind.
Is it Trumps fault America got involved for WW2? It never ends with some of you.
Everything is Trumps fault. Got it
Did he actually use the word “Trump” one time in his post?
Or do you have TDS II?
This is a good example of the rampant stupidity and gaslighting that has been pushed on all of us.
It will be impossible to convince someone like Jon that the rest of us are getting raked over the coals because he has no financial motivation to see anything changed. The rest of us are underwriting the real cost of his insurance. This is why the government should not be involved in any of this. It distorts markets and trashes the laws of supply and demand.
But sure Jon, it’s all the Republican’s fault. You are completely missing the point.
thats not bad. my state desn’t allow that kind of catastropic-only coverage which works well for people who make decent money, i would rather spend full price on my medical bills in return for no monthly premiums, and want to ust guard against something in the 5-6 figure type hit. if i spent market rate on my annual visits it’d be far less than my premiums.
but my state doesn’t allow it, they only have plans with monthly premiums in the hundreds of dollars
We should prioritize on basic healthy food and basic shelter, ahead of absurd measures on end-of-life sick care.
Nuke the fascist healthcare cartel. Spend a portion of the savings to encourage the growth and delivery of healthy foods.
What our system does now — feed people poison until they near death — is …? Pick your adjective.
More than 75% of Americans are either overweight or obese. Most of us take anti cholesterol pills which reduce potassium, magnesium, sodium.. which are important to our heart pulses. We have sedentary lifestyle. We pee in the pants after beer, SBUX and energy drinks. We consume sugar, fructose, junk food and junk sodas. We suffer from insomnia. On Oct 18 the left might storm the white house to lower keep Obamacare subsidies. Obamacare is for the rich who make $500K/y and the illegals.
– Political pressure on the budget showdown will mount.
> I suggest that it will be towards the Democrats. The Republicans have passed it 100%, and the Democrats 0%. What can the Republicans do but wait for the Dems to do the same, or not. If they don’t for the absolutely insane reason of “Healthcare For Illegals” over American Citizens, then they will have to answer for that eventually.
>> I equally suggest if the Republicans Cave to these types of demands, then they will have basically told Americans “We Lied” and we agree with Democrats, and always have, that illegals are “Far More Important than American Citizens”, so screw Americans, and give it ALL to the Illegals. What else do you want, because it’s yours, and we are simply here for you, and not American Citizens, it would be Political Suicide!
– The Wall Street Journal discusses ACA Cost and Subsidies.
> Like anyone really cares what the WSJ has to say. They have turned into a Rag Paper at best, and a mouthpiece for the Democrats at worst. Not a winning strategy for an old washed up piece of garbage to head, if they wanted to be taken seriously, but now they are simply “Tuned Out” as they should be imo.
– Premiums for ACA plans are expected to increase steeply in most states next year.
> And the year after that, and the year after that again etc. You can’t care for everyone on the Planet, and expect Your Own Country to survive as well, with good healthcare. It doesn’t work that way. You have a small amount of money, subsidized by the Taxpayers for care for unhealthy Americans, and that’s not even close to enough, and you want to throw a few more Million Illegals on top of the small pile of resources that we only have? Then ask for More Taxpayers to point up increasingly more, as we must also care for there elderly and children too don’t forget, and we are not even capable of taking care of our own Citizens fully…
– Democrats say they won’t budge on their demand that Republicans support the higher federal subsidies they first passed in 2021, which hold down costs for people with ACA plans.
> Then they will “Go Down In Flames” as a result. You can’t “Demand American Taxpayers” to keep paying for Illegals, when we don’t even take care of our Elderly properly, for what they deserve, and skimming off of American Citizens to further help Illegals at the further cost to Our Own Citizens Will Not and Should Not Fly!!!
– Want more of something? Subsidize it.
> Hard to Find A Truer Statement…
Just a reminder to put things in perspective.
