ObamaCare 3.0 More of the Same Flim Flam

On Monday President Obama posted his version of ObamaCare on the White House web site.  As we noted in our previous article, it isn’t in legislative form, ready for Congress to vote.  It’s a marketing brochure, mostly recycled from previous speeches and campaign communications.

The so-called “President’s Plan” is merely a list of promised benefits and unsupportable claims about improving care and saving money.  Amazingly, it includes some of the same contradictions that made the House and Senate versions of ObamaCare so unpopular after they were exposed in blogs and Conservative media.  For example, it includes this, a modified version of one of Obama’s most often repeated claims:

The Senate bill includes a “grandfather” policy that allows people who like their current coverage, to keep it.

So far, so good.  But in the very next sentence this claim is contradicted. Obama describes several changes that will be forced upon these “grandfathered plans,” making them different, and much more expensive than what customers currently have and like.

The President’s Proposal adds certain important consumer protections to these “grandfathered” plans.  Within months of legislation being enacted it…requires plans to cover adult dependents up to age 26.

If the  plan doesn’t already include such coverage then the premium will have to increase to cover this new insurance company risk.

…mandates that plans have a “stronger” appeals process.

Stronger than what? What does “stronger” even mean?  Is this really code for forcing the company to cover more services and procedures than the written policy requires?  If so, the premium will have to increase.

…will require “grandfathered” plans to cover proven preventive services with no cost sharing.

“Cost sharing” means co-payments.  If your plan doesn’t already cover these services with zero co-pay then the premium will have to increase.  Indeed, the most significant factor differentiating lower and higher cost plans is the amount of co-payment required from the patient at the time services are rendered.  The lower the co-pay, the higher the monthly or annual premium.

…will prohibit all annual and lifetime limits.

If the plan now has an annual or lifetime limit, as most plans do, then the premium will have to increase.  As with covering dependents up to age 26, the company can’t add to coverages and risk without charging more.  Lack of any limit means the insurance company’s risk is unlimited.  It must increase premiums in order to take on more risk and still remain solvent and able to pay all claims.

…ban pre-existing condition exclusions.

This means the company must accept new customers who are already sick.  The company will then be obligated to pay unlimited medical bills, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, in exchange for the first month’s premium.  This is like “insuring” a house that is already on fire, or issuing car insurance after a wreck, just as the ambulance and tow truck arrive on the scene.

This is not insurance. This is a public benefit program, mandated by the government.   The political-media establishment demonizes insurance companies over this issue with emotionally loaded terms like “discrimination.”   But a company cannot take on this obligation and remain solvent and able to pay all claims, without increasing premiums on everyone.  Indeed most of the premium increases of recent years have resulted from federal and state laws requiring companies to accept more and more people with pre-existing conditions.

Politicians like want to look generous and compassionate by providing needed care to those who lack the means to pay.   But those same politicians don’t want to be held responsible by the voters for higher taxes.  So they force insurance companies into the role of de facto tax collector.

Since the beginning of his campaign the President has demonized the companies for doing what federal and state laws force them to do: increase premiums on everyone to cover the cost of accepting, and providing medical services to people who are already sick.

The nation awaits the so-called “bipartisan summit” scheduled for Thursday.  Republicans should begin by emphasizing the glaring contradictions between reality and Obama’s campaign hype