Surely you mean The Great Leader (since the Dear Leader was Kim Jong Il’s moniker). ;-)
No. I’m comparing idiot demagogues, thanks.
I suppose, now that you mention it, the Dear Leader works better in that regard. And in the minds of the Trumpistas, he’s the successor to Ronald Reagan or something, so the parallel works there too.
“Remember how much it sucked, touching that third rail? How about let’s not do that again for a bit.”
They aren’t being used to improve profit margins. They are used to lower out of pocket costs. Which means more people insured and lower premiums in general.
As expected, the loss of CSR is being shifted directly to the consumer. 2018 premiums are projected to increase by 20% to offset ending of CSR. Federal premium subsidies will also increase, and the government will end up paying more than it saves.
2018 premium are already set, approved by the various state insurance commission and will go on sale Nov 1… A consumer who is eligible for a CSR would still get their co-pays reduced in 2018. Money is fungible and the effect next year would be to reduce health insurance company profits by $7 billion * (1- the marginal corporate tax rate average)
It is 7 billion spread out of 7 million eligible folks which is $1,000 per person or $83/month. If insurance companies are raising the rates more than that they are just being greedy. The CBO analysis is pretty silly, and given the CBO past track record on the fiscal impact of ACA.
At the end of the day the analysis is pretty simply we the taxpayer aren’t giving the $7 billion to the insurance companies that they thought they were getting, but Congress hasn’t allocated money for since 2014. Yes, they’ll probably premium to compensate for the lost revenue. But this is a basically an accounting issue.
The CBO analysis is pretty silly
KFF came to the same conclusion as the CBO.
https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/9012-figure-1.png
$83/month
The average silver premium for a 30 year old in 2017 was $365 per month. An extra $83 per month is a significant increase.
But this is a basically an accounting issue.
Except if the rates of silver plans increase, then the government is obligated to increase subsidies as well. And this will end up costing more than the amount saved by not paying the CSR.
Any systematic increase in premiums for silver marketplace plans (including the benchmark plan) would increase the size of premium tax credits. The increased tax credits would completely cover the increased premium for subsidized enrollees covered through the benchmark plan and cushion the effect for enrollees signed up for more expensive silver plans. Enrollees who apply their tax credits to other tiers of plans (i.e., bronze, gold, and platinum) would also receive increased premium tax credits even though they do not qualify for reduced cost-sharing and the underlying premiums in their plans might not increase at all.
https://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/9012-figure-2.png
we the taxpayer aren’t giving the $7 billion to the insurance companies that they thought they were getting, but Congress hasn’t allocated money for since 2014. Yes, they’ll probably premium to compensate for the lost revenue.
Hopefully, wiser heads will prevail in Congress.
I could respect the idea that they don’t like the way Obamacare works and that they thought there were a better way to do it if they had actually come up with a legitimate alternative in all the years they spent swearing to get rid of it. But, I suppose they could use this as a stop-gap until they come up with something else.
I suppose they could use this as a stop-gap until they come up with something else.
LOL, there will be nothing else.
I don’t think so either. It just pisses me off when the republicans insist that ACA is awful and no one wants it, without having come up with a single better suggestion in all this time.
The issue is that people still don’t understand that Republicans as a whole do not want to reform health care. They want to give money to the ultra rich. That is why there never will be a real health care reform bill from Republicans, because their goals are fundamentally different.
Pretty sure everyone here gets that. In the general public, sure.
Murkowski and Tim Kaine have signed onto the Alexander/Murray bill as co-sponsors…but sounds like Trump is currently off the bus.
Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump)
Awwww, damn it. You guys got me all excited yesterday.
So far, we’ve got a couple of fairly big states and state’s AG joining into a suit against Trump for sabotaging Obamacare.
Here’s why they may have a case.
President Trump admits he’s trying to kill Obamacare. That’s illegal.
The Constitution compels him to "take care" to implement our laws.
From this article:
Obamacare premiums were stabilizing. Then Trump happened.
The wild card for 2018 rates is the president of the United States.
But, speaking to reporters as Sanders said Trump didn’t support the current deal, Alexander said that “no,” he didn’t interpret Trump’s tweet Wednesday morning as his coming out against the bill.
“The President literally called me a week ago Saturday and asked me to do this,” he said. “And then we talked again last Saturday about it, and then he called me again this morning. He’s made all those calls.”
Oh Lamar, your naivete is so cute.
Surely Trump wouldn’t say one thing, and then throw you under the bus when you do exactly what he told you to do!
That’s unpossible!
He’s doing the nice political thing of giving Trump a way out of his earlier comments and a soft landing. So I imagine Trump will instead do a double flip straight into the concrete next to it.