1.Spend on healthcare:
U.S. per capita: ~$14,500 (2023)
EU average per capita: ~$3,500–4,000
2.YouGov poll: 59% of US citizens want “Medicare for all”
I suggest the real problem is the US lobbying system and money in politics.
Myth disclaimer about long queues in countries that have universal healthcare – total nonsense as you can always top up healthcare with private insurance anyway. 25% of people in Spain have insurance for example.
2 key benefits of universal healthcare:
<<The government dictates prices>>
Correct. And treatments and medicines (strict formulary). But in Europe you can also purchase additional private insurance, visit private doctors and hospitals (if you can afford it), etc. The governments encourage it, because it reduces the load on public costs.
Government-employed doctors live in apartments and take the bus (low salaries). Private doctors are of course wealthier.
It’s a mixed system in Europe. In the USA we don’t have as many options after Obamacare.
That is an interesting point about public vs. private doctors. Any universal system needs to ensure that there isn’t a rush for doctors to move to private. In the UK this has been a disaster in dentistry (most dentists private), but for most other specialities doctors tend to do a mix of both…I think they like to think of it as doing a public service whereas in reality it is more about lower demand in private.
I think this is a challenge for the next 20 years to keep this status quo in place. As an example Farage is pushing for a US system in the UK (for some bizarre reason). As a counter to this, Labour has had to announce that it will not put VAT on private healthcare in the same way it has done on education. IMHO – there should be VAT on both.
Interesting. How popular is the NHS these days? Does it generally meet peoples’ needs?
The problem in America is the biggest purchaser of pharma drugs is barred from negotiating pricing, in the rest of the world that is not the case.
And again, Trumps Most favored nation plan is trying to change that and I do not understand how that is a bad thing?
But again, everything Trump does has to be bad right?
Only in some European countries. In most of them, even if allowed by law, private health providers and insurance are not competitive.
3 important points:
Example: Obese people do not qualify for joint replacements until they loose the fat and are likely to benefit from the surgery.
Insurance is a huge problem in healthcare as it disconnects slovenly people from the consequences of their daily lack of exercise.
Our massive wave of type 2 diabetes is simply an epigenetic display of bad choices!
<
I’d add drug and alcohol abuse to that list. If you are on the public dime, you should be subjected to blood tests for substances like nicotine, alcohol, drugs. Obesity is a non-starter.
– I’d add drug and alcohol abuse to that list. If you are on the public dime, you should be subjected to blood tests for substances like nicotine, alcohol, drugs. Obesity is a non-starter.
> Alcohol is Pure Legal Poison for the Human Body & Mind!!! Many Prescription Drugs are equally pure legal poison to the Human Body & Mind! Illegal drugs obviously are poison in countless ways.
>> You can’t subject people to blood test for things that are legal. Just like you can’t subject people to forced diets because they are obese, and eat too much. You can certainly strongly suggest such things, and even offer free gym memberships, but you can’t make them go work out either. This is probably a good thing!
>>> What we can do is offer classes or even mandate health classes for children in schools. We can make our “School Lunches” Much Healthier for sure!
I have been saying for years, that every teenager in High School, must take a mandatory set of classes, that place them in elderly care facilities (ie. Assisted Living). This gives our Young a good hard look at where they are heading and what they will possibly require for when they age. Maybe a better attitude towards are aging folks, and more compassion for their speed etc.
I would also toss in a visit to their Local Police & Fire Stations as well. Have talks from the Chief/Captain to the Students, about The Community of which they reside!
Good points.. And Frosty as you must have found out in your recent EU travels as you mentioned earlier, the food is just far fresher and yes of course, they do not add all the crap so called perservatives into there food like America allows.
Mr Kennedy trying to change that, but hey he is caught up in the the Trump Derangement Syndrome so he gets no credit for trying to get us on the right track
Sorry Jon L, you are simply wrong re queues when it comes to the UK. My brother has private health insurance but still gets in line. Faster than non-insured, but now becoming weeks for a GP appointment, longer for specialist. One way or another, the socialist system will always win out. It’s a mess over there and you should investigate before making unfounded statements.
