300,000 Lose Health Plans In Florida Due to Obamacare

"If you like your insurance, you will be able to keep it" - paraphrased from Obama.
Yeah .... right.

Kaiser Health News

Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.

The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. Most are ending policies sold after the law passed in March 2010. At least a few are cancelling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people – about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.

I'm sure there are lots more being cancelled out there, but these are what the article is reporting. It is claimed by the administration that the people have to buy new insurance but that is better and at a lower rate. But the people who have had their insurance cancelled say that isn't true.

I shall wait for a pie to be chucked in my face for the following comment but:

We always hear doom and glooming from Obamacare, does anyone have any figures on how many people are going to benefit from it? I dont mean projections of numbers either I mean a cold hard number of people who are better off?

But on the side, I feel for the people losing out because of it, paying more then they should and losing original cover.

Kinda makes me want to praise the NHS

Can I ask why are people not OUTRAGED at the INSURANCE COMPANIES who are making millions in profits and still cutting people??? Everyone is blaming OBAMACARE but no one, not one government official or citizen group is addressing the real issue which is the INSURANCE COMPANIES????? why is that???

It seems like we all have a problem with the Band-Aid (obamacare) while we ignore the actual sore (insurance companies)

reply to post by worldwatcher

These issues with insurance companies and Obamacare go hand in hand. IMHO
As far as I"m concerned ... it all stinks of dead fish.
I don't know what the answer is to dealing with insurance companies.
But I know it isn't forcing people to give up what they like in order to purchase gov't run
insurance company care. (obamacare). That's going in the wrong direction.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I get you girl, but I still don't understand why the Tea Party and opposition in general isn't pressuring the Insurance companies, I guess it's all the lobbyists, they and the politicians keep buttering each other and the real problem gets brushed aside and a big deal is made over any attempts of a solution. Imo ObamaCare needs works to be a great plan, but really it wouldn't matter how good it was, if Insurance companies can still raise premiums, lessen coverage and compensation and cut people off. It's the Insurance Companies that are the issue, especially in this Florida case that you linked.

reply to post by worldwatcher


Because it is the American way. Bandaid the problem or throw money at it while ignoring the real core of the problem. It's how we "fix" everything else. Look at our education system.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


so true, but even my denial can't beat my logic, so I don't understand why more people don't see it that way too LOL

sad sad sad

The insurance companies like their profits. They CEO's like their huge pay. They will not sacrifice a dime in order to obey the new law. Instead of making less profit, they will raise their prices and do other things in order to not lose any of their immense wealth.

That is why this is going on. The new law did not set any maximum rates. So they can charge what they like. They have to insure people they would not have before. Those people cost the most money. So to offset those losses they raise prices and adjust plans.

Allowing insurance companies to be for profit and not capping pay and bonuses along with not freezing rates and not setting maximum rates has caused this.

Insurance companies try to make the most money possible. And they will unless forced to do otherwise. Their goal of profits is incompatible with helping people. So the people will always lose.

reply to post by worldwatcher


They're the same thing. Obamacare was written by the insurance companies for the insurance companies to consolidate as many people as possible into high-risk pricing pools.

The ACA just solidified the corporatist connection between government and insurance companies. Much the same way that Freddie and Fannie did for banks and student aid program did for universities.

There is evolutions and competition when business stand independent of one another. When they all partner up to make friends with the government competition goes away and it becomes a mad dash to collect as much money as possible before the inevitable bursting of that specific bubble.

Then they reset and start over.

Mandate something and everyone has to buy it. If you are forced to buy it they person selling it can charge whatever they want. If you live in a state that mandates car insurance I'm sure you're seen prices creep higher and higher while coverage gets worse and worse.

At their peak mortgages were easier and easier to get but the terms were worse and worse. Until the bubble burst. Right now the lenders are repeating the same mistake. Money is getting easier to get and terms are creeping into the #ty zone all over again.

Student loans are easy to get and tuition rates are higher than they've ever been. When everyone can go to college college loses its value and in turn everyone is essentially forced to go to be competative so more loans are taken and the terms get worse every year.

Mandating health insurance is doing this very thing. I dont know why people thought it was going to be different.

People always do that. "This time it'll be different!" It never is.

So now under force of law you have to buy what they're selling and for a growing number of people what they're selling costs more and covers less. Even if you just wanted to be responsible and take care of your family you'll be paying more for less than you ever had before if your current plan is cancelled or your employer drops it. Which is being encouraged though higher costs. It doesnt just cost more for you it also costs more for the employer as the terms of what was once an affordable plan with good coverage change for him too.

Only morons didnt see this coming. Morons and the hopelessly naive. People who jam their fingers in their ears to block bad news and choose to only hear the good news.

reply to post by Robonakka


Dont forget healthcare costs as a whole.

The availability of insurance coupled with consumer ignorance has gone a long way to inflating the prices of all types of care and procedures.

Just like university tuitions and student loans and home prices and mortgages.

