For tens of millions of Americans with health insurance, repeal would also mean paying more for preventive care. Under the law, 54 million people with private health insurance including 1.7 million in Georgia can now get free preventive care like vaccinations, check-ups and cancer screenings. Repeal would mean that hundreds of dollars in savings a year could disappear.
Free preventive care has such a nice ring to it.
Like "kids eat free" at restaurants, or "buy 3 tires get the 4th free".
Do you really think you can drop your kids off at the restaurant and come back later to pick them up once they have had their free meal? Can you tell the tire store you only need one tire so "just give me the free one"?
Free preventive care only exists in the minds of the snake oil salesmen (and women) in DC.
Repeal would also take us back to the days when insurance companies were not accountable to anyone. With the new health law, your insurance company now generally has to spend at least 80 cents of every premium dollar on health care and quality improvements, not CEO salaries or advertising. If they don’t, you get a rebate. This summer 147,000 Georgia families with private insurance will benefit from an average of $134 in rebates from insurance companies as a result of this new provision.
If you buy this lie, you would believe the health insurance carriers operated in a vacuum without any oversight at all.
Truth is, carriers have always been closely monitored for loss ratio's, reserves and rate action. Even without oversight Georgia health insurance carriers operate in a fiercely competitive market. If one carrier charges to much they lose market share to others willing to offer the same product for a lower price.
This is called free market competition. A term that is completely foreign to those in Washington who have never worked in the private sector or run a company.
And how about those $134 rebates? Did you get one?
If you had a Humana One policy the answer is no.
Even if you did get a rebate did it make you want to double down and buy more health insurance in anticipation of an even bigger check next year?
Or did you blow it all on lottery tickets?
Since the law was enacted, 5.2 million Medicare beneficiaries in the donut hole have saved more than $3.7 billion on prescription drugs. In the first five months of 2012, 20,516 people with Medicare in Georgia received an average savings of $634. Repealing the law would add hundreds of dollars in additional costs for many seniors at a time when they can least afford it.
Ah yes, more "free" benefits . . . paid for with higher copay's, higher premiums and fewer drugs on formulary.
Insurance companies could once again throw children with pre-existing conditions like asthma and diabetes, off a family policy, or refuse to cover their illness. And repealing the health care law would threaten the lives of 2,066 in Georgia with serious health conditions like cancer who are getting life-saving care today thanks to a program, created by the law, for people who cannot otherwise find coverage.
Insurance carriers could NEVER "throw children with pre-existing conditions off a family plan."
As for the 2,066 in PCIP, there is no doubt this was a good thing about Obamacare. If PCIP had been created and nothing else it would be a good law, but the 20 new taxes, 2200 pages of law, 10,000 new pages in regulations and 16,000 new IRS agents is overkill.
Posts