However, you are correct re the cause. Same cause though in UK and US – lobbying and politics.
There are plenty of queues for private healthcare in the US too. My neighbor waited a month to see her doctor for a non-emergency issue.
Where in the US do you live? We don’t wait long in Florida.
Also what exactly was this non-emergency issue? Did it require an actual Doctor visit (ie a checkup you have to be physically present for) or was it simply a consultation visit that consists of questions that could have been answered via a video chat (or AI doctors).
I feel vaguely qualified to comment on the UK NHS – my brother is a GP, my sister in law a nurse, my cousin a surgeon, I have a PhD in medical systems (all these in the UK). You are absolutely right about the increase in queues caused by austerity measures from a right wing government….but you absolutely can by-pass them….perhaps your brother hasn’t figured it out. My mum just had a knee replacement privately and had almost no wait.
I am not saying the NHS doesn’t have queues – it does. My point was simply to counter people in the US thinking that everybody has to stand in line.
I live in France and again not perfect but healthcare works pretty well here.
Exactly. It is incomprehensible to me that America willingly pays 3 times as much for healthcare per capita, and for that money leaves more people without cover. The solution to lowering cost, simplifying the system and increasing coverage is right there, tried and tested: universal healthcare. The only explanation I have for America not doing so, is that it hates the idea of doing something as a community.
I’m 80 and don’t do doctors. I’m insured privately and have Medicare and VA, I’d use allopathic medicine only in an emergency. In many cases Doctors do more harm than good. I do go to the dentist and get ripped off for my failing teeth. I exercise every day, eat reasonably and watch my weight. My blood pressure is 110/70 and my weight hasn’t changed since I was a kid (170 at 5:11).
Agree. But how come know one talks about Trump MFN Drug plan? I think a wise plan
Our federal government which accounts for almost 30% of drug purchases was legally barred from negotiating prices when Medicare Part D came into effect in 2003
Trump is trying to do your point 1 that but since everything Trump does has to be wrong according to all the TDSers hey the media says lets just ignore that .
You can argue the U.S. is subsidizing the low costs of the worlds prescription drugs but hey lets just glorify how cheap drugs are outside the U.S.(which they are) but how about we look into the reasons why that is?
Its kind of like NATO, the U.S. pays for 80% of everything and then the 20%ers glorify how good they are and the America last haters just complain about America
Reliance will continue to grow as people get older, sicker and poorer and there is nothing the Fed, Trump or anyone else is going to be able to do about it. If you want a sneak peak of the future, this highly recommended documentary on the collapse of the West from a demographic perspective is a must watch film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2GeVG0XYTc
This guy put together a really good documentary on things I’ve been commenting about here for years. The future is bleak and there are no solutions except the battle for bodies most of which will need to come through from immigrants for the U.S.
The documentary features Japan which, coincidentally, is where I am right now and I gotta tell you, this place with 20 million people, is DEAD. It’s like Vegas dead and young people here are talking about moving to India.
After watching that documentary, I had to come see it for myself and it’s true. Streets are empty, many shops closed and I keep asking where are all the people? Heck, the banks here are all on the verge of collapse but that’s a comment for another day along with all the profits that will come from it. There is fear and angst in the faces of people as I walk the streets here.
The new wannabe prime minister thinks she can make Japan great again but who knows….
I’m almost done with my very long sabbatical so see you guys soon 😉
Japan and South Korea are in really bad shape. Japan is much further along the road to economic perdition.
If you want to see where America is headed just read up on Japan’s “hikikomori” and Japan’s “80/50 problem”. It’s really depressing, and the parallels between Japan’s rise and fall are eerily similar to the US. Buckle up…..
>> with 20 million people, is DEAD.
