The Hill – “GOP struggles to land punches at ObamaCare insurance hearing”
HT :Washinton Monthly, Ed Gilgore: “House GOPers Face to Face With Unfriendly Facts on Obamacare”
Democratic lawmakers were emboldened to defend the Affordable Care Act with renewed vigor and levity, creating a dynamic rarely seen in the debate over ObamaCare.
Adding to the irregularity, exits on the Republican side at a subcommittee hearing led by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) allowed multiple Democrats to speak in a row and let heavy Democratic criticism of Republicans go unanswered, a contrast with the heated exchanges of last fall.
The discussion was not always favorable to the healthcare law, as it touched on health plan cancellations, the potential for premium increases in 2015 and problems that still plague the back end of HealthCare.gov.
Witnesses from the insurance industry were also careful in their comments and promised to submit several answers to the committee at a later date.
But Republicans were visibly exasperated, as insurers failed to confirm certain claims about ObamaCare, such as the committee’s allegation that one-third of federal exchange enrollees have not paid their first premium.
Four out of five companies represented said more than 80 percent of their new customers had paid. The fifth, Cigna, did not offer an estimate.
That is absolutely terrible, the PPACA might be working and people are paying their premiums? What is this world coming to? All the critics said the PPACA would never work, people would not sign up, and if they did they would not pay their premiums . . .
Republicans also stumbled in asking insurers to detail next year’s premium rates. Companies are still in the process of calculating prices, and they have a strong financial incentive not to air early projections in public.
“Has anybody done any kind of analysis?” said a frustrated Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), vice chairman of the wider Energy and Commerce Committee. “You all have conducted no internal analysis on what the trend line is for these premiums?”
“At this point in the filing season, we can’t offer any guidance or speculate on where [premiums] are going to fall,” said Paul Wingle, executive director of public exchange operations at Aetna.
“At this juncture, we don’t have the information,” added Dennis Matheis, president of exchange strategy with Wellpoint.
The back-and-forth underscores the growing divide between Republicans and the insurance industry over the healthcare law.Insurers have worked hard to make the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges successful and are expected to substantially increase their participation in the system over time.
That has estranged the industry from Republican critics of the law and created an uneasy alliance between health insurance companies and the White House.
Later in the hearing, Republicans resorted to classic jabs against the healthcare law, noting that President Obama’s promise to save families $2,500 on their premiums has not come true.
A simple retort from Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.): “This has been a very illuminating hearing because it’s shown what our colleagues on the other side’s strategy is: Grab a headline that will scare the American people about the Affordable Care Act,”
Finally, someone who has a pair!
Running off to a seminar, but a quick comment.
Both parties are wrong.
Obamacare is barely in its infancy and there are dozens of issues and problems for patients, providers and insurers.
For every new insured, there are likely 5 – 10 families with higher premium shares, higher co-pays and much higher deductibles (as ACA incentives were designed, not the fault of the insurers).
The whole thing in a nutshell is access for more people, but less access for each patient. Obama will never admit that of course.
We will have a better picture in 5 years or so.
“For every new insured, there are likely 5 – 10 families with higher premium shares, higher co-pays and much higher deductibles (as ACA incentives were designed, not the fault of the insurers).”
You could probably make a lot of money from the AFPs of the world if you could provide any real evidence that this statement is true.
Strange how they and their resources have not even been able to come up with any facts like this, yet you can.
Also amazing that you can constantly spout how “it is too early to tell” and we will know in “in 5 years or so” yet somehow you can state the 5 or 10 to 1 ratio of people being hurt by the ACA.
Here is some math for you. There have been over 6 million Medicaid signups under the ACA. That means you have to come with between 30 and 60 million people that have ” higher premium shares, higher co-pays and much higher deductibles”.
Good luck with that.
Hello Run
Pace:
It has been a long time. Hope all is well and I hope you post here. Angry Bear is a good blog.