Obama HealthCare Mess Continues: Insurers Stop Writing Coverage For Kids



Starting later this year, the health care overhaul law requires insurers to accept children regardless of medical problems -- a major early benefit of the complex legislation. Insurers are worried that parents will wait until kids get sick to sign them up, saddling the companies with unpredictable costs.


Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida issues about 9,000 to 10,000 new policies a year that only cover children. Vice president Randy Kammer said the company's experts calculated that guaranteeing coverage for children could raise premiums for other individual policy holders by as much as 20 percent.


"We believe that the majority of people who would buy this policy were going to use it immediately, probably for high cost claims," said Kammer. "Guaranteed issue means you could technically buy it on the way to the hospital."


Kammer said the company did not make the decision lightly. "We were looking at all our other individual policy holders who pay a lot for coverage, and we didn't think it was fair to given them that kind of an increase to benefit a small population that receives a greater advantage than they do," she said.
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Lady's got a point.

The administration reacted sharply to the pullback. "We're disappointed that a small number of insurance companies are taking this unwarranted and unnecessary step," said Jessica Santillo, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services department.
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Jessica, stop talking please. Thanks.
 
Insurers are worried that parents will wait until kids get sick to sign them up, saddling the companies with unpredictable costs.
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I hear everyone say that this bill forces everyone to have coverage, so what's with this line? Or does the bill not force everyone to have coverage?
 
I wana talk to the fuck that said BO was the most intelligent president of all time.
 
The medical "insurance" industry has always been a product of Big Government and has never been "insurance" in the normal sense. It has always been more of a payment plan "benefit" type thing that was encouraged by wage controls and tax policy, among other things.

It ALWAYS made sense to buy this "insurance" ( assuming it wasn't included in your pay package if you were fortunate enough to work for the "right" employer in a "traditional" socially approved career and/or allowed entry to the "right" union,etc) when you thought you might use it.

Shit, I DID. I got my kids "child only" insurance when I knew it would make sense to use as a payment-plan rather than deal with the non-existant "market" options. Then I dropped the shit when it made no sense to carry it. And that happened before Obama.

Obama certainly fucked shit up worse, but it's not his fault there is NO "free market" when it comes to health care. The existance of phony "insurance" bullshit is a huge part of the problem. His "solution" makes it a lot worse, of course-but at the heart of it his plan is basically the same as 1994 era Republican proposals. Hell, almost everything Obama does is very GW-esque and pretty mainstream center-"conservative." One of the reasons people just assume "racism" is because they can't understand why else GW/Neocon nutswingers hate Obama for pretty much continuing their plan.
 
Typical adverse selection problem. That's all this is, and all that it has ever been.
 
It will be interesting to see what the politics regulars here have to say when it is a "conservative" Republican President and Congress jamming big government up their asses again.

I hope the libertarian sentiments expressed by many conservatives here aren't the result of partisanship, but a genuine return to small government ideals and radical individualism.
 
guerilla said:
It will be interesting to see what the politics regulars here have to say when it is a "conservative" Republican President and Congress jamming big government up their asses again.

I hope the libertarian sentiments expressed by many conservatives here aren't the result of partisanship, but a genuine return to small government ideals and radical individualism.
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Who knows about people on here, but most of GOP nation will go back to whatever they were doing when Cheney told them "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
 
It will be interesting to see what the politics regulars here have to say when it is a "conservative" Republican President and Congress jamming big government up their asses again. This. Democrat=Republican=Same shit, different day.
 
Anyone who thinks these shenannigans haven't been going on for decades is either ignorant or deluded.

My wife worked for an insurance company - you wouldn't believe the crap that goes on on the bad side or the good side. On the bad side underwriters simply will not approve an insurance policy they think MIGHT cost the company too much money.

On the good side some people bent over backwards farther than you could ever imagine to help those in need.

Finally - the biggest lie of all is calling health insurance in the US "insurance" - because it is not. Healthcare here is NOT free market.

It will be free market when...

-Hospitals can refuse to treat those in urgent need because they can't pay, and
-When pre-existing conditions can't be evaluated when producing the pool of payers for the insurance.

If fire insurance worked the same way health insurance worked in this country no one with a house that was over 25 years old needing ANY work would ever get a policy.
 
Sharksfan said:
On the bad side underwriters simply will not approve an insurance policy they think MIGHT cost the company too much money.
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They are in business. Why would they be inclined to take a low or no profit client on?

It's like me saying you are bad for not running campaigns at break even or a loss.

If it is not economically viable to serve a customer, don't serve them. If there is a profit to be made, by increasing efficiency or finding some new way, then that customer will be served by the market.
 
One of the reasons people just assume "racism" is because they can't understand why else GW/Neocon nutswingers hate Obama for pretty much continuing their plan.
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THIS! THIS! THIS! THIS! THIS! THIS! THIS! THIS!
 
guerilla said:
They are in business. Why would they be inclined to take a low or no profit client on?

It's like me saying you are bad for not running campaigns at break even or a loss.

If it is not economically viable to serve a customer, don't serve them. If there is a profit to be made, by increasing efficiency or finding some new way, then that customer will be served by the market.
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I don't disagree with you in economic terms but at that point it is no longer insurance.
 
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