Which area do you refer to, to encompass 20m people? To the Tokyo metro area?
Yes Tokyo. Was here 10 years ago and it’s night/day different from what I saw. The roads barely have any cars, there are very few people walking the streets. Feels like I am in the twilight zone.
>> there are no solutions
IMO there are. We could have utopia if enough people want it.
And four states charge a penalty tax for not being able to afford to pay for health insurance. These sadistic states love to kick people when they are down. Residents of these states are seen as widgets used to funnel federal tax dollars into the state. They are the opposite of “caring”. Guess which political party all those states share, most with a supermajority of voters?
I am utterly unable to put a penny into the health care parade. My plan is to not get sick. Amazingly, it is working very well…….
If you are really good with self-care and have good genes, that works for a certain age range. It is always way cheaper to be healthy. Hence I am old but embarking in minutes on my 2.5-hour pre-sunrise power-walk with weights, hills, and sprints. I did finally need cholesterol meds and a bit of skin cancer taken out. But at a certain age, just the tests to be sure of things are useful, good to have. Many folks have dependents though, with more care needs. My risk management minimized all that radically. This will exact its price on me later, as a lone ager.
Be careful of those cholesterol meds! There are a litany of side effects and almost no proven benefits. The Dr’s do get higher reimbursements and are financially incentivized to get you on them.
Look for muscle fatigue, soreness or tearing of musculotendinous junctions, ligament tears, labrial tears in hips, brain fog, mental deterioration.
Read the frigging label!
agreed. I lived it. They put me on a “low dose” of crestor. All I got was being tired, brain fog(excuse some of my earlier posts lol) and I tore my ACL mildly which they said was just a coincidence. Stop taking them and everything went away and with therapy no more knee pain for the most part.
Listen to frosty re the statins!
And “nice job” on your continual self-care.
For 80 years its worked for me, although I am insured. Life is more enjoyable when you can do things other than go to all you can eat buffets.
In China more people have heart problems bc they are tuned to smartphone and
electronic devices, which keep them sleepless.
If the private sector and capitalism is so great, it should have solved everyone’s dependence on government. So what happen ?
Everybody makes promises that to some substantial degree don’t perfectly scale and pan out, whether it is left, right, religious, individual, etc. Human leadership and prospects as I see it are largely a sales job. But if one is wise, one engages with others who deliver a modicum of outcomes. No system will relieve an individual of that.
What worries me now is the emergence in the heart of our system of predators who challenge the very logic of our tools to keep people honest.
If government was so good at running things you wouldn’t see Google or Apple being created and run by private individuals. Government projects survive because they ensure a monopoly (no competition) and an income stream (that’s you – the taxpayer) without a concern for “profit”.
“projects survive because they ensure a monopoly (no competition) and an income stream ”
Describes every major industry too.
It is generally great but needs democratic accountability to put in place guiderails.
The pseudo democracy in the US driven by money and lobbying doesn’t count.
On Sat Oct 18 Obama mob might storm the white house. Trump will not be where he can die.
I would consider adjusting those meds. Dems swarmed in DC and Chicago in ’68, but the only direct storming so far (since maybe 1812) to date, was by the dupes of the current occupant of said house. Dems have behaved themselves ere now, as they are wont to do, and as the other guy laughs and gleefully exploits that vulnerability.
Everything is not a runaway process, but the main concerted deliberate attempted inducement of same, polydirectionally, tinged with melodramatic tones of menace insistently, is by Trump. We the People have clasped that one inside our bosom.
“Dems and *feds*” stormed Chicago in ’68.
I presume it’s the same thing everywhere and every time.
Obamacare subsidies need to end.
Most other developed countries get far better healthcare for ALL their citizens for a lot less money than what the US spends to cover 91% of its citizens.
The for profit insurance system is to blame.
Try government intervention. Government has never seen a problem it can’t make worse. Or, we’re from the government and here to help. Good luck.
We are in unusual agreement.
