We must take the terms, Medicare and advantage out of parts C plans. Part c plans are commercial
/private for -profit health insurance. Another note is that part C plans will be given a raise of 5.06% in 2026. The private for profit health insurance industry lobbied for more. Of course, this raise is paid by taxpayers.
Wendall, this article and other similar ones regarding UHC, Cigna, CVS/Aetna and Elevance all point to the same problem, THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT! It was NEVER intended to reduce the cost of health insurance and healthcare in general. It was designed as a pathway to your preferred solution of "Medicare for All". Meanwhile, all Americans that only have individual medical insurance to rely on have been paying the price. The original Advanced Premium Tax Credit (aka premium subsidy) and the "Enhanced" subsidy provided during COVID just add to the problem. The more you subsidize something the more expensive it becomes. Think college tuition.
The ACA should be fully repealed and replaced. No, this doesn't mean we take away guarantee issue, allow pricing differences between those who are sick and healthy, or the ability to rider out certain medical conditions. This can all be preserved. We need to eliminate all the other crap. There is a better way to do this and the ACA was never the solution!
We had to do something as Republicans fought against helping with compassionate, comfort and curative care for ALL. Republicans believed for-profit private health insurance industry would police themselves.
Susananda, we've gone over this before. It has been documented that Democrats informed Republicans their participation in the PPACA legislative process back in 2009 was not welcome and none of their proposals were accepted nor even considered. This is irrefutable and 100% a huge Democratic failure!
The tag lines at that time were priceless: " You can keep you plan if you want to"; "Families will save $2,500 per year'; "You can keep your doctor"; "The PPACA will reduce the cost of healthcare". NONE of this came true. Just the opposite.
You only believe in the heavy hand of government, which increases the costs of all goods and services the US government touches in the form of regulations, mandates and/or subsidies. The shining example is the cost of college education. Government grants and easy government backed student loans have enabled college and university tuitions in increase substantially. But not one college or university has been held accountable, not only for ridiculous tuition costs but also the failure of graduates to land meaningful jobs that can pay enough to pay their loans. In fact, many graduate with useless degrees in which they will never be able to pay off their loan!
I'm not saying for-profit insurers are innocent. However, government intervention distorts the marketplace and corporation will look for ways around that intervention. Similar to humans who mostly adapt to changing conditions and situations, many times
to their personal advantage, and at the expense of others.
The ACA as intended never went into effect because of GOP opposition and then when it did go into effect they fought to repeal it or barring that, whittle it down. They went all the way to the Supreme Court to have the individual mandate ruled unconstitutional and failed. So what did they do? Set the penalty for not having coverage to $0. This set off a chain reaction, which with the end of the expanded subsidy will be the final accelerant of the death spiral.
And speaking of subsidies, name a source of coverage not subsidized.
Employer-sponsored healthcare benefits? Subsidized via the tax code to the tune of $350 Billion (yes, with a "b") year, as compared to the $350 million (with an "m") for the expanded subsidies.
Medicare? Subsidized. Medicaid, funded by the government with some participant cost share.
Veterans and active military coverage and benefits, largely paid for by the government.
In fact, the only people who don't receive subsidized coverage are those who don't qualify for an ACA subsidy (a group that will get larger unless the expanded subsidy is renewed) but still obtain coverage via the marketplace or other individual coverage sources.
Lori, you are absolutely 100% wrong! First, Democrats wrote 100% of the bill and passed it without Republicans. Democrats had the 60 vote majority in the Senate and more than enough votes in the House. Second, the SCOTUS DID strike down the individual mandate. That is the reason today individuals do not have to pay a penalty for not having coverage.
Regarding subsidies, you're right, all health insurance coverage is subsidized to some extent. That being said, Democrats, and some Republicans, will continually request higher subsidies as health insurers continue to increase premiums because of the belief that government will continue to increase subsidies. Its a never ending cycle that needs to stop! Again, college education is another perfect example.
It is very easy for you to look up the facts that I stated. Numerous GOP-led Court challenges to the ACA failed. So, in 2017, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the GOP-led Congress reduced the federal individual health insurance mandate penalty to $0. That's a fact. It will take 2 seconds of your time to look it up.
I don't disagree that subsidies contribute to rising costs, but the solution isn't to pull the rug out from under a group of Americans just because no meaningful healthcare reform has not been worked on for years.
It doesn’t have to be this way!!! In Massachusetts, under S 860 and H 1405, “An Act Establishing Medicare For All In Massachusetts” we could provide health care to ALL Massachusetts residents, regardless of income, for free at the point of service. No premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays. If your doctor said the care is medically necessary, you get it. Go to MassCare.org for more info.
4.3 Billion profit out of 111 Billion revenue may sound ok to many.(3.9%) BUT it is important to note that most of that revenue is just pass through payments for actual healthcare. ( What the industry considers a medical loss.) Say 20% of that is their operating income. That's $22 billion. From which they extract 4.3 billion... That's a 19.5% profit margin.
What about the Blues? My BCBS-TX plan via the ACA Marketplace is increasing by nearly 60%! $2,000/month for individual coverage is simply highway robbery!
Baloney. Republican ideas/proposals were, in fact, incorporated into the ACA in order to pass it as bipartisan legislation... and then they refused to vote for it. Interesting that you only cite the parts of the ACA law that you think are bad, and aren't using the actual facts that showed it to be a pretty good working model... until religious-based groups and republicans filed literally hundreds of lawsuits with the sole intent of getting SCOTUS to dismantle the legislation piece by piece. The health insurance companies are the ones to blame for destroying the original intent of the law, by inventing ways to increase their profits.
