Trump causing double digit premium increases

Greenbeard · May 25, 2017

As the WSJ reported last month ("Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill"), Trump and his GOP lackeys in the House continue to play chicken with the insurance market. As expected, that's a very stupid thing to do, as the uncertainty gets priced into premiums.

California is letting insurers file two sets of 2018 rates: the regular ones and the Trump (read: higher) ones. And now Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina lays it out pretty clearly.

Our ACA customers will receive an average rate increase of 22.9 percent for coverage purchased on and off the exchange. That’s according to our proposal filed with the North Carolina Department of Insurance for their review and approval.

The biggest single reason for the sharp increase in rates is the lack of federal funding for “cost-sharing reductions” beginning in 2018. This is the program that helps lower-income ACA customers pay their out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles and copayments.

Another rate increase above 20 percent is a tough message to deliver to customers who depend on the Individual market for health care coverage. The good news is that federal subsidies will again help lower premiums for customers in 2018. In fact, most of our ACA customers may see little to no premium increase in 2018. Many may even see a decrease depending on their financial situation.

Still, cost-sharing reductions have a big impact on North Carolinians. That became clear to our actuaries as we looked at proposed rates for 2018. If the federal funding continued, we would have filed an average increase of just 8.8 percent for 2018.

Given that Trump has already run other insurers out of other states' markets, it's ominous that BCBSNC cautions that they're keeping an eye on what's going on (read: the disastrous AHCA and Trump administration executive actions) and could still withdraw if they wish.

One important point about our 2018 rate filing: While our intent at Blue Cross NC is to offer exchange plans next year, simply filing rates does not guarantee it. We’ll continue to evaluate the market and make and announce a final decision this fall.

As I've pointed out before, actively destroying insurance markets is the only way the GOP can make their absurd rhetoric come true and they are full steam ahead:

https://www.debatepolitics.com/obam...ave-turned-corner-gop-plots-destroy-them.html

ajn678 · May 25, 2017

Republicans should've just let Obamacare die its own slow death like it was projected to do. Now they got involved with this bull**** that will only be blamed on them in the end.

Winston · May 25, 2017

ajn678 said:
Republicans should've just let Obamacare die its own slow death like it was projected to do. Now they got involved with this bull**** that will only be blamed on them in the end.

If PPACA was implemented as it was written it would've worked fine. Regarding states expanding Medicaid as well as functioning risk corridors. GOPs playing partisan games with PPACA in order to point fingers at Dems are why... conservatives will ultimately take home zero, when the people demand single-payer.

KevinKohler · May 25, 2017

Nothing that doesn't address the real problem...OBSENELY high cost of medical CARE....will ever "work".

Chomsky · May 25, 2017

This also doesn't address the job losses that will occur due to the Medicaid roll-back.

MAGA, my ass!

JamesBY · May 25, 2017

Trumpcare is much more expensive than Obamacare.

Gonzo Rodeo · May 25, 2017

Everything is progressing according to plan.

ACA was intended to defer costs into the tax base; the Republicans were expected to un-defer it; the rebound will be a public outcry for a single payer system, when Democrats are in charge again in 6 years, and we'll be sold a package with a drastically low-balled price tag, only to watch it be in fiscal trouble when the Republicans again rebound 4-6 years after that.

And that's how you con an entire generation into voting for a specific party.

Greenbeard · May 26, 2017

ajn678 said:
Republicans should've just let Obamacare die its own slow death like it was projected to do. Now they got involved with this bull**** that will only be blamed on them in the end.

Except it was never projected to do any such thing. Taking down the ACA and the marketplaces always required active malevolent intervention, which the GOP has been supplying for years.

Undermining the risk corridors, defunding the nonprofit co-ops, resisting the Medicaid expansion, discouraging enrollment and handicapping navigators, and assorted bad decisions made by primarily red state governors--all active GOP sabotage over the past five years or so that's shot primarily those red states in the foot.

What Trump and House GOP are doing now to destroy markets and chase away insurers is an outgrowth of what they've been doing for years--they're just kicking it up a notch now.

So yes, what happens next will be blamed on them. As it should be.

Gonzo Rodeo said:
Everything is progressing according to plan.

ACA was intended to defer costs into the tax base; the Republicans were expected to un-defer it; the rebound will be a public outcry for a single payer system, when Democrats are in charge again in 6 years, and we'll be sold a package with a drastically low-balled price tag, only to watch it be in fiscal trouble when the Republicans again rebound 4-6 years after that.

And that's how you con an entire generation into voting for a specific party.

This conspiracy theory requires the Dems to play the GOP like a fiddle (or the GOP to be in on it?). Why else would the GOP be playing its presumed part of destroying the market-based approach to leave some single-payer variant as the only option left standing? I don't have your faith in the Machiavellian brilliance of the Democratic party.

