Look who thinks the ACA is unaffordable

The same people who passed it.

Obamacare? We were just leaving …

Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.
The fear: Government-subsidized premiums will disappear at the end of the year under a provision in the health care law that nudges aides and lawmakers onto the government health care exchanges, which could make their benefits exorbitantly expensive.

Rep. John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat in leadership when the law passed, said he thinks the problem will be resolved.
“If not, I think we should begin an immediate amicus brief to say, ‘Listen this is simply not fair to these employees,’” Larson told POLITICO. “They are federal employees.”

The uncertainty has created a growing furor on Capitol Hill with aides young and old worried about skyrocketing health care premiums cutting deeply into their already small paychecks. Some longtime aides and members of Congress, who previously had government subsidized health care for life, are concerned that their premiums will now come out of their pension.

Guess they're finding out what was in the bill.

 

Let them eat fucking cake....

 

'This issue must be fixed by administrative action in order that the flawed Grassley Amendment’s spirit is honored and all staff and members are treated the same ..."

Spirit of the law as opposed to rule of law? Treated the same as everyone else in this nation? What does this aide really mean!

Oh wait, there is a solution! "There are other ways that aides can fully avoid this problem. If they’re married, they can join their spouse’s health care plan. If they are 65, they can go on Medicare."

Just like everybody else, right?

 

Unfortunately the rest of us are eating the same crappy cake. I cant wait to see how much my premiums go up this year. Would just like to once again thank everyone who voted for Obama, may you choke on the cake :up:

 

I'm not really thrilled with the healthcare law we got, but I'm under no illusion that its going to effect my current plan or its costs that much either way. The quality of my health care plans started the downhill slide in 2005/6 with the company's I work for went with the trend of going self insured. It had nothing to do who was or was not in office in Washington.

Like it, hate it, or meh, the healthcare law we got was very close to what Richard Nixon, Bob Dole, countless Republicans, a number of GOP think tanks and a governor of Massachusetts, whose name escapes me, all favored.

 

Exactly...its not about who flags what colour flag, nobody here is saying that Repubs cant do no wrong or vice versa....a bad idea needs to be dick slapped ASAP, no matter whos the idiot proposing it.

 

Interesting article.

But for all the teeth gnashing about the expected costs of the plans in the Exchanges, the only one for which costs have been announced has shocked the pundits by being much more affordable than expected.

Check out the stories on the California insurance exchange rates that were posted a couple of weeks ago.

Not saying those rates are exactly cheap, but they are far less than expected by the pundits, and far cheaper than current individual plans in CA now.

 

Bravo Sierra. I saw a report from CA that some health insurance plans will increase to 400% under the "ACA". So much for the first "A". ACA, proudly foisted on the public by D.C. Assholes.

 

Coverage under the ACA could be free and you'd still complain about it.

BTW: Love this kind of post. 400% of What? Based on a basis of what? For what group of people?

 

Yep..and as long as we have to do it so should they. No fucking exemptions for Washington.

 

Are you delusional enough to believe that the people standing next to the political turds that foisted this upon us are contemplating early retirement or leaving their position to hunt for a job at a 14% unemployment rate that it's all sunshine and roses?

Trees.....Forest....try to separate the 2.

 

They are being shoved off the Congressional Health Plan gravy train. They are pissed and whining.

Those that have enough time to retire also will get a better deal with that (including health care) than the rest of us.

I see them as privileged folks who are starting to have to live like the rest of us and are bitching and complaining about it. I know I'd be unhappy if I was losing their deal.

Earlier this year the company I work for was sold. The new owner is not continuing a provision that makes a big difference in my cost of health care should I retire before I reach Medicare age. That small change fundamentally changed my retirement calculation. I'm unhappy about it, but I had to deal with it and move on.

 

And I'm not saying that the ACA did anything to make health care more affordable. That was taken out in order to get anything passed. The only thing that will actually control costs is a single-payer system, but the US isn't ready to accept that at this time.

 

A single payer system that maintains current level of service will in no way reduce costs. Single payer cost controls will only restrict the provision of services. The only way to reduce costs is to reconnect the costs with the consumer like in all functional efficient markets. The US also isn't ready to accept that at this time.

 

This. There is so much disconnect between healthcare and anything resembling the free market that it isn't fair to even compare the two. Have you ever tried to read a medical bill? How about making sense of all the different bills from the doctor, lab, hospital, medical equipment provider, radiologist, anesthesiologist, etc, etc, etc?

I read something the other day about a hospital charging a patient $7 for an alcohol swab. The same alcohol swap that you can buy a pack of 200 for about $2 for. That's a 70,000% mark up. They bought the swabs for $2 and made $1398 from them.

 

Most of the problems with health care costs can be traced right back to years of government interference. Health care providers have had to find ways of dealing with costs imposed by both state and federal entities, and thus you get $7 alcohol swabs.
Insurance companies are no different.
When you mandate that a business provide free services, or add services without increasing prices, there is going to be fallout.
Politicians love looking like heroes by offering their constituents something for nothing and handing the bill to someone else. Someone ends up having to pay those costs.

 

I was always under the presumption that hosptical costs were so high since there are so many people that receive care and cannot pay they have to jack up the prices to cover their expenses.

 

Who do you think is responsible for the laws that say people can't be turned away when the hospital knows they have no chance of being paid?

 

I don't remember details, but based on stuff you have posted in the past, isn't it possible you would be dead without those laws?