March 1, 2016
By the Editorial Board
In any other February, (click here) the Obamacare enrollment numbers released last month would have been big news. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that 12.7 million people had chosen health-care plans in the exchanges the law set up — far more than the 10 million HHS predicted would have exchange-based insurance in 2016. The number will likely go down, as some people fail to pay their premiums; the best case, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt, is that about a million more people will be covered in 2016 relative to last year....
When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was written there was supposed to be a Public Option. The reason for that was to provide a reasonably good government plan that would be in competition with private insurers. It was not suppose to eliminate private insurers, it was suppose to push back against high prices.
Currently, the only aspect of the law that pushes back against high prices is the 15% rule. Private insurers cannot keep more than 15% profit over their operating costs. That isn't good enough. That 15% can be manipulated by providing higher payments to the medical industry. THAT is why the costs of insurance is going up. The private industry WHEN WRITING THEIR CONTRACTS are paying more for services, hence, the operating costs goes up and the 15% increases exponentially.
When Joe Lieberman demanded the Public Option be eliminated in order to win his vote he did a great deal of damage to the American people and never reined in the skyrocketing costs of health care and their premiums.
The Public Option was suppose to be there to help set the costs within the health care industry. The American people need to see the Public Option as it was intended to be law, in that it was a method to control prices and introduce other methods of payment. It is important the Public Option be put in place as soon as posislbe and Hillary Clinton is correct in that. But, there is no need for it to be on a trial basis. The Public Option would have helped bring prescription drug costs down as well.
Currently, the only aspect of the law that pushes back against high prices is the 15% rule. Private insurers cannot keep more than 15% profit over their operating costs. That isn't good enough. That 15% can be manipulated by providing higher payments to the medical industry. THAT is why the costs of insurance is going up. The private industry WHEN WRITING THEIR CONTRACTS are paying more for services, hence, the operating costs goes up and the 15% increases exponentially.
When Joe Lieberman demanded the Public Option be eliminated in order to win his vote he did a great deal of damage to the American people and never reined in the skyrocketing costs of health care and their premiums.
The Public Option was suppose to be there to help set the costs within the health care industry. The American people need to see the Public Option as it was intended to be law, in that it was a method to control prices and introduce other methods of payment. It is important the Public Option be put in place as soon as posislbe and Hillary Clinton is correct in that. But, there is no need for it to be on a trial basis. The Public Option would have helped bring prescription drug costs down as well.