Gonzo Rodeo · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
Except it was never projected to do any such thing. Taking down the ACA and the marketplaces always required active malevolent intervention, which the GOP has been supplying for years.

Undermining the risk corridors, defunding the nonprofit co-ops, resisting the Medicaid expansion, discouraging enrollment and handicapping navigators, and assorted bad decisions made by primarily red state governors--all active GOP sabotage over the past five years or so that's shot primarily those red states in the foot.

What Trump and House GOP are doing now to destroy markets and chase away insurers is an outgrowth of what they've been doing for years--they're just kicking it up a notch now.

So yes, what happens next will be blamed on them. As it should be.

This conspiracy theory requires the Dems to play the GOP like a fiddle (or the GOP to be in on it?). Why else would the GOP be playing its presumed part of destroying the market-based approach to leave some single-payer variant as the only option left standing? I don't have your faith in the Machiavellian brilliance of the Democratic party.

It isn't hard to play someone into their weaknesses.

The GOP is, at the end of the day, part of the same establishment as the Democrats. But they've pandered to their base in ways contrary to what the establishment actually wants. It's not any grand scheme to use people's own words against them.

The Republicans do it to the Democrats as well. Where it's easy to gin up support among conservatives, it's also very easy to unmotivate and unenergize the liberal base, because populist, "common man" rhetoric can only carry you for so long. People, in general, like to be taken care of, but they don't like to be ruled. In other words, they love the security of the jail cell while hating the bars and guards. And it's very easy to paint "big government" programs with the authoritarian brush.

The only part that is even kind of impressive is the patience it takes to pull off back-to-back 6-year plans, but we're talking about people who think in terms of ideology and legacy. Is it really that big of a stretch?

faithful_servant · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
As the WSJ reported last month ("Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill"), Trump and his GOP lackeys in the House continue to play chicken with the insurance market. As expected, that's a very stupid thing to do, as the uncertainty gets priced into premiums.

California is letting insurers file two sets of 2018 rates: the regular ones and the Trump (read: higher) ones. And now Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina lays it out pretty clearly.

Given that Trump has already run other insurers out of other states' markets, it's ominous that BCBSNC cautions that they're keeping an eye on what's going on (read: the disastrous AHCA and Trump administration executive actions) and could still withdraw if they wish.

As I've pointed out before, actively destroying insurance markets is the only way the GOP can make their absurd rhetoric come true and they are full steam ahead:

https://www.debatepolitics.com/obam...ave-turned-corner-gop-plots-destroy-them.html

So the ins. cos. are using economic warfare to try to stop the massive profit machine that is the ACA and somehow it's Pres. Trump's fault? This is 100% pure bullying by the Ins. cos. and you think that it's Pres. Trump's fault. TDS - the psychosis that just keep giving.

Greenbeard · May 26, 2017

faithful_servant said:
So the ins. cos. are using economic warfare to try to stop the massive profit machine that is the ACA and somehow it's Pres. Trump's fault?

Yes, it's Trump's fault. He has refused to commit to continue paying insurers for the ACA's cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), and in fact has indicated he intends to stop paying them: Trump tells advisers he wants to end key Obamacare subsidies.

Balloon Juice had a good look at the game theory of pricing insurance under these circumstances last month. BCBSNC is the single insurer scenario:

Let’s assume that executives at insurers are risk loss averse. The pain of losing $100 million dollars outweighs the benefit of making $100 million dollars as the executives may get fired for losing money. There are two cases we need to think through. The first is the simpler case when a single insurer is the only insurer in a region. The second case is when there are multiple insurers with two subcases.

Here the insurer faces two choices. Assume that CSR will be paid or not. The government can make two choices: pay CSR or not pay CSR.

If the insurer and government agree (Yes, Yes) or (No, No) then the product is priced on the underlying assumptions and contours of the market. It is business as usual. The interesting cases are where there is disagreement.

If the insurer thinks the government will fund CSR and thus price their products at medical growth rate and then the government does not pay CSR, the insurer is in severe trouble. A very large, very well capitalized insurer can take the hit of a loss but smaller insurers will go under in weeks as the state regulators have a legitimate reason to worry about solvency. If the insurer thinks the government will not fund CSR and thus prices very high but the government pays CSR, the insurer makes extremely outsized profits.

Ultimately the decision-making calculus is the same as in the more complicated case where there are multiple insurers in a market:

I am having a hard time seeing (with a strong risk aversion assumption) why a carrier would price on the assumption that CSR will be paid. There is little pay-off and great risk.

And this is exactly what we're seeing. Insurers are pricing for 2018 as though the CSRs won't be paid by the Trump administration, which means we're going to be seeing lots and lots of large double digit increases that would've otherwise been single digit increases at worst. This buffoon is substantially driving up everyone's premiums for no good reason.

