Americans have very confusing views about government spending on health insurance. For example, it is common to hear how unaffordable health insurance has become and the shame over receiving a government subsidy to help pay for it, from the same person. It's impossible for me to understand the logic of it is unaffordable but I wish I could afford to pay for it anyway mentality.

This kind of mentality may be okay when considering a smartphone purchase but is downright crazy when discussing health insurance and health care purchases. So when Bill Clinton said the other day,

'...the people that are getting killed in this deal are small-business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies. Why? Because they're not organized, they don't have any bargaining power with insurance companies, and they're getting whacked. So you've got this crazy system where all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care, and then the people that are out there busting it — sometimes 60 hours a week — wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world."

he forgot to blame the crazies that find receiving subsidies for individually purchased health insurance shameful.

Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with Clinton about how people like me have been mistreated by this law and continue to be ignored by this Administration. But let's also call out the subsidy receivers who could care less about the subsidy non-receivers. It may just be a classic case of I got mine, you get yours but for some, it's about equating subsidies with looking poor. CRAZY!

We All Need A Health Insurance Subsidy Continue Reading...

Tags: Subsidies, healthcare exchanges

The Obamacare marketplace has a big problem—too many sick people and not enough healthy people. The problem is so bad that health insurance companies claim they lost billions of dollars and some are leaving the exchanges. Unless the federal marketplace can enroll more young and healthy people these insurers may never return. Another proposition outlined in a New York Times article by Margaret Sanger-Katz, is for the remaining states to expand Medicaid, which will bring down health insurance premiums for everyone.

In her article, Sanger-Katz refers to a study by the Dept. of Health and Human Services that concluded that marketplace premiums were lower (in the high single digits) in states that expanded Medicaid compared to those that did not. That is great news but it’s not enough to offset premium rate increases in the high double digits. For that we need exactly what the health insurance companies claim they want—a healthier risk pool. Moving employer-sponsored health insurance to the exchanges give us a healthier risk pool that will lower premiums, but there is strong opposition to this.

Employers want to hold onto their health insurance programs because they want to control how much they contribute to them. Health insurers want to maintain these plans because they can better predict their risk and set their rates to ensure they always make a profit. Employees want to keep their employer-sponsored coverage because they don’t want to assume the responsibility of choosing and paying for their own coverage. They also want to keep their employer and government subsidies.

Anyone who thinks that these strong powerful advocates for employer group health insurance are going to suddenly decide it is in the public interest to have one health insurance risk pool is mistaken. Individuals covered by employer health plans make up about half of the insured population. They are over 150 million individuals strong and it will take the other 150 million plus individuals to force change in our health insurance and health care system. And the first thing we other 150 million plus have to do is stop acting like workplace health insurance is more virtuous than other types of health insurance. Continue Reading...

Tags: obamacare, workplace health insurance, Subsidies