INSURANCE

A month ago, I blogged on a client whose premium was jumping from about $700 a month to $1,000. One of the options we discussed was "going bare;" that is, declining to buy any insurance. Now, he could have potentially then become subject to the ObamaTax, but even that is a small fraction of what that increase represents. He ultimately chose to keep his existing coverage (since he'd already met his annual deductible and was anticipating some additional expenses), but our discussion really brought me up short. It wasn't that long ago that I castigated the subject of a newspaper article for making the choice to roll the dice by deciding not to be insured. So what changed? Everything, really: under the Un Afforable Care Act, it seems to me that choosing not to buy insurance is a rational choice. Although I would never advise going this route (cf: E&O coverage) there are certainly circumstances in which I don't argue very forcefully on its behalf. Let's ta...

It will come as no surprise to those who've been paying attention that the (Un)Affordable Care Act has been an unmitigated disaster. But it may surprise some to learn of the scope of said disaster: " While clear evidence that the law was expanding coverage, the soaring enrollment numbers have created a fiscal nightmare for insurers which, in turn, has serious consequences for customers ." I might take issue with the assertion that more folks are insured since the train-wreck passed, but that's for another post. The key is the make-up of those newly-insured: " A majority of new enrollees are considered high risk, meaning insurers will have to spend more money on people in poor health and requiring expensive  care. " This just makes sense, since when one is in dire need of health care it's human nature to seek out ways to help pay for that care. The problem is that there's no truly effective way to cushion that by enticing healthy folks to play alo...

It's been a while since we've checked in with those fun-loving rascals running the Much Vaunted National Health Service�. Last time we checked, those silly pranksters were busy ignoring the desperate pleas of a woman left to die by her "caregivers." But that was then, and this is now, and they've moved on to much more productive things. Such as denying necessary (if not urgent) surgeries, including hip replacements and cataract procedures. It's not they're they're being intentionally negligent, it's just that - get this - they've run out of money . Hunh. If you're a government-run health care system and you go broke, that's a problem, no? But no worry, it'll never happen here . But it's not just "routine" procedures getting tanked, ER's are taking hits, too: " Shortage in emergency doctors leading to A&E crisis ... We have reached a crisis point " So say the folks in charge of United Lincolnshire Ho...

One of the most significant problems with ObamaCare is that, at its heart, it's not really 'insurance.' The definition of insurance is that it's a method for assessing, and then minimizing, the pain of risk. And yet, the Rocket Surgeons in DC � who designed it managed to remove all but one risk factor (tobacco use). Couple that with the fact that folks with subsidies aren't even paying their own premiums (a necessary pre-condition of " spreading the risk ") and, well, you can begin to appreciate the scope of the problem. But it gets worse: plans also include any number of so-called "first dollar" benefits: services and products that are paid for regardless of whether one has met the out-of-pocket limit (thus "free"). These include, for example, mammograms and birth control convenience items, pap smears and the like. Notice, though, that there is not one single male-oriented bennie to be found. Zip, zero, nada. And yet the Top Brains...

Shot : Chaser: Single-Payer Healthcare System Projected to Send Colorado Off a Financial Cliff  [Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]

How can Arizona Central newspaper, part of USA Today, call themselves journalists? Their #Obamacare fluff piece alerts the readers that premiums will rise as health insurance carriers leave the Arizona market. Five insurance companies that had offered coverage in the Affordable Care Act marketplace have told state regulators that they will opt out or scale back coverage when the next open season for Affordable Care Act coverage begins Nov. 1.   There will still be coverage, but with fewer providers, experts say costs will likely go up �much higher in 2017 than they had in the past couple of years.� - AZ Central Costs will likely go up. No kidding. They even have the gall to reference a report that has nothing to do with reality in Arizona. A national estimate by the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts that premiums for one of the lower-costs plans could rise as much as 9 percent next year, compared to 2 percent this year. In Arizona, those higher premiums could hit more than 100,000...