Hopefully more insurers are as transparent as BCBSNC as to why that's the case and what would've been the case under a competent (or at least not actively malevolent) administration.

Aberration · May 26, 2017

How were these cost sharing payments paid for?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mycroft · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
As the WSJ reported last month ("Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill"), Trump and his GOP lackeys in the House continue to play chicken with the insurance market. As expected, that's a very stupid thing to do, as the uncertainty gets priced into premiums.

California is letting insurers file two sets of 2018 rates: the regular ones and the Trump (read: higher) ones. And now Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina lays it out pretty clearly.

Given that Trump has already run other insurers out of other states' markets, it's ominous that BCBSNC cautions that they're keeping an eye on what's going on (read: the disastrous AHCA and Trump administration executive actions) and could still withdraw if they wish.

As I've pointed out before, actively destroying insurance markets is the only way the GOP can make their absurd rhetoric come true and they are full steam ahead:

https://www.debatepolitics.com/obam...ave-turned-corner-gop-plots-destroy-them.html

Besides this being old news...and being a situation that has been resolved...I'm wondering how letting the market take its natural course equals "actively destroying insurance markets". Maybe you are of a mind that artificially propping up a failed market...one that has failed because of faulty Democratic Party legislation...by throwing taxpayer money at it is a good thing?

Vern · May 26, 2017

Mycroft said:
Besides this being old news...and being a situation that has been resolved...I'm wondering how letting the market take its natural course equals "actively destroying insurance markets". Maybe you are of a mind that artificially propping up a failed market...one that has failed because of faulty Democratic Party legislation...by throwing taxpayer money at it is a good thing?

MC, like all conservatives, you are easily able to post what you wish was true. Why not be a special conservative who understands what he's posting about. In addition to ignoring the republicans sabotaging Obamacare, you're ignoring the latest attack:

The payments, estimated at $7 billion for this year, go to insurance companies to reduce deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers — an estimated 7 million people in 2017. Insurers are on the hook under the health law to keep paying even if the federal money stops.

tell me how refusing to reimburse insurance companies the above costs is "letting the market take its natural course". thanks in advance

Vern · May 26, 2017

faithful_servant said:
So the ins. cos. are using economic warfare to try to stop the massive profit machine that is the ACA and somehow it's Pres. Trump's fault? This is 100% pure bullying by the Ins. cos. and you think that it's Pres. Trump's fault. TDS - the psychosis that just keep giving.

FS, I know you're smarter than Mycroft but just like him you post "wishful thinking" as if its fact. Please explain how this

The payments, estimated at $7 billion for this year, go to insurance companies to reduce deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers — an estimated 7 million people in 2017. Insurers are on the hook under the health law to keep paying even if the federal money stops.

is bullying by the ins companies? thanks in advance

Aberration · May 26, 2017

The money is not appropriated by Congress for this purpose and there is an ongoing lawsuit. A lawsuit that Trump requested a 90 day hold on.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mycroft · May 26, 2017

Vern said:
MC, like all conservatives, you are easily able to post what you wish was true. Why not be a special conservative who understands what he's posting about. In addition to ignoring the republicans sabotaging Obamacare, you're ignoring the latest attack:

The payments, estimated at $7 billion for this year, go to insurance companies to reduce deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers — an estimated 7 million people in 2017. Insurers are on the hook under the health law to keep paying even if the federal money stops.

tell me how refusing to reimburse insurance companies the above costs is "letting the market take its natural course". thanks in advance

This...the direct result of Obamacare, that Democratic law that turned the market on its head. Instead of letting the market dictate prices, Obamacare put the taxpayer on the hook for the losses the insurance companies incurred for following that atrocious law.

Not only should the insurance companies not get one dime from the government, the law that gives them that money should be ****-canned.

ludin · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
As the WSJ reported last month ("Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill"), Trump and his GOP lackeys in the House continue to play chicken with the insurance market. As expected, that's a very stupid thing to do, as the uncertainty gets priced into premiums.

California is letting insurers file two sets of 2018 rates: the regular ones and the Trump (read: higher) ones. And now Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina lays it out pretty clearly.

Given that Trump has already run other insurers out of other states' markets, it's ominous that BCBSNC cautions that they're keeping an eye on what's going on (read: the disastrous AHCA and Trump administration executive actions) and could still withdraw if they wish.

As I've pointed out before, actively destroying insurance markets is the only way the GOP can make their absurd rhetoric come true and they are full steam ahead:

https://www.debatepolitics.com/obam...ave-turned-corner-gop-plots-destroy-them.html

we have been having double digit since the ACA began I didn't hear you complaining then. in fact you kept saying the opposite.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapo...miums-to-increase-substantially/#4133b51515be

even when the evidence said otherwise.

so why are you complaining now?

Greenbeard · May 26, 2017

Mycroft said:
Besides this being old news...and being a situation that has been resolved...

