Why are people saying President Obama lied?
Why are people getting their health insurance policies cancelled?
Why are new policy prices going up so much?
These 3 issues are the current ammunition that the GOP/Tea party are using in their failing war to sway American voters to their side, and as is the standard practice of the Conservative movement, they are twisting facts, cherry picking statements, and just plain lying to get their agenda fulfilled.
Lets address these 3 issues individually, first, why are people saying President Obama lied?
1. The GOP/Tea party reps. are saying that the President lied about peoples ability to keep the policies they currently had (prior to the ACA mandate).
The truth: All insurance policies that were in effect at the time were grandfathered in, regardless of benefits, those policies were given a pass that allowed them to continue being in force, therefore the only ones able to change that status would be the insured, or the insurance company, not the President, or anyone else.
The insurance companies themselves opted to cancel those policies because the vast majority of them were garbage coverage. They knew that in an open market nobody would buy them, therefore, they took advantage of the timing, and sent out the cancellation notices, which brings us to the second question, why are people getting their policies cancelled?
2. As previously stated, the insurance companies knew that they were about to have many of their current policy holders given the opportunity to shop for health care coverage elsewhere, and that the policies they currently were selling them would be abandoned en masse' . The companies decided to cancel existing policies prior to the ACA opening up, so that they could sell those same customers policies that met the ACA guidelines before the customers could have a chance to compare prices and coverage, which brings us to number 3, why are prices going up so much?
3. The fervor over rate increases is due to the fact that the insurance companies are trying very hard to get the customers they just cancelled into purchasing new plans BEFORE they have a chance to see other options available to them, because then they make more money.
If you haven't already figured it out, I'll tell you, the insurance industry sells an intangible product, a product that costs them nothing to produce, no buying of raw material, no manufacturing plant, just a piece of paper with a promise to pay certain costs if you should experience some sort of calamity.
As such, the people who decide what that promise will cover, and how much you will have to pay for that promise, varies a great deal.
Over 85% of those with health insurance have it through their employer, and those employers have people that negotiate prices and policy limits with the insurers, thereby getting the best rates and best coverage possible.
However there are many who must buy their insurance individually, and up to this point, those people were unable to shop for the best deals, and many of them had to settle for expensive policies that covered very little.
Those policies were very profitable for the insurance companies however, because the insurers could pick and choose who they would insure, if you were older, you paid a lot, if that is, you could get covered at all, if you had a pre existing condition, forget it, they didn't want you.
Not only did they rob people blind with the premiums, they also sold them policies that were void of any real coverage, or had lifetime caps that were low enough to still bankrupt them with a major medical emergency.
The ACA levels the playing field, it allows all Americans the opportunity to buy health insurance at a reasonable price, at the same time, it forces the insurance companies to accept clients with pre existing conditions, or older people who can't get healthcare coverage otherwise.
It also removes lifetime limits of benefits, so that if you get sick, you won't have to go bankrupt to pay for your medical costs.
And the big kicker is, the insurance companies are only allowed to keep a certain percentage of premiums paid as profit, the rest must either go toward actual benefits paid, or refunded to the policy holders.
All these things accomplish two main goals.
1. They allow all Americans to get proper healthcare.
2. They address the problem of skyrocketting healthcare costs.
But they do this at the cost of insurance companies profits, which by the way, are astoundingly large, just look at how many tv commercials are for insurance, a lot.
This is why the ACA has faced so much opposition, money, money that the insurers want to keep. That is why they have enlisted the GOP to try anything possible to defeat the ACA.
The GOP is screaming about people getting their policies cancelled, and their rates going up, but in reality, those people have not yet had the opportunity to go to the web site and see what else is available to them, and if they qualify for any of the subsidies offered.
I would not be at all surprised to find out that the GOP has been attacking the ACA web site in order to keep it from functioning properly, they are pretty desperate these days.
It is being revealed more and more that insurers like Humana, and Blue cross have sent letters to people telling them that their cancelled policies will be automatically switched to updated policies, with a big premium increase, even though if those same people compare their options, they find that they can get better coverage for less money, and usually qualify for a subsidy.
That gives big incentives for the insurance industry to keep the web site down.
Here is the bottom line, the ACA is going to be successful, the web site will become operable, people will find the new healthcare system pleasing, insurance company bigwigs will get a couple less 0's on their bonuses, and the GOP will have once again been exposed as the party of the elite 1%, the corrupt greedy unholy entity that it is.
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