Very good point.
Very good point.
In the US, every person needs to have a premium that’s based on their risk. Obviously, people with uber high risk would need some sort of premium support, if they can’t afford it.
Likewise, if you’ve got 5 kids, then you need to pay for each kid. Someone with 1 kid shouldn’t be paying the same premium as that family with 5 kids. That’s just ludicrous.
If you have Type 2 Diabetes, you should pay a little more for your insurance. I don’t think it should be a lot, but every person covered by insurance should be required to complete a physical & the insurer should take into account all of their + * -.
Insurance needs to force every individual to have a stake in the game by trying to improve their health in ways they can control & afford for a lower premium.
Well what have we here: Agreement with PapaDave, BenW, and me.
Inflation is highest in everything Government touches.
Compare food to education or home prices. How many “affordable home programs” have we seen?
Education, Health Care, and Housing are all f’d up by meddling.
Insurance should be based on risk. But it isn’t. Screams for government to fix it makes it worse with handouts that drive of costs while removing incentives to hold down costs.
When Obamacare was in the making I remember an article in Forbes from an Insurance executive, paraphrasing but he basically said for medical insurance it needs to be more like your auto/home insurance. You don’t put in an insurance claim when you change your oil right? You don’t put in an insurance claim when you clean your gutters. They need to stop covering everything first of all. Then bring back what I think was called catastrophic insurance in the old days, ie hospitalization insurance only. Pay for your Dr cash. Notice the Dental industry is different. 2 dentists I deal with do not except insurance and you work out an arrangement.
Except for serious trauma avoid our “healthcare heroes” like the plague.
So ~ the only people involved in healthcare making money are the insurance companies?
Everyone else is unhappy with the system?
DUH!
The problem is the Insurance Industry!
Don’t forget Big Pharma and the overpaid execs of “nonprofit” (and for-profit) hospitals … all the bogus price sheets…
As a healthy senior male, I’m extremely happy with the system. So far it has met and exceeded my expectations with every single interaction. But I work hard on my end of that daily, to be sure I’m not needy. And I come from a culture that externalizes blame and responsibility as a last resort, once known as personal conservatism in the USA.
The system has placed an enormous debt and or inflation drag on current and future generations.
It is a matter of corruption. I mean the broader moral corruption of financing healthcare. Even though so many people receive subsidies in order to afford Obamacare marketplace policies, people are still paying for it. On average, what is subsidized at one end is paid for by taxation at the other end.
And so Democrats distort our economic choices, subsidizing what they believe we SHOULD be purchasing, like their monopoly healthcare that comes with plenty of cross subsidies to enable other people to receive healthcare, and like Electric Vehicles and solar panels and wind power turbines to satisfy their ideas of not polluting the environment, etc.
Since I worked in Life & Health Insurance 7 years in Europe and 3 in the USA (and my daughter is currently in underwriting), I should not talk much, the responses might aggravate me. At any rate, after Obamacare, every European country has more private insurance options than the USA at a fraction of the cost. Obamacare is so expensive and ineffective that I have a hard time understanding how they “designed” it. I’m suspecting academics are behind it.
Expensive and inefficient were features, not bugs. Look who gets rich from it.
Same as the military-industrial oligarchs (think Cheney the elder). Same as tech. They learned to position themselves at the spigots. The system is as much an insurance plan for them, as for anyone.
A major problem in the USA is middle-men in healthcare products. Major problem. To the point that they would have to be outlawed.
It was designed to fit with the pre-existing health insurance setup in the US. Anything more radical wouldn’t have got through. Obamacare only got through by a whisker as it was.
Obamacare was designed to be so bad that people would cry out for total govt control [aka, socialized medicine]. Unfortunately, it kind of amounted to collectivizing medical care into more of a fascistic/corporatist model, with so many vested interests that it will be hard to change. It will play a significant role in bankrupting the US govt.