This isn't old news, BCBSNC's rate filing was released yesterday. And the situation with CSRs has not been resolved, which is why it's driving up premiums all around the country.

I'm wondering how letting the market take its natural course equals "actively destroying insurance markets".

What's to wonder? Trump and the House GOP's decisions are driving up premiums by double digits.

ludin · May 26, 2017

Winston said:
If PPACA was implemented as it was written it would've worked fine. Regarding states expanding Medicaid as well as functioning risk corridors. GOPs playing partisan games with PPACA in order to point fingers at Dems are why... conservatives will ultimately take home zero, when the people demand single-payer.

sorry but the Medicaid was deemed unconstitutional.
what stunk is the rest of it wasn't deemed unconstitutional as well.

it was the single biggest loss of freedom we have suffered since the marshall court.

the whole point of the ACA was to put insurance companies into insolvency and then force everyone onto even crappier
single payer.

Mycroft · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
This isn't old news, BCBSNC's rate filing was released yesterday. And the situation with CSRs has not been resolved, which is why it's driving up premiums all around the country.

What's to wonder? Trump and the House GOP's decisions are driving up premiums by double digits.

No.

The dictates of Obamacare is driving up premiums.

Putting the taxpayers on the hook for the results of Obamacare isn't the answer. Getting rid of Obamacare and letting the insurance companies go back to the free market is the answer.

Greenbeard · May 26, 2017

Mycroft said:
No.

Yes. Trump's (and the House GOP's) actions tacked more than 14 percentage points onto BCBSNC's 2018 rate request. BCBSNC certainly won't be the last.

jaeger19 · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
Except it was never projected to do any such thing. Taking down the ACA and the marketplaces always required active malevolent intervention, which the GOP has been supplying for years.

Undermining the risk corridors, defunding the nonprofit co-ops, resisting the Medicaid expansion, discouraging enrollment and handicapping navigators, and assorted bad decisions made by primarily red state governors--all active GOP sabotage over the past five years or so that's shot primarily those red states in the foot.

What Trump and House GOP are doing now to destroy markets and chase away insurers is an outgrowth of what they've been doing for years--they're just kicking it up a notch now.

So yes, what happens next will be blamed on them. As it should be.

This conspiracy theory requires the Dems to play the GOP like a fiddle (or the GOP to be in on it?). Why else would the GOP be playing its presumed part of destroying the market-based approach to leave some single-payer variant as the only option left standing? I don't have your faith in the Machiavellian brilliance of the Democratic party.

A few things though.

The "risk corridors" that were set up was basically telling the insurance companies.. "simply show us any losses and we will reimburse you". Is Obamacare really sustainable if the taxpayer has to kick in billions of dollars on top of the subsidies that they are already paying? What incentive is there for insurance companies to reduce costs/losses if they are paid for those losses/costs?

Shouldn't a non profit co-op be able to run on its own? If it still needs subsidization, does that not indicate that its not fiscally feasible and simply drain more taxpayer dollars away?

If Medicaid expansion was such an imperative for Obamacare to work.. then why did the democrats sabotage their own plan by allowing states to opt out?

I don't have your faith in the Machiavellian brilliance of the Democratic party

Now this.. you are right. Neither do the republicans... the insurance companies who are benefiting? I have faith in their ability to lobby for whats best for them and then blame the providers. "cost of healthcare" don't you know... not cost of healthcare insurance

jaeger19 · May 26, 2017

Mycroft said:
No.

The dictates of Obamacare is driving up premiums.

Putting the taxpayers on the hook for the results of Obamacare isn't the answer. Getting rid of Obamacare and letting the insurance companies go back to the free market is the answer.

Except that Obamacare was more of a move TOWARD a free market.. not away. Stepping away from obamacare with no subsequent replacement means a step away from free market. Unless you consider monopolies and single payer free market.

Mycroft · May 26, 2017

Greenbeard said:
Yes. Trump's (and the House GOP's) actions tacked more than 14 percentage points onto BCBSNC's 2018 rate request. BCBSNC certainly won't be the last.

No...Obamacare's mandates caused the increased premiums the insurance companies need to stay in business.

Trump causing double digit premium increases

Greenbeard

ajn678

Winston

Give me convenience or give me death

KevinKohler

Chomsky

Social Democrat

JamesBY

Gonzo Rodeo

better late than pregnant

Greenbeard

Gonzo Rodeo

better late than pregnant

faithful_servant

Greenbeard

Aberration

Mycroft

Genius is where you find it.

Vern

back from Vegas

Vern

back from Vegas

Aberration

Mycroft

Genius is where you find it.

ludin

Greenbeard

ludin

Mycroft

Genius is where you find it.

Greenbeard

jaeger19

jaeger19

Mycroft

Genius is where you find it.