We must take the terms, Medicare and advantage out of parts C plans. Part c plans are commercial
/private for -profit health insurance. Another note is that part C plans will be given a raise of 5.06% in 2026. The private for profit health insurance industry lobbied for more. Of course, this raise is paid by taxpayers.
Wendall, this article and other similar ones regarding UHC, Cigna, CVS/Aetna and Elevance all point to the same problem, THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT! It was NEVER intended to reduce the cost of health insurance and healthcare in general. It was designed as a pathway to your preferred solution of "Medicare for All". Meanwhile, all Americans that only have individual medical insurance to rely on have been paying the price. The original Advanced Premium Tax Credit (aka premium subsidy) and the "Enhanced" subsidy provided during COVID just add to the problem. The more you subsidize something the more expensive it becomes. Think college tuition.
The ACA should be fully repealed and replaced. No, this doesn't mean we take away guarantee issue, allow pricing differences between those who are sick and healthy, or the ability to rider out certain medical conditions. This can all be preserved. We need to eliminate all the other crap. There is a better way to do this and the ACA was never the solution!
We had to do something as Republicans fought against helping with compassionate, comfort and curative care for ALL. Republicans believed for-profit private health insurance industry would police themselves.
Susananda, we've gone over this before. It has been documented that Democrats informed Republicans their participation in the PPACA legislative process back in 2009 was not welcome and none of their proposals were accepted nor even considered. This is irrefutable and 100% a huge Democratic failure!
The tag lines at that time were priceless: " You can keep you plan if you want to"; "Families will save $2,500 per year'; "You can keep your doctor"; "The PPACA will reduce the cost of healthcare". NONE of this came true. Just the opposite.
You only believe in the heavy hand of government, which increases the costs of all goods and services the US government touches in the form of regulations, mandates and/or subsidies. The shining example is the cost of college education. Government grants and easy government backed student loans have enabled college and university tuitions in increase substantially. But not one college or university has been held accountable, not only for ridiculous tuition costs but also the failure of graduates to land meaningful jobs that can pay enough to pay their loans. In fact, many graduate with useless degrees in which they will never be able to pay off their loan!
I'm not saying for-profit insurers are innocent. However, government intervention distorts the marketplace and corporation will look for ways around that intervention. Similar to humans who mostly adapt to changing conditions and situations, many times
to their personal advantage, and at the expense of others.
The ACA as intended never went into effect because of GOP opposition and then when it did go into effect they fought to repeal it or barring that, whittle it down. They went all the way to the Supreme Court to have the individual mandate ruled unconstitutional and failed. So what did they do? Set the penalty for not having coverage to $0. This set off a chain reaction, which with the end of the expanded subsidy will be the final accelerant of the death spiral.
And speaking of subsidies, name a source of coverage not subsidized.
Employer-sponsored healthcare benefits? Subsidized via the tax code to the tune of $350 Billion (yes, with a "b") year, as compared to the $350 million (with an "m") for the expanded subsidies.
Medicare? Subsidized. Medicaid, funded by the government with some participant cost share.
Veterans and active military coverage and benefits, largely paid for by the government.
In fact, the only people who don't receive subsidized coverage are those who don't qualify for an ACA subsidy (a group that will get larger unless the expanded subsidy is renewed) but still obtain coverage via the marketplace or other individual coverage sources.
Lori, you are absolutely 100% wrong! First, Democrats wrote 100% of the bill and passed it without Republicans. Democrats had the 60 vote majority in the Senate and more than enough votes in the House. Second, the SCOTUS DID strike down the individual mandate. That is the reason today individuals do not have to pay a penalty for not having coverage.
Regarding subsidies, you're right, all health insurance coverage is subsidized to some extent. That being said, Democrats, and some Republicans, will continually request higher subsidies as health insurers continue to increase premiums because of the belief that government will continue to increase subsidies. Its a never ending cycle that needs to stop! Again, college education is another perfect example.
It is very easy for you to look up the facts that I stated. Numerous GOP-led Court challenges to the ACA failed. So, in 2017, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the GOP-led Congress reduced the federal individual health insurance mandate penalty to $0. That's a fact. It will take 2 seconds of your time to look it up.
I don't disagree that subsidies contribute to rising costs, but the solution isn't to pull the rug out from under a group of Americans just because no meaningful healthcare reform has not been worked on for years.
It doesn’t have to be this way!!! In Massachusetts, under S 860 and H 1405, “An Act Establishing Medicare For All In Massachusetts” we could provide health care to ALL Massachusetts residents, regardless of income, for free at the point of service. No premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays. If your doctor said the care is medically necessary, you get it. Go to MassCare.org for more info.
And tell the Committee that is right now reviewing the Massachusetts Medicare for All legislation, that you want it to pass by signing this petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/it-ought-to-pass
4.3 Billion profit out of 111 Billion revenue may sound ok to many.(3.9%) BUT it is important to note that most of that revenue is just pass through payments for actual healthcare. ( What the industry considers a medical loss.) Say 20% of that is their operating income. That's $22 billion. From which they extract 4.3 billion... That's a 19.5% profit margin.
What about the Blues? My BCBS-TX plan via the ACA Marketplace is increasing by nearly 60%! $2,000/month for individual coverage is simply highway robbery!
Baloney. Republican ideas/proposals were, in fact, incorporated into the ACA in order to pass it as bipartisan legislation... and then they refused to vote for it. Interesting that you only cite the parts of the ACA law that you think are bad, and aren't using the actual facts that showed it to be a pretty good working model... until religious-based groups and republicans filed literally hundreds of lawsuits with the sole intent of getting SCOTUS to dismantle the legislation piece by piece. The health insurance companies are the ones to blame for destroying the original intent of the law, by inventing ways to increase their profits.