Aside from the inflation of Fed money creation contributing to medical cost increases, patients are sicker since the role out of the Fauci jab. Blame it on something else, but it is a fact. All-cause mortality remains well-elevated above the 2018-19 level.
Dumping 20 million illegal invaders on the system also contributed to the increased cost.
While they got Government tax dollars , I paid for my health insurance Cobra plan when I retired at 65. I paid $2900.00 a month for myself and wife. She’s a few years older than I so when she went on Medicare I was then paying 1485.00 a month. I did this with money I saved and put in a separate account just for this . I blew through $71,000 all gone. I’m now on Medicare and can see that if you sick Medicare Advantage is not for you. I’m on Traditional with a supplement. I paid my taxes , and worked hard for 55 years. I resent Obamacare! When Obama pushed the dishonesty that you can keep your doctor , and save $2500.00 the opposite occurred I lost my Doctor , coverage was reduced , and my premium went up over $2500.00.
Do you resent car insurance as well? You paid for it all those years and were covered for accidents, even if you didn’t use it
After Obamacare, every European country has more private insurance options than the USA at a fraction of the cost. Obamacare is the worst option in the history of insurance. It’s a political tool, not insurance, it’s war against freelancers. Freelancers are celebrated in Europe (they reduce unemployment). They are chased in the USA in almost communist manner.
Perhaps there could have been a better solution if all sides in Congress could find a way to work together.
I don’t have a problem with this. I hope the subsidies continue even though I think Obama was a fool, for the most part. People cannot afford insurance. The country allows illegals and other immigrants to get free healthcare, yet screw their middle class or those self employed.
Until someone can actually propose a credible healthcare system, then let the Obamacare subsidies continue. People in power are too lazy to think and beholden to big insurance. Thus, we all suffer.
I read you as saying we cannot afford healthcare individuallly but we can afford it collectively.
Now apply that thinking to nice houses and nice cars. How is it that collectively we each don’t have one of each?
Politicians do not know much about insurance. Obama, like any politician, was clueless on the topic, just a spokesman. One has to separate “Insurance” from “Healthcare”, these are totally different things. People can’t understand that.
Currently we are in the stage of debating something like “which cigarette brand is best for your health”.
If they can’t afford insurance, how are they able to afford all the deductibles and pave the holes in Obama’s insurance? My understanding is these policies are horrible, although I don’t have personal experience.
Let states choose to run Obamacare like programs. Massachusetts was the precursor. The country will learn more from 50 different experiments than one experiment that is clearly failing.
It’s a moral question: does a taxing governing body have any role as a good Samaritan entity for the essential emergency care of its citizens? As a retired emergency medicine physician, I cite the 1986 EMTALA law as bipartisan agreement.
Should all people pay property taxes to support schools or only those with children?
If government eliminates big third party insurers and institutes evidenced base health care with AI algorithms, would US %GDP for health care expenditures not drop by 25%-50% matching other western economies?
‘Concerned’ Republicans, promising a health care plan reforms for 10 years are not going to come to that better overall care cost-reduction solution. Meanwhile hospital corporation CEO’s make how much more than the average health care worker? Is that excess reimbursement … to support a health care system that bankrupts an individual or their family’s wherewithal with an emergency health care … worth keeping?
Here’s the problem:
As long as someone else is paying then the “market” will be gamed and distorted. And as long as politicians have a vote then they will choose to borrow money to give voters the health care they are convinced they want.
All socialized medicine that allows politicians to vote on benefits will bankrupt the country.
I’d rephrase that headline: “Under Biden, reliance on Obamacare subsidies doubled steadily, ramping up from 10 million to 22 million.”
P.S. Like much else from the Biden years, it’s not 100% clear how many of those 12 million newly-dependent were honest human beings, as opposed to scams, fakes, frauds or illegals.
That’s an interesting graph. So it’s brutally obvious that under Trump the number stayed flat, then under Brain Dead Fake President Biden, it’s shot up over 50%.