If the money isnt available they simply cannot charge as much. Since the money is available they can charge whatever they want.

FlyersFan
"If you like your insurance, you will be able to keep it" - paraphrased from Obama.
Yeah .... right.

Um. . . he was talking to the congress when he said that. Not regular folks.

To add, insurance companies are probably in full scramble mode because of "pre-existing conditions". Insurance companies, for as much as they take in, are going to be shelling out.

My 2 cents.

reply to post by beezzer


Yea because all the healthy people in the country are going or already have bulked at the prices they will have to pay to be covered so pre-existing condition people and poor people can be subsidied and covered. This law is either going to bottom up or add more debt to the national debt than any other program ever.

Scientists have just confirmed that the Dinosaurs died out because of Obamacare, and the Titanic sank because of this very same reason *Sarcasm*

I get it.. the politicians making the laws and insurance companies are in bed together and I know quite well about a $5 bandage and $12 advil, but that's the issue... why do our outraged Republican and Tea Party reps allow that issue to be glossed over? The talking points are all wrong!!

Why does the Media and people in general not focus any attention on these companies and practices , it seems like if Tea Party or any activist group really wanted to make a difference and not just be another political party in bed with lobbyists, they would make the Insurance Companies the spotlight in the fight against ObamaCare.

Call me Naïve but it seems talking heads can spew on and on in circles about laws already passed instead of working on the next law on how to change and fix this... which would be addressing the core issue the Insurance company.

I mean there's been congressional hearings on baseball but where is the one for Insurance Company cutting people off???

reply to post by worldwatcher


There are/were a number of options out there to reform healthcare that addressed those issues.

Tort reform, caps on costs, making healthcare affordable instead of trying to find solutions that would pay for the high costs.

But lobbyists and lawyers and politicians shot that all down.

say isn't it a statistic that more people get better by NOT going to the doctor?
how much will that cost?

reply to post by worldwatcher


Everybody in government is happy with Obamarama care.

1. The GOP has happier corporations (1 year dodge minimum)
2. The Dems get the middle class to foot the bill
3. The Tea Party got their desired airtime

Plus big insurance gets paid more for dropping old affordable policy rates for the new more expensive ones while little insurance is either forced to consolidate (not gonna happen) or roll over and die.

See? Everybody's happy but you and me.

If you didn't see this in an earlier post, I suggest you have a "look". Don't ask me why the guy seems so on edge and keeps fiddling with his nose.

worldwatcher
Can I ask why are people not OUTRAGED at the INSURANCE COMPANIES who are making millions in profits and still cutting people??? Everyone is blaming OBAMACARE but no one, not one government official or citizen group is addressing the real issue which is the INSURANCE COMPANIES????? why is that???

It seems like we all have a problem with the Band-Aid (obamacare) while we ignore the actual sore (insurance companies)

Please oh please give me more government.
Medicare denies more benefits than all the insurance companies combined.
In 2012 their were $120 billion in fraudulent Medicare payments.

Please oh please give me more government.
I don't know what kind of light bulb I should use.
I don't know what kind of car I should drive.
I don't know what kind of toilet I should take a crap in.
Only government knows these things.
But I do know who I should vote for, big, bloated, top down, iron fisted, government.
Oh I love government stealing more and more of my labor.
I love it when they tell me what I should eat, what I should drink.
Please oh please just give me more government.
They tell me how long I can work, what I should be paid.
They force me to buy "great products".
Please oh please give me more tyranny.

Government is in bed with the big insurance companies.
Government is taking out their competition.
Government is helping them create a monopoly for themselves.

Then a few years from now the federal leviathan will step In and save the day.
For the little people of course.
The people who don't know what kind of toilet they should take a crap in.

Can anyone tell me who the "single payer" is??
Hint, I mentioned it several times in this post.

If the "product" was so "great" as Obama proclaimed the other day.
Why should I be forced to buy it?
Oh, that's right only the smart people know what's best for me. You know the millionaires who decide what kind of toilet I'am allowed to crap in.

reply to post by FlyersFan


"I told you so" is about all I have to say.

Many many people have been stating this would happen. Yet the Tyrant 0bama and all of his followers argued and turned rabid when people stated such things would happen.


I told you so.

The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because
the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

And the folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop.
And the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!

Now... the Socialists, after forcing the class of people who pay for the free stuff, have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff that they are entitled victims and the people who are

PAYING for the free stuff are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So... the people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for
the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff and giving them the free stuff in the first place.

We have let the free stuff give away go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.

A certain block of voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury (your money) by electing Socialists who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.

The low information voters and Unions can vouch for this!

The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 236 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff
just about outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff.

Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we have known it; alas there are plenty who seem head strong on doing that very thing.

ELECTION 2014 IS COMING... Vote, vote, vote, and if voter fraud is found raise hell all the way to Washington

A Nation of Sheep can breed a Government of ravenous Wolves!