Damn! That’s some serious budget busting deficit spending right there.
My gawd, can ANYONE point to ANYTHING the vast majority of Americans would agree with that Biden did?
You should try using Google before you post:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-supporters-obamacare-subsidies-government-shutdown-poll-rcna235195
Even 57% of MAGA (much less a huge proportion of Democrats) favors extending the enhanced ACA subsidies that occurred under Biden.
There, I did your research for you and answered your question for you, too. Hopefully this will help with the quality of your future posts (BTW, putting part of your posts in capitalization and part in bold does not make your lies/untruths/ignorance more convincing)
You actually believe nbc news?
First, you might want to take off your tinfoil hat.
Second, NBC News did not conduct the study; it just reported on the findings of the KFF which specializes in these insurance studies.
Third, my grandfather died as a US military member in the Army defending your right as an American to vote and so influence public policy even when you refuse to become informed. What a terrible loss of life for your ‘rights’; you’re welcome, by the way
You can get 60% of the population to support anything, if you phrase the question properly, especially if people don’t know anything about the issue.
In this case, “Most Adults Have Heard Little or Nothing About the Enhanced Subsidies” (direct quote from the KFF study cited by NBC).
In this case, after confirming that most people don’t know much about the issue, the follow up question elicits a biased response by suggesting the conclusion and omitting any mention of either the actual cost, or other policy alternative options. Here’s the KFF survey question:
“Do you think Congress should extend these enhanced tax credits, or should they let these enhanced tax credits expire?”
If the question had been phrased as “Should Congress add $1,000,000,000,000 to the national debt, which will cost $40,000,000,000 in additional interest payments forever, so that 6% of the population can continue to receive a temporary subsidy for their healthcare?”, I suspect the poll answers would be the opposite!
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Well, if you’re saying that 60% of the population (which was MAGA in this study) will “support anything” that Trump says or does, we’re in agreement here LOL
We live in a sedentary society ~ fed by a food system that pays no attention to health and a healthcare system that pays no attention to food.
What the hell do we expect?
Socialized health care is a weapon of mass economic destruction. Reason being that for a measurable portion of the population, no amount of health care spending will make them healthy. But spending more is the only politically viable answer.
The only economically sound answer is to have “death panels” for government health care spending. A person can spend as much as they want of their own money. But spend public money and there is a cap based on the actuarial value of the person’s life.
Of course the health care industry is happy to drain the public coffers of every cent government can borrow. And they are happy to buy off every politician and the votes of every American to sustain that which is unsustainable.
This the conclusion. Socialized healthcare is a weapon of mass economic destruction.
Agree on the problem, but I can think of at least 3 solutions more cost effective and morally justifiable than “death panels”. I bet I’m not the only one!
The “auto insurance” and “auto repair” systems would make a good model for a next-stage health insurance system.
The insurance model does not work when the insurance is mandatory and everyone is making claims. You can’t make something affordable by making everyone pay for it! This is just socialism!
Even with insurance caps, are you not aware of the massive inflation that is occuring with auto and home insurance?
The most sure insurance product is life insurance. And why? Because the insurer is applying the law of large numbers to put a fair value on a person’s life. And even here the insurer protects his cost by denying coverage for a range of possible outcomes!
Auto insurance is mandatory for vehicle owners, and it works. The same “law of large numbers” that works for life insurance works even better for auto insurance, because there are fewer varieties of auto insurance.
The cost inflation for autos is not driven by the insurance system, but by rising repair costs coupled with unusually high claims. The cure for high prices is high prices: people will be more responsible with their autos.
Mish, it might be helpful to some of your readers for you to write a post some time distinguishing between healthcare and health insurance. And what constitutes ‘socialized’.
It seems that quite a few people here don’t understand this basic difference. And the difference is key to being able to vote for people espousing different policies.
Is that why the EU spends about 30% of the US per capita on healthcare but gets better outcomes (infant mortality, life expectation, obesity, diabetes…..)?
…should also add that we don’t have death panels or endless ads on TV for drugs.
Forgot to add the old saying,”There is nothing so permanent as the temporary.”
Medicare Part B premiums are going from $175 to $205, a 17% increase. It’s not just the ACA.
Did the Dems cave on free healthcare for illegals? Or are they laundering it through the ACA.
See the WSJ link and story above. The ACA subsidies being expired are the EXTENDED subsidiaries on top of the original subsidies that was added for the Covid scamdemic. This is something that the MSM is not reporting (or at least I have not heard this nuance).
As usual there is far too much media censorship and slanted reporting based on the stations political orientation.
Taco is very proud of himself for initiating the action to deprive as many Americans of health insurance as possible. Again, what a piece of work.
I’m so happy I am on Medicare!
Whether these subsidies were temporary or not, this could be the issue that boots the Republicans out of Congress next year.
The whole health insurance industry in the USA needs to be redone. Sadly, that will never happen as long as the healthcare/insurance industry makes huge campaign contributions to politicians.
People should be mobilizing millon-person marches and protests in DC every day but there is hardly a peep out of anyone, except for the relative few that post online.
People are so docile these days. Is it something in the water, the drugs they consume or social media that causes this refusal to act in their own interests?
Perhaps our eventual government run by an AI Overlord will bring change. Either hope for that or wait until you age into Medicare…
The people getting crushed are trying to survive… they don’t have the money or time off to get to DC.
Then nothing will change.
This is by design.
Just take a 1 week job with your NGOs.
You know like all the paid protestors do…
The people most affected are too unhealthy and/or obese to march. We can’t ignore the societal problem of unhealthy consumption and lack of exercise.
People are docile due to the trillions in deficit spending giving the illusion of normalcy but that spending is unsustainable.
read the article by WSJ Editorial Board https://www.wsj.com/opinion/obamacare-subsidies-government-shutdown-gop-democrats-b484dfe0?mod=editorials_article_pos5
The Politics of ObamaCare Subsidies
Republicans can win the debate over pandemic benefits if they try
Bypass paywall link: https://archive.ph/FXVGb
This is a critical point:
“Yet the same poll says that 61% of the public has heard little or nothing about the expiring subsidies, which suggests it isn’t the defining political issue of our time. Another question is whether voters understand that only the Covid fillip is expiring—and that generous subsidies will remain.”
Remove the requirement for people to have to purchase it and the price will fall.
Sick people will buy it, and everyone else won’t.
That should be the goal. Those who are sick should be paying. Healthy people should not.
Look, life isn’t fair and some people get a raw deal through no fault of their own. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to subsidize it.
So get rid Medicare? And Social Security, too? Because someone always gets more than others in these insurance matters.
Good luck running on that platform. Or wasting your vote on someone else running on that platform. It’s not what the older public wants.
I didn’t say get rid of it. You interpreted my comment as such. As far as SS/Medicare go, people who collect/use paid into the system so they aren’t freeloaders.
That said, heavy users of Medicaid/Obama Care etc absolutely should not be passing on money / property etc to heirs. Their entire savings should be used up as there is no ‘right’ to pass on stuff to heirs.
During his first term D. Trump liberalized the rules for short-term insurance that B. Obama had tightened. The intent was to offer something like competition to government prescribed healthcare. Question: If people had to pay for it themselves, would they choose Obamacare or would they choose some alternative private plan? We will never know the full answer to the question, because Democrats are intent on hiding the cost of public provided healthcare in our taxes (and their deficit spending).
Which was exactly why the rule to force everyone to buy was put in place. And if you are sick and try to buy health insurance, isn’t that equivalent to trying to buy fire insurance for your house when it is burning down?
The mandate to purchase it has been removed. That’s one of the reasons for the premium increase.
What of pre-existing conditions then?